Members Not in Good Standing

We have a resident who wants the Board to publish a list of those members in good standing, so that by process of elimination, she would then know who has not paid their dues. In previous HOA's we have never published members who have not paid their dues UNLESS there is a lien against them for not paying as that is then a matter of public record. As President, I do not want to provide this individual with this information as I do not know what she plans to do with it. Our attorney has not heard of doing so and is inclined to advise against it as it could bring about a lawsuit. Anyone have any experience in this?

MAry,
Tell her that the Board is on top of the delinquencies and that at this time, because of future or pending litigation against the delinquencies, this information is not open for for publication. We have had this discussion on the site, several times and the answer is always the same. No, the names should not be out for members to hash over. Most attorneys advise against giving the names out.

why doesn't she simply join the BOD (LOL) and then she could know all?

LOVE all the responses. This just in: Our attorney has notified us "Do not give out the name of the people who have paid. You are correct that by process of elimination that would identify those who are delinquent. You may reveal the number of homeowner's dues that are paid to date. Even if it is not an actionable invasion of privacy you do not want to subject the association to having to defend such a claim." Just thought I would share this with those who were kind enough to post a message. Might be of help to others with the same issue and "sneaky" neighbors!

SusanW1 - All of the residents of our HOA are members. If you do not pay your dues, assessments or are not in compliance with the covenants or by-laws, then you are NOT a member in good standing, which means you cannot vote in any of the HOA elections or run for officer or board member positions. My original question was, a member of the community (HOA) wanted us to publish a list to be displayed at the annual meeting next month of all those members who HAVE paid their dues. That way, the entire community would know by the process of elimination who was not paying their dues. My question was basically what other HOA Officers/members felt or knew about the legality of this request. I also put in a call to our attorney and my last posting was his response.

No one's ever asked this question (at least I haven't heard it since joining our board). Our general policy is we DO NOT publish the names. When we discuss delinquencies at board meetings (open to the residents), we refer to owners by their account number and nothing else, not even addresses, in case someone knows Mrs. Jones is at 123 Main Street. All of our residents know if someone's delinquent over 30 days in monthly assessments, he or she is considered delinquent. That means no renting the clubhouse or using the pool, voting in Association elections or serving on the Board until the account is brought up to date

You may want to put something in your newsletter about the board's policy - if it doesn't have a formal one, now's the time to make one according to your Bylaws and CCRs.

Totally agree... this is not ok. If the member wishes to know the confidential info.. tell her to get on the board. ( being sarcastic of course) Reallly it's a issue of confidentiality until a lein is placed.. then only then is it public record.

In our association it's not confidential information from other members.

It may be confidential information to the general public, but not to the membership.

It sounds like an attempt to embarrass people into paying their dues. I think it is a bad idea. I would also note that at a leadership conference I went to Saturday we had a speaker talking about collections and the speaker believed that your HOA falls under the realms of the Fair Credit Collections Act. And that would seem a means around the intent to publish those owing money.

You lawyer has said it is a bad idea. In general, going against the advice of your lawyer is not something to do lightly. (Or get one you do trust.) I would tell the person no and hopefully put the issue to rest. If that fails, let your attorney draft a more definitive response. That will send a message that they will not easily push by.

Another good online resource to publish all your condo paperwork is www.scribd.com We use it to publish misc scanned paperwork. It is viewable online, but can be saved as a PDF. You can upload PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.

Adds another level of transparency and if anyone in the association ever asks for a document, you can just direct them to the web site and they can find it. This eliminates the need to find the document, copy it, and mail it. This reduces administration fees which is great because its "your" money.

Well, we don't technically post the name of the homeowner, just the address. We feel the financials, dues, minutes, annual reports, etc. is all public record in the sense that anyone can view it. But we don't take out newspaper classifieds or post it at the town registrar.

To keep things "confidential" starts to create mistrust among owners vs the association. And rightfully so. People make many bad decisions behind closed doors because no one can criticize because no one knows. If the same people running things are making bad decisions on a regular basis, it gives the homeowners the information they need to ask the board of directors for further action. IE; the person(s) needs to improve, or be replaced. If everyone who views the records is content with how the money is being spent, great.

We have been open about everything with members for about 2 years now. And it works. People realize we are pretty lean and efficient where the money is spent, what is left over and know that if they want more services beyond what we have dues will have to go up, and no one wants that. Sometimes members have looked at the costs from vendors and suggested less expensive one, maybe someone they know to do a service and walah! We just reduced a cost!

Its important to remember at the end of the day, its their money. We are just in charge of making the decisions of how its managed.

Kirk brings up a good point. If you use an agency, management company, or other group to collect your dues, or even represent or hint that you are using another group to collect debt, an HOA will indeed fall under the Fair debt Collections Act. First parties attempting to collect their own debts do not, as long as they are openly attempting to collect only the debt owed them, and none other (you are not a debt collector unless you are collecting for someone else's debt). So, Me as the HOA president, collecting HOA dues, not a debt collector. The HOA's management company, a debt collector. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf