delq assessments

You posted this three times, so I'll use this one to respond.

As always, you need to read your documents to see what happens when people don't pay assessments - as a practical matter, if the homeowner isn't paying his/her fair share for those services, access to them should be suspended until the account is brought current. Hopefully, your board has developed a collection policy that's been distributed to the owners so they'll know what will happen.

Now, as far as privacy laws go, I don't see where that's an issue. There have been debates all over this website on whether other homeowners have a right to know who is or isn't paying assessments. Some say yes because all the homeowners own the common elements of the association and therefore should know who's not meeting their legal obligations.

Personally, I say no because disclosure could violate federal credit reporting and collection laws - and there's been debate over whether those laws apply to homeowner associations because they aren't third party collection agencies. However, recent discussion suggest otherwise - you may have to do some more research on this site or around the Web for more information. As a practical matter, I'd be worried about libel or slander if someone's reported as being delinquent when the information is incomplete or downright inaccurate.

That said, I do believe homeowners have a right to know the total numbers - how many are delinquent, how many days delinquent (e.g. over 60 days), how many have been referred to the association attorney for collection and how much is owed. If you want to drill down further, I suppose you could add the total number of liens that have been obtained, how many have been released, how many association foreclosures are pending, etc.

Providing this information doesn't violate anyone's right to privacy. Some information is public, so if you want details on liens, you could go to whatever state or local agency maintains that information and look up the information yourself.

Some docs allow for suspending privileges when the owner is delinquent. Our collections policy calls for this when the account is turned over the attorney for collections. At that point, a lien if filed and that is public record. They suspend parking and pool priviliges as long as the parking spaces are assigned common area spaces and not deeded spaces.

It appears that you have answered your own question on can this happen: "our C&R docs say we can withhold services if the homeowner is given proper notice"

There have been many threads on here about simply posting names or lot numbers of delinquent accounts. The decision is split on if a Board should or should not do this. However, most agree that the Board could do that if they wanted to. We become more divided on the issue of the benefit in publishing the names.


May I ask what services you are talking about?

If it's water, check your county/city statutes and/or your Association attorney. There may be a legal requirement that you can't stop the water supply completely for medical reasons. However, you can slow the supply to just a trickle.

If it's access to amenities (pool, clubhouse, etc.) this is very common.

If it's services like mowing their front yard it depends on how the CC&Rs are written. If the front yard is common area, then the Association has a duty to properly maintain the common area. If the front yard is privately owned, then the Association is simply providing a service that can be stopped. However, this may be more of a negative impact to the visual harmony of the neighborhood then actually persuade the member to pay.

So if you can share what services you are talking about, it could be helpful.

Also, if you're willing to share, are you asking this as a Board member or as a member of the community?