Habitually late paying homeowner refuses to pay late fees & interest

put a lien on the home and wait.
Make sure that the lien is renewed as needed.

Additionally, adopt a policy that payments are first applied to late charges and then assessments.
This way, the money wouldn't be "soft" money but assessments that were not paid.

There are states that have a payment priority, that payments are first applied to assessments. That would also be my policy.

Let's see, gas is $7.00 a gallon, food prices are doubling, lumber is 3X what it used to be, ream of paper is up 200%. I would thankful they are current within the 30 days. You sound like a unsympathetic vengeful person.

The homeowner usually pays 1 to 3 months late. Often they skip payments and then make double payments the next time assessments are due.

I wish someone like that was our late payer.

I'm sorry, I made a typo. We do want to treat all of our homeowners the same. Waiving late fees for this one problematic homeowner yet charging late fees to other non-problematic homeowners doesn't sound like fair treatment.

So much this. I can’t believe the attitude of just letting late payments slide. That doesn’t fly anywhere else, and it hurts the rest of the homeowners.

Apply payments to late fees first, and file a lien. This doesn’t need to be something you spend time agonizing over.

It flies at other companies based on past performance on the account.

If you're late once, perhaps twice, not an issue. Most will waive monetary penalties.

If you are always late, then good luck with having the penalties waived.

When I was treasurer, knowing everyone forgets once in a while, I had board approval to waive penalties and always offered it on the first missed payment if paid in full the following month. Those who did not pay in full had the late charges assessed.

The management company collects the late fee on behalf of the HOA and deposits the money into the HOA operating account.

We waive late fees and interest upon request, one time per homeowner, automatically. Future requests are run by the Board. The issue with this homeowner is they have not requested a waiver, they simply keep writing (late) checks for the amount of the dues. Thus the late fees and interest keep piling up.

We keep them as part of collection efforts.

You obviously have someone that is struggling to stay afloat and you keep burdening them with cinder blocks. It is quite obvious that these people are in fact struggling not someone that is
ignoring their obligation to pay their assessments. Since you don'y have to file a lien or send them to collections like some deadbeats do. These people are not deadbeats, waive the late fees and
interest and help them stay afloat.

For everyone that says to forget and move on for the habitually late paying homeowner, I off the following:

Lets say you own a service business (landscaping, barber, etc.). I enter into a contract with you that I will pay monthly for services you provide. You provide those services on a weekly basis and send me an invoice at the end of the month. From your perspective, I ignore the invoice. You continue to provide the service, incurring expenses to provide that service.

At the end of the second month, you send me another invoice with late charges on the first months payment, as this is what the contract allows. Again from your perspective, I ignore it. You continue to provide the service and still incur expenses, which have risen in cost (as the economics of today have shown).

At the end of the third month, you send me another invoice with additional late charges for the first two missed payments.
From your perspective, I ignore it as I simply do not respond to any of your communications.

Now honestly ask yourself:

Would you continue to provide the services?
Keep in mind that this is typically not an option for an HOA/COA

In the third week of the fourth month of providing services, you finally get a check from me for the last three months of invoices. The check does not include the late charges you imposed per the contract. No note explaining the issue, just a check.

Do you waive the charges?

This happens again and again over the life of the contract (which is several years in length).

Do you waive charges the contract allows for late payments?
Do you try to terminate the contract for non-payment (for the HOA, this would be a foreclosure process)?

At what point do you say enough is enough?

You did not offer proof, you merely claimed that you make a regular habit of paying bills late at a number of institutions and are often able to get your fees waived. As my son would say, "Weird flex, but okay..."

David,

In response to Thads post, I agreed that companies will often waive the occasional late charge but pointed out that it is based on past payment history.

Thad chose to ignore this fact and, instead, chose to argue with you.

It's simply not worth feeding a troll.

It's only profit if you can collect and the proceeds exceed collection costs. That is not guaranteed, often doesn't happen, and until it does happen any "profit" is just bookkeeping.

To be clear, we have to treat all of our homeowners the same. Thus if we waive months of late fees and interest from homeowner A, we have to do so for all other homeowners as well.

I don't see any path of arbitrarily waiving late fees for this particular homeowner who never pays on time. It won't encourage her to pay on time in the future, and then we would be expected to waive future late fees as well. It would not be fair to all homeowners to have one homeowner allowed to pay late and not others.

I'll work with our PM to figure out some better options.

The board has the authority to waive fees but not assessments.

As far as treating all homeowners equally, I think you have to consider the difference between "equally" and "fairly."

It makes no sense to be hard-nosed about late fees when you're dealing with a homeowner who has a history of paying on time or who is dealing with an unusual issue (particularly one they have no control over, such as identity theft).

It also makes no sense to waive late fees for the chronic late payers or those who have pretty much stopped paying altogether. The association is incurring expenses while dealing with delinquent accounts, and the realities of foreclosure mean that the association will be lucky to see much if anything unless they're in a state that prioritizes the association lien over the lender's lien. Why reduce the amount that the association is lawfully entitled to if they don't have to? You can make a good argument that the board has a fiduciary duty to impose the late fees.

Good advice, especially abut crediting payments.

You can waive the fee, which, if it's $500, doesn't sound like a small amount. You could continue to let it build until there is enough to take the person to court. I'm wondering if hiring a collections agency is an option?

Yes the HOA shouldn't profit off of late fees, but it's also unfair to let one person off and enforce the rules for another. I wouldn't let this one go considering how many times the person has paid late.

I agree 110%

Unsure how large your HOA is, but if you give your 'delinquent' file to a third party vendor
they will think THEY are the bad guy, not you.

I promise it works, and the fee is usually 8%, well worth it.

In the meantime, your HOA probably has a lawyer and can do a letter on your behalf.

If you have every date their inconsistency in paying the fees, then there's no questions.

Last resort is to put a lien on their home... and really do it.

Good Luck!

Some people should just live on a 100 acre farm with Pooh

Add establish a Board policy for the late fee amount that will trigger liens and an amount that will trigger foreclosure action.