HOA lien in California

My HOA apply my dues to another unit, I found out 5 months after, when I receive a Intent to Lien Letter, I show the attorney my Bks statements showing the deductions for every month,then time past by, and they didn't accept any payment of my HOA dues, unless I pay the full amount. So time past by again and they found out their mistake, they credit mi account for those 5 months, and now they want me to pay late fees for the months they didn't accept pymts, attorney fees, letter fees, and so on.
I don't think I'm entitled to pay any of those, everything was originated because the management made a mistake.
My question, can I sue them?

My question is why are you talking to a lawyer instead of your HOA? If the HOA made the mistake and you have proof, then show the HOA. Simple as that. Your the one wasting your money on a lawyer instead of going to your HOA to present your own case. Suing your HOA is suing yourself and your neighbors. So why not go directly to the source? Find out why another lot got the credit instead of yours? Did you write down the wrong Lot# on your checks? Correct the issue and stop running to a lawyer at every communication from the HOA. A HOA is designed to resolve it's issues internally before going to an outside source.

Yes, so far we have the Meet and Confer. few weeks a go, they said I will have an answer by two days, but, already past 3 weeks and nothing. I request to inspect the Financial Records as well, because in the meeting it sounds fishy to my how the management handles the accounts.
By the David Starling law that is apply in CA, there is a several steps the judge will ask to comply before trial.
I research and there is no lawyer that will take this case in a contingency basis, so very much if you don't have the resources you are screw by HOA, even when you demonstrate their are wrong.
I already spend several hundreds, and a lot of time. I heard homeowners don't entitled to gain any compensation from them, is that true?
Do you know any Institution who controls the HOA behavior in CA where I can complain?.

Because at the Meet and Confer. they brought out a miss payment from 2008 as well, and I show them the copy of the cashed check for that month, they didn't have that in their records, they got surprise even seeing the copy of the cashed check, It made my see all the inaccuracies from the management, that's why I request to inspect physically the financial records, and told the Boar of breaching their judiciary act, allowing all this to happen, and still backing up the management company.
What are exactly the punishment penalties, and how it maybe apply on this case, if I pursue to go a court.

Yes they lien my property, it was intent of lien at the beginning, but now the lien has been recorded. Everything is aggravating because they want me to pay all the fees and so on.
Even though I probe their mistake.

Something tells me that hiring a lawyer and suing is your only mindset you have. Even though therd sounds like other options. It also does not make sense that you just got a letter saying a lien was placed without prior notices. There has to be more to this story. Did they have a wrong address? Do you live in that unit and an owner? I do not know too many HOA's who would not have puf some prior effort of contact to collect funds owed.

Demanding the financial information is not bolding well for you. Focus on one issue at a time. I do not know what financials you are seeking. You may not have a right to see some of it or what exist in your minds does not exist. So neec to clarify that.

We on here tend to call a spade a spade be it a HOA member or the HOA itself. So expect advice to cover both sides of the issue. Seems more to this than presented.

I just re read your post. It seems they did clear up your lien but won't lift it until you pay off the additional charges. Those charges being the interest, late charges, and legal fees of filing. Which is where your true problem lies. It is not on any of the back dues for which they filed the lien originally on.

Your legal stance you can sue for would be if you did pay those costs. That is what the court could reward you is paying those incidentals when you should have never paid in the first place. So you case could be filed in small claims of which you could charge them the filing case fee and the money you are out with those additional costs to lift the lien. It can't be for the back dues as those have been repaired.

The court can only make you whole and this is what they would view as your "damages". However, to have damages you must pay them first. So you may just want to tell your HOA your plans on filing your suit based on those expenses or lift the lien.

If I pay those fines, in part it will be consider as an agreement, and I'm afraid that's is how the court will see it.

Pedro, It is the board's job to make sure the management company (MC) is doing the right thing. So your board and the MC are both wrong, but that doens't help you.

Can you personally send a registered letter to each director and to the management company asking that the lien be removed? Or, as Glen suggests, have an attorney send it on his stationary with his company name on the paper and envelope. It shouldn't cost too much

Can you attend a board meeting and ask the board, in front of other homeowners, why they placed a lien on your property when they made the mistake?

