Georgia Property Owners Act

Started by GloriaL • 4 replies • 3609 views

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GloriaL (Georgia)
Posts: 195

Posted:

As our Annual Meeting is coming up within the next few months, I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the Georgia Property Owners Act. I have briefly read the some benefits of our HOA joining the GA Property Owners Association, which would require a Covenants change, but am not familiar with the Act. In brief conversation with our attorney on other topics, he recommends joining. Is there anyone out there in Georgia whose HOA has opted into this Association? What are the benefits to belonging, and the process to join? I doubt that we have enough time to bring this to a vote before the Membership at the upcoming Annual Meeting, but we can bring the topic for discussion at that time. I'd appreciate any input.
Thanks,
Gloria

JanetD (Texas)
Posts: 1

Posted:

Gloria - I am just recenlty involved with our HOA; we are not a POA; which in effect, is a mandatory association - meaning - a lien is automatically placed on every lot in the community for any unpaid assessment or other charges and clarifies that all owners and tenants must comply with the provisions of the declaration of covenants & the rules & regulations. For example, if a homeowner does not maintain their lawn, the association can access a charge which would be considered a lien on the property - doesn't mean we could collect right away, but upon sale of the property we could collect....
Our community is not a POA community. From my understanding we need something like 70% of the the homeowners to agree to become a POA; we can't even get 10 people to come to the annual HOA meeting, so getting us to the a manadatory (POA) community is something that I'm sure can't be done overnight. HOWEVER, my understanding is we can access an annual HOA fee and if not paid we can file a lien for unpaid association fees but we would have to file the lien manually and the lien is only rewarded IF the lien is filed under the correct owners's name - so if we have the owners name misspelled the lien is not enforceable. Again - if we were a POA the lien would be automatic.
Starting this year we are going to send a bill to every homeowner for their annual HOA fee. Obviously, someone has to pay for the upkeep of the common grounds and entrances, plus liability insurance on these areas. We have some retention ponds in the common areas - can you imagine what we homeowners might pay out if someone got hurt in the ponds? It's unimaginable - but some homeowners don't care - and pay nothing towards the common grounds and liability insurance. If those homeoowners do not pay we are going to manually file a lien and hopefully we will have the name of the owner correct. Another problem we are having is with a homeowner keeping a big tractor/trailer rig on his property and another who keeps untagged cars in his drive-way - both of these offences are illegal according to our convenants, but our convenants are not enforaceable because we are not a POA; but Gwinnett County has laws that address these situations - we will send 1 letter to homeowner to remedy and if not - we will contact the County.
Sorry this is sooo long - I am really worked-up that some of the homeowners just do not care!!!

GloriaL (Georgia)
Posts: 195

Posted:

Thanks, Janet, for your input. As a fairly young HOA Community of 6 years and binding Covenants, we have already had the unfortunate circumstance of having our attorney write "demand" letters to several HomeOwners who have violated our Covenants...under threat of cost to them for attorney fees, they remedied the violations. We have had to go after HomeOwners who were delinquent with paying the Annual Dues, again with threats from our Attorney of additional cost to them, the Dues were paid. We also suffer from barely achieving a quorum at our Annual Meetings (except for last year where we had 100% attendance in person or by proxy...but that was due to the Agenda calling for votes on 1. increasing Annual Dues, 2. a special one-time assessment to expand our front entrance, 3. an amendment to our Covenants to allow HomeOwners to sub-divide their Lots...ALL were voted down).
I was just wondering whether inclusion in the Georgia Property Owners Association would bring enough benefit to the Community to warrant all the effort it will take to get 2/3 HomeOwners necessary to make it happen. Of course, our attorney says yes, but I wonder how many other HOA's have opted into the Association. I don't know of any personally. Would inclusion make BOD's job easier?
I have become a cynic after being on the Board for two years, and behind the scenes for three. I have come to realize that unless each HomeOwner is personally affected by something the Board wants to do, HomeOwners just do not care. HOWEVER, it also means that the Board is running the Association effectively enough that we are not negatively impacting anyone, the Common area is being managed adequately, the monies are being spent judiciously, and the home values are protected. These are all good things and I guess that is why no one is screaming at us...

DaveL6 (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

I realize this is an old post but we are considering adoption of this Act. The Automatic Lien caught my eye and I orginaly thought this placed the HOA on top of the pecking order. However in reading the statute it appears that is not the case. Once the debt is $2K we can file for foreclosure. If I have read correctly the HOA does not have to satisfy the mortgage, taxes, etc. at foreclosure. We have not consulted with an Attorney yet but thought someone might shed some light. Tx

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By DaveL6 on 11/02/2016 5:55 AM
I realize this is an old post but we are considering adoption of this Act. The Automatic Lien caught my eye and I orginaly thought this placed the HOA on top of the pecking order. However in reading the statute it appears that is not the case. Once the debt is $2K we can file for foreclosure. If I have read correctly the HOA does not have to satisfy the mortgage, taxes, etc. at foreclosure. We have not consulted with an Attorney yet but thought someone might shed some light. Tx

If the HOA lien was superior no one would lend mortgage money for a home in an HOA. I don't know about Georgia, but in Arizona there is a provision in state law that requires anyone who obtains title to a home with mortgage lien to pay the total amount due within 30 days; if not paid then the mortgage lender may foreclose on his lien.

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