2023 Year End Financial Red Flags

In a private meeting between homeowners, CJ Cook, and James Connolly on February 8, 2023, CJ Cook and James Connolly agreed to send out to all of the homeowners of Harvest Creek the end of the year financials for 2023. On March 19, 2023 the end of the year financials were sent to a small group of owners by CJ Cook. The financials for 2023 have yet to be made available to the whole HOA despite the initial request.

Here is our analysis of the provided financials. You can view the original document here.

The below questions have be posed to the Board of Directors with no response.

DRC Application Fee

These are application fees for the Architectural Review Committee. As we have previously posted, the ARC is required to be the Board of Directors. All votes or approvals are required by Montana Law MCA 35-2-427 to be evidenced by minutes. No meeting minutes exist for the ARC, so no approvals or denials have taken place. Why were homeowners charged $1950?

Interest Income

If you look back at the 2nd quarter P&L for 2023 it shows that January through June of 2023 the HOA earned $119.87 in interest income. How is it that the HOA did not earn any additional interest income in the second half of 2023?

Lien Filing

This item could be an entire blog post. At the Annual meeting members pointed out that no liens were filed in 2022, so why what the HOA charged $7600 in 2022. This appears to be Saddle Peak Properties putting money back that they took. Putting this money back in the same category is also obscuring the actual amount paid in 2023.

Lien Releases

In all of 2023, only 2 liens were released. Saddle Peak's Contract clearly states that they charge the HOA $150 per lien release. 2 liens times $150 is $300. Why did the HOA pay $750?

Property Tax

Why did we pay twice what was budgeted? The Board should know about what the taxes are each year and we should be budgeting accordingly.

Technology Fees, Bill Scanning, Zego

The HOA has a contract with Saddle Peak. That contract outlines what is included and what is extra for the set management fee. The contract explicitly outlines that any additional charges must be agreed upon before the work takes place. For the HOA that would mean that the Board must vote to approve distributing additional funds. When CJ Cook was asked about these items, he was not aware of the charges. How can Saddle Peak take this money without the Board's approval?

Tax Prep

The HOA has a contract with Saddle Peak. That contract outlines what is included and what is extra for the set management fee. Included with the fee in the contract is Tax Prep. Why is the HOA paying $250 extra for something that is included?

Secretary of State

The Secretary of State only charges $10 to file the annual report, why is the HOA paying Saddle Peak $85.

Property Management Fee

Why is the property management fee double from the budgeted amount? Budgets presented at the 2022 annual meeting ranged from $30,780 to $34,800. Why is the total of $37,180, $2300 more than anything presented to the ownership?

Demand your Board of Directors to investigate these discrepancies.