Posting Delinquent Homeownwers

Yes ---- you should never disclose any financial information about a homeowner. Only discuss financial information about a homeowner in executive session, never in an open meeting.

PedroC,

It appears you have already gotten the advice that I once got on this same subject. I didn’t know what else to do, I figured (as someone else had mentioned) I figured it would embarrass them. Yes, it probably would but………. Really that isn’t your job as a board member and you should devote all that energy into collecting the delinquent assessments.
This discussion forum is full of previously written posts, suggestions and advice pertaining too delinquent HOA assessment. Use the search box in the right hand corner of the page for help in finding them.
I will continue looking myself and will post what I find for you.

Best of luck

Chuck W.

PedroC,

Here is another previously discussion that will help you as it has helped me.

(What are all of the steps to take to collect dues?) Copy and paste this into the search box above.

Good luck

Chuck W.

Harold,

The Idea is not that they will necessarily be embarrassed; it's more a way to put a little more peer pressure. Additionally, the actual amounts would not be posted, just the homeowner's name and property. This information will only be available to homeowners through the password protected section of our site. We already go through the legal remedies and they are expensive and have not yielded much success in the sense that they are a long term action as far as liens are concerned. We have also try going through small claims and we often do not get the legal fees in the judgment.

As BOD members we owe it to the rest of the community to do as much as possible to collect all the money which is due to the association. It is also unfair to those who follow the rules, that violators are not carrying their fair share.

Pedro.

Pedro,

You are going about this the wrong way. When a homeowner is delinquent in assessment, it is between the Board and the Homeowner. It is not the business of the other homeowners, and "peer" pressure should not be even considered.

If you post the name of a delinquent homewner for the rest of the homeowners to see, you are probably violating the law in your state, and inviting legal action.

My suggestions:

1. Follow your state laws, your CC&R's, and Rules regarding assessment collection.
2. Contact an HOA attorney if you're unsure.
3. Do not disclose any names of delinquent people or their amounts due.
4. Only discuss delinquencies in executive "closed" session.
5. Don't keep looking for the answer you want to hear. Heed the advice of others on this forum.
6. Re-read 1 through 5.

Pedro, I understand your frustration with delinquent homeowners, the threshold to post the names I would use - I would only do it after a lien is filed (that's public information anyway). Looking at old newsletters our Association used to print the names of delinquent homeowners when the developer was in charge. We do not, however I remind everyone that the information is available on the county court's web site. I do not know if the "public humiliation" will provide the results you are looking for. Some people get in trouble and do their best to do the right thing; these people would be hurt by the posting. Others are dead beats who IMHO would look at it as a badge of distinction.

If you decide to post; have the BOD set the policy in writing and have your attorney make sure it's not in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act. Then I would publicize what you intend to do a couple of months before you implement it to give people a chance to get caught up and allow feedback from the community, then:

1. Apply it evenly and fairly, every time & for every one. (If a homeowner gets in a bind, medical problems, lost job etc. we will work out a repayment plan and as long as they stick to it, we put a hold on the collection process. If you post I wouldn't make any exceptions as it may leave you open for a law suit.)

2. Make D*** sure you have the right information before you post someone's name. (i.e R. Meijer may owe the assessment and you post R. Meyer by mistake. If I were R. Meyer I'd come after you in a heartbeat.)

Folks, Pedro isn't looking for advice. He doesn't even follow paid attorney advice. He wants rationale and approval for what he wants to do. Good luck to him. Harold

I would put a # of delinquent account, but don't point fingers. Some people have bad money management. Just be polite and don't point fingers. My wife and I had the money for our dues but just forgot to send it in on time. I would be mad if someone had pointed us out that we were not responable to make payment. Their might also be reason why these homeowners are delinquent and the board members and the homeowners need to work the issue out. The only thing that you could possibly do is when you file in court to collect, then this is public information but I warned that you don't post this on your website, cause it will just cause bad blood between the board members and the homeowners.

Let's say you do post the name and addresses or other info of the homeowner and another owner decides to do something stupid (reprisal/vandalism)...guess who I would name in a lawsuit for damages...the HOA for giving out the info without which the vigilante would not have been able to act! hmmmmmm.

This issue is between the HOA and the owner NOT the other owners. Yes the other owners are impacted short term HOWEVER the HOA gets interest/penalties to cover those additional costs and isn't out of pocket anything once the account has been paid back in full, even if that is when the home is sold the HOA gets all its money.

