Below are the minutes from the December 2008 Chadds Ridge Homeowners Association (CRHOA) Meeting. These minutes were collected by our secretary Amy Rethman and submitted to the board as well as the homeowners.

Present board members
Peggy Stein, Mary Anne Kristan, Mike Barfield (Quorum was achieved)

Other attendees
ACC volunteer, David Almeida

ACC
- David is to contact Adam and follow-up on recent ACC reviews and plan next review.
- David offered to become co-chair with Adam

Neighborhood Issues
Leak at pool house – water turned off in late November. Peggy will work with the plumber to make plans for repair once funds are available.

Budget Discussion
Collection Action
1st, Renew existing liens on all outstanding properties – fee is deferred until money is collected – owner is responsible for all fees. 2nd, authorize attorneys to file lawsuits on our most delinquent owners. By filing suit we will likely have a significant percentage of our delinquent owners paying to stop the lawsuits. For those that do not respond, we have to obtain a judgment. Once we have a judgment, we can garnish wages and bank accounts. All of the costs from the lawsuit forward are billed to the HOA, which is a risk and out of pocket cost for us, however they are also rolled into the total amount the attorneys ask for in a judgment (and almost always get awarded). So when collecting by garnishment, we would recover our attorney’s fees. This process is complex and risky to the HOA.

Attorneys
We settled our debt with WNCW lawyers, including all fees from 2006-2008 and the 2009 retainer. This was done via a personal LOAN to CRHOA that was made by our Treasurer – paying our outstanding WNCW bill in the amount of $4,034.60. Note that it is an Interest Free Loan TO BE REPAID as soon as adequate funds are made available via 2009 Annual Assessment Receipts. This had to be paid before new action could be taken against the homes with outstanding dues.

Sun Trust Loan
We made $1900/month payments since the inception of the loan until we exhausted our bank account funds. Then, we negotiated a restructured loan agreement with SunTrust, deferring all payments on remaining principal until April 7th, 2009 – when the entire remaining (principal) balance of $8,185.23 will come due. In the interim, the restructured loan requires monthly, interest-only payments. This process will conclude our repayment of the 2006 $60,000 SunTrust Loan.

Bank Balance
As of 12/18/08 – at our meeting, we had a balance of $2,592. With an outstanding $1,838 check to SunTrust, AND expecting imminent payment of $400 CC Water Bill. This left us (effectively) with a $353 bank balance. We have $25,000 still outstanding in collections, with new collection activity to start by our attorneys promptly in January.

The Treasurer appealed to all Board Members for Emergency Early Payment of 2009 Annual Assessment Fees to sustain financial solvency. This is directly related to (& leads into) our need for early receipts of 2009 dues and an introduction of Early Payment Incentives (further described below).

2009 Budget
Looked at a practical budget realistically and devised 3 options. Decided to cut back to bare bones by cutting out un-necessary spending, 1st being the property maintenance expense. We will ask each homeowner property to volunteer for 1 week per year to keep the grounds maintained (mowing, edging, blowing, pruning, raking, etc). This will save us $6000 per year!

Need to get money in ASAP. We are offering an early payment option with a tiered discount…the earlier you pay, the less you pay. Dues are $475 per the budget. Will send invoices out immediately after Christmas. As always, dues are due by 4-31-09, however If paid before 1-31-09, there is a $75 discount; by 2-28-09 there is a $50 discount; by 3-31-08 there is a $25 discount; and no discount after 4-1-09.

Next Meeting
- A meeting will be held 2nd Thursday of January on 1-8-09, for anyone to come with questions about any of this. Detailed financial reports have been prepared to address these decisions.
- This meeting is to be held at the Stein’s house, 717 Jamie Way.