SS1 Legal Expenses Facts 11-18-19

SS1 Legal Fee Facts

Seaside 1 Homeowners,

During the recent Annual Homeowners Meeting it became apparent that there was misinformation distributed beforehand about attorney fees spent on behalf of Seaside 1 for potential amendments to our governing documents. I want to provide the facts.

In total, STC budgets $26,000 annually for HOA Attorney fees for all 9 Associations and the STC itself. Essentially, this equates to $2,600 per association. Most of the time the individual Seaside HOAs have little reason to call on the budget, while some, depending on circumstances, will draw more than their fair share. Net, the $26,000 is generally treated as one pool of money to be shared.

In 2019 we have used a total of $8,408 for attorney fees. Sixty percent of the spend was due to construction / architectural issues. With 64 of the 355 cottages (18%), we have more construction/project issues. Given that we are the only HOA with its own Architectural Review Committee and in a year that saw a record number of remodels, tear downs, new builds as well as repeated lawsuit threats, it’s not surprising that our costs are proportionately higher than others.

Seaside 1 legal expenses:

Normal consult on procedural issues with S1 President, Angel and Attorney $ 2,244
Consult on threats of Lawsuit against the Seaside 1 ARC $ 2,747
Construction rules review and board meeting w attorney (requested by Max Watson) $ 1,876
Exploration of Electronic voting $ 167
Maintenance agreement for arched trellis to rose walk repair $ 469
Amendment draft suggested by HOA attorney for board discussion $ 904

Total $ 8,408

The board has not spent $9,000 on “drafting the amendment” as someone represented in the Homeowner meeting. It’s unfortunate that this was mis-represented and I apologize that I did not have the legal fee breakdown to share with you real-time that weekend. I hope this clarifies the legal expenses and I urge you to reach out to me for answers in the future so that I may provide you with the facts.

Kerri Knotts
SS1 President

Delivered: Nov 18, 2019 6:08am
To: Homeowners
From: [email protected]
Attachments: None