Pedro, do not publically post delinquent homeowners anywhere. Instead develop policies and procedures for collections. Following is an example:

Rules and Regulations on Delinquent Assessments

Assessments are delinquent when payment has not been received by the due date. A 10 day grace period is provided for receipt of payment after which the property is assessed a late charge of $10.00 per month.

Assessments may include, but are not limited to, the annual (regular) assessment, special assessments, late charges, interest, fees, fines, attorney fees, collection costs and court costs. All costs related to a delinquent account shall be assessed to the property and paid by the owner. The Declaration (Covenants) establishes that an assessment is a continuing lien upon the property and a personal obligation of the owner.

The annual assessment is determined by the Board of Directors as part of the annual budget. The annual budget is ratified, or vetoed, by homeowners at the annual meeting. If the members veto the budget, then the prior budget, including the annual assessment, remains in effect until a new budget is approved. The annual assessment may be paid on a quarterly basis with payments due on the first day of each quarter beginning January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st. Assessment payments shall be applied to the oldest assessment first and progress toward the most recent assessment.

Statements may be provided by mail, e-mail, or coupons as a reminder to homeowners of the amount and due date of a quarterly assessment. Nevertheless, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to remember to pay by the due date even if a statement is not received. An owner may request consideration by the Board of Directors to defer payment due to extenuating circumstances.

An account delinquent over 10 days will be charged $10.00 each month it maintains a balance over $10.00. If a check is returned the account becomes delinquent plus there is a charge of $35.00 for the returned check.

An account delinquent over 70 days shall be provided a warning that a lien will be recorded on the property if payment is not received within 30 days.

An account delinquent over 100 days will have a lien filed with the Douglas County Clerk. The lien amount will include a filing charge of $100.

An account delinquent over 130 days shall be provided a warning that the account will be referred to an attorney for collection if not paid within 30 days.

The Association shall make a good faith effort to resolve disputes first with the Owner. If resolution is not reached the Association stands ready to go to binding Arbitration under the Uniform Arbitration Act. The parties are herein forewarned that if court proceedings are necessary to resolve a dispute, the court shall award to the prevailing party reasonable collection costs, attorney fees, and other costs.

The State of Ohio gave us a little present two years ago and we were able to amend the CC&R's WITHOUT a homeowner vote with a lot of things that gave homeowner's and the BOD more power. Among them was this little gem: Suspend the voting privileges and use of recreational facilities of an Owner or Occupant who is delinquent in the payment of assessments for more than thirty (30) days;

You should see what happens when you approach someone at the pool on a hot summer day and pull them aside to explain (Quietly-They also get a letter from the MC when they become delinquent) that they will have to leave the pool area because of non-payment. Especially if they have a couple of kids with them; demanding (in loud voices) to know why they have to leave.

Pedro, You obviously received a lot of good advice here; but I'll mention one other item and expand on another. Since we had 4 properties seriously in arrears, we had our attorney lien the properties. This still didn't get their attention. Since our CCR's give us the right to suspend parking and pool privileges, we incorporated this into our final lien notice letter. Once the lien is filed, we place one physical tow warning notice on the residents vehicle which is parked in a reserved or visitor space. (Parking spaces are not deeded). Believe me, this works! You also you have to make sure that you're not dealing with any disabled individuals even though we're not subject to ADA or HUD/reasonable accomodation rules. Also, suspend their pool privileges. 2nd item - Use a collection agency after it goes past 60 or 90 days. The collection agency gets their fee on top of the monies due the HOA. Good luck.

Oh Glen - we can just read the glee in your post as you pull the member and children from the pool. Harold

KennyD1; Asking people to stay on point in their opinions and not personalize the issue is neither rude, nor uncalled for. I appreciate the opinions and points raised when they are on point. To rebuttal on an opinion or rebuff characterizations does not constitute an attack. People must learn to understand that a conversation is nothing more than a sparring of words and an interchange of opinions, statements and/or questions. I’m merely asking people to understand that their opinions are valuable when on the topic. The act of judging a person based on an opinion is at best childish, as human beings are more complex than that.

If I was not interested in the opinions, I would not have posted the questions. However, I will not allow people to personalize the issue or characterize me based on a situation of which there is little knowledge on this forum. But to clarify thing, this was a suggestion by another board member several meetings ago. I'm looking for opinions and rebuttals to cover all bases, as we are close to deciding to proceed with this policy. At our next meeting, I will transcript this thread and distribute for further discussion.