Jeanne and Glen both gave you good ideas.

Do anybody know what are the statues of limitation for a homeowner to inspect the financial records of an HOA in Ca, and time frame in what the HOA have to respond to you writing request?.

Looks like I have to stand for my homeowner rights. Not matter what.

Thank you guys, I was blind and almost hopeless, but now I think a saw the bright light I have a better understanding of how it work, and what to do.
I will take them to small courts and complain to the state board, to start, them I will try to be in the BOD, to prevent this to happen again.

Thank you again.

Sue happy people should not give advice...It's skewed in only one direction...theirs...

I certainly agreed with FredO, but the question here is the money.
If I sue the HOA and MC, most likely I only going get it fix right, and in this case, made them pay my attorney fees. The only people who is getting reward are the attorneys, I did some research, and talk with some lawyers. No Lawyer is going to take this case in a contingency basis, because it is not to much money involve.

Don't know what to do, but for sure report them to the state for falsification of statements. Pay all what they said and take them to small court.

Sounds like the pot is calling the kettle black....

Sure, your advice is not skewed in the direction of your choosing.....

Maybe you should go back and really, completely read the OP and all the OP's posts in the thread. It sounds to me like the guy did everything he should have. He diligently paid his dues. Looks like it was auto payments from his bank and since the MC did something other than what they were entrusted to do with his payment funds,a problem was created. There could be any number of explanations that are plausible. But one thing is clear, he made his payments, he has the bank statements to prove that the money was given to the MC.

What happened after the MC got the money is anyone's guess. However, neither the HOA board or the MC have done the stand up thing and corrected the situation with a very sincere apology or even taken responsibility for the mis-applied funds. The OP brought this to their attention, brought them proof (his bank statements) and they still refused to fix or even address the situation.

Seems to me that the OP has gotten to the end of the rope and has no other choice at this point but to either roll over and take it and pay extra and fees & interest or take them to court. What would you suggest now? Looks like he did all the standard things.

You want to advise everyone from suing their HOA. Yet, I have yet to read where you pile it on the many boards and explain or emphasize to these unpaid volunteers that their negligent actions can have serious consequences to innocent owners reputations in the HOA community and through negative info on their credit report (which has untold financial repercussions because derog info stays on the report for years.) So, what do you propose as the fix for this guy??? Is the HOA going to waive any fines or fees & interest? Is the HOA going to make the MC pay for this error on their part? Has the MC offered to pay the fees and fines, suggest the HOA policy get fixed and make sure that the guys credit report is cleaned up and fixed....? I don't think so. And no one here is holding their breadth waiting for them to do the right thing. If ever a situation cried out for courtroom justice, this is the one.

So, is he NOT entitled to be made whole? What about the mental anguish for being subjected to this crap?

Standing up for your rights is NOT playing the victim. Nor is it being a bully too as you claim. It is straight up standing for your rights when you have been wronged by either malicious intent or pure dumbass negligence by unpaid supposed volunteers. What the HOA and MC are doing to the OP is neither moral or ethical.

Is the MC certified? Are they a professional MC or rank amateurs?

For those of you on this forum who are dead set against any owner ever suing their HOA, how about you set up a paypal account and donate money to pay all the fee's, fines and interest his wonderful HOA and MC are lumping on him even though this was not of his doing? You can all avoid hearing about an HOA getting sued. You can help someone who has been wronged to be made whole. If you all donated one or two dollars, the victim can just pay the fees and life goes on and your HOA board buddies in his HOA can go and focus on their next victim without ever having to be held accountable for their abusive behavior......

Having gone back and reread Pedro's post I'm of the opinion that we don't know everything.

Yes, it was worded to indicate that payments were made by automatic deduction or the banks bill pay system. However, all we know is that he showed deductions on his bank statements (which could have also been checks being deducted).

Pedro than goes on to say that some time passed (days, weeks months?) and the Association "didn't accept any payment" because it wasn't the full amount owed. Was he paying by check? Did the HOA stop automatic deductions? Did Pedro stop using the Banks bill pay system? How long was it before Pedro contacted the Association about the issue and how was contact made? The answer is, we simply don't know.

