These are my personal images and photos that show the beauty of the view from Deer Ridge Mountain Resort and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cobbly Nob and the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area.
Just click the Play button to watch - or click Big Picture to see a much larger slide show on a dedicated page here at DeerRidgeOwners.com.
Deer Ridge Litigation Fund
Do you, as an owner at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, believe we are ALL entitled to have access and be able to copy the books and records of our Homeowner's Association?
So, do I.
But, apparently, Employee Joe Thomas and President Luther Parker and the Board disagree - and are doing all they can to block access, publication and candid discussion of the Asinine Assessment, special deals and favored treatment - at the expense of all Owners.
What ARE they so afraid of us finding out?
Maybe it has to do with the HUGE $10,000 overcharge for my HOA Fees, special assessments, water and cable TV bill - which, in my personal opinion, is due to fraudulent intent or at least gross negligence by the Deer Ridge Board of Directors and / or General Manager Joe Thomas. Please see the posts for details.
We have no choice but to file a lawsuit against GGRC and RML in order to finally, once and for all, make it clear that OWNERS do have a right to all the information about our property and our investment at Deer Ridge.
If you have thoughts and ideas and suggestions, please post them here on this blog.
If you have any clout with the Board, convince them to stop the charade - and let the owners have the information that all owners own!
If you want to help cover the legal costs to get us the right to see the bids for $50,000 for nuts and bolts - and the other background documents for the $353,500 Asinine Assessment, please click on the Donate Button below.
With enough in donations, we can hire BOTH an attorney AND a forensic accountant for the whole process through the Court in Sevier County to make absolutely certain we win EVERY point - and never have to fight Employee Joe and the Board on this stuff again.
Even a $100 contribution will help show that you are in favor of an open and FULLY transparent homeowners' association at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort!
Thanks so much to those of you who have already contributed!
GENERAL DISCLAIMER FOR ALL PAGES AND POSTS AND EVERYTHING ELSE I DO OR SAY REGARDING DEER RIDGE AND ANY AND ALL RELATED PARTIES:
Note: The following, and the information on any and all other posts and pages by me about General Manager Joe Thomas, GGRC, RML and /or the Board of Directors and its members, or any related topics, are my personal opinions based on my ongoing investigation into the actions and inactions of the GGRC and RML Board of Directors and / or Joe Thomas, General Manager.
While I believe these allegations to be true based on my objective analysis, these opinions remain as only allegations until I, or others, prove things in court.
My goal is to offer all owners all the information and evidence that I have available so that everyone can reach their own conclusions.
Please note the obvious:
Everything I ever say or write in person, via emails, or on my blog, about Deer Ridge or any and all related entities and organizations or any and all affiliated personnel or owners, is strictly my own personal opinion of course - based, in part, from my owning a unit at Deer Ridge for over five years - and on my own personal history.
That history includes earning a Presidential MBA degree, being awarded a Bachelor of Science, With Honors, in Engineering Physics from UT, working for NASA as a rocket scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center, 30 years of CEO experience directly employing and managing many hundreds of people at multiple companies I personally started and operated (including one that I took public), 15 years experience buying and selling over $100 million of property and managing more than 45,000 rental units - AND being able to read and do four-function arithmetic.
Legalese - And Powered Wig - Off
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Welcome to All Deer Ridge Owners
Welcome to all owners of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort condos in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
My goal is to help all Deer Ridge owners to have a voice in the management and operation of your property.
Click on the TITLES of any of the following subjects to read the whole posting - and see the comments made by your co-owners. You can also type any term into the below search box, or any word or term in the search cloud.
Click the big image at the top of the page to return to the front page at any time.
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Investment Analysis For A Rental Condo At Deer Ridge
Will you really lose $40,000 cash if you buy a rental condo at Deer Ridge and use Ridge Management Ltd?
As an owner-occupied home, Deer Ridge is an incredible value with THE best view in the Smokies and great amenities.
However, several owners and would-be owners of Deer Ridge condos have asked me if these units are a good rental property investment or not. To help answer that question
objectively, I had to analyze the real moving parts of buying and owning here.
