Can this be rectified almost a year later? TX COA

I was overcharged for damages. Our by laws say the owner must reimburse for expenses incurred. There is no room in that language to charge a penny more than what the HOA spent. During a mental health event (yay!) I did some damage. I know for a fact that what they charged me was not legal, what I am unclear on is whether I have a legal remedy almost a year later.

I was hoping the new BOD would see things differently, but I got a no from them as well. This is outrageous. If they can't be compassionate about the fines and late fees, I can accept that. But to be charged $80 for a few swipes of paint on my front door, that is not cool. A board member did it, so they only INCURRED an EXPENSE of pennies for paint.

They charged me $40 for unrolling part of a roll of doggy waste bags *rolly eyes*

$60 more than once for clean up of debris in the parking lot. The maintenance lady gets paid minimum wage. They didn't pay her anywhere near that.

I was never given the option to repair it myself. My maintenance guy would have done it for $20. The board member just came and painted it and charged me.

It is NOT as you say 'their choice' what to charge.

Did you read the OP? Our by laws say EXPENSES INCURRED. Money they paid out. So, that is pennies in paint for my door. Maybe $1 worth of dog waste bags.

Do you consider the time that everyone spent cleaning up your mess an expense? If not, why don't you? There is another option available to you. You could accept that you lost control of your emotions and accept the fine and move on to more important matters.

LOL George. I am an owner. I used to be on a committee. I used to post here about other matters. I have bipolar disorder. I hardly ever have an episode, I went 8 years w/o one, but when I do it's like the guy in 'A Beautiful Mind'.

For months I go around doing 'interesting' things like putting graffiti on my walls. On my front door. I was mad at the sign that says to leash your dog and pick up its waste. So I spray painted over the leash instructions part.

I took the end of a roll of doggy waste bags and just walked with it, thinking it was neat to create like a banner behind me. :-)

I threw stuff in the parking lot. Twice.

I GET that I caused damage that costs money and I owe it. I GET that they will not waive the punitive fines of $50 per occurrence due to medical condition, even if I do not LIKE it.

What I do *not* get is how they thought it was ok to charge more than actual damages when the by laws clearly state they have no power to do so. It says they may demand EXPENSES INCURRED.

It's profiting off of my misfortune. I even paid late fees for the time I was in the hospital and had no method of knowing I had anything accruing late fees. It's shitty. All I want is for them to retain actual expenses incurred and credit my account for the rest.

The door is not even properly painted. A board member barely covered the grafiti. I still can't see out my peephole (I had to spray paint that so people couldn't see in, yanno ;-) and for $80 the entire thing should be painted.

Also, they filed criminal charges against me. I mean, enough is enough, seriously.

I paid the fines, it's the damage amounts I object to. They got at least $200 in fines alone.

Also, your Condo is subject to TPC 82.102 (a)(12)-(21), (f), and (g). Fines have to be reasonable. You must be given a hearing. More.

Importantly, from TPC 82.102 (a) (12)'s reference to (d):
====Start excerpt===
(d) Before an association may charge the unit owner for property damage for which the unit owner is liable or levy a fine for violation of the declaration, bylaws, or rules, the association shall give to the unit owner a written notice that:

(1) describes the violation or property damage and states the amount of the proposed fine or damage charge;

(2) states that not later than the 30th day after the date of the notice, the unit owner may request a hearing before the board to contest the fine or damage charge; and

(3) allows the unit owner a reasonable time, by a specified date, to cure the violation and avoid the fine unless the unit owner was given notice and a reasonable opportunity to cure a similar violation within the preceding 12 months.
====end excerpt===

I believe any of the above not done is grounds for your contesting the fine in small claims court.

Nationwide the courts do expect condos to respect due process covenants, rules and regulations, and statutes for condos.

Almost a year later, though? That is what my problem is. I couldn't do this last year, the late fees kept piling, I paid it to make them stop.

I don't know what they sent or didn't. I was in and out of the hospital. I remember a notice of some sort, but not whether it gave me a chance to cure, or to notify me of my right to a hearing.

I would have to ask them to show me what they sent.

Thus far, the new BOD is refusing to communicate the same way the prior one did. A simple blanket 'no', ignoring the detail.

