Question regarding compliance/processing fees
We recently received a “first letter notice” regarding an open garage door violation. We forgot to close our garage door after walking our dog. However, we shut the garage door immediately upon receiving the notice and, based on the time stamp on the photo we shut the garage door within 1 hour of the photo being taken. There was no indication in this notice that we were going to be assessed this fee.
We thought that was the end of it until we saw that we were being assessed a $5 compliance fee for the cost of the notice. We were then told that this was a “processing fee.”
We were subsequently advised that this is a common practice and that a processing fee is not appealable and this fee was to cover the cost of the notice to the managing agent. Our questions:
Is this practice normal for HOA’s? We thought that if the problem (in this case a minor one) was corrected that would be the end of it with normal HOAs.
Aren’t these first notices something that is already expected out of the managing agent in what they are already being paid without having to reimburse them for these notices?
Thank you.
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Tom
This is the first that I’ve heard of this type of fee, but you can be assured that if one management company is doing it, it will not be long before all of them are doing the same thing. All of this comes from the contracts that associations sign with the management companies. Those contracts are the ways these management companies gouge these communities because most boards don’t even bother to read them. You have to understand that management companies are about making the most money for doing the least amount of work. While the base rate is what most people look at many of these companies actually do very little under those base per door rates, all of their money is made by the endless menu of fees for everything. This is one of their fees. You can be sure that if such a fee structure exist a management company employee will be walking around your community daily to generate this income. The key is since the situations like this are totally instantaneous and will never actually result in a challengeable fine they have nothing to lose and could make hundreds of dollars a day for the cost of postage to mail out the notice of violation. You need to raise this issue to the attention of the board at your next board meeting and ask them is this the way they want the management company treating the homeowners in this community? Did the board intend to incentivize the management company to harass the residents of the community and do they intent do anything to correct this.
Dennis