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2009
Skyline Ridge
Annual Meeting
Becket
Town Hall
Becket, MA
Saturday
October 26, 2008
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
For Lot:
Table of Contents
Agenda Page 3
Financial Information Pages 4-5
Ballot for Election of Officers Page 6
Address Change form Page 7
2008 Dues Invoice Page 8
Special Assessment Page 9
Agenda
Welcome
Review of the Association’s finances/more below
Discussion about road-related issues
Construction vehicles
Parking on the roads
Performance of Road Maintenance Contractor
Building
fee for construction
Announcement about new Webmaster/mistress requirements
Seizure proceedings and special assessment
Election
of Officers
Collection of Sign-in Sheets
Financial Information
History of the Association’s Finances
In January 2005, Northtree LLC, the real-estate developer that created the Skyline Ridge subdivision, turned over control of the Skyline Ridge to the Skyline Ridge property owners. At that time, Northtree had established the annual-assessment amount at $250 per lot. Northtree turned over approximately $10,000 to the Association. This money was raised by assessments (dues) that were paid to Northtree by lot owners before Northtree relinquished control of the community to the lot owners.
By the third quarter of 2005, it was clear to the Board of Directors that an annual assessment of $250 per lot was not adequate to cover the Associations’ operating costs, and they made a decision to raise the annual assessment to $325 per lot. This would increase the Association’s annual income from $8250 (33 lots @ $250) to $10,725 (33 lots @ $325). The Board knew that the budget would be very tight even with this $75 increase, but the Board was striving to keep the annual assessment as low as possible.
By the second half of 2006, the Board was aware that we would experience a financial shortfall before the end of the year; and because of this, the Board raised association dues to $475 per lot per year.
By far, our #1 cost is road maintenance. Now that we’ve been managing the community for three years, we know the approximate costs of road maintenance.
Dealing
with road-maintenance costs has been a challenge, for these reasons:
Skyline Ridge, like all communities in cold climates, is at the mercy of the weather when it comes to road-maintenance costs. That is: it is very difficult to predict these costs in an area such as ours, because we don’t know from year to year how much snow we’ll have.
There
is continuing construction activity at Skyline Ridge, and the large
trucks and other construction-related vehicles tend to cause damage
to the roads.
In late 2007 Skyline Ridge went into contract
with B + B Landscaping and Excavation, Inc. for a monthly cost of
$925.00 per month. This contract includes Grass mowing, weed
killing of grass and weeds growing in the road, Grading roads as
necessary, weeding the front entranceway, delivering and grading 3
loads of gravel per year where needed, snow plowing and sanding.
This will cost the Association $925.00 per month for an annual total
of $11,100. Through the remainder of 2007 and 2008 so far B + B has
maintained our roads in an acceptable manner and we continue with
their services at the $925 per month rate. Therefore, there will
be no increase in dues for 2009!
There continue to be some property owners that do not pay their dues. The directors of Skyline ridge have concluded that the only way to enforce our dues policies to these owners is to begin the process of seizing and selling their lots. Last year we placed liens on all lots with delinquencies, but this resulted in only one owner paying dues for one lot, out of two, that this owner owns.
Budget for 2009*
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Estimated Income
33 lots @ $475: $15,675 (assumes all pay their dues)
TOTAL: $15,675 |
Estimated Expenditures
Routine
road maintenance
Hosting $ 81 Domain registration $ 15 Web Maintenance $ 100 Postage & admin. $ 75
Bank fees $ 20
maintenance
costs and
TOTAL: $15,675 |
* Does not include special assessment of $100 per lot for legal fees, see below.
Ballot for Election of
Officers
at 2007 Skyline Ridge Annual Meeting
And Proxy Form
Lot Number of person(s) casting this vote:___________
We
are voting for one officer (Director). Sal Barbaro is the only
director who is finishing his term. He is willing to serve for
another 3 years.
On the lines below, write the names of person
that you are voting for.
___________________________________
If you cannot come to the annual meeting, and you know of a person who wishes to be on the board please sign this sheet and return it to the Treasurer along with your dues. If you do not know who you want to vote for, please sign this form and indicate on the line above that the board may exercise your vote by proxy and the board will exercise your vote.
Sign Here: Lot number(s) _________
Change of Address
Form
for Skyline Ridge Annual Meeting
January 28, 2007
Please detach this Sign-in Sheet from the other pages, write in the information requested below, and give the filled-in sheet to Sal at the annual meeting or mail along with your dues payment.
Lot
Number:
Name(s) __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Mailing address __________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Phone __________________________________________________
Email __________________________________________________
2009 DUES INVOICE:
Each lot has a dues responsibility of $475.00 per year.
Dues are due no later than 11/30/2008. Note: Dues may be hand delivered at the annual meeting in advance of the due date.
Make Checks out to: Skyline Ridge Property Owner’s Association, and mail them to:
Frank T. Rizza
Treasurer
Skyline Ridge Property Owner’s Association
32 Beaumont Lane
Lake Grove, New York 11755
Late fees are determined by check arrival at the Treasurer’s home. Late fees are:
$50 for the first month or part of a month that a payment is late
$50 for the second month
$50 for the third month
$100 for the fourth month
After the start of the fourth month, 12% interest will be charged to all fees due, including late fees
$200 for the fifth month
$300 for the sixth month
$400 for the seventh month
$500 for the eight month
$600 for the ninth month
$700 for the tenth month
$800 for the eleventh month
$900 for the twelfth month. All late fees accrue on the first of the month.
Also, please remember, it is your responsibility to notify the Association of any address changes or property sales. You are also required to notify any buyer of their obligation to pay their annual dues on time, or face late fees or other legal action.
Special assessment
Due to the fact that certain owners continue to fail to pay their dues, Skyline Ridge Property Owner’s Association (POA) has determined that it will begin the legal process to seize and then resell the properties that are delinquent in their dues.
This course of action was decided upon only when repeated letters, both regular mail and registered mail, as well as attempts at emails and announcements on our website failed to garner dues payments. In addition, Skyline Ridge POA took legal action via a local law firm to send letters to delinquent owners and to place liens on those properties that were delinquent in their dues. This produced no direct results, but when one property was built upon and sold, Skyline Ridge collected all delinquent dues, late fees and legal costs associated with the lien.
Lot 1 has not paid either 2007 or 2008 dues (total due, including dues and late fees: $6,728, assuming no payments through 2008 on past balances).
Lot 4 has paid 2008 dues, but not 2007 dues (total due, including dues and late fees: $6,253, assuming no payments made through 2008 on past balances).
Lot 25 has not paid 2008 dues (total due, including dues and late fees: $5,653, assuming no payments made through 2008 on past balances).
The figures noted above do not include the legal fees that have been paid to place liens on these properties.
Based upon the figures above, it has been decided that the first property to be seized and resold will be Lot 1. The covenants of Skyline Ridge POA allow for special assessments, as well as any action needed, up to and including seizure of property to ensure prompt and timely payment of dues, without which we cannot exist as a community. Our covenants also allow for full recovery of legal costs upon the sale of the property or other settlement short of seizure. It is the fondest hope of Skyline Ridge POA that all monies from the special assessment will be returned to lot owners upon sale of the property.
Our legal counsel estimates that the first part of the seizure of a property and the sale of this property will cost between $2,500 and $3,500. If the property owner decides to contest this action in court, the cost would escalate and a second assessment may be necessary.
Special assessment: $100 per lot, due no later than 11/30/08.