Placing liens

It depends on your community statis. In Georgia we have HOAs and POAs. I hope this information helps and you have this option in Florida (scroll down to read about the POA).
If not you need to ask your attorney to gather a collectability report. This will show you each person's ability to pay, if they have the funds in accounts or if they already have other liens/ bankrupt reports on their credit. It will save you from spending the money to collect by placing a lien when you will never see the money from that owner.
Also, to have 2/3 of your accounts collected in this economy, you are doing pretty good for it to be April. Some maybe waiting for their tax returns.
Our dues are due Feb.1 and we always get a good portion paid prior to the pools opening Memorial Day weekend (or their access is closed). We are at 75% collection and we have 1673 homes.
Godd Luck. Janice M.

Some of the benefits of the POA include, but are not limited to the following:
1. Automatic Statutory Liens
After submitting to the POA, the association will no longer be required to file liens at the county courthouse for unpaid assessments or other charges. Instead, the POA creates an automatic statutory lien against a delinquent owner’s lot for any sums owed to the association. The POA provides that the declaration of covenants itself serves as notice that there is a lien on every lot in the community for any unpaid assessment or other charges. As a result, closing attorneys, title examiners, purchasers or owners must contact the association for a statement of any amounts owed to the association prior to concluding a sale or refinance of the lot, or risk the existence of a lien. If the association is not paid out of the proceeds of the sale or refinance, the lien continues against the lot and will generally have priority over subsequent liens and mortgages.
An additional tremendous benefit of the POA’s automatic lien is that it protects the association even if the association’s records have incorrect or misspelled owner names. Recorded liens are only effective if filed under the correct owner names. If the association’s records have an owner’s name misspelled the recorded lien may be ineffective. The POA makes the lien effective, even if you have incorrect or no information about an owner.
2. Buyers and Sellers are Jointly and Severally Liable to Pay Assessments
The POA includes another provision that generally strengthens an association’s assessment collection powers. The POA makes buyers and sellers jointly and severally liable for all unpaid assessments. This means that, if the automatic statutory lien is not paid at the closing, the association can proceed against the new owner, who will be personally liable for all amounts owed prior to the closing.
3. Tenants are Obligated to Comply With Association Regulations
The POA also clarifies that all owners and tenants must comply with all the provisions of the declaration of covenants and the association’s rules and regulations.
4. Fines and Suspension of Privileges
The POA gives the association a statutory power to assess fines against violators and to suspend the common area use rights of violators, if specified in the declaration. Fines constitute a lien against the violator’s lot, and the ability to fine significantly strengthens the association’s powers to enforce the covenants and the rules and regulations.
5. Late Fees and Interest
Submission to the POA allows the association to charge a late fee of the greater of $10.00 or ten percent (10%) of the amount due, and interest at a rate of ten percent (10%) per annum on unpaid assessments and charges, if specified in the declaration.
6. Recovery of Attorney’s Fees from Owners
The POA authorizes the recovery of the association’s costs of collection of the delinquent assessments, including reasonable attorney’s fees actually incurred. This provision is extremely helpful with judges who otherwise are reluctant to grant the association is attorneys’ fees, when it sues delinquent or violating owners.
7. Perpetual Duration
Prior to 1993, Georgia law generally provided that covenants expire after twenty years. The Georgia statute providing for the expiration of covenants, O.C.G.A. Section 44-5-60(d), was amended in 1993 to permit covenants to automatically renew, but the Georgia courts have held that covenants in communities that were recorded prior to 1994 do not receive the benefit of the new 1994 law. The POA expressly provides that O.C.G.A. Section 44-5-60(d) does not apply to the covenants submitted to the POA. Accordingly, covenants submitted to the POA have perpetual duration.

Would you mind sharing that form so all of us could benefit? Times are tight, it would be great if we could all share legal forms and other tips. Thanks in advance.

Corrected lien forms are attached. In making the forms generic I made a typing error on each.

Frank,

Unless the person filing the lien is being paid for his/her services it is not practicing law.

I'll disagree, Ellen. It's not money; it's about someone advising a 3rd party or doing something for a 3rd party that represents having knowledge or skills associated with what lawyers typicaly do that civilians typically can't. Having said that, filing a lien ain't rocket science, so in this case, I'd say it's not practicing.

Frank,

This should be checked out with an attorney. AZ is one of the a few states in the country with no statute prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law. In 2003 the AZ Supreme Court issued a ruling defining the "practice of law". As a result of this ruling only a "legal document preparer" or an attorney can prepare any document for filing in any court. So, legally speaking, if you were in AZ the answer would be "NO" your assn Pres or Treas cannot perform this function unless they are a certified legal document preparer or an attorney.

John,

I doubt you have knowedge of Florida laws which are specific. Unless a person is paid for giving advice or filing paperwork they are not considered to be practicing law. I've been in the legal field for about 30 years during which I have given my best advice and obtaining a divorce for my cleaning lady without receiving any compensation and I was not practicing law. Building contractors and sub-contractors can file liens all the time and do without the help of an attorney.

Yup.

Ellen,

You are correct that I am not knowledgable about most law specific to FL (except that I know FL, as with most popular retirement states, does not offer reciprocity to attorneys licensed in other juristictions). And of course, one can always choose to rep themselves, in SCC and other courts. But if what you say is true...

Hypothetical. Jack has been charged with murder and has hired a licensed attorney for all the pre-trial work. But once the trial begins, Jack replaces his attorney with Jill, his girlfriend, whose knowledge of law is based on watching police procedurals (Law and Order, etc.) on television, who will not be paid for srvices and not be required to file any documents.

I find it hard to believe that would be allowed in FL or anywhere else. Though according to you, it would?

Please advise.

And again, I don't see filing a lien as practice for the reasons I noted earlier.

Frank,

I just looked up the atty bills for liens we place. In round numbers, we paid half of what you are being quoted. We are here in Florida.

Perhaps you could call a few local law firms.

peter

John, Your hypothetical involves criminal law and not what we were discussing. I know very little about criminal law but have seen judges allow defendants to represent themselves in criminal cases. I would say the judge would rule on that.

The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over all courts and as such adopted this rule which is a section of the AZ Code of Judicial Administration. It was stated in one of the documents I have outlining this rule that it was not known how the Supreme Court intended to enforce the new rule which was effective 7/1/03. I couldn't find any statutes applying to "legal document preparer".

Does anyone have a good 45-day notice that goes out in advance of filing the lien? I've seen two that I didn't think really got the message across to the owner. While they may have technically contained all the information required for legal notice, they have too much soft language hta blurs the message, IMO.

Frank:

I am Treasurer of our HOA in South Carolina. We do not need to have an atty. file liens. I file them myself. Here it costs $5.00 to place and $5.00 to remove. I can e-mail the form we use if you would like. Here, we need 2 witnesses and notary to file the paperwork.