I'm so pissed. Got notice yesterday that the HOA has retained an attorney and has filed a lein against our property for unpaid Association fees. We have sent two different letters to the Association that these are not our fees. We purchased our home 5 years ago, after multi-bkpts releted to business. We did a two year lease purchase with the builder, who also happened to be the Pres of the HOA at that time. In the agreement, we neg. for the Builder to pay the HOA fees for the two year lease. When we went to close in 24 months, the closing attorney deducted the first $200 for that spring fee. In October, we paid the second $200 for that year. Spring came and we paid the $200 for that spring. Went down to pick up the keys for the tennis court and pool area, and we find out that the fees for the first two years we leased were not paid and the fees we had been paying we being applied to the arreages for the past two years. We kept current on our fees intil the fall of last year. We refused to pay the HOA until this matter had been resloved. Now they have slapped a lein on our property with a thirthy day demand letter. Do I send the Attorney a vald. letter or what. Any advice? Oh yea, we also have our house on the market, recon that sped up the process?
They never sent you a notice til NOW?! Are you facing these people or are you hiding from them? If you are trying to avoid them then they will prey on you like vultures. Stand up for yourself and ask them to show you.
Mega, Do you have the agreement regarding the builder paying 2 years of HOA dues in writing? If that is the case, you should get a payment history from the business office and show that to the attorney. Since you didn't "own" the property during the first two years, you should not be held accountable for the dues. Ask him/her to remove the lien based on this evidence as well as your pledge to become current. I would also show a copy of that info (agreement and payment history) to the original owner -- he must have bought a new house, so he's easy to track down! Worst case, you may have to file suit against him for the money. The mistake you made is that you stopped paying the dues. It probably looked like a "here we go again" to the HOA. You said you stopped paying the HOA until the matter was resolved, but your issue is not with the HOA, it's with the guy you made the deal with. That's between you and him, the HOA just looks at their books and says "We didn't recieve payment from Lot XX". So not paying the HOA is not very prudent. When did you find out about this? When did they stop giving you pool passes? My HOA will not give you pool passes unless you are completely current on your dues -- so I can't understand how this went on for 5 years. One thing for sure, you do need to get this fixed, because you WILL NOT be able to sell your house until that lien is taken care of. And as long as you don't pay, they can continue to take liens out on the additional amounts. **Disclaimer, I am President of a HOA that is part of a bigger HOA. My HOA does not do the liens (the bigger HOA does all the legal stuff, including collecting dues). However, I have sat in on these meetings and they even had the attorney come in to explain the "collections" process. So I know how many steps it takes to get to the lien stage. HOAs DO NOT want to be lienholders, that's the last resort for them -- only thing worse is going for Foreclosure. This may not help you, but it's the truth as far as I know it. Don't know where you live, but in MD - they don't even have to contact you before they get the lien. Not....
We have never received the keys to the pool area, this has been ongoing. We didn't know about the problem until last year when we went to receive the pool keysand were advised that we were behind on our dues. We have no children at home, so we had not been using the pool, and had not received any notice from them. We immediatly sent the treasury a letter with a copy of the closing statement where our dues were tendered in at closing and a copy of the lease agreement showing the builder as paying the fees until we closed. Didn't hear anything until the spring of this year and was showing an arrearage of over $2200 with late fees and intrest. We contacted the new treasury with the same information, and to please advise. We also send a copy of the letter to the Builder. Never heard from the HOA again until the letter came in from the attorney. So, if I understand you right, we should not have stopped paying our fees. If we tender in the amount now, they just apply it to the arreage, not current. Is that your advice? Thanks for all your help. Roni
From what I've read/heard HOAs are basically jurisdictions in themselves. They have their own laws and don't have to follow federal or local laws. I've heard HORRENDOUS stories about HOAs and personally wouldn't want to live where there was one. They can go bad QUICK! We're actually in the process of selling our current home and looking for a new one and let me tell you people around here LOVE their HOAs, I can't find a house that is in a subdivion without one (except the house we're in now lol). I would try to explain to them that this isn't yours and show them copies of the agreement (provided you have that) and then PRAY really hard that they accept that. Or go get you an atty, you'll need it. I would rather fight a crooked CA than an HOA! LOL Good Luck to you! Sorry I wasn't much help!
