WHISPERING WOODS COMMUNITY OF ANNAPOLIS
PO BOX 242
ARNOLD, MD 21012
NEW PHONE: 410-260-0006
Dear Whispering Woods Residents,
Thank you for your continued interest and engagement with the HOA. Whispering Woods HOA is the 726 property owners within the community and we will only be successful if everyone is engaged.
State of the Board
The current Board is primarily made up of new members who joined last year to help with records management and financial oversight. The CCRs provide for 9 members of the Board of Directors. Each position serves for a rotating 3-year term. Your current board consists of:
President – Denise Netta term expires 04/2027
Vice President – Theresa Barry term expires 04/2027
Treasurer – Giselle Grant term expires 04/2027
Secretary – VACANT
Member at Large – Christine Wells term expires 04/2028
Member at Large – Shelly Albright term expires 04/2028
Member at Large – Kay Colbert term expires 04/2028
Member at Large – VACANT
Member at Large – VACANT
We currently have 3 vacant positions available on the board. The only way to ensure the community runs smoothly and all issues can be addressed timely, is for all board positions to be filled by active members looking to serve. It’s more than just being present at meetings. We also need volunteers for committees. There are several committees, i.e. Tree, Playground, Infrastructure that need members to ensure that areas are monitored. The more volunteers we have, the less we have to pay outside folks to help the community. The HOA has issues when annual assessments have to be raised but the only way to combat that is to volunteer your time.
Please remember when communicating with the board that these are volunteers who have full time jobs, families and other obligations and are your neighbors. Every attempt is made to ensure prompt responses to issues, but with the current vacancies priorities have to be considered. When corresponding with Colleen, please remember she is the community administrator. She is only the messenger of responses from the board. She cannot alter decisions and being short or combative with her is not acceptable. Additionally, inappropriate or abusive language or behavior will not be tolerated. Be aware that if your need is not being addressed as you like and you threaten to involve an attorney, as soon as that is mentioned, you will be referred to the HOA attorney and communication with the board will cease. Your volunteer board is not qualified to deal with legal issues, which is why we have the HOA attorney.
We have been able to respond to most issues promptly. HOA volunteers would greatly reduce the wait times on other needs.
Delinquent Accounts
The status of the HOA accounts when the new members were elected to the board last year are below. 168 residents had failed to properly pay their HOA assessments over the past 10 years. The board started an internal campaign to collect those balances and residents were given until February 28, 2025 to pay their delinquent accounts before the accounts were turned over to collections.
The HOA hired a new attorney effective 1/1/2025 who will handle all legal obligations including collection of outstanding debt. Those accounts with delinquencies older than 2025 assessments were turned over to the collection agency at no cost to the HOA. All collection costs are paid for by the resident who is delinquent. The attorney will pursue all legal means to collect the debt including placing liens on those debts that are recent enough, up to and including lawsuits to resolve these delinquencies. As you can see from the chart below, as of April 30, 2025 the new board was able to collect on 115 accounts for a total of $55,201.31 for the years 2014 – 2024.
For 2025 delinquencies, 79 residents have failed to pay their current year assessments. Of those, 49 residents also had delinquencies in prior years but only 30 accounts are delinquent (for that year only) which is 4% delinquency rate. This is the lowest delinquency rate the HOA has ever experienced! The last collection letter for those residents who only have 2025 delinquency has been sent out by the board and any balances not paid by June will also be transferred to the attorney for collection, again at no cost to the HOA. The board remains dedicated to making sure delinquencies are resolved timely and in full.
If your account has been transferred to the attorney, the board is no longer able to discuss your account due to contract restrictions. Any payments received by the HOA are reported to the agency on a weekly basis. When the attorney is paid directly, the funds are deposited by the attorney. If the funds are not returned non-sufficient funds (NSF) within 30 days, then the attorney will forward the balance due to the HOA and indicate when the payment was received so additional interest accrued can be written off. Until the time that the attorney has paid the HOA, the account will stay in collections and accrue interest. If the HOA was paid directly, the account may show a zero balance, however it will remain in a collections status until such time as the attorney notifies the board that the account has been paid in full. Paying the HOA directly does not relieve the resident of accruing legal fees due to the attorney.
Questions have been raised at prior meetings as to how the board justifies increasing the assessments annually. Since 2014, inflation has risen at a rate of 33.27%. Assessments were held firm from 2014-2021 and from 2022-2023 for a total increase of 9% over the same 10-year period. Holding the rates constant has allowed inflation to significantly affect our spending power. Had the board increased the fees 5% each year to try to combat inflation, annual dues would now be $496. This would have gone a long way towards funding shortages. Year over year inflation is almost never 0% or less than 0%. It is unreasonable to expect assessments not to increase to cover the increased costs of goods and services we require.
