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RosinaD (California)
Posts: 8
Posted:
Our HOA has several owners who are staying just below the $1800. that is required to foreclose in CA and they apply their payments so that they will never be 12 months in arrears. We would like to exercise our right to collect in small claims court but we have some questions:
1. Do we have to file a lien before we go to small claims court?
2. How do you serve an owner who does not live in the state of CA?
3. Are there any restrictions on the # of times that the HOA can use small claims court/year?
4. Are there any restrictions on how many times an HOA can take the same owner to small claims court in a year?
The Davis Stirling Act says that we must give them our delinquency policy or we may lose our right to due process. If they went through escrow and the escrow company did not give them the delinquency policy, does that mean that we could lose our right to the legal procees if they go into arrears before the 1365 documents get mailed out for that year?
We would really appreciate help from those who are knowledgeable concerning the law in CA
GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491
Posted:
Rosina, I do not know about small claims procedures in CA but we went the small claims court route and got a judgment only to have it overturned because in OH a corp. (HOA non-profit corp.) must be represented by an attorney. You can check many of your questions with a phone call to the small claims court or visit the local court web site. Like I said, I'm not versed in CA law nor am I an attorney but our state does allow us to add legal fees to delinquent amounts and fees. We hired an attorney that specializes in debt collection and he collects for us and the delinquent homeowner pays for it. In your case the attorney would go after $2700.00 + any court costs involved, when he recovers money you would get the $1800.00 and he keeps the difference as his fee. That way you don't have to pay to recover what's rightfully owed.

As far as giving notice of your collections process, we include ours at least twice a year in the newsletter. Do you have a welcome packet you give new homeowners with the current rules that you could include it in?

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