Hi Folks,

I'm curious to the reaction/response that road associations have received from property owners that have been delinquent in paying their dues when:

a) received notification of intent to file a lien

b) once a lien has been placed on their property.

Thanks,

Gary Nihan

Woods Lake Association

With regard to denying the right to vote to delinquent members, I think the analogy to denying a taxpayer the right to vote if there's a lien on his property is a pretty long stretch.  I would expect that your by-laws could include that proviso and all members, having adopted the by-laws, would be bound by them.  And, of course, a right guaranteed by Federal law isn't nearly as easily abridged. 

I think that both points may be argued and a court might have to decide. But Todd is probably correct in that denying the vote may have potentially more harmful consequences than allowing all to vote under any circumstances.   

Gary Nihan wrote:I'm curious to the reaction/response that road associations have received from property owners that have been delinquent in paying their dues when:

a) received notification of intent to file a lien

b) once a lien has been placed on their property.

Thanks, Gary Nihan

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a) We were recently successful in collecting 3 years delinquent dues from a member who was threatened with a lien if not fully paid within 30 days. He paid 1 years back dues and she unfortunately told him the debt was cleared. Not what our By-Laws say!! Then the President left the state and I took over. I told him she had no authority to do that and that he still owed 2 years back dues or else a lien. He came up with 1 years dues and his friend paid the other. That made him current. 

Our By-Laws also call for a $25 monthly late fee which would have amounted to about a total of $2,600 dollars. Due to circumstances beyond his control, the late fee was forgiven but he didn't know it at the time. We gave him a 'potential' total cost plus legal fees and when he saw what it might cost him if he did pay up, he found that money pretty quick. (We didn't tell him that the late fee was forgiven until he had paid up though.)

b) We did have one member who did not pay up a few years back and the previous Board did put a lien on the home. The home was later foreclosed on. The buyer had to pay the non-paid dues, along with all legal fees that were incurred by the Association at the auction of the home. Had it not been foreclosed on, the unpaid expenses and dues would have been deducted from the sale of the house.

Liens work and threats of liens produce results most of the time if people are concerned about their credit. Also, letting all the members know that a house has a lien on it encourages wavering and procrastinators to keep up with their dues.

They may not like the pressure but you have to keep in mind that they brought it upon themselves and they created the hard feelings if any.