All,

We issue pool passes to members in good standing but find it prohibitive to have the lifeguard check the passes, as the county requires the use of a second lifeguard or dedicated person to validate that the member has a valid pass if any. Our roads are public so parking privileges cannot be suspended, as the roads are not owned by the HOA. I do like the idea of using a collection agency to go after the arrears. The reason this is such a hot topic is that we have had to raise our dues because we cannot account for 100% collection in our budget and in the past have had to use some of the reserves to pay for expenses because of the situation with homeowners not paying their dues.

Thanks.

WilliamT; please reread my posts. I have already stated the procedures we use to collect arrears and the reasons why they are ineffective. If you are looking for money right now, liens won't do you much good, unless the judgment debtor is likely to sell or refinance his property soon.

A lien is essentially passive; placing a lien doesn't get you your money right away. Instead, it gives you standing as a creditor to be paid from proceeds if the property is sold or refinanced. The hope is the property to which liens are attached change hands or are refinanced, at which time usually a lien will produce enough cash to pay off a judgment, along with post-judgment costs and interest. Also, as is the case with most dead beats, there is a long line of people waiting to collect and you might be some where near the end of that list. But understand that a property can be transferred several times over without removing all the liens.

If you do some searching on the web, you will find that other communities are doing just what I described but accessible to all on the world wide web. I challenge you to cite the laws of which you based your opinions. Last time I checked being a dead beat is not a privacy issue. Towns and cities post the names of dead beat dads in the papers at least once a year.

Please cite a state with a law that protects people's right to remain secret dead beats.

Again, I understand the opinions on the subject and appreciate them all. I guess I was hoping to get some creative thoughts, legitimate reasons why or why not out of this posting. I post the question beacuse I believe this will not work, but was not sure if it had for others and at the very least I would have gotten some good input (I have from some). But instead I have in fact got is the moral compass of this group. I understand the moral and ethical dilemma of the issue. Is it ethical or moral to lie, cheat and steal from your neighbors?

Once and for all, the real question is; how do you curtail the behavior? I don't want to get into the psychology of human behavior of which I'm well verse, just fresh ideas and thoughts. Try these:

Has anyone had success through collection agencies?
Has anyone had success through mortgage companies?
Has anyone had success through municipalities?
...etc. etc.

That is what I'm looking for. By the way; this is call frustration. As this is all becoming noise! Stating the previously stated or restating or regurgitating what I already said is not helpful. It is just pompous. Let it pour (this is call antagonizing).

Pedro:

If you want money now then the best way to get it is to hit people where it hurts. You can do that through several means:

1. Suspend pool privileges, figure out a way to get it done.
2. Suspend voting rights
3. Send them to a collection agent, Most people will pay the debt because if they don't it becomes a part of their record that will haunt them for the next 7-10 years if and when they try to buy a car or a house or anything of high value.
4. Place a lien on their home and force foreclosure. The risk of losing a home would be enough for most.

If you are looking for a way to get money now those are the things that would work on me. Publicizing my name would not work and would be counter productive. I would purposely withhold the money out of spite for the BOD and when and if I paid I would make their life as miserable as I could.

They are a lot of smart, experienced BOD members on here. I have yet to hear one of them say that is a good idea, your not the first one to bring it up. I really don't think anyone is personally attacking you, I certainly am not, I am just trying to express my opinion. You are correct a lot of people do publicize it, I just strongly disagree with those tactics.

Pedro,

I have no intention of re-reading your post(s). In fact I don't plan to read any of your future posts, so this is the last response you will have from me. I'm deselecting the box so that it will not send me an email when you make another post and I won't be aware of it.

When you come here and attack people, calling them (me) pompous and saying that all you get is the "moral compass of this group" who has taken their valuable time to offer you their opinons using their knowledge and experience, which is obviously superior to yours, then you are not doing anything to make people want to help you further.

You don't have to agree with, or accept anyone's opinion or recommendation, but don't expect help when you call us pompous and say in so many words that our opinions are worthless to you.

If you expect people here to do your homework for you, such as quoting laws, providing collection agency, morgage company statistics, etc, then you're going about it the wrong way.

You've been told that several states including AZ have laws that require the discussion of a members financial situation to be discussed in closed session.

