SB-1494
Thank you for your work on the various Arizona HOA bills. I agree that the monetary threshold on SB-1494 seems to be unfounded. We have a homeowner who hasn’t paid dues in 2 years but still only owes about $5000. I honestly think 12 months behind was sufficient. We’ve been going through the foreclosure hurdles for almost a year (since she reached the 1 year threshold). As a board member, I already feel that collecting late hoa payments is almost impossible.
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I understand you situation a have this advice. You did not have to wait for the year. The law has two triggers. Including the $1200 limit. You could foreclose the home if either of those triggers were exceeded. Has the homeowner responded to any communications? Has a payment plan been negotiated. While you have foreclosure authority you can also seek a monetary judgement for the lien and with that garnish wages and financial assets or attach property like a car and then sell the car to pay the debt. Homeowners are unconditionally obligated under the community documents to pay assessments and as long as the association acts reasonable and fairly the court will honor your rights to collect that debt. This is not a gain that homeowners can play , but if they chose to play a gain they proceed at their own peril. What find is that the association only wants to get what is owed but association attorneys see this as an opportunity to make unlimited income in this process. I’ve seen cases of $500 of delinquent assessments and$10,000 of collections costs from the attorney.This is absolutely wrong and inappropriate for any association to promote. If the board is so stupid to allow their attorney to bill $10,000 to collect $500 then they deserve every thing that they get. The board has a duty to treat homeowners fairly and And reasonably in exercising their right to collect assessments. This will always work to protect associations rights to collect assessments as long as they treat homeowners fairly and reasonably.
Dennis
Thank you for your reply Dennis. We are working with an Arizona law firm that specializes in HOA issues. We’ve been providing the homeowner with the various notifications and payment options. The major issue there i that the homeowner refuses to speak with us. The homeowner won’t answer her phone, email or texts and refuses to even answer the door if we knock on it. We have been relegated to communicating via certified mail. The homeowner has been in various states of arrears since the homeowner first bought the unit 5 years ago.
You are correct in that the last thing we want is to go through the foreclosure process but we can’t just do nothing when someone doesn’t pay HOA dues for 2 years. Believe it or not, the situation has actually gotten worse and more complicated. The homeowner had a fire destroying most of her unit. We are now working with the police, fire depart, insurance companies and lawyers to sort out the mess.
You mentioned controlling the attorney fees. How exactly does one do that? Our homeowner owes about $6K and the attorney estimated that his fees will be about $5K. Is does seem like a lot, but what other choice do we have?
Finally, I did have a question as far as the “1 year” trigger. What exactly marks the start of that 1 year? If a homeowner makes a few payments a year, can they avoid that trigger?
Thanks again for your hard work.