Get my complete, detailed investment analysis based on buying a rental condo unit at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
It shows what you MUST do to make money when you buy a rental unit at Deer Ridge.
Every Dollar You Pay For Deer Ridge Is The WRONG Amount!
Please read the various posts here on this Deer Ridge Owners Blog - and see my evidence and analysis which I believe shows conclusively that EVERY dollar of HOA Fees, EVERY dollar EVERY special assessment, EVERY water bill and cable TV sent out for YEARS to ALL Deer Ridge Owners has been wrong!
In many cases at least ONE THIRD of ALL owners have been GROSSLY overcharged. My calculations show that I have been overcharged more than TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in the past 50 months I've owned at Deer Ridge.
The Board has been WRONGLY and arbitrarily ignoring the requirements of the Master Deed and the Bylaws for YEARS.
If my analysis is correct, the Board has zero choice. They MUST abide by the Master Deed Percentages.
But they haven’t.
However, if the Board knowingly ignored the clear directives of the Master Deed and the Bylaws when allocating costs to various unit types, and overcharging certain unit types on a regular basis, my opinion is that the Board and Joe Thomas may have acted fraudulently.
If they have not been fraudulent, then they have been, at the very least, grossly negligent.
Read the various blog postings - and judge for yourself.
Comments Welcome From All Visitors
You are welcome to leave your comments on the various posts on the blog. You no longer have to be registered to comment. (Even regular contributors had trouble remembering their log on passwords!)
Note that SPAM blockers are in place - and all comments require approval to be visible.
So, let's hear from you on these topics!
To view the comments, you need to click on the post topic to see the entire post and the comments.
"We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert." — J. Robert Oppenheimer. This includes the Board of Directors of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
Deer Ridge Mountain Resort: Who IS Responsible For Multiple Violations of Article XII of the Master Deed?
The following was part of my December 4th email I sent in response to Joe Thomas’ email at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort. The brackets from this comment are so clear on this point, I thought it deserved its own posting.
Joe,
With the long running untrustworthy track record of you and the board when it comes to abiding by the Master Deed and Bylaws, it is not surprising that so many owners are calling and writing me – with all of them concerned that you and the board were once again going to violate the rules.
Speaking of which, WHO was responsible for the $120,000 that was illegitimately spent on the ill-conceived pavilion, the pool area improvements, the massive office changes and the new maintenance building additions?
Since Article XII of the Master Deed has gone completely unchanged for the past 25 years, were these illegitimate construction projects a result of:
Gross negligence?
Gross incompetence?
Fraudulent behavior?
Illiteracy by you and/or all board members?
Total disregard for the Master Deed and the rights of all owners?
Since you and the board seem to now see the light of day in the requirements of Article XII, there has GOT to be a reason Article XII was NOT followed for all those COMPLETELY illegitimate projects that cost me, and all other owners, a huge amount of wasted money.
I believe the above five points list all possible reasons that Article XII has been violated SO many times in the past by you and current and past boards.
This is NOT a rhetorical question — we expect a clear answer. So, Joe, which of those five answers is the right one?
I have not received an answer to THIS very direct question.
Don’t Ask, Please Don’t Tell – The Joe Thomas Management Philosophy
Think about it.
Joe Thomas has been on this property as General Manager for at least 8 or 9 years, based on the information at the Tennessee Real Estate Commissions.
He has been THE one person primarily responsible for all operations at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort as various board members have come and gone. He is the one person who has been tasked with understanding, interpreting and enforcing the various rules and regulations that relate to Deer Ridge, including by definition being the primary person required to completely understand the Master Deed and Bylaws.
The GGRC attorney, Chuck Sexton, attended the last board meeting in November when I made a presentation. He immediately, upon reading Article XII, agreed with me that a 75% vote of the owners was REQUIRED before ANY alterations or improvements were done at Deer Ridge. (That’s why we will now be voting on the replacements of the Walkway Railings.) My web pages and blogs have been pushing this point for years – so it was not a fresh concept for either this board or the prior one – and was certainly known by Joe Thomas to be a MAJOR issue I have been raising for years.
