Eviction of Undesirable Renters of Delinquent Homeowners

We are a very small HOA of only 30 homes and a renter was put in one of the homes a couple of years ago by the owners, who have not payed HOA dues for 5 years. The homeowners moved to another state and we had no record of who was in the home. Of course, the homeowners ignore all the statements we sent to them out of town, and the renters have become a nuisance. They have actually trespassed on my property, banging on my door late at nite, called the police on my family and I, with false reports that we try to run over their children when we drive on to our driveway to come home. It dies down a while and then suddenly will have police show up our door. We even were taken to court to defend ourselves and the judge threw it out of court, at least someone had common sense. We are being harrassed by these neighbors and it's like that Gardenview Terrace movie with Samuel L. Jackson! Being a small community with limited funds, I have gone to talk to a HOA attorney already about pursuing delinquent homeowners, but it has taken the HOA a long time to build the HOA fees up to a decent amount to just pay the necessities. We started off only paying 25.00 a month, and if half don't pay, which is what happened, then we don't even have money to take them to court. The only way we really had a little cushioning is because several homes were foreclosed in the past 2 years and we collected year in advance at closing, thank goodness! My question is, how the heck do I legally get this crazy neighbor evicted? He has also gone around saying he is with the Police officer reserve, which , in court, found out it was a lie. We do fear for our lives, as we do think they are truly crazy, and they live only 3 doors up from us. I am on the Board of HOA for 5 years now, the neighborhood was fine until this crazy moved in. Being that the homeowners live out of state, and they have ignored the statement for 5 years, I'm sure they will ignore an eviction procedure? What is our best route? I am looking now into the state law of Arizona. Has anyone had this problem before?

We had a similar situation. Delinquent and bitter homeowner did a deal under the table with a real estate agent and as a result, none of the HOA required paperwork was filled out for approval of the renter. We did what was called a "constructive eviction" because it is VERY difficult in AZ to evict someone if they are not the owner or the owner who does not want to evict them. We passed a stern NO Trespassing rule and had a fancy sign made which stated PRIVATE PROPERTY and that neither the vehicles or pedestrians could enter the property and we cited an Arizona Statute directly on the sign which is now clearly posted at our entry. The lousy renters parked across the street in a public lot and entered the property through the back, but they realized that this was no way to live so they caved and moved but not without great legal expense and aggravation. By the way, the owner of the property is now being foreclosed on!We really should report the agent to the Board of Realtors and still might do it except she had a live in with a police record and that makes us nervous!

Cheryl,

As others have said, you need to file a lien immediately. The fact that the owners have moved out of state is meaningless. If you don't have their current address you can do a search on the Co assessor's website for that info. All you need is the parcel number of the property which should be a quite easy task especially since the house is only 2 doors away. The numbers run consecutively. For example, if the last three digits of your parcel number is 123 and this house is 2 doors away then the last three digits of that parcel number is most likely 120 or 126. Go to the co assessors website at www.maricopa.gov -- click on "tax information" then on "parcel inquiry". Enter the parcel number and click on "tax bill address" and the billing address will appear. Send any violation notices, delinquent assessment notices and lien notices to that address.

Regarding the problems you are having with the renters, they appear to be civil matters and not something the HOA would be involved in. However, if they are also violating the covenants then violation notices should be sent to them and also to the prop. owner. Actually the prop owner is resp. for the actions of his tenants but the tenants should be aware of what covenants they are violating.

As a board member you should impress upon the BOD the fact that they should have a collection policy in effect -- and stick to it and should also consider adopting a rental policy.

Collection policy: would outline the steps to be taken to collect delinquent assessments.

Rental policy: would state the requirements made of a prop owner who wishes to rent his property, i.e. provide assn with a copy of the signed lease; provide the tenant with copies of the assn's covenants; restrict occupancy and term of lease; provide assn with prop owners current mailing address; provide assn with copy of City sales tax license (if required) and assn should provide prop owner with copy of the State application for "Notification of AZ Residential Rental Property" (state requirement for property tax). My assn requires the prop owner to sign a "Rental Control Agreement" certifying that the prop owner has furnished the tenant with copies of the community documents; that the tenant has agreed to be bound by the community documents and that the prop owner accepts resp. for the tenants' violation of the community documents." If the prop owner fails to sign the rental control agreement then they are issued a violation notice the same as for any other CCR violation.

FYI, the HOA statutes can be found at the legislature's website at:

www.azleg.state.az.us

Click on Legislative Council then on State Statutes. Go to Title 33 and scroll down to Chapter 16 - Planned Communities. I would suggest you copy each of the statutes -- ARS 33-1801 thru 1816, put them in a binder, read and become familiar with them. These are the state laws which HOAs must abide by.