I would ask for a copy of the payment history on your house. Look at the period prior to your leasing the property up to now and you should be able to tell where the lapse is. If it is during your lease period, then you have the builder dead to rights, legally - as you have a signed contract with him. Might be time for a lawyer. With regards to your HOA, I said you shouldn't have stopped paying them because they are not privy to your agreements with the builder. They don't get copies of your lease (until you sent it to them). Think about it from their side for a second -- you are the legal owner of the house, they have a legit gripe regarding your house -- who would you go after? They aren't trying to get involved in what occurs between the previous owner and you. Their just looking at the balance sheet. At the end of the day, someone is going to have to bring the account current. Unfortunately, you are now legally responsible for this account. What I really can't understand is how you can pay your dues without getting an invoice from the HOA. How do you know how much to pay? The HOA dues haven't increased in 3 years? Don't they give you a statement of account? If none of these things have happened and your only notification is a letter from a lawyer -- it may be time to visit one of those HOA meetings and state your case. You can ask for statements/reminders to be sent out (its not like they don't know where you live). I think you have a legit complaint about not being notified about your account status... But as I said earlier, your complaint is not with the HOA, but with the builder and not paying your dues to the HOA is only hurting your case with them.
We have never received the keys to the pool area, this has been ongoing. We didn't know about the problem until last year when we went to receive the pool keysand were advised that we were behind on our dues. We have no children at home, so we had not been using the pool, and had not received any notice from them. We immediatly sent the treasury a letter with a copy of the closing statement where our dues were tendered in at closing and a copy of the lease agreement showing the builder as paying the fees until we closed. Didn't hear anything until the spring of this year and was showing an arrearage of over $2200 with late fees and intrest. We contacted the new treasury with the same information, and to please advise. We also send a copy of the letter to the Builder. Never heard from the HOA again until the letter came in from the attorney. So, if I understand you right, we should not have stopped paying our fees. If we tender in the amount now, they just apply it to the arreage, not current. Is that your advice? Thanks for all your help. Roni
Dear Megasun, If you do make any payments from now on be sure to attach a letter specifying which period this pmt. is to cover, (as opposed to them applying to arrears). Also reference the letter in the memo portion of your check. They are required to post your pmt to wherever you specify. And I'd do everything CRRR from now on. Good Luck, B.
ATLMON...Don't you know it, if the house isn't in a HOA in Atlanta, forget about selling. We have lived in them for the past 15 years, but, never one like this. We have submitted a copy of the SIGNED lease agreement with the Builder and a copy of the closing settlement statement to the HOA. Their response was that even though we had not closed on the property, we had a contract obligation as lessee for the amoun the Builder defaulted on. I mean, is the worth hiring an attorney for, $2200 or just bring them current of the whole amount?
Atlmom, For every bad story you hear, there are dozens of good stories that you don't hear. Most of the time when I hear complaints about the HOA, it's because a resident's request was denied, or they did something without authorization and got slapped on the wrist. No one talks about how many residents the HOA has helped. I wasn't satisfied with my HOA, so I got involved -- went to the meetings, spoke on issues that I felt benefited the community. My perception was not that the board did a bad job, I just couldn't see what they were doing. It didn't occur to me to wonder who cut the grass in our common areas, who picked up my trash, who plowed the street in front of my house when it snowed. Now I know, and I know how much those contracts cost, and I know where the money from dues goes. No one that sits on a HOA board gets paid, they do it because they care about the community they live in and want to make sure that it stays as nice and as safe as possible. When your neighbor decides to turn their backyard into a car repair lot, who do you call? When they decide to cement their entire front lawn, who do you call? If your neighbor's house hasn't been kept up and all the wood is rotting and shutters are falling off, who do you call? (I got this call 2 weeks ago)... In the world we live in today, most of us don't even know our neighbors, much less try to confront them with an issue. So the HOA will play the bad guy, but everyone knows the rules when they move in. When you put a contract on a house, you have to receive the HOA documents prior to closing, which gives you a chance to back out of the deal if you can't swallow some of the HOA guidelines. Trust me, I wasn't pro-HOA when I bought my house (having never lived in an area that had one). My wife fell in love with the house and there was nothing in the HOA guidelines that I couldn't swallow, so we had no problem. I also talked to a couple of people on my street (with the better looking houses) to ask them what they thought about the area, the HOA, etc. I suggest everyone be active in their HOA -- it's there for you! One of the problems that most HOA's have is lack of participation from the residents. There are 175 houses my development -- if we get 10 people (including the board) at a meeting, that is a good turnout. Your HOA board doesn't have all the answers, but residents need to be proactive sometimes. **End of my "Support your HOA" message!