New Platform for Improved Communication & Financial Management
In our effort to improve financial management and transparency, the Board has approved the adoption of the Buildium platform, which replaced Victory Management. This new platform has reduced bookkeeping costs and provides easier access to community documents, financial reports, meeting minutes, and other requests (e.g., trees, violations, architectural concerns). Be sure to visit https://wwca.managebuilding.com/Resident/portal/login to register your account if you have not already done so. Also, when you do register you should receive a return email to reset your password. Before reaching out to the board, please look in your SPAM or JUNK folders.
Please note that to communicate with the board, the previous email address, email@wwcaonline.org, is no longer being monitored for anything other than email address updates for Buildium access. All concerns from the HOA need to be addressed with the board in the Buildium platform by opening a task in the resident portal.
2026 assessments will be mailed in December 2025 and also distributed via email to those who have activated their accounts on the portal. For 2026, there will be no manual adjustments processed within the platform. Credit Card payments will incur a 3% fee. EFT/ACH payments made directly from your bank electronically will be FREE. You may also mail a check to the PO Box. Please note, we are not responsible for mail delays. If your payment is not received by the deadline interest will accrue. It does not matter when the payment is postmarked. The payment is only applied when received. If the payment is postmarked 1/25/2026 but not received and processed until 2/2/2026, interest will be applied to the account. The finance team will not be manually adjusting any charges off of the account. Additionally, if interest remains on your account from 2025, it will remain there until paid. Any payments received will be applied to oldest balances first, which is standard accounting procedure.
2025 Budget Update
To view the latest monthly financial reports and Actual to Budget update, please log into Buildium.
Reserve Study
New state laws require all homeowner associations to complete a reserve study and align funding with its recommendations. The study has been completed, and based on its findings, we may be legally required to institute a special assessment to be sure the community is in compliance with state law. The exact amount is unknown at this time as we are still reviewing the findings with the surveyor. We do anticipate that these may be significant.
Elkwood/Sloping Woods Cluster Mailboxes
The board is aware of and working to replace the cluster mailboxes that USPS has identified as undeliverable. While residents were notified by the carrier that mail delivery would stop by May 1, 2025 that was not the case. Colleen worked diligently with USPS to determine exactly what was needed and ensured that the mail would continue to be delivered. Quotes are being obtained for the replacement of the 2 boxes at issue at the moment, and residents will be notified when the replacement will take place.
Community Common Area Usage
No structures are to be placed on community property at any time when the common area is not in use. This includes chairs, tents, trellis, fire rings or any other item or structure.
When the board was fully staffed, community functions used to be held on community property throughout the year. One of these favorite functions was the community yard sale. With positions vacant, this is one of those items that has taken a lower priority. The community yard sale is now being scheduled on the community Facebook page which is not managed by the board. Any use of the community property needs to have prior board approval. We are so excited that the community pulls together to hold this event, our only request is that the board is notified. The event has to be open to all members of the HOA and a majority of members are not actually on social media platforms, or members of the page. It is asked that the board is contacted so the organizer can be provided with signs that must be displayed letting the community know the event is coming. Those signs would need to be placed by the organizer and returned to the board after the event. A notification would also be sent out on Buildium and posted on the website to assist in getting the message to the HOA.
Please note, board approval is required by the HOA Insurance policy. We are not denying the use, we are simply asking to be notified and proper notifications provided to the entire HOA.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- My neighbor’s tree is hanging over my fence and could fall causing damage to my property
- This would not be something to direct to the HOA. As a resident, any tree overhanging your property may be managed UP TO the property line. You are welcome to trim anything hanging over your property. The HOA cannot get involved and tell a resident how to manage the foliage on their property.
- A community tree is hanging over my fence and could fall causing damage to my property
- Please open a ticket in Buildium. The board will put in a request with our vendor to inspect the tree for safety. As with residential trees, the resident is able to trim any branches overhanging their property UP TO their property line. However, if this trimming causes significant damage to the tree that makes it unstable or unsafe, the board is not responsible for any damages done. If the vendor states the tree is healthy and stable it will be left as is. If the vendor sees an issue with the tree, they will provide the quote for trim or removal to the board for approval.
- Please note in general it is the standard for the board to NOT remove any living trees.
- A streetlight is out on my street
- This would not be something to direct to the HOA. All streetlights are maintained by BGE, even if the road is community owned. You can report the outage by calling BGE with the pole number, OR log on to BGE.com and select Report Outage. Then select Streetlight. A map will pull up for you to enter the street name. You can zoom in and you will see each light on the street. Just select the light that is out and the pole number will be reported to BGE
- I would like to have chickens on my property
- This is NOT allowed under any circumstances, CCRs explicitly restrict this.
- Per Anne Arundel County – Roosters are not allowed on residential property. Hens are only permitted if the resident has a license, AND more than 10,000 sq feet of open space AND the coop must be at least 25 feet from each property line and at least 5 feet from any structure.
- Several attempts have been made to house hens and roosters in the community. Anne Arundel County has had them all removed. Per the county there is no property within the HOA that is large enough to hold fowl.
As always, we are looking for volunteers for our available board positions and committees. Please reach out if interested in helping.