VG Blog

The Board of Directors, consisting of Chris Meyer, Connie Imerti, and Miranda Bridge, who had previously declared the August 2023 election invalid, approved a prepayment agreement with StoneKastle on April 22, 2024. This agreement involved an advance payment of $192,000 to StoneKastle for their services through June 30, 2025, which was the remaining term of their contract. The agreement stipulated that the payment would be considered earned upon receipt, and StoneKastle would retain the funds even if the Board decided to terminate the contract early.

This financial arrangement was approved just two days before a scheduled appeal hearing regarding the contested August 2023 Board of Directors election. It's worth noting that these three board members had already lost a legal challenge in January, but they appealed the judge's decision. The appeal hearing took place on April 24, 2024, where the judge once again ruled against them, upholding the previous decision.

In April 2023, I was reviewing the contract our HOA has with StoneKastle, who is our Property Management Company.  I came across this section that caught my eye:

"Effective January 1, 2021 StoneKastle Community Management as part of this contract will provide a 100% dedicated manager and assistant that will work in the StoneKastle Community Management office for the sole purpose of managing Victoria Grove Maintenance Association"

Paige Frost has been our Community Manager since the Fall of 2021.  A simple Google search revealed that she has also been the Community Manager of another HOA - Villa Point in Newport Beach since at least then.  So from Nov 2021 to at least April 2023 (18 Months)  Paige Frost (she happens to be the daughter of the owner of StoneKastle) has been working for at least two different HOA's as their 'Community Manager", in direct violation of the '100% dedicated manager' clause in their contract.

I brought this to our Board of Directors attention and later wrote a letter to the Board asking what they did to correct the problem, but they never responded.  

Note: Starting in August 2023, the Board of Directors approved a $780 a month raise for StoneKastle's Property Management Services.

StoneKastle (Initial Contract) (920.86 KB)

 Villa Point HOA Web Site: http://myhoa.com/villapoint/documents_menu.htm

The very first VGMA Bylaw states:  ”The principal office of the Master Association shall be located in Riverside County, California."  

The "principal office" of an HOA typically refers to the physical address of the property management company's main office. This is the location where that company handles administrative tasks, stores files, and conducts its day-to-day operations related to managing the HOA's property.  Our current property management company is StoneKastle and they are currently located in Yorba Linda, which is in Orange County and in violation of this Bylaw.  Earlier this year, I brought this to the attention of our Board of Directors and their response was to have a new form filed with the California Secretary of State which indicated that Victoria Grove now had a new 'onsite office' and it was located at 12615 Blackburn Rd.  You may not be familiar with that address, but if you Google it, you will find out that is the address for the bathrooms at our community pool...

Another problem, according to our CC&R's, is VGMA is prohibited from having an onsite office: 

5.3.1. Property Manager. The Master Association shall not hire any full time employees; rent, lease or otherwise furnish offices, personnel or other facilities, whether
located within the Properties or off-site; nor utilize any Master Common Area as office space or other facilities for an "on-site" Manager or for performing other Master Common Area
day-to-day administrative activities. The Master Association Manager shall at all times be a professional manager employed as an independent contractor, officed at its own place of business.

• In 2008, our current HOA President was elected as the President of small condo association in Murietta – Willow Haven
• In 2010, The Willow Haven HOA Board of Directors (BoD) replaced their landscaping contractor with a landscaping company owned by… the HOA president
• In 2012, The Willow Haven BoD replaced their property management company with… StoneKastle
• In 2015, The Willow Haven BoD was assigned a new Community Manager from StoneKastle…the owner of StoneKastle, Lori Yarborough
• 2015 through July 2021.  The situation at Willow Haven remained unchanged. The HOA president was still president, his landscaping business still had the monthly HOA contract and the owner of StoneKastle was still their Community Manager
• In July 2020, Victoria Grove, for the first time in years, held an election where we met quorum and voted in a new, 5-person Board of Directors.  (The Willow Have Board President became the Victoria Grove Board President)
• In Jan 2021, the Victoria Grove BoD, under the leadership of our current HOA President, hired a new Property Management Company… StoneKastle
• In Nov 2021, our qualified and certified Community Manager (Jolene Horn) quit.  We were assigned a new Community Manager…Paige Frost.  Paige was previously listed on the StoneKastle website as their graphics designer/technical support person, and to the best of my knowledge has no experience as a Community Manager.  (Keep in mind, Lori Yarborough is the owner of StoneKastle and Paige Frost is her daughter).
• In March 2023, I discovered that StoneKastle was 'double-dipping' on their contract with the Victoria Grove HOA.  The contract specifically stated that StoneKastle "will provide a 100% dedicated manager and assistant that will work in the StoneKastle Community Management office for the sole purpose of managing Victoria Grove Maintenance Association"  I found out that our Community Manager (Paige Frost) was actually the Community Manager for at least one other HOA, in Orange County.  I notified our BoD about this issue, but when I inquired about what they did about it, they never replied.
• In March 2023, I discovered that the HOA Bylaws required the 'Principal Office of the Master Association' (which would be the HOA's Property Manager's Office) is required to be located in Riverside County.  I notified our BoD about this violation of our Bylaws and their response was to submit paper work to the California Secretary of State that our HOA's principal office was no longer at StoneKastle's physical address in Yorba Linda, it was now at  12615 Blackburn Rd in Riverside.  This is the address of the bathrooms at the Victoria Grove community pool!  They also submitted paperwork to the State that our HOA now had an 'on site' office in Victoria Grove at the same address...which not only is against the HOA's CC&R's and therefore prohibited, it was a felony to submit fraudulent paper work to the state.  The BoD has since corrected the 'on site' issue, but those bathrooms are apparently still the HOA's 'principal office'.