Delinquencies and consumer credit counseling

My HOA has begun evaluating our collection policies and procedures, and one of things I'd like to see (as treasurer) is the use of more payment plans to get some of these accounts to ballooning to where we need to spend lots of money on legal fees and foreclosures.

Our attorney and property manager have negotiated several with our homeowners, but I've noticed some of them want to pay really small fees and I don't know if that's because they really don't have the money, what type of proof is submitted or if we've ever set any minimum standards (e.g. all payments must be made electronically). Then, there are the people who get into trouble year after year, and seem to always need a payment plan. At some point, this has to stop and maybe part of the answer is to get them to a counselor who will teach them how to budget and get out of debt once and for all.

I'm gathering the answers to some of those questions as I type this, but in the meantime, I wondered if anyone here has worked with consumer counselors on their own HOA delinquencies and if it was sucessful, things to watch for, etc.

Of course, I'd prefer homeowners go to the legitimate ones, not these fly by nights (we would put something in our newsletter on things to watch out for). In Indy, there's a consumer credit counseling service affiliated with the local United Way and are members of the national associaiton of credit counselors, and there are also some HUD certified counselors who assist homeowners with foreclosure prevention - those are the ones I'd perfer the HOA work with.