Delinquent Assessments

Can we legally post/publish the names of homeowners that have not paid the annual assessment? HOA is in Florida

And "why"?

You might be able to print the names of the homeowners who ARE members of your HOA - IF you have permission or it's in your bylaws that you can release the info.

this has been discussed many times, and in general:

While legal to do, in LIMITED ways, most people feel this is a poor idea, and not likely to endear the board to the community.
It is not generally as effective as other means of communication to recover the money owed.

there are alternate ways to accomplish the same goal: perhaps reminding all owners that the books are available for their viewing (ie, if someone wants to know who's behind, come look). Letters and phone calls to the individual offenders often work miracles. Reminders, perhaps with knowledge of the next steps and potential cost of the litigation may work.

Rarely is the Scarlett Letter the best way to do this, although it is tempting.

We inform them that we will turn them into the Credit Bureau.

Can we do this here in Flordia?...Donna, anyone

Donna, I like the idea of the cross reference numbers for board meetings. Just checking, but if i were an owner in your HOA, I would have the right to look at the books, correct? I could discern myself, with a modicum of accounting knowledge, who was paid and who wasn't among my fellow shareholders in the company?

Delinquency is a major concern to all board members. However there is a difference in the amount past due and what percentage of your budge is past due. There are two factors to consider. How many units you have and how much are you annual dues. Some times a phone call from the collection department will do more good than sending 7 notices and turning them into the credit bureau, and automatically filing for a lien. We charge an additional fee when we reported to the Credit bureau and again when they are removed to bring the account current. This $70.00 usually persuades them to come up with the past due amount. A phone call is made by the Treasurer to inform them of our procedures. This is a one on one conversation and usually they know one another, this works most of the time and makes the delinquent home owner pay, If this does not work, then the board knows that they have done what needs to be done and legal action is next. During this conversation he/she may tell you that he/she will be filing bankruptcy then there is no need to go further, since all legal fees and your past due amount will not be recovered, It’s a loss… Move on. We have 446 homes and 5 percent delinquency. It works but your board has to work also.

Brian

When they say they file bankruptcy they have a number from the court and only then we stop all action. Until then we can call them once a day and ask for our funds. According to our laws in Texas.

We took a big hit last year because of a lack of consistant followup on delinquent payments. We have since passed a resolution which establishes a procedure for dealing with same. Standard letters are sent - one month past due a letter, second month another stronger letter asking if there are extenuating circumstances involved. If no response a third letter is sent, advising owner that a lien is being placed on their property. After four months we will start foreclosure action. We charge $35.00 per month late fees. If the owner is cronically late, the late fee is increased to $70.00 per month. Several owners who consistantly fell behind have since decided it is much more prudent to stay current. Since we have instituted this procedure, we only have one owner in arrears, that owner has establihed a payment plan. This is out of 132 units, with payments due monthly. This procedure was reviewed by our attorney before it was passed, and the community was notified several times of its existance.

Bruce you are correct we too (the Board) wrote our collection procedures and had our attorney review it, and we sent a copy to each home owner. They know up front what will take place if they do not pay, it’s that simple. But some still have to tell us what they want to do, so we do file. Down the road, now especially when they want to refinance we get all our funds before they can refinance to lower their payments. We too work with the lender on this.

Harold I will get that info for you it is a law for Collection agencies.

clifford and donna, i like the way you do your things. both practices seem fair, within reason and within the law. nice job to both for splitting the hairs correctly, in my opinion, in both your situations..

Monday night the Board had our annual meeting....and along w/other files was the delinquent list w/names and address on the table as HO's walked into the room.....I had sent out a list to HO's back in Nov. in my letter to all but I had blocked out the name/address, I only sent the amount...guess this Board/MC aren't worried about this....They should because it also shows that some HO's were charged interest and others weren't....I had already told them in person/e-mail that by not treating HO's equal in collection could open us up for a law suit....Guess they feel, that breaking one more CC&R and SS 720 wouldn't matter since there is no accountibility for anything they do.

I was not on the Board...but was voted in Monday night...don't think it matters because the other 4 members have been there since the beginning and follow no rules. I begged for some others to run to get them out but no luck...You're right, maybe they will wake up when they get hit w/that big "Special Assessment"...in fact the President said she would be raising dues and most likely above the 10% allowed w/o HO vote....The community is already in destreee, foreclosures, short sales...some poor owner have had their place for sale almost a year...the short sales are $84,000./$91,500. (these are TH) and some of these HO's have paid as much as 125,000....I'm afraid we'll see more foreclosures befor this housing mess is over, especially if the dues keep going up. This Board has hurt this community and HO apathy has helped fuel the fire.

Thanks Clifford - I haven't been back to this thread lately. I'm pretty aware of the Fair Debt Collection Act, but thought you had something else that allowed daily contact. Actually, the debtor can write and request that you stop contacting him daily, and you must, except for a couple of exceptions allowed by law. That doesn't eliminate the debt of course, but you then need to use other specified and allowed methods to collect.