I replied (via email) that I have a right to the receipts/invoices and I want to see them. This has been ignored.

That I know for a fact I was never shown. Only charges they levied, written up by the CM.

I am willing to spend more than what I am owed if I have to, or at a minimum require them to pay the association's attorney more than what is owed to me if they continue to refuse to even credit me for over-charging. For the Principle. This is not how people should be treated.

Texas law and our by-laws do not have exemptions for being extraordinarily irritated with an HOA member.

Thank you for responding to my actual question!

Can I afford to let them steal this amount from me? Yes. Do I intend to? No. The maintenance lady is here now to paint my whole door properly. They REALLY want to keep that $80. I wanted to pay my guy, but at least if the door is done properly, that is something.

These people should be able to look at the charges and see that no, it didn't cost $40 for poop bas, that wasn't cool, enjoy a credit on next month's dues.

Instead I got a cut 'no'. Again. No communication that they would address the door. That might not have been decided on until my follow up email asking for receipts. Or maybe the one after that asking for the name and contact information of their attorney.

It's sad I have to be that way to motivate them.

Jen

What is the bottom line amount they say you owe or is it you paid and are no objecting to the cost?

The statute of limitations in Texas for breach of contract is four years and for torts is generally two years.

So if you want to take the HOA to small claims court, you may do so.

Dead end.

How much actual over charged again? I would pay someone $20 to do this. Plus a gallon of paint is about $30 even if did nottake a gallon. Plus paint supplies brushes another $10. So that is $60. Do yiu know how much a professional painter charges per hour? Technically the HOA should only be hiring licensed and insured vendors. Which some can charge 50 - 100 $ an hour. Thsy would not hire gour person unless already an employee. It is extra work. So they can pay extra.

You are so out of touch

You know the board member did this for "free"? Just because they VOLUNTEER to be on the board does NOT mean they work for "free" on doing work like this.

We had a board member who bid on jobs. We'd pay him around $50 per job. Volunteer on a board does NOT mean volunteer on doing a function.

I do not see where this is an excessive expenses.

BTW: What were the fines for?

Our board members are not allowed to accept compensation. It's against TX law.

The board member is not a contractor who bid on the job, lol. She did what anyone could do - painted over the graffitti. She did not repaint the entire door. Paining only over the graffiti is not sufficient, now there is that new pait mismatching with the old, some of the black from the spray paint can still be seen, she didn't get it off the peephole.

I know you don't see the excesive expense. Because you always make thinks up to justify your made up opinions on how HOAs are run even in your own state, much less other states you know nothing about, and never remember there are POAs and COAs and so forth governed by different laws.

You think every HOA in the US is just like yours, and you don't even know your very well based on your posting history. But you are quite entertaining, there is that.

What are the fines for? Again with the lack of reading comprehension. Spray paint the front door (community property) fine. Debris in the parking lot. $60 clean up, $50 fine. The maintenance lady was here today I asked her you swept that up, right? Yes. Did they pay you $60? She busted up laughing. She did it as part of her job at her usual very low rate of pay and it took under 30 minutes. A volunteer even helped her. We have a retired man that helps her all day for free because he likes to.

Jennifer

Board members in Texas may not accept compensation for the performance of their duties and responsibilities as a member of the Board.

A Board member may accept (and be paid or reimbursed) as follows:

1. Reimbursement of expenses incurred in the performance of their responsibilities, including mileage, meeting expenses, etc.
2. Reimbursement for out of pocket expenses, such as reproduction or the cost of a widget at Home Depot
3. Compensation for labor and other services provided to the Association under a contract. This situation must be managed very carefully to ensure competitive bidding takes place and everything is arms length.
4. Probably compensation for 'handy-man' type services such as applying paint to your front door.

If the Association was billed for the amounts which were charged to your account, your account was subsequently debited the the actual expenses billed to the Association. The amount charged to you is not what you think should have or could have been charged, it is the amount which was charged.

Jennifer, it's important to try to get along with people. And if other people are wrong, pick your battles carefully.

You've done a lot of things that would make enemies in any situation. If I were you, I'd start trying to get along with the HOA. Suing or haggling over a small amount of money like this will only inflame things and make a bad situation worse. I wouldn't do that if I were you; rather, I'd start behaving in a way that would start making friends. You'd come out ahead in the long run by doing that.

