Read It Before You VoteAlbemarle Plantation, proposed Master Declaration

Albemarle Plantation · Proposed Master Declaration · Independent review

Read It Before You Vote

A line-by-line check of the Board's proposed 2026 Master Declaration against the Declaration actually recorded in 2013 and its five recorded amendments. Every fact is tied to a document, a page and a quote you can open yourself.

The vote

Questions due
Voting
to
To pass
Approval needs 67% of all lots, one vote per lot.

Not voting counts the same as voting no.

Informational meetings: Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24

Dates and the 67% rule as stated in the Board's October 15, 2026 letter to owners (saved from the Association's portal on October 19, 2026). Claim M009 (dates) Claim M029 (67% of all lots) Claim L003 (not voting)

The short version

The Board says its redline highlights the proposed changes. It does not show all of them. Measured against the Declaration actually recorded in 2013 and its five recorded amendments, this review found 49 substantive changes that carry no redline markup: 33 of the 34 listed in version 2.7 of the report (the 34th had already been made by a recorded 2021 amendment) and 16 more found in a second check.

Opinion: 14 of those changes work against owners. Each one is in the Change Explorer with the recorded text and the proposed text side by side, so you can judge for yourself.

My ask: delay the vote until owners have an accurate redline against the recorded Declaration, a clean final text, and written answers to the questions already submitted.

Five findings

Each finding opens the evidence: the recorded text, the proposed text, and the source page.

  1. Money

    Your amenity refund

    $1,858,960 owed back to owners at the end of 2025, per the Association's audit

    The 2025 audit (Note 12) carries this as a liability: the 2012 amenity assessment of $2,760 per home or $2,200 per lot, repaid when each owner sells. The proposal deletes the written refund promise in Article Five, Section 6(d) of the 2013 Declaration, and the redline does not show it struck.

    Show me the evidence

    Audit quote Refund checker

  2. Rights

    State-law protections

    6 of 13 sections of the Planned Community Act left out of the draft

    New Article One says the Act “shall not apply to APPOA except as expressly incorporated herein by reference”. Of the 13 sections that state law applies to communities created before 1999, the draft includes none in full, parts of 7, and leaves out 6. All six left out mainly protect owners.

    Show me the evidence

    Article One (claim L047)

  3. Borrowing

    Debt without a member vote

    $1,000,000 that the Board could borrow, pledging Association property, without member approval

    The revised APPOA Bylaws, released with the proposal but not part of the Declaration vote, would let the Board borrow and pledge Association property up to $1,000,000 “without approval of the Members”. The 2013 Declaration's borrowing clause is deleted without markup. In April 2026 the Association signed a $1,000,000 note secured by real property (2025 audit, Note 21). APPOA's 1989 Articles of Incorporation make a mortgage or pledge subject to the consent of two-thirds of each class of members; whether the bylaw fits the Articles is a question for counsel.

    Show me the evidence

    Bylaw text (claim L038) The 2026 note (claim F005)

  4. Records

    What records cost

    $200 minimum charge to retrieve one document that is not on the website

    A Board policy effective September 25, 2026 (GEN 1.1, not on the ballot) charges at least $200 to retrieve a document that is not on the community website, then $50 an hour and $0.25 a copy, paid in advance after a cost estimate, with a stated purpose. Neither the proposed Declaration nor the revised Bylaws caps the fee, and the proposal opts out of N.C.G.S. 47F-3-118, the state records section that gives owners a free annual financial statement.

    Show me the evidence

    Policy wording (claim D007) Scorecard row

  5. Time

    Years for the Board, days for owners

    22 days for owners, after about 42 months of Board process

    The Board's minutes first record a need for updates on April 27, 2023. Owners received the 48-page redline on October 15, 2026, with six days to submit questions and a vote that closes November 6. In February 2025 the minutes recorded a plan for a “comment segment expected to last four to six weeks” before a vote is scheduled.

    Show me the evidence

    February 2025 minutes (claim M004) Start date (claim M001)

The full report

Version 3.7, October 20, 2026.

Check it yourself

  • 49 substantive changes with no redline markup
  • 14 of those work against owners (opinion)
  • 391 factual claims checked against their sources
  • 244 claims verified exactly