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IT IS TIME FOR THE HOA'S PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS TO GO

I have said since the beginning of this fiasco that it would be in the best interests of the HOA to get rid of its professional advisors as a result of their collective participation in a decision-making process along with the past two HOA Boards that led to a waste of more than $20,000.00 of our neighborhoods funds in fighting a fight that never had to take place. I recognize that the HOA is a volunteer organization and that most neighbors who serve do not understand the technicalities involved in interpreting and enforcing the rules and regulations that govern the conduct of all of us in the neighborhood and that they look to those professional advisors for guidance. While the HOA Board ultimately makes the decisions and the professional advisors are good at "passing the buck" and making clear that all they did was give advice and that the ultimate decision-making and responsibility for same rested with the HOA Board, advisors with experience in these matters should have been protesting loudly (like I did) and doing what they could to keep the HOA Board members from heading down a path to disaster. I have seen no evidence in the handling of this matter that the HOA's professional advisors gave the kind of sound advice that could have stopped the bloodshed and kept costs to a minimum, although it is possible that same occurred. If it did, then my criticisms are unfounded and I will gladly retract the foregoing statements.

I have made it no secret that I have been unimpressed with Heritage Management Company's efforts on behalf of the HOA, and it is my belief that had it taken a different tone in its approach to this matter as an agent of the HOA, things might have been different. The terse way in which Heritage deals with the members of the HOA is not something that is productive to a good working relationship between the HOA and its members, and it should have been glaringly obvious to the attendees at the recent special meeting that Heritage is not doing the job for which it is paid around $5,000.00 per year when its representative could not answer the simplest question about some important votes that had taken place by our HOA in connection with this litigation. To highlight my point, I have included the dues statement that Heritage sent me for my 2006-2007 HOA dues, which totaled $25,685.07.

I paid the statement in full in an obvious joke by using a check drawn on a closed SunTrust account and will be interested to see how Heritage handles the payment. The obvious response by Heritage is to note the error and contact me about it, but my guess is that it will send me a "bad check" letter or something else letting me know that my payment was no good and that I am in default. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out, especially assuming that Heritage does not see this link and no one informs it about its mistake.

On a serious note, while the HOA Board obviously participated, its management company and legal advisers helped send it down a path that led to its spending more than $20,000.00 to collect $212.50 and to "uphold the integrity" of covenants that we all agree need to be changed. Our HOA pays Heritage Property Management $5,000.00 or so a year to handle billing and other things for us, and having someone other than residents of the neighborhood handle occasional unpleasantries such as notifying members about unpaid dues or material breaches of the rules that govern the neighborhood has led to a disconnect between the HOA and its members that allowed the HOA to become embroiled in substantial litigation without a face-to-face meeting with the neighbor who allegedly violated the covenants. Our litigation would never have gotten out-of-hand if the HOA Board had not been insulated from dealing with me by its professional advisors, and my goal is to make sure that this never happens to anyone else.

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