Yet, based on the reaction of the GGRC attorney, he had not even been consulted on this issue – even though the right conclusion appeared to be as obvious to him as it was to me.
Why had he not been consulted on this major, KNOWN issue?
Because Joey and the board did not WANT to know any legal opinion that would stop them from their free reign of control at Deer Ridge that illegitimately usurped the power of the owners to make those decisions.
Because of this, over $120,000 of OUR money and YOUR money has been squandered in the four years we have owned here as a direct consequence of Article XII being ignored by our General Manager!
There Are ONLY Five Possible Reasons For All Of This Illegitimate Waste of Money
If Joe Thomas was responsible for fully understanding the Master Deed – and still went ahead with his ill-conceived pavilion, the pool area improvements, the massive office changes and the new maintenance building additions, then Joe Thomas MUST be guilty of one of the following FIVE transgressions:
Gross negligence? – He didn’t read it or ignored it.
Gross incompetence? – He read it and wasn’t able to understand it.
Fraudulent behavior? – He didn’t want the right interpretation because it would negatively impact his take home pay, in one way or another.
Illiteracy by you and/or all board members? – He didn’t know how to read.
Total disregard for the Master Deed and the rights of all owners? – He didn’t care what was right for the owners, this was his domain and he was going to do whatever he wanted, to hell with the owners.
That’s it. There are no other possible answers to this question.
Joe Thomas Should Be Fired For Cause
Pick and choose any of those five – or even a combination of them – and the result is the same.
Joe Thomas should be fired for cause.
Any of those five are justifiable grounds for IMMEDIATE termination of employment. And, we are way past IMMEDIATE.
In my opinion, every extra day that we continue to pay Joe Thomas when he is responsible and guilty of any of those five transgressions, is more money out of all of our pockets while we wait for him to commit even more transgressions.
What’s YOUR opinion?
2 comments to Deer Ridge Mountain Resort: Who IS Responsible For Multiple Violations of Article XII of the Master Deed?
Only, when owners do come and do NOT come announced to Joe OR the office personnel.
Joe/board do NOT like surprises. Joe NEEDS a heads up.
They can’t get their ducks in a row TOGETHER fast enough and at least one of them WILL misplace their duct tape that is over their mouth! Joe ‘expects’ for you to ‘tell him’ when you come ~ and don’t forget when you leave as well. Vitally important WE OWNERS ANSWER QUESTIONS to Joe. LONG BEFORE you come to YOUR property. Oh yeah, they have their reasons for needing to know ~ but it REALLY isn’t what they tell you!
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Robert,
You have full authority to vote for me as well. You have my proxy and can vote on my behalf in every application. I trust you. Explicitly. You have been honest and upfront from Day 1. For years now.
And YES, Joe should be fired. Should have been fired YEARS AGO. We wouldn’t be in this MESS NOW. This is one costly mess. Board did NOT do their job. I am sure there are reasons that Joe/board is wearing all this duct tape over their mouth and we need to get to the bottom of it BEFORE they get any more $.
You are correct Robert. It can only be 1 (or MORE) of 5 reasons. There are no other alternative reasons. Considering the circumstances, I have pondered the 1-5 reasons for Joe. Yet, another interesting ponder: What is the reason for individual or multiple reasons for each of the 5 board members?
My opinion is such would have been fired some time ago but the board is unable to do so which points to gross incompetence there.
Robert, I just got my computer back, wiped clean as the IT guys say, so I lost all my emails, etc.
Let me know if you need a copy of that proxy vote.
Also, I hope we get some action soon to avoid that assessment coming due. The Board’s failure to cooperate, in clear view of the multitude of problems revealed is incomprehensible. Perhaps we need a wagon train of owners from the various states to descend upon Deer Ridge and stage a protest!
Check out our new Deer Ridge Owners webcam for the current view from our balcony!
Just click the photo for the most recent update. Updated every 5 minutes.
Top 10 Cam Award!
Our new Cobbly Nob TN site was just chosen as an Earthcam Top 10 Webcam!
All of this in just our first two weeks of operation - and before we install our new wide angle, high definition lens! Stay tuned for even better images!
