rogue attorney

If it was a sizable bill- and the homeowner was having trouble- and is finally making it right- I would be inclined to have the HOA pay the $75, followed by firing the lawyer.

Sounds like the attorney sent back the check to the homeowner AND then add a $75 service fee on top of it for the homeowner to also pay. Is that right?

Sounds like he charged for the time his secretary had to take to figure out everything.

Is it CLEAR where to send the past due payments?

Why would someone send money to the lawyer?

How could the amount be off? Wasn't the amount due not made clear? Could we be dealing with a bounced check here?

Thanks for the responses, well I am a newly elected president and is now reviewing past collection pratices. I quit in 2010 due to the same issues, homeowner sent payment and payment was returned with a $50 fee because it was not correct amount.I asked that the board begin to intervene due to the nature of this letter to homeowner (very nasty) We are talking about small amounts. This particular person today has been paying $56 a week to the attorney. Our assesments are $160 a year, if you don't pay it ends up close to $500-$600 dollars attorney fees and court costs. But what is amazing is that in less than three months of assesments being due, people are being turned over to an attorney. In the records, I found where this lady had a written agreement to pay $15 a month towards this year assesment, (she is elderly and had some kind of surgery the letter said)She had been sent to the attorney the year before, paid off the amount and started to pay $15 a month towards this year assessment. Three months later the association sued her again for 2011 assesment. Looks like this has been the process...

I can see the total amount being unclear because of interest, penalties, maybe differennt amounts when paid by different dates...try sometime to close out an account be writing a check for exactly the right amount, that sort of thing.

This event seems gratuitously rude, a slap in the face for someone who is trying to do the right thing. Maybe there ARE a lot of problems with no-pays or late-pays. Even so it seems to me that this is not likely to improve the rate of on-time payment, may lead to a lot of bad feeling, and might end up as one of thos HOA-Nazi stories on the local TV news.

Our annual assessments run $200 to $400 per year. Like us, you probably have no management company, a volunteer Board, and limited (if any) facilities to maintain. (We have only grassy Common Areas.)

We take some pride never suing homeowners for not paying dues, nor do we initiate collection actions. We simply place liens on their homes, so they cannot sell or refinance without paying up. Recently we have only asked back dues with little in the way of penalties and interest. (I think we should keep better accounts and always charge precise penalties, interest and filing fees. Penalties are usually $20 per year for not paying on time.) We used to pay an attorney to file the liens, but now we do it ourselves. The attorney fees (in addition to the actual filing fee) were relatively small. We never tacked those on to the bill.

Every so often, a delinquent homeowner needs to sell and refinance. If they have been skipping for years, then we get a windfall (if we kept up our records). When there is a foreclosure, we have to write it off, although that has rarely happened with someone who has gone for years without paying. It's only a few homeowners -- perhaps 5 per year out of 300, so it's not a big impact on our operating budget.

Perhaps you should consider if this approach would be better for all concerned. Even if you lose a few bucks, it might help your property values and your quality of life. Wouldn't it be nice if your HOA never initiated collection action against your neighbors. Especially if you end up with roughly the same revenues from dues and you don't have to deal with the shark attorney.

Ebony:

ethics aside and you can argue if it was ethical or not, I would get a new attorney for this reason...HOA's have such a stigma associated with them for all the bad things you read about that creating another reason for a homeowner to hate you without just cause is just plain stupid. Even though it was the lawyer who did this it will be associated with your board and your HOA and this person will forever curse you to whoever will listen for eternity.

If I am in your shoes I would fire the attorney, have the HOA pay the $75 charge, apologize to the homeowner and move forward. Homeowners should not be penalized without really good cause and I don't think this fits the bill.