Does a POA have the right to vote to waive interest and fees on passed due assessments?

Do the officers of a POA have the right to bring to vote to waive interest and fees on passed due assessments for one or more specific property owners?

I am a past president and have attempted to collect assessments due and sent passed due notices for the last 8 years. Now the new president wants everyone to be friends and has brought t vote the waiver of such interest and fees.

Yes they can if it encourages the person to pay their back dues. We often offered this as an option to those who want to avoid a lien. If we placed a lien, then we would charge the interest, late fees, and legal costs of filing the lien. It was part of the negotiation process for those who wanted to avoid liens/foreclosures. Better to get some money than none at all. Plus it saved us paying a lawyer to file the lien.

So how do they handle collection of interest as they move forward? Did they set a precedence? How do they not discriminate?

Amnesty programs can be effective. For example, send out a notice saying that the HOA will waive up to $XX in late fees and interest for anyone who brings their account current by a certain date.

To answer your questions:
- Time limited offer. Has no effect moving forward.
- One time offer. No obligation to do make a similar offer in the future.
- No discrimination. Everyone who wants to avoid fees can play.

That could become a situation where people anticipating a rough patch decide in advance not to pay for a number of months, secure in the knowledge that interest and fees will go away when it's time to pay up.

What about dings on someone's credit record? Can HOAs file those non-payment events or are only banks and other creditors allowed to do that?

Keep in mind the HOA has no need for anyones social security number. Which is one of those things required to ding a credit score. Although a filed lien should show up but not guaranteed. If one is renting a property, then that owner may have the social security number for a background check. However, the HOA has no requirement for it to be provided. No owner or member should ever give out their social security number to their HOA. Liens or foreclosures are based on the property address itself. It is similar to if someone skips a car payment. The car lien can be collected or the car.

Geno

We discussed credit bureau reporting and our lawyer said if we turned something over to him for collection he could do it but that the threat of such from a law firm went a long way in collecting and he has been right. Two of our largest delinquent accounts settled. We have only had one person that thumbed their nose at it as they were in bankruptcy and did not care.

Forgive me for not making this easy. I can't figure out how to quote part of someone else's post, so my replies make more sense. I see the button, but it is not doing what I want .

I want to large attorney fee was paid individually not by the association. A story for another time.

I need to point out that the collection of the actual fees and forgiving of interest is a mute point. Already done by new board and vote. These folks had the resources to pay. I am afraid to go into too many specifics here, but they were trying to get out of the association, not be responsible for dues, and much more. They eventually got them selves in a corner and accepted vote results.

I had previously taken the new Pres to the carpet for reducing actual assessment another property owner owed. I advised they had no authority to do so. I had previously tried to create payment plan, but at the time they did not accept it.

I just want to know where we stand for the small amount of collection fee. While small, it is 1/4 of a year's assessment. Can it be waived? It wasn't done, so is that just an open issue or they still owe it because assoc can't void that? If I understand Sheila correctly Assoc can't void $ taken out of association dues to collect assessment. But it appears Tim indicates the board can do so.

Hope this makes sense.

PS
Guys, I only have desktop, no smartphone. Going to seminar this evening, all day tomorrow and Sun AM and have memorial service in Eve.

So forgive me if my posts are not immediate.

Appreciate all your input.

Editing a post once posted is not an option on this forum.

Many, including myself, would like that option and suggested it, but it doesn't appear that it will ever happen.

It's going to depend on your Associations collection policy (if you have one).

The reason you can't waive actual assessments is that the CC&Rs typically specify that operating costs are divided amongst the members. Waiving someone's assessment would (in my opinion) violate that covenant.

The reason you can waive charges is that those only apply to the individual lot (not a shared cost).

Our collection policy says specifies that he Board may waive charges but that any legal fees shall not be waived.