EarthCam, Inc. is the global leader in providing webcam content, technology and services and ranks among the top 1% of all websites. EarthCam.com is the world’s favorite webcam network and the EarthCam Network cameras have been seen on top news shows, including CNN’s Headline News.
New YouTube Channel For Deer Ridge Owners!
Check out ALL of our videos on our new YouTube Channel for Deer Ridge Owners:
We already have videos that will walk you around the whole property and give you reviews from past guests and tourists. Find out what they REALLY have to say about Deer Ridge!
We are adding even more videos in the next few weeks - so check out our Deer Ridge Owners Channel often!
Update: Just added two new videos for a total of 20 videos so far! Check them out!
Owner Files $3 Million Lawsuit Against HOA, General Manager And Board Members
A homeowner in Gatlinburg, Tennessee has filed a $3 Million Lawsuit against his HOA, General Manager And All Individual Board Members at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
In response to their meritless, retaliatory $1 Million defamation lawsuit against me, I have now filed a $3 Million lawsuit against Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, AKA Gatlinburg Golf and Racquet Club HOA and Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, David Barone and Tom Reise, all as individuals.
If you believe in free speech as much as we do, we need your help - no matter where in America you may live.
The Deer Ridge HOA board and individual board members have filed a $1 Million Lawsuit against me in their ongoing attempts to stop this blog and have its contents removed. Click Press Release for details.
This power clique wants to continue to block free speech on this property and to keep their illegitimate secrets hidden from other owners.
They are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars of other owners' money on legal fees to keep themselves in power while they continue to break both Tennessee state law and Deer Ridge property law.
We need your help with the legal fees that will be required to force them to abide by the law - and insure that Deer Ridge Mountain Resort is entitled to free speech like the rest of America.
If you would like to join with others who believe in free speech and believe that all of the 305,000 Home Owner Associations across the nation should be protected from tyrannical boards that ignore the laws, please click the
Donate Button below.
Even a donation of just a few dollars would be very greatly appreciated as a way of showing that we have financial support from thousands of Americans for these important issues!
Thanks so much to all of those of you who have already contributed!
Please help us broadcast this Press Release to others you know who can spread the word. You are welcome to link to this site from Twitter, Facebook or other sites.
With your help we can fight and win this $1 Million lawsuit - and keep this blog active - and an inspiration and model for other HOA Abuse Blogs across the nation.
James,
Good Idea.
Only, when owners do come and do NOT come announced to Joe OR the office personnel.
Joe/board do NOT like surprises. Joe NEEDS a heads up.
They can’t get their ducks in a row TOGETHER fast enough and at least one of them WILL misplace their duct tape that is over their mouth! Joe ‘expects’ for you to ‘tell him’ when you come ~ and don’t forget when you leave as well. Vitally important WE OWNERS ANSWER QUESTIONS to Joe. LONG BEFORE you come to YOUR property. Oh yeah, they have their reasons for needing to know ~ but it REALLY isn’t what they tell you!
————
Robert,
You have full authority to vote for me as well. You have my proxy and can vote on my behalf in every application. I trust you. Explicitly. You have been honest and upfront from Day 1. For years now.
And YES, Joe should be fired. Should have been fired YEARS AGO. We wouldn’t be in this MESS NOW. This is one costly mess. Board did NOT do their job. I am sure there are reasons that Joe/board is wearing all this duct tape over their mouth and we need to get to the bottom of it BEFORE they get any more $.
You are correct Robert. It can only be 1 (or MORE) of 5 reasons. There are no other alternative reasons. Considering the circumstances, I have pondered the 1-5 reasons for Joe. Yet, another interesting ponder: What is the reason for individual or multiple reasons for each of the 5 board members?
My opinion is such would have been fired some time ago but the board is unable to do so which points to gross incompetence there.
Robert, I just got my computer back, wiped clean as the IT guys say, so I lost all my emails, etc.
Let me know if you need a copy of that proxy vote.
Also, I hope we get some action soon to avoid that assessment coming due. The Board’s failure to cooperate, in clear view of the multitude of problems revealed is incomprehensible. Perhaps we need a wagon train of owners from the various states to descend upon Deer Ridge and stage a protest!
James C-201.