Advice on Absentee Owner

Hi all! Longtime lurker, first time poster. I'm in Baltimore County, Maryland. I became the president of my community's HOA board about 9 months ago. We are a small community of just 74 homes. Unfortunately, one of them belongs to an absentee owner/landlord. He is unresponsive to our attempts to contact him, he hasn't paid his HOA dues in 3+ years (we are presently filing suit), and to top it all off his tenants are apparently serious criminals. A few mornings ago the home was raided by the FBI, the second time that has happened. The entire community is obviously concerned from a safety standpoint, with the FBI involved it must be something pretty serious. Many of voiced to me this week that they are very afraid, especially those who have children. And of course many are also concerned from a property value standpoint. Who wants to live in a neighborhood where the FBI is raiding someone's home every few months?

My question is, what can my board and I, and our community as a whole, do about this property? Of course like I said we are in proceedings over the unpaid dues, but is there anything else we can do beyond that? I've been known for getting things done in my 9 months as president, and getting something done with this property is the number one thing on my list currently. I've had a couple of other owner's in the community voice interest in purchasing the property if the owner can be persuaded to sell, but of course that requires communicating with him which we are unable to do.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Agree with Tim.

In addition, if permitted in MD, see if there's a way that the Assn. can evict the tenants. We're restating our CC&Rs and one change is that the Assn. has the right to evict tenants. Your HOA attorney will know.

Very good advice Tim.

First do NOT file a lawsuit. Bad idea. 2nd the HOA does NOT want to own this home. So don't go down that rabbit hole of dreaming what your HOA could do with that house. That will be a mistake. Take Tim's advice and Lien then foreclose. Make sure you have located the correct owner. Taxes and death are assured in life. Go to the Tax Assessor's office with the lot # of the property to see who is on the title.

Serve notices to BOTH locations. Many here may argue with me on this. Remember you are foreclosing/liening on the HOA property. Hence that is the address you should be referring to. This includes certified letters to show they go unanswered. Never ever open if returned. You can also send a notice to the owner's OTHER address of course. Just make sure the HOA address is covered first and foremost.

File the lien first. Give it some time to set in. The person may respond once finds out it's got a lien on it. They can't sell it if it does. I usually give it a year before going for a foreclosure process. Which ONLY gets the money back that is owed. It is NOT a profit. It also get rid of the owner. However, there is a right of redemption that varies in each state. Which means the owner can re-purchase the house if they catch up on everything they owe up to a year. Some states it is 0 months and others 12. Keep this in mind as the house could be left empty and untouched during this time even by the new owners.

You also need to check with your city to see if they have laws about this situation. If it was used for drug sales, they could have a policy to condemn the home. Which will throw a wrench into your HOA's efforts. My brother's city if someone is caught dealing drugs, the house is condemned by the city. A consideration need to factor in.

Talke to a lawyer about this. It doesn't have to be a HOA lawyer. It can be a lawyer like Real Estate one or one that is familiar with foreclosure process. There are more steps involved they need to advise you on. Again don't even think about the HOA owning this house. It's okay if someone else in the HOA wants to buy it as it is a PUBLIC sale. Just don't let the HOA bet that.

Thanks everyone for all of the great advice, I deeply appreciate it. We do have two addresses for this owner, both of which the attorney found and believes are accurate.

Reviewing the records from the attorney, I see that this owner was sent Notice of Intent to create Lien back during the summer, twice, and both went without response. The lien was recorded in October, and since then the attorney has recommended "resting on the lien". I'm not proficient in legalese, can someone tell me what that means? On the advice of Tim, I've told the attorney that I want him to fast track the process and move to foreclose as quickly as he can. There has been no payment or even contact with the owner, nor from the bank (the house does have a mortgage) so the time for playing games has passed.

To the person who suggested eviction, I don't think that's permitted here, but I'll ask the attorney to make sure.

On the advice of SheilaH I did reach out to the PD to see what they could tell me, and all they could say was that a warrant was executed and it is an ongoing investigation.

I was agreeing with what you were saying until I reached this point. Let's be clear here, jerks is not the word. Criminals. We're talking murderers, druggies, and other things. Obviously the FBI being involved illustrates the severity of the situation. I think your being just a tad too kind here.

Oh goodness, I see what this is. Moving on…

Yeah, I figured that's what you'd hear. Get comfy - these ongoing investigations can take months before charges are filed and even longer before the criminal prosecution ends. If the FBI is involved, there are likely some state charges in the works as well - usually the feds get in its 40 whacks (unless the defendants see the light and take a plea deal) and then the state does its 41.

Tell your attorney to keep a close eye on the status of that house - it's good you have a lien, but remember taxes and the mortgage company will trump it unless you live in a state with a super lien law. Talk to your attorney for more information.

As for your "I see where this is headed" regarding AugustinD's comment, I hope you aren't trying to imply you may be stuck with these tenants because they're in a certain protected class. It's possible for several things to be true at the same time. Yes, the tenants may be jerks and it's also true that there has been (and still is) history of housing discrimination, and so those protections are necessary.

