Shiloh Scoop
POA information, traffic study, and more!
Property Owner's Association (POA) Explained
- The Shiloh Farms HOA BOD will be putting the submission of the HOA to a POA to a vote at the annual meeting. The Board would like to explain the difference between an HOA and a POA and why our legal team is recommending that we submit to a POA. Laurel Springs, Traditions, and Windermere Park are a few of the local neighborhoods who have already submitted to the POA. The Board feels that the $2,000 limit to exercise foreclosure is too low and will work to write an amendment to our by-laws to increase that amount.
- Homeowners provide 100% of the funding required to maintain Shiloh Farms shared services. The HOA has no other source of income. So, if any homeowner doesn't pay, we all have to chip in to meet the shortfall. Our goal, therefore, is to implement reasonable collections processes to help ensure that every homeowner pays the agreed amount. We realize that this is a lot to digest and we plan to schedule a special Town Hall meeting (in person and online) before our Annual Meeting to explain the POA in more detail.
POA Document by Lazega and Johanson Attorney at Law
- The Georgia Property Owners’ Association Act (“POAA”) is a law that was adopted in 1994 to further define the powers of homeowner’s associations in Georgia.
- The primary purpose of the POAA is to strengthen collection powers, but there are additional important benefits as well, which are outlined below.
- Unlike most laws that automatically apply once passed, the POAA is a voluntary law, meaning that a community’s governing documents must specifically provide that the community is subject to the terms of the POAA.
- Unless the original developer submitted the community to the POAA in the original governing documents, the community members must vote to amend their governing documents to submit to the POAA.
- Most developers do not initially submit the community to the POAA because the POAA requires all owners to pay assessments, and many developers do not want to be stuck paying assessments on each lot during the development period until the lots/homes are sold.
- Many of Shiloh Farms’ neighboring communities have already submitted to the POAA, including Laurel Springs, Traditions, and Windermere Park.
- Automatic Liens: The POAA creates an automatic lien against a delinquent owner’s lot. This means the association will no longer be required to file paper liens at the county courthouse for unpaid assessments or other charges to secure its claim for unpaid assessments.
- Late Fees and Interest: The POAA allows an association to charge a late fee of the greater of $10.00 or 10% of the amount due, and interest at a rate of 10% per annum on unpaid assessments and charges. Currently, the Shiloh Farms Declaration does not allow the Association to charge late fees and interest is limited to the legal rate, which is currently 7%.
- Attorneys’ Fees and Costs of Collection: The POAA authorizes recovery of an association’s costs of collection of the delinquent assessments, including reasonable attorneys’ fees actually incurred. Without this special language “actually incurred” being included in the legal documents, some courts improperly reduce the attorneys’ fees awarded to the association. Currently, the Shiloh Farms Declaration does not include this special language.
- Joint Liability of Sellers and Buyers to Pay Assessments: The POAA provides that the buyer and seller are equally liable for all unpaid assessments, meaning the association has the option to pursue either the buyer (new owner) or the seller (now prior owner) for any assessments that remain unpaid once a lot is sold, as either party is considered independently liable under the POAA for the delinquent balance due. Currently, the Shiloh Farms Declaration does not permit joint liability.
- Foreclosure: If a homeowner’s delinquent balance due is $2,000.00 or more, the POAA grants an association the authority to foreclose on its lien against any delinquent owner’s lot, meaning the association has the ability to sell the property on the courthouse steps for the amount of its lien (which is the delinquent balanced owed) on the property. *****If approved, the Board will recommend further amendment to raise the threshold over the $2,000 delinquent balance placed by the courts.
- Enforceable Amendments: Based on certain Georgia case law, some covenant amendments (including those that seek to change provisions governing the use of property in the community, such as leasing regulations) might be enforceable only against owners who vote to approve of the amendment. However, by submitting to the POAA, communities ensure that all covenant amendments, if properly approved by at least two-thirds of the members, are enforceable against all owners in the community. Therefore, for most any community seeking to amend the governing documents to implement leasing procedures and regulations, the first step must be submission to the POAA.
Traffic study complete in July
- The Shiloh Farms HOA BOD has been working closely with Tim Allen, Assistant Director of Engineering at Forsyth County on the Shiloh Road East issues.
- Shiloh Road East is a county road and therefore is subject to county rules.
- Results of the Traffic study included in the link.
