enforcement of rules

Well it takes money to make money. In your case, your HOA sounds like it's too broke to pursue collections. Which depends on how they are trying to collect. You don't do it by lawsuits. You do it by filing a lien. Which costs vary around $500. It depends on many variables as it may or may not take a lawyer to file. What your court charges for filing fees. Sometimes just a legal service will do it for you without needing a full time lawyer.

A lien is a much stronger collection instrument than a lawsuit. You can not lift a lien till the debt is owed. That debt does include all back dues, interest (Legal applicable), late fees, and filings costs of the lien. You can negotiate with an owner willing to pay by dismissing the interest/late fees if needed to work with someone. Just to give some "wiggle room" for collecting anything.

A lien doesn't allow someone to sell their home without paying the money they owe. A lawsuit doesn't hold that much "teeth". An owner can simply walk away without paying a dime even if the HOA wins. A lien also will lead to a Foreclosure. Which is the very last step one should take. Even that is not that expensive. Ours cost us around $800. Your HOA never ever wants to own the home when it goes up for bid..

I would do the research on how much it costs to file a lien for unpaid dues. I would also institute a policy of when a lien gets placed. Our HOA we filed a lien at 6 months behind. 1 year behind we considered foreclosure. You can't foreclose on an active duty member so considering foreclosure has many factors to figure in. It doesn't work for every situation. Especially if the bank is already foreclosing.

Your HOA is ONLY funded by it's members for it's members. So keep that in mind when such expenses come up. It might be that there isn't enough money to cover any of these costs to pursue everyone behind. Your to get the money back as part of the lien process. It's just the up front money can indeed cause a hardship.

Excellent question and one you should pose to your Board.

How expensive collection efforts are will depend on language within your governing documents and applicable laws.
Do they allow the Association to apply late charges?
Do they allow the Association to assess the costs of collection?
Does the Association have the option of nonjudicial foreclosure?
Are the members in the military (as this can effect collection efforts)?

If not, it can become expensive.

However, at the very least, the Association should record the lien on the property. This will make sure that the Association is paid if the property is sold or refinanced.

For a real life example, last year we spent over $2,000 to collect on one account.
We did not recover all of that money and, in fact, had a net loss of $250 for the effort.

If your assessments are low, having a net loss of $250 to collect $100 can become expensive.

Keep in mind, you can always vote this board out and vote in those who will take the steps to enforce collections.
One very public foreclosure action may be all it needs to get everyone to actually pay their bill on time.

Everyone made great points, but the best tip is GET RID OF THIS BOARD! They are only making things worse, and like you, one has to wonder why they should scramble to pay assessments when others seem to skate by - and still get benefits! You may need to be one of the people who steps to the plate and take control, but you'll need the support of your neighbors to do it (and a few of them will also have to step up).

Start going to the meetings and demand more details - how much debt is owed, how many owners are involved (you don't need the names) and what has the board done, if anything, to try and collect? Do you have a collection policy? If so, when was the last time it was reviewed to see what needs to be changed to give it more teeth?

Most importantly, everyone needs to understand what can happen if everyone doesn't pay their fair share, so start spreading the news. Once you and your neighbors take control of the board, take a good look at the delinquencies and then talk to your association attorney on how to deal with it. Review the collection policy and then send everyone a letter announcing that RIGHT NOW collection efforts will start and failure to pay will have consequences, starting with losing the right to vote in association elections (check your documents) up to and including foreclosure. Foreclosure is the nuclear option and shouldn't be taken lightly, so you may want to look around on this board for the pros and cons, then work with your attorney on determining if and when you may have to do this (for example, you wouldn't want to do your own foreclosure if the mortgage company has already started its own).

War stories on the consequences on not paying assessments are also good to share. I don't know if it's still on the web, but about 5 years or go, there was an Indianapolis community (don't remember the name) that nearly got their water cut off for lack of payments. The community had a shared meter so the association paid the water bill. Unfortunately, nearly half the community was delinquent and one day everyone came home from work and found disconnect notices from the water company on their door. As you can imagine, all hell broke loose and the board finally came to its senses and scrambled to pay.

In the end, however, the homeowners had to pay a special assessment - I think it came down to about $500 per unit. Can you imagine, you've been paying your assessments faithfully only to cough up extra money because other people didn't pay - and STILL got to use water??? Having a shared meter really doesn't help matters either, but that's how the developer set up the community and is another issue for another day. In the meantime, do a search - if you find that story, hare that with your neighbors and tell them this is a taste of what will happen if you don't address this debt right now.

The regulars on this board know what I'm about to say next - if you need to get a handle on how to address delinquent fees, you might consider visiting the community association institute website and check out some of their education materials on the subject. There is a Central Indiana chapter that has local seminars from time to time, and I attended their sessions on collecting delinquent assessments when I was on the board.

we live in a mobile home development park, but lots are sold with the mobile home about 500 members, we actually have a good amount budget, I printed out Indiana regarding non profits and states the rights and responsibilities and a page on Fidicuary responsibilities shared it with the board at a meeting only between me and them it was getting ugly and too heated so I left,

a few month ago became a member of the board, so I researched the laws so I could do my right, turns out they were breaking just about all Indiana laws regarding non profit, I met with them with the hope of coming up with some kind of action plan to get us on tract, they don't do anything to encourage the community to get involved but gripe all the time because they are all doing themselves, I offered to write any letters and a quarterly newsletter, but they want to approve anything I write before sharing it with the community, after I reported them to the attorney general's office,we will see what happens