hoa forgot to bill for dues

Dan

Did you not realize for the last year that some dues were due? Did you not realize after a period of time that when no bill arrived you might want to check on it? Would you have waited another year, or two, or three?

Dan:

Unless your CC&R's state that assessments are not due until the association sends you a bill, you may be screwed. In your defense, however, is that the association had notice that you were the new owner but kept billing the old owner. I am not sure how much that would help in court.

I think if it went to court it would all come down to who had what duty to whom? You had a duty to notify them of the change in ownership and you did so through the title company. You also had a duty to pay the assessments and did not. The association had the duty to change their records to reflect the change in ownership and apparently did not. It is not clear whether the association had a duty to send you an invoice. It would have been nice if the old owner had let you know that the association was billing him for your assessments but I am not sure what duty he had to either you or the association to let them know of the mistake.

One big question would be why was the first demand for payment sent to you by the association's attorney instead of by the association itself? It's one thing to get an attorney involved after the homeowner ignores demands for payment and whole different ball of wax to bring in the big guns after the HOA made demands for payment from a non-owner. The attorney should have informed the association that it had been pursuing the wrong party and advised them to seek payment from you.

You also stated that you had an agreement with the HOA whereby they would take only half of what the old owner owed. Did you get that agreement in writing?

Are you saying that the board immediately jumped to legal action?

I think you may have a defense.

Florida Statute 720.305(b) states the following:

(b) A fine or suspension may not be imposed without at least 14 days’ notice to the person sought to be fined or suspended and an opportunity for a hearing before a committee of at least three members appointed by the board who are not officers, directors, or employees of the association, or the spouse, parent, child, brother, or sister of an officer, director, or employee. If the committee, by majority vote, does not approve a proposed fine or suspension, it may not be imposed. If the association imposes a fine or suspension, the association must provide written notice of such fine or suspension by mail or hand delivery to the parcel owner and, if applicable, to any tenant, licensee, or invitee of the parcel owner.

In my opinion, the HOA is wrong for trying to enforce the fine because they did not properly notify you of any delinquency or fine.

Kevin

I do not think he is being fined. He is being billed for non payment of dues, penalty charges, legal fees, service charges, whatevers.

I do not see these as fines.

If this is on the "up and up," the HOA should waive late fees and eat the attorneys fees if the error is on its side.

HOWEVER, collections attorneys are hired to mail late notices and letters and not legal bills. So, I'm a bit skeptical and tend to think the resident thought if the HOA didn't bill, he didn't need to pay. That's a mistake and ignorance is no excuse, especially since all parties have recognized the existence of an HOA and that dues are paid (since the short sale included a HOA fee write down).

My HOA doesn't bill you for you dues. When they are notified of the transfer of ownership, they send you the CC&Rs and bylaws, which explain that dues are due at the first of the month and have an address where you send them each month. After that, it's all up to you to get it there or apparently very bad things can happen. You can, if you'd like, request pre-addressed envelopes for mailing your payment, but that's about as involved as they get unless they come after you for not paying.

We have 237 units. Our postage bill was $4300 last year without sending monthly dues notices. That's a waste of money when the expectations are clearly spelled out for you. (The info was also in my closing documents I signed when I purchased the house, as well.)

Re-opening an old thread here, and I hope someone can help.

I moved into my neighborhood 5 years ago, and the HOA was controlled by the developer. For the first two years, we paid our HOA dues to the same company without issue. Where it got tricky is that the developer changed 3 or 4 times since I bought my house, and during one of those transitions we stopped receiving bills. We tried to contact the company that we were paying and it seemed like nobody knew where to pay our dues. Recently the final developer finished building the last houses in the neighborhood and we received notice that the HOA had been inactive for years and that it either needed to become active, or be disbanded under Georgia law and were given a place to vote on whether or not to keep the HOA. The results of the vote are not published, but I received notice on Friday that I needed to pay back HOA dues and fees and I was given 10 days from when the letter was postmarked.

I have very little experience with HOAs. This is my first home and my home growing up didn't have one. Is this activity to be expected from an HOA? Do I have any recourse? Many of my neighbors are in the same boat as me.

Thanks for any response,

Joe