LOL I've lived in an HOA neighborhood before and my Aunt currently resides in one both were/are run by old busybodies and personally i want nothing to do with it! LOL Then you have my mom who lives in a very NICE HOA, they don't have much jurisdiction over things and let people do as they choose. It's nice, that's fine I just don't want who wants me to pay $500+ a year for a pool (that we won't even use, we're planning on getting a private pool) and to keep the neighbors from putting pink plastic flamingos in the front yard. I can understand having them up north, to shovel snow or whatnot, but why spend $500 a year for nothing???? Besides most are run by big business, and well I'm NO FAN of big biz..sorry LOL I just don't want ANYONE telling me what type of fence i can put up, when I can put a flag out if I choose (or if I can at all). I dunno, call me crazy, but I'm an adult I'm pretty sure I know that pink flamingos aren't the best idea for lawn ornaments lol (ok ok ok you're right, there ARE adults out there who don't know but hey, why should we all be punished?) Besides do you REALLY think you should give THAT much power to someone who doesn't even know you?? Hmmmmm I wouldn't give my mother that much power over me.....Maybe I have issues then LOL But I will agree that some are VERY helpful....but then there are some that are in it for the profit (which can be VERY large if you think about it).... JMNSHO! ;-)
IT SHOULD BE "SPELLED OUT" ON THE PURCHASE CONTRACT...EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAID FOR... The day you signed for everything...100+/- pages...
Megasun, Maybe sue the builders??? Small Claims...or just get a hold of them. I would try that first......sorry I can't remember if you had tried that yet or not....I would definately find an atty though, I wouldn't want a lein and I wouldn't want to pay $2200 that wasn't mine. But I'm cheap! LOL Take Care and let us know how it turns out!
Atlmom, I can assure you that I am neither old nor a busybody In fact I'm a 30 year old business owner. I'm also President & CEO of a national non-profit scholarship organization. Besides that I have a beautiful wife of 6 years with a 4 year old son and a 1 1/2 year old daughter. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of time to go around counting pink flamingos -- however, having grown up in Ft. Lauderdale, I can say that pink flamingos are cool (in moderation Seriously, it's a personal choice for everyone to decide if the drawbacks of a HOA outweigh the benefits. You may have no choice, as most newer developments come "ready made" with a HOA. I just wanted to show an "insider" view of an HOA... "We're big, We're Bad..we're you HOA!!!" ROFLMAO!
ROFL Hurricane! Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you were old LOL just those 2 HOAs were like that (one was a cluster home community, the other condos). Actually we were looking into building in a sub. that has a very LARGE HOA (the fees are $500/yr) but they don't seem to be busybodies My original post had a point, I swear it really did! LOL it was that most HOAs aren't regulated by federal, state or local laws, they are their own 'judge & jury' So it's harder to fight them, IF you get a bad one that won't budge on a certain issue. 20/20 did a report earlier this year on HOAs I'm sure that it will be rebroadcast later on this month, check for it on ABC it has a lot of info (good and bad). I've never been particular to HOAs, course I've never been particular to master-on-main either but we're lookin' at one! LOL Take Care!
Hey think you can get me a scholarship? ROFL I don't want those evil student loans LOL trying to figure out how to pay $13K+ a year........ BTW-my kids are the same age(s) as yours! but I'm a little younger...sorry! LOL had to throw that in! :Ã?
No need to make this personal! One day you'll be 30 (probably next month) and you will feel how traumatic it is! Just kidding... I'm having a ball, and in 5 more years, I can run for President! Until the next time...
I think that you will find that the HOA doesn't care that that party that was going to pay on your behalf did not. It is YOUR property, so you are resonsible for the payment. I'd first contact the builder and demand they immediately honor their payment promise. If they don't, then you should pay off the HOA dues, and then sue the builder for breech of contract to get reimbursed. The agreement between you and the builder has nothing do to with the HOA, unless they also agreed to such a payment arrangement. Therefore, they should not have to suffer because of the failure of the builder to pay on your behalf. The same sort of thing happens to people who co-sign loans. When the debtor fails to to pay as agreeded, they get ticked off when the creditor looks to them for payment. Good luck.
