FORCLOSURE NOTICE

I NEED HELP AS TO IF A HOA WITH SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED HOMES, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A HOME ABOUT TO BE FORCLOSED ON? I BELIEVE THIS IS NONE OF THE BOARDS BUSINESS AS WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MORTGAGAE. ALSO THI SWAS VERY EMBARASSING TO THE HOMEOWNWER. IS THIS A PRIVACY THING? THANK YOU , LOVE THIS WEB SITE, [email protected]

Sandra:

Here is my experience with that...We got served a court summons from the bank in a foreclosure case seeking to terminate any rights we had to collect past owed dues. Our option was to respond to the summons which would have costed us a lawyer or eat our losses. Since our dues are minimal is it severly cheaper for us to eat the dues than to hire a lawyer to fight it.

Beyond that as Roger said you may have property maintenance issues, but the board should not be involved otherwise. I consulted the board on whether to proceed with the summons but never mentioned the name or address of the home and have tried to respect their privacy.

Sandra, why did you have to contact a lawyer? Or do you mean to say the Board decided to employ an attorney?

I am confused a bit about the situation. Who's doing the foreclosing? Is it the bank or the HOA? If it is the bank (which I assume) then the bank most likely wouldn't notify the HOA unless they are trying to find out how much the person owes in HOA dues. The bank most likely won't pay them off, they just need to know to process the paperwork most likely. Especially if this is a bankruptsy type of case.

I am assuming this is a bank foreclosure and NOT an HOA one based on the fact that you stated the person did NOT owe any HOA dues/assessments. The HOA can ONLY foreclose on a house for unpaid assessments/dues. A HOA foreclosure is slightly different than a bank foreclosure. The difference is the HOA pays for it and the bank is the FIRST to recieve any funds from the foreclosure no matter what if money is owed. The HOA ONLY gets what is leftover from what is owed the bank if any. Basically, a HOA can do the bank's work for them and get stuck with the bill if they don't do things correctly.

Liens and Foreclosures are published in the newspaper in the LEGALS section of the classifieds. It's a good idea to keep an eye on this when published. It's been my experience that a bank/mortgage company isn't going to inform a HOA they are foreclosing on anyone in the neighborhood. They don't have to since it's considered "Open to the public" by it being posted in a newspaper. (Go figure!).

A foreclosure stops pretty easily no matter who does it. All that has to be done is to pay the debt that is owed. A owner can do that up to the minute the house goes up for public auction. Our state allows an owner to regain the property up to a year after auction. However, they have to pay what they owed, any improvements the new owner did, and legal fees.

I am not sure what the HOA hired a lawyer for. You really need a lawyer when you go to court. Did you go to court? Was there other legalities involved? It was a good thing your HOA had a lawyer if you don't understand enough about the situation to know how to respond.