Per Pedro, more time passed (days, weeks, months?) and the Association found their mistake and corrected it. However, now they want to collect the late fees owed. Problem is, we don't know what the late fees were for. Were the late fees for the initial 5 months of payments or when the payments stopped for an unclear reason?

With these unknowns, I'm not sure if the fault is all on one side or partially to both sides. Therefore, I personally wouldn't advice taking them to court. However, I would advice that Pedro seeks out legal assistance so he has an advocate to assist dealing with the Association. It's amazing how sometimes a simple letter from an attorney can resolve an issue quicker than months of letters going back and forth.

Unfortunately, it appears that Pedro might not have the financial means to hire an attorney for a few hours of work and to write a letter.

From my perspective, the initial issue (posting 5 months of payments to the wrong account) was obviously the Associations. Specifically the MC and if I was on the Board I would insist that the MC corrects the issue at their expense.

Perhaps if Pedro found an advocate he could request a hearing before the Board (vs. going through the Association attorney and/or the MC) and the issue could resolved without the need for legal action. After all, the other unknown is does the Board have the full story or just one side of it.

Now if all that fails, yep, then the only other option would be through the courts.

TimB4 :

The late fees and dues accumulate because they didn't want to take my monthly dues, I send them twice and they mailed back to my with a letter saying to pay the full amount or nothing, they don't accept partial payments.

This is the true history, and in the meet and confer we already engage, the BO didn't know the full history, they most likely did what the MC told them to do. In my opinion, now that I been forced to do a lot of research on the law that govern HOA in CA, this is call break to their Fiduciary Duty, we elect them to care, maintain, preserve our interests, not the MC.

They vote to lien my property, base on what the MC told them. They didn't care to read all the statements that I already send, right after their initial Intent to Lien letter, as a probe of their mistake.

Laura:
I try Legal Aid as my first option, they don't have attorney that specializes in Real State law neither to deal to HOA in CA.
They refer me to a private lawyers. Which are expensive, 360+/h, their minimum 5 hrs.

Bottom line, if you don't have the resources, very much you are screw by HOA's, with two options, or pay what they said, or loss you property.

Laura,

I AM in Calif and the Davis-Stirling Act mandates that arbitration be done. It also mandates the meet & Confer which Pedro already had. If the unpaid, unprofessional volunteers who run the HOA have such rules and policies that they go straight to a lien without following what I am sure you all agree should be a little more neighborly approach of investigating the issue and trying to work with the homeowner.

It seems that none of these more rational approaches were considered or used. So, when you have a vicious and malicious MC and a not too knowledgeable BoD then you have a very hostile approach to treating your neighbors in the HOA. That is the root of the problem in trying to resolve this situation.

Yes, quite a few people responding on this thread had, indeed, recommended that he seek legal advice. It seems that the OP has done this and been told he has a solid case but it is NOT worth enough money for any lawyer to take the case.

I am only advocating he seek legal advice and sue (if he did not have a strong case, the lawyer would have said there is nothing you can do. That's a lot different from saying, sorry there just isn't enough money in it for me to earn a living taking your case... Big difference there!

Now, if the HOA and MC can't keep their finances straight and figure out these things in a rational way, then there is no way on this earth you can compel them to go to mediation first (as the D-S Act states). The down side in Calif and with the Davis-Stirling Act is that it has not teeth. It does not spell out any consequences for an HOA if they refuse to work on resolving a situation. They (The D-S law firm itself) say you have to take the HOA to court!????

So, you take them to court and the Judge issues them a court order that then compels them to go to mediation. Because a judge can put individual members of the BoD and/or the MC in jail for contempt of court.

In this case, the OP, Pedro, appears to have done most of the normal and prudent things to get the situation corrected. However, this was to no avail.

The HOA and/or the MC are completely in the wrong for not accepting his regular dues payments (this might even be illegal) and stating that you have to pay in full as it is an all or nothing situation. By refusing his payments on multiple occasions the HOA may have set themselves up for some serious trouble.

It smells rotten that they will refuse payments because they say you owe fees for payments that "they" mis-placed and then charge you interest and file a lien. It is just wrong and these un-paid volunteers are supposed to get a pass.... why ????