HOA Rents an empty property

Hi Friends,

There are in our comunity more tan 50% owners units in debt with the
Association.

Two of those properties were abandoned (infested of rats) for more than 2 years ago owing 6K to HOA by the owners and those are in Bank forclosure.

The HOA took this empty properties, cleaned up and rented for the 50% of the market value in a month to month contract, explaining previously the tenants the situation.

All this process was advised for the managment company. Now one of the original owners appear today demanding the pocesion of his house.

What is the best way to resolve this matter for the parties involved?

Thanks in advanced for your help

Andy

Contact the HOA's attorney ASAP!!!!! This type of self-help while good in theory can leave the HOA liable if not done legally.

Andres,

Florida Laws have an "Adverse Possession" set of laws which HOA's may use, normally used in condos. They may acquire title to an abandoned unit thru Forclosures as well. This is way too complicated for me to explain but the short answer is that YES, with the proper court rulings and legal filings, they may take ownership.

What the HOA needs is a very good lawyer and hope that they did assume title legally, then show this guy that he is rather out of luck and should have taken care of his responsibilities when he was required to by paying his assessments. He probably did not pay his property taxes as well..

The HOA is very much responsible. Bad advice by the Management company or just poor communication on what the Management company said. We had a property that was not occupied for 10 years. It was like a time capsule walking into the place. The HOA couldn't touch it.

There is such a thing as "Squaters rights" but that won't apply to the HOA. It may to the renters occupying the place. They may want to check into their rights at this point as Renter's have rights. The owner coudn't kick them out legally either without the proper notifications. Which is about 30 days notice all in all.

Hate to say it, the HOA is on the hook for this one. I wouldn't be surprised if the owner sued for back rent of the property. Which is probably legal for them to do. The bank will also have a say in this situation. They most likely have the deed to the property and an interest.

I'd seriously be looking for an attorney if you don't have one. Typically, with a HOA I reccomment a Business/Contractual specialty type lawyer. However, this truly does cross lines into the real estate side of things where it should have never been. You may have to hire more than 1 type of attorney.

The Members need to realize a special assessment may be coming down the pipeline to pay for this. Hope for the best but you really have yourselfs a problem.

How did the HOA have access to the keys in the first place out of curiousity? That would be an interesting point to know about...

I am still amazed on who in the HOA made this decision in the first place...Just WOW! Believe it or not I can see how this all happened... I'd be EXTREMELY worried of who is/was in charge of your HOA...

This situation doesn't sound like a condo situation. It is understandable for a CONDO association to have a master key to people's condo's. Especially IF they share common walls/building. This scenerio in the questions sounds like SEPARATE patio or single family homes. Which a HOA would NOT have access to anyone's keys. I know ours didn't.

We had an abandoned property that was 10 years empty. Don't think it was even occupied after the builder built it. I can't remember how I got into the home. It may have been through a Realtor. I may not have been HOA president at the time and wanted to purchase it privately. It truly was a cobweb time machine in there. Over the years there had been some damage and it had been repaired by someone. When I became President, I had to track down the ownership of that property. It turns out it was owned by an LLC and made it impossible to collect old dues on it. Technically, the LLC was more than 1 person and they were already in trouble. Just had to add the HOA to the list of debtors they owed and NEVER did get a dime out of them. Eventually, the property changed hands and the owner used it as rental property.

Our HOA could NEVER have fixed up or rent that property out. We could ONLY keep the yard mowed as per our CC&R's responsibilities. The previous BOD and officers had just accepted the property as is and never did pursue much about it. I believe there had been a lien or two placed on it over the years. That was the extent of what the HOA could do. The HOA foreclosure rights in this case wasn't worth pursuing. We didn't need to own the home. Which IF the Questioner HOA here had done, they would have legally owned the place to rent out. That is what should have happened.

I think the Management company for this HOA misunderstood what the BOD members of the HOA was asking. Whoever was on that BOD took their answer and ran with it. NEVER ask your MC for advice. They do whatever you tell them to do. This MC should have known better than to give such advice. Eventually, once the lawsuits start flying, the MC should be named in atleast 1 of the suits. However, they most likely won't be found responsible. I just hope this HOA has a good insurance policy to cover the suit.

Locksmith.