Mgt co not accepting checks

A couple of reasons come to mind, the person is behind in their assessments to the point that their account has been turned over to the attorney in which case the MC wouldn't accept them or the person could have bounced checks in the past and been slow to take care of them.

Mindy,

The only reason I can think of is that the check is not for the correct outstanding balance. The wrong thing to do is to quit paying altogether. A phone call to the mgmt co is certainly in order to find out why the checks are not being accepted and exactly what can be done to make payment. The member needs to also inform the BOD of what is happening so they will know that she is trying to pay her assessments. There is nothing in state law addressing this. The only statute that even speaks about payments made by a member is ARS 33-1256 (condos) or 33-1807 (planned communities), which says:

"Notwithstanding any provision in the community documents or in any contract between the assn and a mgmt co, unless the member directs otherwise, all payments received on a member's account shall be applied first to any unpaid assessments, for unpaid charges for late payment of those assessments, for reasonable collection fees and for unpaid attorney fees and costs incurred with respect to those assessments, in that order, with any remaining amounts applied next to other unpaid fees, charges and monetary penalties or interest and late charges on any of those amounts."

Mindy, with all due respect and not trying to step on any toes, but the shady thing that appears to be going on here is the information your neighbor is giving you.

She is not telling you the whole story. If she has 2 liens on her from the HOA, then she is apparently not paying something.

You state that she said she is not paying the assessment fee because of an issue she thinks is wrong.

That sets off all sorts of flags. Homeowners who try to use assessment fees as leverage for an issue they don't like end up shooting themselves in the foot.

I don't know who advised her she can do that, but she can't. As she is finding out right now.

And, like all the others have stated, unless she has met face-to-face with either the collection attorney or the board to make arrangements to pay the outstanding amount due and owing in scheduled payments, they can and will, as she is discovering, refuse partial payments.

Also, are you trying to say that "assessments" and "monthly dues" are two separate things in your development? Or did I misread that. Because generally the terms "assessments" and "dues" are interchangeable and mean the same thing.

Our assessments (dues) are paid on an annual basis. One payment.

Other associations have the assessments (dues) on a quarterly or monthly schedule.

So if your assessments are monthly, then she has apparently gotten behind at some point (the point when she refused to pay over an issue??), and now expects them to accept her monthly payments without first paying what she is behind on.

There's also the issue of mis-addressing the envelopes.

One of our owners was mailing the assessment in (monthly), but the address information was not correct. He was sending his payments directly out of his bank account, which only allowed for a 3 line address. He contacted the association, re-addressed the association payment information with his bank, and all future payments have been received just fine. Association waived late fees.

The owner THOUGHT the association was returning his checks, but the association wasn't. The POST OFFICE was.

Has your neighbor indicated if there's any writing on the envelope when it comes back?

As an owner, I pay "dues", but it's really my assessment.

You all pay DUES and an ASSESSMENT????? How does that work? Is that common?

I agree with Glen.

I still also feel your neighbor is only giving you one side of the story, and it's the side that will leave her in a better light, while at the same time taking a swipe at the thorn in her side.

It would be in your best interest to stay out of it and request that she not keep you in the loop. It may get ugly and that would leave you in the uncomfortable position of "siding" with someone who has not been completely honest with you.

I realize that we don't like to think ill of our friends, and I'm not trying to imply she's a bad person, but this really does sound like a situation where she is in arrears and is trying to get out of it without it costing her any more than it already is costing her.

Again, that doesn't make her a bad person, telling the story in a way that makes her look like a victim. It's really human nature. But it really would be in your best interest to back away from it.

Are you on the Board? If you are, then call the management company and see why the checks are being returned. If you are not, then suggest that you can't help her and maybe she will call and see why her checks were returned.

Gloria,

There are no AZ state laws pertaining to collections. There are a few attorneys that my assn deals with who require payments to be made to them once the assn turns over a member's account. If the payment is sent to our mgmt co it is returned. The reason the attorney collects the payments is because he charges attorney's fees directly to the member. Members are notified via written letter prior to their account being turned over to collections (an attorney)and is informed that if payment is not made within XX# of days, all future payments and arrangements must be made with the attorney. Actually this is a more efficient way of doing it because the assn doesn't have to pay the attorney fees then worry about collecting them from delinquent members.