filing lien for non-payment of dues

need help in finding forms in Florida, as a self managed HOA we have a property behind 6mo in dues and sadly the resident is now deceased. need to file at court house a lein and they have been helpful with where but say I
have to have the paperwork filled out and I can only find lien documents for Contractors. any help with locating these forms would be appreciated. we do not have a lawyer. our Hoa is 42 units thank you

roger thank you for the information much appreciated BJ

You may need an attorney to file the lien. I live in alabama and it costs about $300 to file a lien. I believe we used an attorney. However, the attorney was a "friend" of our bookkeeper so I am not sure if we needed the lawyer to file or it was a "kickback" to the friend. We just called their office and told them to lien the home.
Be aware that most courthouses don't like dealing with the "public". The clerks can't give out legal information and often don't like being asked. So the documents may be available to the public to fill out but don't expect to freely gather that information. They'd rather deal with the legal eagles.
The deceases house may be going into Probate court soon. I believe it can take about 6 months to go through the process. Many people may feel putting a lien on a deceased person's house is "poor taste" but it's money out the HOA's pocket. We had 2 residents who died that owed dues within 2 weeks of eachother. One in a car-accident and the other waiting on a heart transplant. The car-accident victim was behind only a few months. The existing board "forgave" one month of the dues for the month of the death. (BIG MISTAKE!!!) However, the family sold the home that month. (Houses sell in our neighborhood within hours or a week). The family sold the home at a good profit. Meaning they weren't hurting to spend out the $300 owed the HOA. The transplant patient house did go into probate court. He owed about $400 at the time of his death. (Dues were $50 a month!). However, a lien was NEVER filed on either home. So the HOA NEVER got one dime of the money.
That meant that the HOA was out about $800 ($300 + $400 + $100 forgave dues). With a small budget we have, that is a significant amount of money. We have 107 homes $50 a month and $5,000 of regular monthly bills to be paid with average of 5 non-payers. Didn't leave much money to place in reserves or pursue liens. So I understand completely why it may be important to your HOA to collect. You have to do what you have to do.

Thank you Brad that sounds like a great idea. Iwas told by the clerk a lawyer is not required and we don't want to burden the estate with their fees too. Our dues are 115 amo with 42 homes and 4500 amo bills. and we also always have at least two that get seriously behind and as soon as they get caught up two others fall behind. When I volunteered to help as treasurer we only had 6000 total onhand and 4500 in arears, now we have 28000 on hand and only 700 in constant arears. But still have HO complaints daily , as though we are a paid corporation to do their bidding. My husband tells me to stop helping as it is a thankless task. But I also want to make sure our home investment is protected. I guess one gets a sense of pride (if not salary) knowing they are doing good things. I appreciate eveyones suggestions, BJ

Hi BjW:

Have you sent a notice of the delinquent dues to the "estate?" - maybe a letter informing them that there is an HOA, that there are past-due assessments, an offer of a (short) time period to catch them up, or a lien will be filed? And an explanation that the lien filed will only be there to make sure that the HOA gets paid when the property is sold, that the HOA has no bad feelings toward the survivors of the deceased... and perhaps a nice expression of condolences. It could be that the survivors or the executor of the estate isn't aware of the HOA fees, or is totally overwhelmed... if they haven't been contacted since the death, a nice letter would be a great way to make a connection and possibly bring things up to date, especially if your HOA uses "coupon books" for payments.

Ultimately the HOA has to protect itself financially, but there can be a nice way to go about the process, if contact hasn't been made with the estate. If mail comes back (return to sender) then you might need to find out who the executor of the will/estate is. It could be someone out of state, particularly if the resident was retired from out of state.

Best of luck!

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA

i've been at this condo for a little over 2 years and have paid all my dues. now i am behind 2 months with the 3rd one coming up, and i was planning on catching up on monday ( today is thursday ) when my husband got paid. we've been a little tight lateley but the point is that i honestly was going to pay the 2 months and the one coming up. well, i think it's a bit unfair, that my hoa has hired an attorney to place a lien on my property. first, they should've sent me a warning letter or something, second, its only been 2 months not 6, and third, maybe they should've looked at my payment record to see my payment pattern. now the lawyer is adding $375 in legal fees. does anyone think i can fight this, since i never did get a warning letter???

Diana, that is unfortunate. In our Residents Association, we send two late notices. On the last one we break out for them the amount they will have to pay if we file a lien ($150 dues; $75 late penalty; $40 legal and filing fees).

If a resident has contacted us and has told us they are having some problems, we will ALWAYS work with them and hold off on a lien until we get a plan worked out. However, we let them know that if the plan is not followed, then we have no choice but to file the lien.

I hope you can work something out with them since they did not contact you with any notice prior to filing.

Good luck.

Diana:

I think it is crap that any HOA after only 60 days would hire an attorney to pursue a lien. Furthermore you should have received a letter offering you one last chance to pay within 30 days. If you did not get a notice, I think you can fight the attorney part. With that said, I do think you should have notified them of your situation. Being on the HOA side of it, when I see that people haven't paid I assume they are blowing us off, however, that may not be the case. But, we are not quick to jump the gun either.

Bottom line, I think $375 for an attorney after 60 days is excessive IMO.