- Summation of traffic study by Tim Allen Assistant Director of Engineering Forsyth County
- We recently collected traffic data along Shiloh Road East for the traffic approaching the radar speed signs on July 13-20, 2022. The Shiloh Road East north bound 85th percentile counts came in at 44.33 MPH just before the speed sign and 44.84 MPH just past the signs on the down hill grade. The Shiloh Road East south bound 85th percentile counts came in at 50.63 MPH just before the speed sign and then 43.61 MPH. The data shows a small improvement when compared to the November 7-13, 2020 traffic data speed date collected, which had the average 85th speed south bound at 44 MPH and the north bound 85th speed at 52 MPH. We can plan pull another data collection in late October 2022 to determine if the signs are continuing to help along Shiloh Road East.
- The following is the County's position on speed humps on Shiloh Road, "We have stated in prior studies that Shiloh Road East would not be considered for speed humps as it is a through road and has more than three thousand vehicles per day, so the county speed hump policy would not allow speed humps on this road," response from Tim Allen Forsyth County Assistant Director of Engineering.
- Many homeowners continue to have serious concerns about traffic violations, including speeding and running stop signs, and the number of large trucks that cut through our neighborhood. The proposed Town Hall meeting is our opportunity to voice those concerts to the County and request solutions.
- The Shiloh Farms BOD is working with Tim Allen to try to schedule a Town Hall meeting where Forsyth County will explain their reasoning behind the no speed humps on Shiloh Road East. The BOD will let the community know as soon as this Town Hall is scheduled.
- If residents of the neighborhood would like to try to take this further, please email dawn@bourgs.com with the names of the members of the Continued Traffic Mitigation Committee and the Board will forward all emails associated with this over the past 2 years.
STOP signs are not a suggestion/Most of our issues start at home
- Please, please, please, slow down.
- Obey all stop signs. A rolling stop is not enough to allow a child to cross the street or make a quick decision about a ball rolling across the street.
- Please remind all teenagers (and spouses) about these basic tenets of driving.
- If you see an 18 wheeler on Shiloh Road East call the Forsyth County Sheriff's non emergency number.
- If you see extreme speeders or people consistently not stopping at stop signs, take a picture of the license plate and give it to the Forsyth County Sheriff's non emergency number.
Preparing for an increase in dues for 2023
- We live in an aging neighborhood (over 30 years old) with many infrastructure issues, including aging and dying trees, 3 retention ponds, and expensive capital maintenance.
- We started our new shared trash service in April this year so your 2022 trash fee of $198.00, included in your annual HOA fee, represents only nine months of service. Your 2023 trash fee will increase to $277.86 to represent a full 12 months of service and a 7% increase ($1.54 increase per month to $23.54) in April 2023 due to inflation. We have checked other vendor pricing and can confirm that this price is still lower than you could obtain elsewhere at our current level of service.
- How will this impact your annual HOA fee? Your 2022 annual fee was $1,023, which included base services of $825 and 9 months trash services of $198. As the trash service is a pass through, we expect your 2023 HOA fee to increase by at least the amount of the increased trash cost. In addition, we have several other services that are subject to the same inflationary pressures. Your Board members are therefore proactively reviewing all our services and obtaining competitive quotes for many services in an effort to minimize cost increases. We are also reviewing our capital investment reserve spending as these items are also impacted by inflation. Stay tuned for further updates.
Pool closing for the season
The pool will remain open until the end of Fall Break. The pool will officially close on Monday October 3rd, 2022.
Please see embedded link for pool rules. Please continue to be respectful of others. Please do not throw hard balls in the pool as this can cause injury to other adults and young children.
Trash
- Thank you for helping to make trash services run smoother on Monday mornings.
- Please remember to try to park all cars in the driveway on Sunday nights.
- Please leave a 4 foot distance between each tote and any vehicles that may be parked on the streets
- NO oil or paint in the trash totes
Event Information
Shiloh Farms Fall Festival
Please join us for the annual Fall Festival! Further details will be updated as we get closer to the event!
When?
Sunday, Nov 6, 2022, 02:00 PM
Where?
Shiloh Farms HOA, Shiloh Road East, Alpharetta, GA, USA
Shiloh Farms HOA BOD
Director Hokan Ojert President Ridgefield hokan.shilohhoa@gmail.com
Director Jane McLain Vice President Belmont jane.shilohhoa@gmail.com
Director Gary Nixon Treasurer Belmont gary.shilohhoa@gmail.com
Director Lance Hall Secretary Belmont lance.shilohhoa@gmail.com
Director Dawn Bourg Member at Large Crofton dawn.shilohhoa@gmail.com
Association Manager (CMA) Carrie Neville 404-835-9216 CMA cneville@cmacommunities.com
Website: www.shilohfarmshoa.org
Location: 6025 Shiloh Road East, Alpharetta, GA, USA
Phone: 000000000