Foreclosure help

liens are the most common ways to collect moneys due. as you can see, however, they don't always work in cases where the owner is willing to take the hit and be foreclosed.

You can try to work with the bank to get them to accept the money owed, and pass it into the cost of the new home to a buyer, but that's not likely to work. No buyer wants to be on the hook for the debt of the previous owner.

You can try small claims court, and hope for a judgment there. Or, if your $$ are too high, you may have to sue civilly for a judgment in a circuit court. You may win a judgment, and it stays with the person, not the home, so it follows them.

Some HOA's do use outside (3rd party) collection agencies with some success. Others try them and find out there is honestly little the outside collection agency can do that they themselves couldn't with some effort.

It depends also on how badly you want the money. You can try education, and guilt to get them to pay. and, there's always shame tactics, public notices, reminders/letters/phone calls, and personal collections (ie, you just go to the home and ask to be paid). And go back, and go back, and go back. Talk to their boss, and friends. There's lots of things the HOA can do to a debtor that a 3rd party can't.

(not saying you should want to, just pointing out all your options).

It sounds like our HOA is in the same boat as yours John. I'm new to the board, about 6 months, and we've done a good job of collecting compared to the previous board, but we also have one home that has never paid dues since closing and they now owe about 4k dollars after 6 years. After numerous letters, leins filed, etc. it's obviously these people don't care and have no intention of ever paying. I have no idea what to do next...

Yes it's crazy how people can move in never pay the hoa fees and then go ballistic when you Lien their property. I'm looking into ways of foreclosing on some of our abandoned homes In hopes to recoup some of the lost money. I think it's going to be hard to file a lawsuit. I am suspecting some of our residents might have been illegal and moved back. It's so frustrating!

John,

In Arizona a first mortgage lien is superior to an HOA lien, making it futile to try to collect by filing a lien. Don't know the situation in Tennessee.

Our association attorney advised us that the property owner (the buyer) nonetheless owes the association for his assessments up to the date the property is auctioned. He suggested that we collect by filing a lawsuit for a money judgment against the buyer/member. The attorney also pointed out that the member would be liable for the assessments plus court costs and attorney fees.

That sounded good, but we put ourselves even deeper into the hole by following that advice.

Most of those who abandoned their property could no be found. That meant that they could not be served and the lawsuits against them could not move forward. In a few cases, we were able to find and serve the member and obtain a judgment. Little good that did, though, as most had moved out of state making collections next-to-impossible.

Based on that experience, I would advise against pursuing actions against members who have abandoned their properties as the expenses will likely exceed the actual revenue that you will realize. The ones who I would pursue, however, are the nutcases who just simply refuse to pay assessments. You know where to find them and you can go after their assets.