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…