Passing along some important news to our Home Owners. This is a long post, but please read and discuss it with your neighbors while many of us are here. If we want to continue to have a dock and boat ramp as part of the community, steps will need to be taken in the next few months and we need donations.
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8/6 – There will be a meeting with the proposed Attorney so everyone can get a chance to ask questions. If you can attend, we will be meeting at 119 Oak Drive. If you cannot attend in person but would like to listen in or ask questions, please note the Facebook event is a Facebook Live! Tune in during the event, we want to give everyone the opportunity to ask any questions you may have as we work through this legal process together!
9/3 – The next community meeting and community fun event at the boat launch area.
Neighbors are welcome to reach out to Rose Hammer with their names, emails/phone numbers with the amount they would be willing to contribute, and once we’ve identified the $10,000 to form a legal HOA. She will have everyone send their monies directly to the attorney for a retainer. Call Rose at 512.567.4886 or email rose@hi5hammer.com if you want to contribute or help the effort.
Neighbors on Dogwood Pl and Church Rd need to provide their names, addresses, phone numbers, and whether they’re full-time or part-time at home. If they send it to Rose, she will get the form ready we have to submit. We want to get the roads going as quickly as possible.
1. Legal Entity vs. Current Status
The good news to share is that we now have a legally formed Dixie Shores Community Association (DSCA), Inc.
Currently, Dixie Shores Association was not a legal entity. This means in the state of North Carolina, anyone representing themselves as the Dixie Shores Association would be considered a sole proprietor and personally liable for the actions of DSA.
DSA does not legally own the right of ways/easements, including the boat launch area.
We as lot owners also do not own these rights of ways/easements, but we’ve been granted access.
2. Ownership of four rights of ways
Originally platted by Dixie Shores Corporation – it was not a legal entity.
Conveyed from Dixie Shores Corporation to Dixie Shores Realty Corporation, not a legal entity.
Dixie Shores Corporation and Dixie Shores Realty Corporation disappeared in the 1990s as tax deeds were issued on various lots.
Ownership of right of ways/easements would be considered “abandoned” by original owners.
3. Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions
There are CC&R’s running perpetually with the land of the Dixie Shores Development.
These can only be enforced by the entity/persons who put them in place.
Dixie Shores Corporation and Dixie Shores Realty Corporation never legally existed, and it would be considered that the CC&Rs were “abandoned” by the original owners of the development.
4. Insurance for Dock
We have bound the required liability insurance and the certificate of insurance will be submitted to Eagle Cree. The new legal DSCA still does not own the right of ways/easements, including the boat launch area so we still need to keep collecting towards our $10K goals to hire an attorney to work with us on this matter. We have collected over half of the funds needed already, thank you to the community for making this happen!
Eagle Creek requires that the insured is a legal HOA or owner of the lot.
They also require a $5M GL policy. However, we are still waiting for clarity from Eagle Creek on whether this can be a combination of general liability and an umbrella policy.
Dixie Shores Association does not own the four rights of ways, nor is it currently a legal entity. Therefore it cannot legally bind an insurance policy. In speaking with the NC Department of Insurance, they shared that it could be considered fraud if we represent ourselves as an HOA, and claims could be denied. North Carolina law requires that all HOA’s are registered with the state as a corporation, and any registered after 1999 are required to be nonprofits.
Eagle Creek is aware of the challenges and is willing to work with us while we sort it out as long as the permit and fees are kept up to date and insurance is in place. We are still discussing possible solutions to the insurance requirements with various carriers.
We need to create a legal HOA or corporation to have the authority to operate successfully.
We will have to go through a litigation process to ask the courts to grant the right of ways/easements to the newly created HOA since they were abandoned by the original owners. The attorney said this could cost upwards of $10,000 and take up to a year to complete. We’ve been doing a lot of footwork to research all of this to hopefully reduce that cost.
To create the HOA, corporate documents and bylaws will have to be written. Because of the concerns that have been expressed by neighbors about having an HOA that oversees the upkeep of the community, it may be better to create an HOA that only manages the right of way and easements and leave the lots out of the picture. This will have to be done simultaneously with the litigation process noted above.
We could also include the original CC&R’s A in the corporate documents so the HOA could enforce them, but all lot owners would have to agree. If no CC&R’s are implemented, anyone can build whatever they want as long as it complies with zoning and building ordinances in Montgomery County.
According to the NC Department of Transportation, these are public roads, and when the roads meet the minimum requirements, NCDOT will grade, gravel, and maintain them. They will also pave them, but they will have to be put on a waiting list, and the NCDOT said it could take as much as 10-20 years before we see them paved because the list is so long right now. Over 7000 roads are currently queued up.
The criteria to meet their maintenance is that there has to be one resident per every .10 of a mile – with a 4 resident minimum. One resident = 1 full time resident OR 2 part-time residents.
Your address does not have to reflect the actual roads. If the lot your home sits on borders one of these roads, you are identified as a resident on it.
Dogwood qualifies, and Church might. But at this time, all the others do not have enough residents. But this is good news going forward!
A form is being passed around for residents on Dogwood and Church to fill out. This is information that has to be submitted with our request so they can qualify the road. If you know of someone not at this meeting who lives on either street, please have them contact Rose with this information as soon as possible. Either call 512.567.4886 or email rose@hi5hammer.com.