Member Claims HOA Dues Paid in Cash to Prior HOA Treasurer

I'd tell the member that unfortunately, without proof, the money is still owed.

As others have said, it's an issue of you say, they say.

You can only go by the proof available.

This is a not uncommon claim. I used to manage a self-storage for a management company. At another one of our stores there was a fair amount of turnover and each new manager was confronted by at least one delinquent tenant who claimed that they had paid their account in full in cash to the previous manager who was no longer there. Of course, they had no receipt as evidence of payment. I do not know for sure but I suspect that it was the same tenant in all cases. As others have said, if they cannot produce a receipt then treat it as unpaid.

As abrasive as she is and disliked by so many, I have asked myself, "what would Judge Judy say" when faced with a decision that could very well end up in court.

Stupid is as stupid does and it's completely stupid if a person who lives by cash only, does not get a receipt for their transactions. They get what they deserve in this case and that is they still owe.

Perhaps that's a policy needed, no cash payments allowed to protect the HO and the HOA. Money orders are available anywhere if they don't use a bank account.

In a civil court case, each party making a claim must present a preponderance of evidence to prevail. Your evidence is your records showing non-payment. The homeowner's evidence is nothing but their verbal claim that they paid in cash, a claim disputed by the former treasurer. Your evidence outweighs theirs.

Try this: In a month or so have someone else call the homeowner and tell them Denise is no longer treasurer and that the caller is trying to collect on behalf of the association. Odds are good that the homeowner will claim that they paid Denise in cash but did not get a receipt.

BTW, do your records show any cash received from this same homeowner before they went delinquent? If not, then why would they suddenly start paying cash?

Let them go file a lawsuit at the federal courthouse. Since civil cases get the lowest priority their case will be heard in 10 or 20 years from now.

BTW, I have heard of government offices that will not accept cash payments. The passport office in Phoenix used to not accept cash.

Arizona is self explanatory.

The office accepts legal tender now after the successful suit against the agency.

Not likely. More likely: order the defendant to show proof of an attempted payment and to show proof that they are prepared to pay now. Then order the HOA to show cause why they should not accept payment.

Under your theory, you could file a lawsuit against the governor in federal court and then claim immunity from speeding tickets until your federal case concludes. Let us know how that works out for you.

A HOA does not have to take cash payments. They are similar on how apartments are set up. Most apartment complexes don't take cash for rent. Most reputable ones not individually owned do not accept cash as a form of payment. Just like Chinese restaurants don't take checks...

BTW: The situation is such that the HOA can indeed still collect this missing money. However, since the person insists they paid cash to a certain individual any and all lawsuits they may have would be against THAT individual they handed the money to. The court would tell that to this person since there is no receipt and no record with the HOA, your lawsuit is NOT with the HOA but with the individual you handed the money to. Doesn't mean they won't sue the HOA out of confusion. However, the court most likely will take the HOA side and tell the person to go find the individual to prove their case. Even if they represented themselves as a Treasurer of the HOA at the time. Simply because part of their case they have against that person is that they represented themselves that way and hence why they trusted to give them money. A plus on the cash paying side's case.

DouglasK1 -- thank you!

MelissaP1 -- thank you.

as per the federal reserve itself http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm :



therefor:

a seller may refuse to make a sale for cash

but

a creditor may NOT refuse cash

IMO, irrelevant whether obligation is past due or not. Organizations can set up conditions for acceptance of cash - who takes it - when it can be tendered - etc.

In our case, anyone who wants to pay their dues in cash can do so. Our HOA is in PA. Our MC is in GA. Anyone who wants to go down to GA to pay their dues in cash and get a receipt can. But no one in PA is going to touch cash.

Wrong right back atcha.
In many circumstances, once the contract has been made, the debt has been created. Past due not the appropriate criteria. Obligation to pay is.

Also, origin of cash as legal tender had to do with getting us off of a precious metal standard - Gold or silver. The obligation to accept cash instead of precious metal is what they were driving at. When I was a kid, there were still Silver Certificates around. You could redeem a Silver Certificate for actual silver. Today our currency is all Federal Reserve Notes - which means that our paper currency is no longer backed by precious metals.

So while you may want to find your own meaning in the statute, that's not what it was ever about. It was about instituting a paper currency.

as for 'interpretation'

from the actual Federal Reserve:

"This statute means that all United States money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. ..."

OK

It would be interesting to see what a court of law would say if 'paper' were tendered and refused by an HOA.

Would the court grant the foreclosure ? Or force the acceptance of the 'paper' ?

Wait, the HOA wants paper after all ... in the form of a draft AGAINST 'paper' held by a third party !

Oh, what a tangled web we weave .......

Jabberwocky makes more sense .......

Need .... more .... mushrooms ....

( Melissa : "A HOA does not have to take cash payments. They are similar on how apartments are set up. Most apartment complexes don't take cash for rent. Most reputable ones not individually owned do not accept cash as a form of payment. Just like Chinese restaurants don't take checks... " )

Competently prepared leases that fail to expressly disqualify/invalidate cash payment, are an open invitation to violent onsite robbery & bogus claims including after a D.I.Y. smallscale landlord dies or otherwise is removed. (So also to related claims that "I paid it to the onsite superintendent", but try telling that to cheapskate small-scale landlords who may rely on over-the-counter leases. )

Looking wider, if your jurisdiction tolerates the Indoor Management Rule (or variants) to be allowed applicable to condos or HOAs, watch out for similarly bogus (contract) claims in the absence of adequate documented exclusion.

Current day example:

Before Greece became a member of the the European Union, the paper currency was in Drachmas. Now it's in Euros.

Drachmas were legal tender before. Euros are legal tender today.

If I tried to pay someone 100 Drachmas by check today, they could refuse it.

If I tried to pay someone 100 Euros by check today, they would have to accept it.

Euros, whether in the form of printed money or checks, are Greece's government sponsored currency today. You can refuse to accept cash, but you can't refuse to accept payment in Euros.