Post date: Nov 13, 2019 12:11:27 AM

14 SEP 2019

To all HOA Members and Bohicket Landing Residents:

I hope this this notice finds everyone doing well. It appears as if Hurricane Dorian had minimal impact on the neighborhood, but the Board of Directors (BoD) understands that your hurricane preparations may have delayed completion of any compliance issues on your property. The BoD is granting an automatic extension until 30 SEP 19 for all owners that need additional time.

If you’ve already requested and received approval for a longer extension, then please use the date that was granted in the response to your extension request as the deadline to complete the necessary corrective action. If you haven’t requested an extension yet and will need additional time beyond 30 SEP 19, please forward an email or request an extension from a BoD member at your earliest convenience.

Since the compliance notices were sent, I’ve received a number of emails/phone calls in regards to why the BoD is just now enforcing some of the rules in the covenants when they were not enforced in the past, particularly in regards to landscape and fences. The three previous BoD concentrated on either getting the association established or completing bigger issues; such the boat ramp and contract maintenance. Since those previous Boards have completed those more pressing issues, the current BoD has concentrated on collecting the nearly $15,000 in overdue assessments. We’ve accomplished that goal and are now concentrating on keeping the neighborhood up to the standards it was when we all first moved here and on improving other areas that will benefit the entire community.

For those of you who may not know, the covenants were filed in JUNE 2005, before any home was built or purchased in the neighborhood, and are very clear that fences taller than 4 feet are not permitted if they exceed 25 feet in length (see Article 12, Paragraph F.21 of the covenants). The covenants are equally clear that in order to deviate from those requirements, that a variance must be filed at the county register of deeds (see Article 15 of the covenants). I’ve had our association attorney verify that the BoD is interpreting those Articles and others correctly.

I understand this is frustrating, since many of you (myself included) have fences that have been in place for many years. I also understand that many of you also may have an approval letter from the Developer to install your fence (again like I do) or it was installed when you purchased the property. However, these fences still require a variance and just because it wasn’t done correctly in the past doesn’t alleviate our responsibility for correcting it now. Article 14 of the covenants, specifically states even if a rule was not enforced in the past, it is still valid and subject to future violations.

This an even bigger priority now that the BoD’s other goals have been accomplished and because of potential legal problems with a previous owner. If the association were to be sued for not enforcing the rule against fences taller than 4 feet or for not filing a variance as required, then every owner/member of the association would be liable. This would lead to a special assessment on all property owners and, depending on our liability, could be a very big individual expense for each owner. Requiring variances to be filed now, reduces our liability and is a cheap and easy alternative to litigation.

I hope that explains the issue somewhat better than my previous attempts. If you still have questions, I’m open to any suggestions you may have that will reduce our liability and ensure we’re still complying with the existing requirements.

Thanks for your time and if you have any suggestions or need any assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact another HOA member or a director.

For the Board of Directors,

Mark Little