The only problem I see is that JenniferG11 waited a year. I tend to think this thread is maybe her wanting some validation on the original issue of the costs she was assessed. She has it from me. But on the main issue of this thread, to me waiting a year greatly diminishes the validity of her complaint.

JenniferG11, I advise letting this go but being ready for the next time an inappropriate amount is assessed to you. Then you should act promptly, because I think it's guaranteed other abuses are happening. Otherwise I agree generally with ChrisE8's points.

Well, I was waiting for a new board.

We have an entirely new board, so I doubt abuses are going on regularly. The pior board was absolutely horrible, had no regard for rules and laws, just did as they pleased.Thjey wouldn't allow us to come to meetings, as TX law demands, wouldn't let us see financials that some wanted to despite thousands spent on their attorney telling them they have to.

When I asked for receipts it was just the CM writing X amount for X event. No actual receipt or invoice. They thought it was fine to just make numbers up.

The new board has a chance to rectify this situation. If I owed them money from a year ago, I'd still owe it, right? Same in reverse. They owe me money, and it's more than $80. $60 clean up times two is for a minimum wage employee and a volunteer to seep up some stuff rom the parking lot. $40 for the dog bags, which was super petty to begin with. A small pane of glass I didn't break on purpose. A couple other things I'd have to go back and look at, and then the fines. All told, it's $600. I'm not letting that go. I'm not.

There are people who everyday are a pain in the ass to the HOA and take up their time bitching and complaining about everything under the sun, asking for things all the time. A current member of the board harassed so much she was barred from entering the office or contacting the CM or any board member. She wanted to oversee every time the HOA spent $50 for the past decade.

I am not the petty one here. I have lived here 15 years I never complain about anything, ask for anything, or bother anyone. I pay my dues and follow the rules. I had a medical crisis. To treat me this way over it is deplorable.

It's not 'going after' anyone to ask them to please rectify my account. A little bit of their time to go over the charges and see that yeah, this isn't right, this isn't legal, the HOA can only charge for expenses incurred.

One of them already knew. He's the husband of my friend who was really mad about it. He may not know it wasn't legal, but he knew I was excessively charged.

I already said that at the beginning I could not do anything mentally. I could not, literally could not, research to discover the charges were actually illegal. I thought oh, they can probably charge 'retail' and then do it however they want. And went back to bed. I still objected in writing, but I couldn't formulate a legal basis for it. Took me 5 minutes to go find that in the by-laws now that my brain works again.

I had just endured a months long trauma. I needed the late fees to stop. They took advantage of me in that way. I am pretty sure TX law requires that late fees not be levied on amounts under dispute, something I did mention in my emails, but they didn't care, never cared about laws.

So I was not JUST waiting for a new board. Given the combination of my physical and mental capability being at next to zero and a BOD who would only respond to a suit, I paid to make the late fees stop to take up another day. When I felt better. ABLE. And then the election came and I thought ok, a new board that will care about laws, cool. I can get my situation rectified.

Dead end.

Who is this "They"? Oh yeah it is YOU and your neighbors. Have fun suing yourself and your neighbors for a reasonable charge that you still did not pay to even have damages...

Think we are done here because someone just wants to beat a dead horse till it says what they want to hear...

Those are Fines were they not? Your posts are very confusing. You say paid fines but the repairs were separate. Still do not see where the HOA was being unreasonable. You had graffiti and they cleaned it up. They have to charge someone. That person was you.

Dead end.

May I add that since I am not an elitist someone isn't going to do these jobs at minimum wage. It's a skilled job. Plus most Professional businesses do not pay minimum wage for such work. No one would do it. Plus let's think about this. Minimum wage is around $7.25 an hour. Painting a door properly would take a few hours. Minimum 2 hours because need 1st coat to dry and then do a 2nd coat.

If properly done, the door would need to come off, sanded, and paint applied. That would need to dry and 2nd coat applied. Having done this myself on a few occasions. It does take about 3 hours. So at minimum wage is 21.75. So even if I offered someone $20 to do it that is still a "deal".