July 2007

At a special meeting to be held on Monday, September 17, 2007 at 7:00 pm, we will have an agenda item that our Board of Directors believes is vitally important to our Association. In the early 1980′s when our developer filed the Declaration of Restrictions with the Marion County Recorder and Hamilton County Recorder, the Declaration included the typical language of the right to sue to enforce the covenants and restrictions in court if necessary. Unfortunately, the Declaration of Restrictions fails to include a provision on our ability to recover the attorney’s fees incurred by our Association for a covenant violation. This is unusual compared with most other homeowners associations in central Indiana. The only attorney’s fee recovery clause we have pertains to owners who are delinquent on their annual dues. Under the law, each party bears its own attorneys fees, regardless of who wins, unless there is an applicable provision in our Declaration that provides for the recovery of attorneys fees. This means that if our Association sues an owner for a covenant violation, the Association probably would have to bear all of the attorney’s fees, even if we were completely successful in court against the violating owner.

For years, our past Boards of the Association have been hamstrung when facing covenant violations. Those Boards have had to make difficult decisions, knowing that for even the most blatant and serious covenant violations, our Association most likely was going to have to absorb all our attorneys’ fees and expenses. That also made adhering to the annual budget even more of a challenge.

When suits have been filed in court in the past for covenant violations, the attorney’s fees and costs incurred by our Association generally have been absorbed simply as part of the operating expenses. This is unfair to the other owners who DO comply with the covenants and restrictions. Our Board strongly believes that those owners who violate our covenants should be responsible for the attorney’s fees and costs that we incur, rather than having the other owners bear those expenses.

Enclosed is a proposed amendment to our Declaration of Restrictions, together with a mail-in proxy and a self-addressed envelope. Alternatively, you may drop it off to your GHPOA Board representative. For this amendment to be adopted, it is important for as many owners as possible to vote in favor of the amendment. We will discuss the amendment at the September 17th meeting, and then distribute and collect ballots from those owners at the meeting who have not previously voted by proxy. Even if you plan to attend the September 17th meeting, we still ask that you complete and return the enclosed proxy by mail or email. The email address is whamilton@cas-indiana.com. Emailed proxies must include your scanned signature to be valid. That way, if you are unable to attend for whatever reason, your voice will still be heard!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Jane Scully, Community Manager, at 684-3333 extension 135.

Thank you,

GHPOA Board of Directors

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The GHPOA Board of Directors voted unanimously to host a special meeting on September 17th at 7:00 pm to approve a proposed amendment to the GHPOA Declaration of Restrictions. If ratified by 51% of the residents, the amendment would give GHPOA the ability to recover attorney’s fees when they enforce covenant violations in court.

The original Declarations of Restrictions filed in the early 1980′s by Shorewoood Corporation gave the GHPOA Board the right to sue to enforce covenants and restrictions; however, they failed to give GHPOA the ability to recover legal fees for the covenant violations. This makes it very difficult and costly for GHPOA to pursue covenant violations and certain residents are taking advantage of this loophole. Currently, the legal costs incurred by GHPOA to enforce a covenant violation is borne by the property owners that do comply with the covenants.

Residents will be receiving a letter in a few weeks outlining the proposed change, the paragraph that is changing in the existing Declaration of Restrictions, and a proxy form to fill out and return prior to the September 17th special meeting. By signing this form, you are giving the Development Control Committee of GHPOA the ability to enforce the Declaration of Restrictions, placing the burden of legal fees back on the offending resident.

We are setting up a special online form that you can also fill out and submit electronically. The proxy form can also be filled out and mailed back to GHPOA (GHPOA, 7050 E. 116th Street, Fishers, IN 46038) or given to your GHPOA neighborhood respresentative.

It is very important that you return a signed proxy or fill out the online form no later than September 17, 2007.

Office Cleek with Neighborhood Patrol went over the latest crime statistics last night for GHPOA which were actually down from where we were last summer this same time. One thing he wanted to remind everyone of is to close your garage doors at night. We still have problems with people leaving their garage doors open in the evenings, leaving the “door wide open” for burglars or juveniles to gain access to your home or garage. A couple of laptop computers were stolen from a garage in Admirals Bay as a result of an open garage door.