To be blunt, your primary beef is with the owner-landlord because you usually don't get tenants from the 9th circle of hell unless the owner rents to them because he/she only cares about the check clearing. Believe me, I've seen it time and time again in my townhouse community.

I am pretty sure the OP was telling me, in so many words, to "Shut. Up.", because he does not want these ne'er-do-wells in his 'hood; nobody else does either; and when he says they're crooks (based on the FBI raids), I ought to believe him.

I do believe him. I would want these people gone too.

I will now shaddup.

You can not control renters in a HOA. only the owners. That's all.

I do not know the answer. I do know that we live in a society where there are as many ways out of jail as in. Who knows how this person has managed to remain free at this point. The HOA cannot afford to hire private security right now. We were near bankrupt when I took over and are just beginning to see some improvement in our finances. I find it hard to believe we don't have some recourse. Surely the landlord is responsible for making the people he rents to follow the rules of the HOA, and for not renting to folks who present a safety problem to the community. I haven't even spoken of property values yet, but this can't be good for those. Who wants to live in a neighborhood where a home is repeatedly being raided by law enforcement? Where a known murderer lives, and where the owner knowingly continues to permit such tenant to live?

Wake up call. The reality is the HOA battle is NOT with the renters. The HOA has nothing to do with the Renters legally. The owner is the member of the HOA NOT the renters. The renters don't even pay HOA dues. The lease is between the owner and the renter NOT the HOA.

Now as far as the landlord/owner making the tenants obey the HOA rules that is ALL on the owner. Which has to be written in their lease agreement. IF it is not, the landlord's hands are tied. They can't enforce rules that aren't agreed to in their lease. The HOA can strongly suggest owners who rent put that in their lease agreements. They just can't enforce it.

Let me tell you a little story... During 911 we had some renters start moving that day. We are talking putting an SUV in a moving van and basically tossing stuff out windows to move as fast as they could. What was suspicious about this? The fact that they had Florida tags from the SAME county of the hi-jackers and from the middle east... The FBI was called in and a swat team came. About every sign of a "sleeper cell" you could name these renters matched. The FBI came in and investigated. So been there and done that with the FBI coming in.

Now the HOA response? All we could do is call the appropriate authorities which in this case was the FBI. The owners were up to date with their dues. What else was there to do? It was none of our business otherwise. BTW: It turns out these were "students" from Yemen whom were transferring schools to the West coast. So it wasn't as suspicious as it sounded it was. I talked to the owner's son later who explained it all to me. Don't always assume things and let the FBI do their job. It's none your business if it's not in your lane.

Again go after the owner by making sure a lien is filed. Once that is established then decide if foreclosure is the next step to take. It is not always the right step. Leaving a lien in place may be the best situation. It's just time consuming. Which is much better than filing a lawsuit in the long run.

Aside from not paying their dues, has the owner violated a governing document for having them as tenant's? Do the governing documents state that convicted criminals can not be renter's/residents in the HOA?

For the archives and so as not to make the day dull: If the governing documents have a general statement that convicted criminals are not allowed as renters, enter HUD.

Oops.Try contacting instead:

https://marylandhomeownersassociation.org/

Thank you all again for all your help, I deeply appreciate it. I’ve learned much, and am now clear on what needs to be done and how. Hopefully things take their course before someone in the community, like a child who has to catch their school bus in front of this property, gets hurt or worse. Somehow I suspect a few here would still be more concerned that the criminals rights hadn’t been violated.

GaryT4, I am pretty sure you do not really want these criminals gone. If you did, you would listen to the many here who say to go after the owner for not paying the assessments, and go after both the owner and the tenants for violating any rules.

GaryT4, you're the type of guy who would tell cops not to bother reading Miranda rights to criminals, because this protects criminals' rights.

And when the criminal goes free, it will be your fault.

I am operating in reality. You are not.

That's the point. Follow the law. Get these jerks outta your neighborhood. Don't follow the law, and you will fail.

GaryT4, I am glad you agree the police are stuck with reading criminals their Miranda rights.

I am pretty sure the police would not appreciate your subsequently calling them, 'protectors of criminals.'

Nowhere did I say my attorney was involved on the criminal side. You are taking shots in the dark it seems.

You can take the holier than thou approach all you want. Easy to do when its not you who will have to deal with it when someone gets killed.

I think some here are just confusing my disdain for the way things are (and my disdain for one individual who unlike most others here has expressed absolutely no empathy for we who have to live in fear of this property, and instead has been empathetic to the absentee landlord and dangerous tenant) as meaning that I am looking to circumvent the law. To be clear, my organization and I, and those in our service including the attorney, are going to act to the letter of the law. Regardless of any of my feelings and opinions.

Rule number one..if you have a lawyer who says "I will do whatever you tell me to do' you do not have a good lawyer. You have one that takes orders not one that helps guide you to the right answers.

Found this out first hand. We wanted to do almost the same thing with a member. One that threatened arson to our HOA and ripped off their Tennant. He told us he would do what he wanted us to do. A little research and not so much.. there were avenues much better to follow than the one he was going to do. This is how I found out about the lien and foreclosure process done properly. This was not done through lawsuits. Which makes a lawyer a happy employee of the HOA.