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Our HOA sent us a letter that arrived March 11 saying if we don't pay by the 12th, they're putting a lien on our house. The letter is dated March 2nd, was mailed several days later from several states away. We didn't receive any prior notification in form of writing or phone call, but the letter states we have. Obviously, I will call tomorrow and arrange payment, but how on earth can they be allowed to do this? Aren't there any laws protecting us from HOAs? Seriously... one day's notice that a lien is going to be put on your home?
I think there needs to be more information in this. Are you late on the Association Fees? Ultimately Associations do have such power as they rely on the income from the Homeowners to pay for the sharaed amenities that Associations provide.
For example in our HOA (18 unit Condominium building) there is one unit that the HO has defaulted on mortgage and is not occupying the unit anymore. They are 2 months behind on dues including late fees assessed. We are having a board meeting here in a week to discuss it, but we will file for a lien to protect the income that we are losing from that owner.
Every association is different, but that is kind of how ours works.
Our HOA sent us a letter that arrived March 11 saying if we don't pay by the 12th, they're putting a lien on our house. The letter is dated March 2nd, was mailed several days later from several states away. We didn't receive any prior notification in form of writing or phone call, but the letter states we have. Obviously, I will call tomorrow and arrange payment, but how on earth can they be allowed to do this? Aren't there any laws protecting us from HOAs? Seriously... one day's notice that a lien is going to be put on your home?
You must have a copy of your HOA by-laws and a payment schedule. What date was your yearly HOA payment due? If its like our HOA here in Houston, they were due by January 31st. Those fees go directly for the upkeep of the complex. Grass, flowers, club house, electric, pool, and in our case, security all have to be paid. All of these expenses keep going whether the HOA payments are received or not. When payments are late, it means that the people that are employed by the HOA and the expenses incurred are in danger of not getting paid. HOA can't just turn off services for non-payment so liens are a great motivator in getting the fees paid on time.
It is late, but we wrote a check to them in Jan. We checked online and it was never cashed. Either it was never mailed and lost, or it was lost in the mail. If we'd had some sort of notification before, we would have just paid immediately. Instead, they've added $75 of charges and are now threatening us. I just can't believe that they have this right. I'm calling today to pay it, but I'm not one to sit around and be bullied like this by an HOA. I just can't imagine that there is nothing to protect a homeowner from this. Imagine if we'd been sick and didn't get to our mailbox for a couple of days!
That is a little steep to throw a lien letter right away. The only reason we are preparing the info for our issue is because we know the dues aren't going to be paid as owner is AWAL. In your case they should have followed up thouroghly prior to this letter.
Yes, in the state of Texas they can take your home away from you. You should take this very seriously. The HOA lobby, so far, has been successful in getting the Legislature to give them the power to take people's homes away and Govenor Goodhair has signed every bill.
In the DFW area, there is an ongoing story on WFAA of a family that's taken over the HOA board of one community. They raised the rates and are demanding special adjustments with one week notice. So far, they've kicked out several families and bought their homes at bargain prices. The inference is this family wants to develop the property for their own gain.
DON'T LET THIS SLIDE!! Pay the bill and the late fee. THEN research why the check didn't clear. Talk to an attorney later if you feel like you should be reimbursed on the late fee, but it sounds like you've got an aggressive board. Start asking questions of your neighbors. Attend the next board meeting and find out what's going on.
(Hopefully, your HOA board is not holding secret meetings like mine is. We have to ask permission to be allowed to attend the offsite meetings. If they don't like what you want to discuss, they won't tell you the location of the meeting. Yes, it's wrong and yes, they are legally getting away with it. Currently, there is no legal recourse if a board decides to do these types of shenanigans.)
The Legislature is in session this year. There are a couple bills to limit HOA power, so it would pay off to contact your Representatives and the Lt. Governor that you support these bills.
We took over rental management for a property a few years back that has high dues ($600 per year). The initial HOA dues were paid when the owner bought the property. Somewhere about a year later, we called up the HOA to ask a question about something and they freaked out, telling us that the dues hadn't been paid, and they were over 6 months late. We had never seen a bill (we don't usually see HOA bills, they go to the owners), so we contacted the owner, who had also never received a bill.
At our request, the HOA sent us the bill, along with about $500 in late fees and penalties. We argued with them about it, since they had not made any effort to find the right person to send the bill to. Our signs had been in the yard to find a tenant, and the owners name and address are in the public record. They could have found either the owner or us with an absolute minimum of work. They refused to give on it, and threatened to lien the property if the fees and fines weren't paid in full. The owner opted to pay rather than take them to court.
HOAs can have a lot of power, or practically none at all, depending on the people in charge.
It's just insane. This is the HOA for our rental property in Arizona. Fortunately, our HOA in Austin isn't nearly as crazy. In fact, they rarely fine and don't do much about late payments from what I've heard. The manager said she'd submit our dispute to the board at the next meeting. I wrote back and explained that giving less than 24 hours before putting a lien on someone's home isn't sufficient, and that we'd like a response to this and some sort of assurance that they would at least call or send a certified letter next to make sure we know and have adequate time to pay. I haven't received a response about that yet. You would think that after over three years of paying on time every time, they would assume the best... not the worst!
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