$5 Violation Fee
Dennis
Associa is our new mgmt company for our HOA. They recently emailed out a bunch of “first notices” – aka violation notices.
I noticed that they charge each member a $5 “COMPFEE” for each notice they email out (for free).
Would that “COMPFEE” be a violation of ARS 33-1803, or can they legitimately charge that independently since it’s not technically a fee for violation, but, rather a fee for “processing” the violation notice?
And what if the “First Notice” turns out to be bogus? Does a homeowner have any recourse to get back his $5 fee? Or is this just guaranteed money-printing for unscrupulous mgmt companies?
Tx!
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One more ditty…. they do not inform or notice members of the $5 fee. It just secretly shows up on your ledger. That should never be allowed by law.
The potential for abuse is huge. After a $5 is charged, then any member paying their Assessments who may not know about it, will have that $5 paid first and so they’ll then be delinquent on their assessments, which is something Associa can charge more fees/penalties for and ultimately lien your house. Crazy. Nasty.
The law clearly establishes a payment hierarchy for any payment of money from a homeowner to the association. Any money paid must be applied first to delinquent assessments and then to current assessments. The association cannot apply any payment to fees or charges prior to satisfying any assessment obligations. While this has been abused excessivley it was the primary focus of my legislation in 2023 to address these association tricks.
Dennis