assessments dues

What is a common sense approach to collecting the yearly assessments from the homeowners?
We have 172 homeowners and started to collect dues back in July, and to date some 30 homeowners have still not paid. These are the steps we have taken to date: 1. We hand delivered a "assessments due letter" to all homeowners. This collected about 50% of monies due. 2. we hand delivered another letter stating that the homeowner's assessment was overdue and that a $20 fine was now being added to the orignial amount due. We give a new due date for this new amount. This letter added that further fines and the possibility of lien were possible in the future if the dues were not paid this time. This period of time has passed and we still have the 30 homeowners memtioned above who have not paid.
I should say that we are a new inexperienced board having just taken over from the developer back in June of 2008 so these is our first attempt to collect assessments. The developer had not collected any dues the past year (2007) and had not done any of the work on the common grounds. It was sort of "here its your problem now and oh yes there is only $51 in the your HOA account, bye".
I should note that we are not trying to collect any of the 2007 assessments only the 2008 dues.
Is there some place where you can find form letters to be use at each of the steps of dues delinquency with suggests as to fines etc.
We, the board, do not want to become hated by our neighbors but in fairness all or none should pay.

Robert, the first step for the board is to formalize a collection policy. That policy needs to be communicated to all homeowners. A sample collection policy is attached.

A telephone call to the homeowners may be useful to break things free.

The board should consult with its attorney about fines and collection procedures. At some point as described it may be advisable to turn the collection over to an attorney. You may only need to do this one time.

But the key is to get a policy statement written, approved and in the hands of the homeowners.

Sounds like a good suggestion, Kirk, but with only $51 in the treasury I don't think it's feasible. And, if there are no state laws regulating developers I don't know that they would even have a case against him.

The fact that the developer didn't bother to collect assessments while he was in control has probably caused the delinquent members to think they can continue to get away without paying. The board needs to adopt a collection policy and send it to the members. Then they need to start filing liens if the delinquencies aren't paid w/i a reasonable time after informing the members of the collection policy and the fact that it will be enforced.

My HOA Board is telling the homeowners that our annual assessment period is February 1 - January 31 and that our annual budget and fiscal year are from January 1 - December 31. That is how they have interpreted our CC&Rs which read "At least thirty (30) days before February 1 of each year, the Board of Directors shall fix the amount of the Annual Assessment against each lot...Written notice of any change in assessment rate shall be sent to every Owner. The annual assessments shall be due and payable in advance on January 1 of each year..." Then, our Bylaws state "It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors to send written notice of each assessment to every Owner subject thereto at least thirty (30) days in advance of each annual assessment period". The written notice, which included a dues increase, was received by the homeowners on December 29, 2012. When some owners questioned the timeliness of the notice, we were given this explanation. Thank you for your insight.

This is an old post from 2008 Mary. You may want to make this a new topic to get a response. Welcome to the forum!

Thank you, Melissa. I'll do that.