Late charge assessments

I am a member of an Hoa in myrtle beach South Carolina and our Board is not ran very well. I am an investor that purchased 13 condos in a 50unit complex. when all the units were sold the HOA was handed over to the investors to create a new Hoa president and board members. No one really knew how to run an HOA and its kind of been ran on a whim. what I want to know is can you charge a late charge fee if the home owners pays his monthly payment on time but owes the Hoa for late charges that were accessed well over a year ago and have not been paid. Each month a statement is sent to the home owner showing thier payment was recieved but has a balance due of 350.00 this 350.00 balance due is strictly late charges. Now the HOA after a year and a half decided to access late charges each month on these homeowners for thier balance remaining which is only a late charge balance not thier monthly HOA fee which is paid month after month. Is this legal and is it fair especially considering they have been letting it slide for almost 2 years now. For example Homeowner was behind in beginning of 2009 and was being accessed a late charge of 50.00 for each late payment. after 7 months on 10/1/2009 the homeowner caught up on HOA payments but owed the 350.00 in late charges. Up Until june of 2010 the HOA did not do anything about this balance due suddenly they decide to charge a 25.00 late payment fee because the homeowners has a balance remaining everymonth. This balance is past due late charges only. Can the HOA legally charge late charges on late charges ?

Brenda the Board needs to check with the HOA's attorney to find out what is allowed under your CC&R's and applicable state law.