HOA has been mailing letters to my old rental address

I bought my condo in 2010. Since I moved in(I noticed HOA about me moving in and paid move in fee), I've been paying HOA fee every month on time. I thought I was OK until I got a letter saying I owe HOA A LOT OF money, because HOA fee has been increasing yearly but I never received any notice, so every month there's a late fee, which keeps accumulating.

They emailed me my account statement and surprisingly I found my old rental address on it, which means they've been mailing everything to my old rental address, which I moved out when I purchase the property.

My question is, shouldn't HOA send all mails to the property address? Otherwise, do home buyers need to formally notify HOA to change their mailing address to the property address after they purchase the property?

Associations are to send notices, etc. to the address they have on record for the member.


Since Associations are not part of the selling process, it's up to the purchaser to inform the Association (just as they would the local utilities) of their new mailing address.

It's also the responsibility of non-resident owners to notify the Association of any changes in their mailing addresses.


Since you did inform the Association of your new mailing address, I am echoing Glens advice. Contact the board, inform them that you are certainly willing to make the payments and request that the late fees, etc. be waived as it appears the Association failed to update their records.

Question: Isn't there an Association newsletter or notices of meetings that are distributed to the membership (we put ours on the porch railings of the property)? I ask, because it's typical for Associations to inform the membership through the newsletter (in addition to direct mailing). If this is the case for your Association, you might need to also explain how this info wasn't successful in informing you of the change in Assessment amount.

Tim

This is not a universal rule, and where you need to mail notices may depend on your governing documents.

Our documents say that the HOA is required to send official notices by first-class mail to the address supplied to the Secretary by the memeber.

Parties to some legal proceedings, such as foreclosures, probate, and estate actions are sometimes required to publish public notices. This DOES NOT satisfy the legal requirement to serve notice to the defendant.

Also, liens are filed with the courts, but not published as a public notice as is the case with a foreclosure.



If your governing documents require notice to be sent in a particular way, the homeowner will have ample defense against the action if the notice is not sent in exactly that way. It IS NOT sufficient to file a public notice and ignore specific notification requirements in your governing documents or state law.

I've been paying fees by mailing checks, and the sender's address on the envelope is always the property address, but I guess they never paid attention or didn't care.

I got the letter saying we owed a lot of money and a lien has been put on the property from a debt collecting company. So the HOA never told me that my account was delinquent and they intended to put a lien, or they only sent the notice to my old rental address. I first heard it when I got the letter from the debt collector, who sent notice to the property address.

When I moved in I called the management company and let them know. They told me to pay the moving in fee, which I did, and they have record.

I checked the CC&R and did not find to which address the HOA should send notices of delinquent account to. It only says "by certified mail". I do receive monthly newsletters from the HOA, but on the envelope the receiver is just "tenant" instead of my name. And because I've been getting letters sent by HOA, I never thought they were sending other important letters to my old rental address.

In the "Delinquent assessment collection policy statement", it says "all notices will be mailed to the record owner(s) at the last mailing address provided in writing to the Association by such owner(s)". I have never sent any letters to the HOA, expect check payments. I don't know exactly how they got my old rental address, maybe from the escrow company during the process of me buying the property? But it's definitely not provided by myself. I thought the HOA should send letters to the property address BY DEFAULT since I've never told them to send them elsewhere.

I just can't think of anything I did wrong. This is the first property I've ever bought and no body told me that I should write to the HOA to tell them that my mailing address is the property address but not my old rental address, and this just doesn't seem like a common sense to me.

Shannon,

Here's where assuming that your HOA will be fair or reasonable can get you into trouble. To be sure that your rights are respected, you have to understand and follow the rules in your CC&Rs.

If your documents say that the HOA will use a "mailing address provided in writing to the Association," then you should provide a mailing address in writing to be sure that you are getting proper notifications.

Depending on the good graces of your HOA to send notices where they ought to go is not wise and does not protect your rights.

Shannon, it is very important that you respond to the letter from the collection agency within 30 days of receiving it, preferably by certified mail so you have proof of mailing. Do not try to do this over the phone as this only runs out you time to respond and puts you at a disadvantage. Since they are using a collection agency instead of doing it in house, they must abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If you Google or Yahoo "debt collection letter response" you will see examples of response letters that include all of the necessary buzz words.