Huntington Continental – VOICEYOUR VOICE at the Huntington Continental!

HOA partial payment story – pre trial

HOA partial payment story – unfortunately the whole story was not presented at trial. The issues were much more sinister. Once your account is transferred to a collection attorney they run roughshod over you. They don’t follow the law, and don’t appear to care about anything. While we presented the most basic of documents there was much more to the story.

 

Note that there was a lot of additional evidence that was not taken to court. I have uploaded some of this evidence for download. Letters written to the HOA Board of Directors. Letters refused by the Board of Directors. Letters written to Pagano, the collection attorney. Letters included with each and every payment made. The sad part about this is just how many times have these tired old Judges ruled in Feldsott’s favor and have not followed the law? How many people have lost their homes because they could not fight a bad trial Judge ruling?

 

• Got behind on HOA payments
• Property manager was not sending invoices to my office (or condo)
• Condo had been rented for 8 years
• Attorney sent me letter they would sue me (march or april I think)
• Did not want to be sued so contacted attorney
• I NEVER requested any kind of a payment plan – NEVER, NONE
• Attorney’s assistant asked me how much I could pay
• I simply answered that I would pay $2000 to start (simply to answer the mans question)
• Apparently he sent me a payment plan in email. (never opened it)
• I sent simple letter to HOA management company saying I would make payments (not payment plan per se)
• “Payment plans” are contracts between you and the attorneys. There was no such plan.
• I made about $3500 in payments and asked for my accounting
• NO ONE would provide me with my accounting (very bizarre)
• I asked in several letters to the managers and HOA for my accounting (no one would give it to me)
• In December i received a letter – Attorney was asking for a default judgement!
• I immediately called attorney and asked what this was about.
• Never even knew there was a lawsuit! (why would attorney not contact me before default?)
• Attorney stated that I was served at condo by process server.
• I explained that I had not lived at the condo for 8 years, and had not been there in 3 years.
• Asked attorney to vacate judgement. She would not.
• Found that process server they use had been served for “gutter service” I have been contact by several people now
• I had lots of money in bank and just wanted to pay my assessments. Had asked for accounting for months.
• Asked for accounting and sent regular assessment payments.
• Still no one would give me line item accounting so I could see what I owed and what for.
• Attorney’s assistant was COOKING THE BOOKS!
• Because he was doing this sketchy accounting my debt was far above what I owed – he tried to force me to pay attorney fees and applied my payments to ATTORNEY FEES rather than to assessments!
• I have accounting background and calculated what I thought I owed
• I then sent that full amount to the HOA President – he accepted and sent me an email saying so
• About a week later I get letter from attorney with my check! She sent it back to me!
• Still had not been served with lawsuit.
• Paid my assessments if full, spreadsheet shows I overpaid
• Still I had not ever received my itemized accounting
• Sued association in small claims to get my accounting
• Finally at small claims hearing was was given my line item accounting
• Attorney’s assistant served me at small claims hearing for the foreclosure
• Effectively I paid my assessments in full way before I was ever served with legal action

 

Imagine that. Attorney fees and attorneys are the tail that wags the Association dog. I met with two board members who don’t know the law and had NEVER read the CC&Rs!

 

Old retired Judge Galvan was no paying much attention at the trial.

 

Feldsott continues to tell untruths on his website. NO PAYMENT PLAN WAS ENTERED INTO!

 

Payment plans are drawn up by attorneys and are effectively contracts. I simply wrote a letter to the management company stating I would make payments. I never saw nor did I sign Feldsott’s payment plan.

 

http://cahoalaw.com/appellate-court-to-weigh-in-on-partial-payments/

HOA partial payment story – index

HOA partial payment story – index

 

Work in progress…

 

This is long drawn out story of how miserable a nasty HOA Board of Directors and their even nastier collection attorneys can make you.

 

In a nutshell what I have found out in this multi-year process is that my HOA Board of Directors don’t know the laws or even the CCRs. I literally had a meeting at a coffee shop with two Board members who did not know the laws or even that I had won the appeal of the partial payment issue. They were there at the meeting because the law requires they be there. I attempted to explain the situation and try to come to an agreement on a new issue. They may as well have been farm animals that I was negotiating with.

 

At that point I finally realized the Board Members (at least on this board) are simply puppets of the HOA attorneys and management company. These people don’t know the laws or the regulations and just rubber stamp everything. As Board members they have a fiduciary duty to the HOA.

 

HOA collection attorneys are in business to make money, big money. You don’t make any money unless you have a client. You don’t make any “real” money writing attorney letters… so what do collection attorneys do? They advise the Board to collect of course. And this is how they make big money.

 

Here is my favorite quote from Felsott and Lee’s Collection Attorney website:

 

You can read it here for yourself – HOA COLLECTION PROCEDURES

 

“The major disadvantage to judicial foreclosure is that, as compared to the private sale, the judicial foreclosure is easier to contest. The owner need only file an answer. Of course, the prevailing party may recover attorney fees. Not too long ago, our office litigated a case where the attorney fees awarded and paid (trial and appeal) were more than $60,000 in a suit over $3,000 in assessments.”

 

I just love the part… of course the prevailing party may recover attorney fees, and I was just awarded $60,000 in a itty bitty lawsuit over just $3,000 in assessments – para phrased of course! Who benefited? The attorney or the HOA?

 

So… why are collection attorneys in business? To make money of course. How do they make money? They make money by REFUSING partial payments so they can litigate and pile on additional fees and costs! Of course!

 

The problem here is that ant is killed constantly by the elephant. Most owners are not simply withholding their payments, they can’t afford to make them. And if they can’t afford to make them, then they can’t afford an attorney. It appears to be a simple solution that one would be able to make just the assessment payments to stop foreclosure.

 

I can tell you the collection attorneys HATE the thought of this law being clarified. Feldsott’s own attorney stood up in court and stated: “your Honor, there is no law that we must accept partial payments”

 

Actually, if you read the law using it’s simple and common language that is EXACTLY what it states.

 

Back to the story… Is this system broken or what? In the Huntington Continental there are 450 people paying into an association with a Board of Directors who does not know the law and has not read their own CCRs! They then listen to some collection attorney who tell them to sue, keep suing, appeal, appeal the appeal and win at any cost. The board rejects a payment in full from a homeowner (because the attorneys SECRET contract tells the board that the attorney will make all decisions) and attorney attempts to squash the homeowner like a bug, take his house, and get paid $60,000 on a $3,000 collection? Effectively you yourself are paying the fees for the collection attorney who is there to steal your house over an insignificant assessment bill! There is no better racket than being a collection attorney and they is why they don’t want you to make partial payments to stop foreclosure. When their target is your secured asset, your home, they see a pot of gold at the end and will litigate until you lose everything. They don’t follow the law, and they don’t care about the law. Why? Because the only way to make them follow the law is to go to court, and they are ATTORNEYS using your HOAs money, that you paid in, to fight YOU. It just does not get any better than that.

 

The root of the problem are the people elected to the Board of Directors.

 

Back to the story…