Owners family living without paying dues

We have a family in our HOA that are always behind on their dues. He is moving out of state and she will be going shortly. We only allow two rentals in our small association and they are filled at present. The owners have told us that her sister will be living in the house, house sitting. She is a single mother whose husband has just left her. Our CC&R's allow family to live in their home, but do we have any recourse to make them pay the arrears dues, and to insist that the dues stay current? Especially with another family is living there and we are paying for their water, insurance, cable, and landscaping. How should we look at handling this?

Do you have a collection policy? If so, use it. In fact, you should have been cracking the whip long before this - the payment of dues is a separate issue from who's living in the house.

If your documents allow you to suspend coverage of certain items until the account is brought current, you should do that also (although you probably won't be ale to cut off the water because that would make the house inhabitable, so most utility companies won't do it). If you live in a townhouse community, it's not a good idea to shut off the landscaping or insurance because no upkeep could harm the neighbors' property values and you'll get in trouble with local authorities if there are rules about things like overgrown grass. No insurance would also put the association at huge risk for financial disaster if the house becomes damaged. That would leave the cable TV - if there's a way you can shut that off, do it.

Regarding the sister, if you can prove she's actually renting the house, you may wish to talk to your association attorney about taking legal action to garnish the rent. So, send the account to the association attorney and have at it. Good luck!

Sherell,

I don't understand why you are trying to get assessments from anyone other than the owner of the property.

I wouldn't care who is living in the house. The owner is responsible for paying assessments. If the owner doesn't pay the assessments, then follow your collection policy, lien and either seek a judgement or simply foreclose on the lien (your attorney would be able to advise you which is best).

Thanks for all your advice. We have turned off the cable and just hope we can get the arrears paid before they book out to Wisconsin. Am actively working on that. You have confirmed just what I thought. thank you again for your input.

You may not be allowed to shut off the cable. It sounds kind of crazy but until you enforce the back dues process, they get to keep everything the dues covers. Oherwise they can demand prorated dues for when they pay back.

You have to establish a set line of when dues are considered late. We lien at 6 months and consider foreclosure at a year. Otherwise it comes across as selective enforcement.

You have to go after the owner NOT the tenant for back dues. Your HOAs rental limit while good intentioned may not stand in court as well. That is a topic I would suggest looking at previous posts about as it is posted often.

First step is to establish a late rule, then notify owner of potential lien, then file the lien. Lien covers back dues, late fees, interest listed in documents or state laws, and legal costs of filing/notifications.

We are not trying to collect from the sister. We are in the process of collecting from the owner. Our concern is when they are moved out of state that will be much more difficult to do. We will put a lien against the place when the time comes. You have all been very helpful in confirming what steps to take legally. Thank you.

If you know their new address, you could talk to your attorney about getting a judgment against them and then domesticating it in that state. Our attorney told me about it once, and I recall him saying it allows the association to purse them in that state. The problem is it's very expensive, you have to find an attorney willing to do it, the rules vary from state to state - and there's still no guarantee you'd get anything.

So, you may have to file a lien and foreclose if that doesn't wake them up. I fear that if they're already moving out of state, they may not even care if that happens....