Publish Overdue Annual Fees Owners Names

Can a HOA publish in their newsletter the names and addresses of the HOA members who have not paid their annual dues?

Bruce,

This topic has been discussed many many many times.

Basically there is agreement that the Board does have discretion to decide if they want to publish the names or not.

There is disagreement if such publication is actually helpful in obtaining compliance with paying assessments.

I agree with circumstances being an issue but unless you can talk with the owner or have some kind of communication with them, then that becomes a mute point. We have sent letters (return receipt requested and getting no response, I have actually gone down and rang their doorbell (knowing full well that they were at home), and left letters taped to the door and under the windshield wiper of their car. This was to no avail.
Before I turn this over to our lawyer I wanted everyone to know what actions we had taken to get them to pay their dues (they are now 3 years behind) and what steps we are/have taken to get them to pay.
I do not relish the idea of putting a lien on their home, but if everyone else is willing to pay up then they should as well. I also told them in each letter as well as the annual dues notice that if someone cannot pay (the dues are only $90.00 per year) then come talk to us and we will set up a payment plan.
However they have not do anything to respond. Hence the question of putting their name and address in the newsletter.

I am open to suggestions. What methods are you using that gets the owner to pay?

We have a similar policy, but it has been over three years. I am not being 'willy nilly' about this at all. I am hoping it will cause the home owner to talk with us so we find out why and what is going on. I want to be able to say we did all we could before we go the lien route. If we go that route there will be no remorse on anyone's part and we will foreclose and take the home. We will then sell it to whomever wants it at a really cheap price. This is Florida and I have seen some really crazy things happen when this process starts. I just wanted to find out if anyone has done it and were there any results that came out of it (good or bad).
A long item ago we figured out that since we cannot put a lien on property when fines are imposed for non compliance of items outside of the annual dues we could go the route of county enforcement. It has worked wonders and has not cost a fortune. However this does not affect annual dues. There we must go hire a lawyer, go through the court process and hope for the best. In my experience no lawyer wants it to end quickly otherwise they lose money. In the end everyone loses (except of course the lawyers). So we tried to use every legal method before we go that route. We are not Condo-commandos and do not want to be.
I hope this clarifies our question.
Also not this is no reflection on your answering my question. I was hoping that someone had used other methods than the lien process and that were successful.

I once did tax returns for a person who hadn't filed or paid income taxes in over six years. And you're worried about someone who hasn't paid their HOA fees in over three years?

I'm not making light of your situation. I'm only pointing out that, unfortunately, there are people in this world who are delinquent on even more serious issues with even greater possible penalties but they continue that behavior year after year.

If they are 3 years late, I doubt publishing their name would help. You need to get much tougher than that. Immediately.

A firm collection policy that is followed. Ours is:

30 days - written letter

60 days - written letter

90 days - written letter sent via certified mail

120 days - written letter & notice of agenda item on the issue (inviting the member to attend).
after Board meeting - notice of results (intent to lien, intent to accelerate payments, etc.) sent via certified mail and first class mail. This letter typically gives them one last opportunity to bring the account current. Notice is given that if not brought current by mm/dd/yyyy the issue will be turned over to the attorney for escalated collection efforts. The letter also reminds them that any legal charges or additional costs of collection will be their responsibility.

after mm/dd/yyyy in letter - issue is turned over to the attorney. (Since my tenure and since these procedures have been instituted, we have never had to take this step)

Note: There are individuals that will make the Association jump through all the hoops all the time (my Association has two of them). Typically, once they realize that you mean business, those type of individuals will step up an pay. Then the process starts all over again.

You may want to institute that as part of the Treasurers report to the Board. I've attached our last Treasurers report as an example.

It may also be a good idea to make sure that the bank statements have been reconciled (not because of possible wrong doing but for potential data entry/math errors).

Public shaming will accomplish nothing for the HOA. It will mean very little to the homeowner who is delinquent. My question to the OP is this---if the owner hasn't paid their fees in the last 3 years, is the property in foreclosure?

I can't speak for all Florida HOAs, but in mine, there are 4 types of owners.
1. The owner pays their fees on time and in full.
2. The owner pays their fees but they are typically late (and always have a lame excuse like "I forgot...".)
3. The owner pays their fees on time and in full but they are not paying their mortgage. They are taking advantage of the backlog of foreclosures and spending YEARS living in the home without paying a mortgage.
4. The owner isn't paying their fees nor are they paying their mortgage. These are the owners that have given up and are too worn out to game the system. They might have already moved out and abandoned the property.

For one, you clearly need a uniform collection policy if you are looking at owners who haven't paid for 3 years. That policy (as others have described) should be a systematic way to collect or attempt to collect on an account.

And since we are discussing psychological warfare against delinquent homeowners, there is also going to be a psychological effect on all owners. For example, if my HOA Board were to publish a list of delinquent owners and it included owners that were THREE YEARS behind, my first thought is going to be that maybe the people on my Board are incompetent with debt collection. Maybe those people shouldn't be on the Board. Maybe I won't be mad at neighbor X for not paying, maybe I might start wondering why any of us should pay. Or maybe I do get angry with neighbor X and now we have some hostilities between us when before, I didn't know and we were living peaceably together in the 'hood. At the end of they day, you have more opportunities for it to backfire against you and the Board than the likelihood that the delinquent owners will be "shamed" into paying up.

Handle it with a logical collection policy, handle it legally, but keep the drama out of it.

Something else to note: After 3 years of doing nothing about this person, the only people who will be shamed are the people on the board of directors, officers. They obviously have not been doing their duty as elected officials for many, many years. Shame on them.

30 days - letter and phone call, no late fee if paid within 72 hrs

60 days - certified letter, monthly late fees begin (retroactive)

90 days - demand letter from attorney + bill for attorney + late fees

120 days - lien actually recorded by attorney + attorney bills + late fees

180 days - notice of intent to foreclose from attorney + attorney bills + late fees +
"waiver of late fees ONLY" if paid in 72 hours

210 days - foreclosure, the bleeding ends

Every 'unit' - Every time

We have never needed to proceed beyond 180 days as the membership has CONSISTENTLY been informed of the process at each monthly 'open BOD' session.

Roger,
Thanks for the document. I will review along with the rest of the board. See what have already and what we can use.
Again thanks for taking the time to help us.
Bruce...

BTW may I mention that the process of Lien or Foreclosure, the names and address is published in the newspaper. If you look at the "Legals section" in your local paper's classified section, you will see who has a lien or foreclosures. It is PUBLIC knowledge at that point. Each paper is different on their publishing of this information so it is NOT daily. However, as part of the foreclosure process it is required to be run for a period of time up to around 3 months in the paper. It is part of the expenses your billed for.

So it's not really keeping this information "private" once it is filed. Public notice is part of the process once filed. This is how I kept up with the bank foreclosures in my HOA. The banks also publish when they are foreclosing. It is very useful information and factors in if you have to decide to foreclose or not. If the bank is already doing it, then make sure the lien is still in place. Plus it helps to find someone to buy the home at auction as that information is public knowledge too.

So you were scouring the newspaper looking for homeowners in your community to see who was being foreclosed on? You really had too much time on your hands.

I think Bruce was asking about overdue fees, not liens, foreclosures, etc. The discussion seems to have strayed.

Yes it could happen/be done, but at best, your post is an over simplification.

Seems to me I have recently read that some of the first lien holders (typically on the mortgage) are going after "anyone/associations" (minority lien holders) that collected income/rent claiming they (the first lien holder) are entitled to such.

Does anyone know of such?

Thanks

I have heard of such from an attorney. However, I don't know if this situation has yet occurred in my neighborhood with those homes.