If it were not for your attitude of attacking people who are trying to help you, and have given excellent advice, I would have given you the url to that law. But since you are implying that what I said about the AZ law is not true, and since you choose to call me "pompous" and tell this forum that "instead I have in fact got is the moral compass of this group", then you can look it up yourself. Look under Arizona Revised Statutes.

Go ahead and tell your members who is delinquent, that's what it appears you are looking for support to do, and see if that gets you money faster.

Then when someone sues you for publishing their financial information see how fast your attorney tells you "I recommended that you not do this".

There may not be a law against it in your state, but that does not stop the homeowner from suing you for harassment and libel. Maybe your D&O insurance company will also say they won't defend the suit because the board was negligent in their duties by publicing private financial information for the purpose of harassment. I also doubt that your CC&R's give the board authority to publish the names of delinquents as a collection method.

In my "pompous" opinion, when a board elects to publish the names of people who are delinquent in order to exert "peer pressure" as you stated, that is nothing short of harassment, and an attempt to enlist the community to help harass the delinquent homeowner(s). And as someone else very clealy pointed out to you, if there are any errors in your bookkeeping so that the associations financial records are not correct, then the homeowner has legal grounds for a libel suit.

So ignore your attorney's advice, and the opinions and advice of the pompus individuals here, who have only given you their "moral compass"; and I wish you the best of luck. I think you'll need it. But that's only my opinion.

Pedro:

If you are looking for deterrence then have rules and regs that supports collection agents, liens and foreclosure. Those are real consequences that 95% of people don't want.

Brian,

You are correct about those who have committed the offense and are presently serving time. However, for those who have not it is deterrence.

Just be sure whoever you select adheres to the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Be aware that a person can stop a debt collector from further contacting them about the debt by writing a letter and telling them to stop. That doesn't mean they no longer owe the money, but it does mean you are back to square one. Good luck. Harold

Ron, we went the small claims court route going after the parents of some kids who broke into the clubhouse for the $1,300.00 it cost us to repair. I went down on my own time to represent the BOD and got a judgment. YEAH!!! Not so fast turns out in the State of Ohio (check local listings) if you're incorporated even as a nonprofit; the corporation has to be represented by an attorney so the judgment was overturned. In the end we never got the money and had to pay an attorney. The moral of my story is check and make sure you don't need an attorney before you try to do it yourself.

I'm really surprised that the judge in the small claims court didn't know this and decline to hear the case.

So you did hire an attorney and still didn't get the money?

I probably didn't give enough thought before I worded my post about small claims court. I would never attempt to do something like this as a representative of the HOA without an attorney or at least the legal advice of an attorney. Your members pay dues to fund the association, spending dues money on an attorney for the benefit of the association (such as collecting restitution) is an appropriate use of this money.

Regarding vandalism, I saw an article somewhere about an HOA who caught a vandal. As I recall, they worked out a deal with the police department and family to not prosecute the boy provided the parents agreed to restitution and the boy agreed to community service designated by the PD.

Had the parents and the boy not agreed, then the HOA would have prosecuted as a criminal felony case.

Vandalism is rampant in all neighborhoods now, no matter the value of the homes so it's time to take a tough approach, in my opinion.

Since vandalism is a felony in AZ it is not difficult to guess which option the parents of the vandal, and the vandal will choose. Once they understand the future implications of having a felony record, I believe every parent and vandal child will opt to pay up and do the community service.

That's the road we will take if we catch some of our local vandals.

The problem with a civil suit against vandalism, whether through the small claims court or superior court is that you still have to go through the process of collecting the judgement after it's won. You place a lein, and may or may not be able to foreclose to collect. Without reviewing the law, I don't believe an HOA would be able to foreclose in AZ on this type of judgment.

By offering the option of facing a criminal felony trial, or restitution and community service, the deal is done in a rather short period of time. The HOA can inform the parents that they do not want to involve the parents in a court battle, and they especially don't want to see the child face a felony child, so the HOA is doing the family a favor by offering this option so the child can take the consequences of his action and still continue to be a welcome member of the community.

That should is most cases keep the animosity from getting out of hand.

Yes we lost out on the $1300.00 and the attorney fee. An expensive lesson, we've since changed attorney's to one who specializes in collections and only gets paid when we collect. Because it was filed in small claims, we didn't ask for attorney fees when it was filed.

No, I'm just a board member from Gilbert.