Listing members that have paid their dues

Started by ScottK1 • 12 replies • 1520 views

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ScottK1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 32

Posted:

I know this has been asked many times about publishing names of delinquent members of an HOA, but I had a question from a homeowner about publishing the names of the members that HAVE paid. At my urging our board has decided to become self-managed starting the first of the year. I don’t agree personally with publishing either paid or not paid members, but now that we are self-managed we are going to have some members wanting to find out who has not paid their dues. Our bylaws say members can inspect the records with notice to the board, but are there any laws about revealing delinquent homeowners? After taking care of collection this year I have brought all but two homes current and they are in the process of being foreclosed. I am hoping next year stays the same and our members pay on time.
Scott

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

The horse is beaten to death. Using shaming strategies for collections might work but I'm betting your fellow board members would carve exceptions for themselves if they faced hardship in paying. I don't see equal protection at play here. Good Luck.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

No purpose in it than "Church Gossip" or what I like to call "The Painted Pony" glow. What people do or do NOT owe is PRIVATE information between the board and the person who may or may not owe. All the members need to know is IF you are proceeding with collections legally by filing a lien or foreclosure.

Which I would like to recommend putting in place a policy determining when dues are late. We had a 6 month policy before we would lien. After that foreclosure option was considered after a year. However, foreclosure is the very LAST resort one should do and should be avoided unless special circumstance.

Former HOA President

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

Scott,

You and all the other property owners in your association are parties to a contract that, among other things, requires the payment of assessments. You and all the other owners have a legitimate interest in knowing who has paid and who has not.

Some states have statutes preventing the disclosure of this information to the membership, so your first step should be to check your state statutes to see if disclosure is prohibited.

My personal opinion is that each owner should have access to all financial records, including who has or has not paid but I would stop short of plastering names of non-payers on newsletters and billboards on the interstate.

ScottK1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 32

Posted:

Thanks for the input. like I stated I feel the same way and feel it better to protect the persons name and work things with them in private. I just wanted some more input.
Scott

KarenT (Washington)
Posts: 250

Posted:

Scott,

Instead of names, use the legal description of the property or the address, that is what we do in our subdivision. It is shown on our budget as "uncolledted dues, assessements and fines".

CarolR11 (Colorado)
Posts: 2,563

Posted:

In CA, owners cannot request certain information from the Board, e.g., names of delinquent owners, names of violators of the rules. But in CA, we may publish the names of delinquencies. We (our directors) never do and don't like the "shaming" technique. I don't know why becoming self managed makes any difference?

With your low delinquency rate, Scott, why not just publish the fact that there are two Owners, or use the % of your membership?

and others are right, this topic has been beaten to death on this forum.

ScottK1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 32

Posted:

Why I mentioned being self-managed was that the management company the HOA has been using the last several years was not doing any collection, and was sending out violation letters just to increase their fees they charge the board, part of the problem has the board members didn't want to be the bad guy and enforce any of the bylaws or CC&R’s. Now I have the backing of several members and I have been following the rules in a fair way to all members we have all but the two homes not paying. Every time the board would agree and approve the method I suggested and informed the MC to do something the President would email the MC and say not to send letters to the people she is friends with after she approved it. It looks like I will be the only board member reelected and we can get some people on the board that treats every member the same as to paying dues and violations.

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

If your board was overriding the management company and not collecting, I would not assume your new board will change course. However, with collection laws on your side, there's no need to move beyond was printed in the law books to get your money. No harrassment, no embarrassment, just a by-the-book process. It's facilitated by an attorney and the dues payers pays all legal fees in the process.

Hardship cases should be handled when owners approach the board and payment flexibility should rule in these cases.

Only HOA people think public shaming works. Why don't banks, which are owed REAL money, embarrass their mortgage payers early in the default process? What about car dealers?

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

We've had our share of Elverna Bradshaw's (sorry obscure busy body character from the Beverly Hillbillies) over the years who wanted to know who was behind. I refused to give anymore than raw data X number of units past due. I told each and everyone of them that if they had a burning desire to know, then to visit the County Court's website and look up who we had filed liens against.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

ScottK1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 32

Posted:

The funny thing is about six years ago, the members were told by the board that they were raising the dues to pay for a management to do the collection. Two years ago the board at that time signed a contract with a new MC with a cheaper rate. A few months ago I asked for every piece of paper so I could scan it into a data base, included was the contract with the new MC. The contract said the MC was not responsible for any collection among some other things that were not a good business decision for the HOA. When I asked my fellow board members about the poor decision, not one person on the board had even seen any contract or any paperwork for the HOA. Some of the members now where on the board when the new contract was signed but never read it.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Scott

I do advocate working with and being considerate with late dues payers even beyond where I persoanlly might go, but there does come a time when one cannot get blood from a stone and/or they are a deadbeat.

Once that point has been reached I say, Katie bar the door. We are going to have a donnybrook here and all is fair. Call in the lawyers, public shaming, name naming, accusations, call in Mario from Cleveland, etc.

In SC, it is not illegal to name names.

ScottK1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 32

Posted:

I sent a very nice letter to the ones behind saying every member has to pay their fair share and if they didn't pay withing 30 days I would be filing a lien and notifying their lenders that they are in default of their agreement to pay the HOA fees and they would be responsible for and and all cost involved. All but the two in foreclosure paid in full. I even had one pay their 2013 dues early.

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