HOA Dues unpaid

Hello, I am a new HOA President this year. Our HOA has been pretty inactive for the past 8 to 10 years. We have not had a full board of directors or officers for the past 8 to 10 years and little has been done to collect on unpaid dues. Our dues are $50 a year and many homeowners have not paid in over 5 years. I have been told that some homeowners have never paid because of things that the developer promised years ago and never carried through on. Nonetheless, that doesn't change the fact that these dues need to be paid. We have 122 homes, 20 people have not paid, 10 of those have not paid in over 3 years or more. This year we have all of our officers and have taken the necessary steps to rebuild our HOA. I would appreciate any advice that you have to help us collect on these dues. We have talked with a collection agency and even our by-laws state that we can file a lien on their property for unpaid assessments, which we plan to do. My concern is that I feel many people will not take us seriously about the collection process we will take since little has been done in the past to hold people accountable. I wonder if having a one-on-one with each person that is past due would be acceptable. Being a new president, I want to help increase involvement and support for the HOA that has been lost over the years.

Hi Ellora, it’s great that you are serving on your board and trying to bring your HOA current. I think you’re on the right track and Tish has given you good advice.

There is, however, much advice regarding this subject already on this site. Left click on “Search” at the upper left part of this page. Type in “Delinquent dues”, then left click on the Search button. Previous posts on this subject with solutions by other posters will quickly come up. There is lots of information on this subject here. From there you may have some more specific questions. Good luck!

Is this a voluntary HOA?

Kelly,

You said, " If I'd been ignored or had money taken and seen no results, I'd hesitate to pay the HOA as well without knowing your plan." That is certainly not grounds for nonpayment of assessments. In fact, there are NO GROUDS for nonpayment of assessments. Read your CCRs. I'm sure you will not find a clause which states what the grounds for nonpayment of assessments are. But you will find a clause which says each property owner(member) is obligated to pay assessments.

Thank you all for the advice. To answer this question... our HOA is not voluntary. Everyone that lives in the subdivision is subject to the assessments. Kelly, I believe you are right that most of the people that are not paying for several years are doing so based on principles of some kind. I appreaciate the advice of giving a grace period. While I certainly want to take the necessary steps to be fair and collect the dues, I also think it's important to build a relationship if possible with everyone. I will search for additional information on this site as well! Great advice. Thank you!