Issue with HOA dues payment sent on time

Hello Folks,

Have a kind of problematic situation here related to HOA dues payment. I own and have been living in a condominium in Lansing, MI, for over 12 years. Never had any problem paying bills, dues or fees. My association payment dues are sent on the 1st of every month directly from my checking account by my bank via regular mail to the address provided by the HOA Management Company; and part of the reason for using my bank is in order to have proof that the payment was sent in a timely manner.

Throughout these 12 years there has been only one occasion in which a check fail to arrive on time, and I simply explained to the person (board member) in charge at the time and then issued another check without any further implications. All in all, throughout my life time this type of situation (check failing to arrive or take longer) only happened maybe 5 times. In all those occasions once I was notified that payment was not received, I simply sent an email with a document from the bank showing that the check was sent on time and there has never been any incident or late fee. Typically, nowadays almost all my bills are paid electronically.

But this situation was about to change. Last week I receive an automatic email from the management company indicating that the payment for the month of July was not received and that a late fee was assessed. I then promptly emailed the person in charge at the company stating that the payment was sent in a timely manner with document from my bank attesting that. Low and behold, after few exchange of emails it was clear that this person was absolutely intransigent and indicated that the late fee had to assessed no much what given that the payment was not received on time.
The following is an excerpt from the Rules and Regulations of the HOA pertaining that issue:

SEE ATTACHMENT

Based on the above excerpt I did everything by the book, and have backup document to prove that the payment was mailed on the 1st of July. Besides, there is no guarantee that the management company did not mishandled and lost the check by mistake or otherwise. How should one approach this situation?

Thanks for any input.

1. Present your case to the Board of Directors and ask the LPC and other charges be waived. It may require some research on your part as to how to appeal to the Board.

2. Set the date on your checking account for the issuance of the check from the 1st of the month in which payment is due to the 25th of the previous month. Monitor your account to see if the payment processed. If you get to the 1st or 2nd of the month in which payment is due and your check has not cleared, call the management company to find out if the payment has been received. If not, take the steps necessary to issue a second check and ensure it is received.

3. You may wish to consider using Zelle or another funds transfer process to send the funds to the association account without using checks, the mail, etc.

4. If your association offers an auto-debit process for payment, enroll in it. If the management company does not timely issue the funds request, they are responsible, not you.

I used autopay and it was sent electronically. (All my bills are done this way.) I'm curious on why some people want to use regular mail? Is it because they don't trust paying anything online? It really doesn't matter but I'm genuinely curious.

My brother-in-law absolutely refuses to use any type of automated bill payment process. He is convinced the bank, a payee, or some shady character will clear the account of his funds.

I told him the bank will make it right, which in my experience they do, although in one situation with a client an account was mistakenly debited when a 3rd party making an automatic payment entered an incorrect account number. That one I had to escalate several levels to have the funds restored while the bank investigated what took place.

I suggested he open a new account, with its sole function being electronic bill payment. I told him to transfer whatever amount he needed to pay the bills that month to that account, which would limit his exposure. I do not know if he took my advice or not.

TimB4,

Thanks for your very insightful response. I will write a document to the board, and that by any chance don't work out I will looking into the hearing. It just seems too much effort and time for a small amount of money.

The worse part is that the management company's representative telling in an irrefutable way that if the payment was not received on or before the 5th that it is considered late. All the while, the rules and regulations clearly states that payments postmarked on or before the 5th should be considered on time. It would be virtually impossible for a payment sent on the 5th to arrive on the 5th, likely it would arrive on the 7th or 8th. And on top of that, I sent the payment on the 1st.

So far, they have not received the payment yet; and according to my bank the check was not withdrawn yet. So, it is assumed that is was lost in transit by the USPS; or maybe they received and lost it.

JohnT38:

Actually, at first, when I bought the condo the option electronic payment was not available. So, in order to have safeguard and convenience I opted to use my bank "bill pay" feature that send the checks timely via regular mail. At some point, they adopted electronic bill payments as well, but I never gave a second though about it and simply kept using the bank's old bill pay feature. Basically, with this exception, all my bill payments are processed electronically. I will looking into using direct deposit to pay the association dues.

Nowadays, computers and the internet are used to facilitate every aspect of life. Many Windows' user do not take good care of their machines, and often these machines are permeated with adware, spyware, rootkits, viruses, key capture software. So, his concerns are not unwarranted; but typically the crackers/hackers tend to target very rich people, corporations, etc. For most part, people who do not go to the darknet (spurious sites, porn stuff, etc) and take basic precautions should be ok.

Yeah, having a second bank account only for bill payments is a really good idea.

Nowadays, computers and the internet are used to facilitate every aspect of life. Many Windows' user do not take good care of their machines, and often these machines are permeated with adware, spyware, rootkits, viruses, key capture software. So, his concerns are not unwarranted; but typically the crackers/hackers tend to target very rich people, corporations, etc. For most part, people who do not go to the darknet (spurious sites, porn stuff, etc) and take basic precautions should be ok.

Yeah, having a second bank account only for bill payments is a really good idea.

Nowadays, computers and the internet are used to facilitate every aspect of life. Many Windows' user do not take good care of their machines, and often these machines are permeated with adware, spyware, rootkits, viruses, key capture software. So, his concerns are not unwarranted; but typically the crackers/hackers tend to target very rich people, corporations, etc. For most part, people who do not go to the darknet (spurious sites, porn stuff, etc) and take basic precautions should be ok.

Yeah, having a second bank account only for bill payments is a really good idea.

Another example of outstanding customer service provided by the management company and the HOA.

At first a hearing sound too much fuss for such a small penalty, but the point is that it is unfair and unjust; and almost grotesque given that It seems to me that the "Rules and Regulations" clearly states my case. Unfortunately I don't have the contact for the members of the board. So I prepared a document, the following:

"
Dear Board of Directors:
In accordance with the Rules and Regulations, page 3, section "HRCA Fees / Delinquent Accounts" (excerpt show below): "any dues postmarked later than the 5th of the month will be considered late and subject to a $25.00 late fee." The association dues for the month of July were sent by my bank via USPS on the 1st of July, 2022, therefore well within the timeframe. There has been attempts to relay this information to the Management Company to no avail. I am attaching a copy of bank document attesting that the payment was mailed on the 1st of July of 2022. Thus, I request that the late fee or any penalty be removed from my account.
"
I sent it via email to a contact in the management company, since the board uses the contact in the mc as intermediary. I has been over 3 days, and I have not heard anything back so far. Hopefully, the document will reach the board and they will do the right thing. Having to go to the small claims court would too much of a headache.

There are two kinds of automated payments. The "pull" transactions allow the payee to pull the payment from the payer's account, while the "push" transactions allow the payer to push the payment to the payee. Your bank's bill pay system is a push transaction.

The push transactions are generally considered safer, and they're the only kind I use. I would use a pull transaction if it were the only option available other than a paper check, but I would authorize it either for an account that has very little money in it or as a charge to my credit card. I agree about not using a phone for financial transactions - it's way too easy to neglect security on them, and a lot of the apps that come pre-installed are security risks. People forget that phones are computers and not just convenient toys.

Simple issue here, just as others have stated. readjust your mailing time. just like with the credit card companies in their statements, it will take a few days to process and show on your account. so it's suggested you send your payment at least 10 days early.

ours are quarterly, and i have my bill pay send them out 2 weeks before the quarterly statement arrives at my house. it's much easier to adjust to this and then it shouldn't create any issues with the bookkeeper.