BarbaraD6
(Florida)
Posts:347
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| 03/25/2010 3:07 PM |
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I'm trying to find out how common it is for an association to use one attorney for collections, one for general legal work, etc. How many does your association use?
thanks
Barbara |
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RogerB
(Colorado)
Posts:4686
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| 03/25/2010 3:26 PM |
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| One to represent the HOA in Court. |
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DonnaS
(Tennessee)
Posts:5671
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| 03/25/2010 3:31 PM |
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Barbara,
I don't see any purpose to have more than 1 , hopefully a good one. If you have to pay a retainer fee for each, I as a member would be very, very unhappy about that. |
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DanielH1
(California)
Posts:481
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| 03/25/2010 3:48 PM |
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We don't employ any attorneys for our HOA.
We have a collection agency to do collections. They have their own attorneys.
For occasional legal opinions, our management company sometimes asks their law firm (whom they have on retainer, I guess) and then relays the info back to us.
If we needed an attorney, we'd probably go hire one but, as far as I've seen, we don't need one available to us on a monthly basis. |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:5164
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| 03/25/2010 11:15 PM |
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Daniel,
In extreme circumstances I can see the need for several attorneys.
Liability cases comes to mind.
But, we have gotten along by having an affiliation with an attorney. We use him as needed and he is not on retainer |
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TimB4
(Virginia)
Posts:3801
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| 03/26/2010 5:39 AM |
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Barbara,
We use one firm, who we pay a very small fee (<$300 annual)to be our registered agent. No retainer is paid and any legal services are paid when used.
Tim |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:5164
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| 03/26/2010 6:01 AM |
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Tim,
In SC you can name anyone the agent. We use our manager. And as noted pay for services as needed.............been a long relationship, in fact this guy wrote our CCC'rs when the place was built 30 years ago.
Save $300/year. |
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SteveM9
(Massachusetts)
Posts:1529
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| 03/26/2010 6:04 AM |
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| We also pay for services as needed. No retainer necessary. |
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DonnaS
(Tennessee)
Posts:5671
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| 03/26/2010 7:13 AM |
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I wonder if the Florida Bar encourages attorneys to get on retainers for Florida HOA's. Barbara is in a populated area of the west coast where there is an attorney on every block. The thickest part of the yellow pages is the attorney section. There are several pages of attorneys that specialize in HOA's so I see no need to have more than one good lawyer per association. |
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BarbaraD6
(Florida)
Posts:347
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| 03/26/2010 2:48 PM |
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Hi Donna,
I don't see the need either but the president wants it that way. We don't pay any retainer and pay only when we use them. You are correct their are too many lawyers around here.
Barbara |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:5164
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| 03/26/2010 3:52 PM |
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Barbara,
I can understand that some presidents may be more controlling than others, but, as far as I know, the President gets elected by the Board. There have been a rare exception and maybe your place is one of them and the members elect the officers of the Board. But, the explanation that the president wants it this way sort of waves a red flag. The presidednt operates at the pleasure of the Board (they elected him) I am of the opinion now that there are scant decisions the president can make unilatteraly. Our condo documents bear this out. Maybe yours is different. If the matter is important enough, a vote of the Board should be called and recorded. IMHO. |
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CharlesR5
(Texas)
Posts:28
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| 03/26/2010 4:53 PM |
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| our HOA uses a family law attorney to handle our cases and as of yet we have never won a suit. |
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ChrisP5
(Missouri)
Posts:81
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| 03/26/2010 4:55 PM |
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| We use one law firm for our association but based on the bills different attorneys in the firm handle various pieces of our business. |
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TimB4
(Virginia)
Posts:3801
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| 03/27/2010 6:10 AM |
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Posted By CharlesR5 on 03/26/2010 4:53 PM
our HOA uses a family law attorney to handle our cases and as of yet we have never won a suit.
Charles,
Is losing the suits based on bad practices by the board or bad advise from the attorney?
Tim |
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TimB4
(Virginia)
Posts:3801
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| 03/27/2010 6:14 AM |
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Posted By RobertR1 on 03/26/2010 6:01 AM
Tim,
In SC you can name anyone the agent. We use our manager. And as noted pay for services as needed.............been a long relationship, in fact this guy wrote our CCC'rs when the place was built 30 years ago.
Save $300/year.
Robert,
Your allowed to name anyone you want in VA also. I believe this is a standard in corporate law.
We are self managed so no manager available. We looked into naming someone within the community as the registered agent but decided against it for various reasons. One being knowledgeable of any responsibilities and/or paperwork associated with being the agent that the BOD may or may not be aware of.
Tim |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:5164
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| 03/27/2010 6:26 AM |
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Tim,
Sounds like a wise move to me. Have you looked at naming her President of the Board? I am not pushing and if you all are happy and I don't see why not, your judgement seems sound, it is not a big deal to spend #300 a year, maybe you could weasel a couple of free opinions out of him under his Agent Title. There would be your $300 bucks easy. |
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TimB4
(Virginia)
Posts:3801
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| 03/27/2010 6:49 AM |
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Robert,
Every time the registered agent changes there is a cost associated with filing the paperwork with the State. If the President was named as the agent, every time the position changed, new paperwork would have to be filed. One more thing that could get dropped through the cracks (and based on what I've seen, the crack is large enough to drop a whole house through).
Thanks for the suggestion.
Tim |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:5164
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| 03/27/2010 7:49 AM |
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Tim,
Another observation that I feel sure is lawyer induced. When you go to our state website that has the listing of all businesses and you look for some information about the business, nearly all the blanks are vacant. At one time they contained much more information that they do now. Some agents are indeed Lawyers and if you want to contact the business you have to go through them, given the info on the site. They used to have a space for expiration of license.......no longer, they don't register each year, law says now not necessary. So, I can just see a business going belly up caring if their name is taken off the rules, maybe their is a requirement to do this, but if it is listed on the site, you have to assume it is legit or go through the agent listed. I looked at one and the Agent only listed the last name and no address or maybe street address. |
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MarciiaB
(New Mexico)
Posts:36
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| 03/30/2010 11:18 AM |
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| We have one attorney on an as needed basis. We pay him an hourly fee. He advises us on all legal matters. |
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MicheleD
(Kentucky)
Posts:4491
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| 03/31/2010 7:29 PM |
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We have one attorney for collections and another attorney for HOA business that involves things like covenant enforcement, amendment language, etc.
Collection attorneys specialize in collections and not necessarily in HOA business or contract or real estate law.
We have tried using family law attorneys in the past and they have always been a big fail.
At the time, as we were on a learning curve ourselves, we thought an attorney is an attorney is an attorney.
That is simply not true.
You will end up costing your HOA a lot of unnecessary expenditures, and possibly losing some key cases, in the long run by not using the right "tool" for the job. (No pun against attorneys intended.) |
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JohnM3
(Florida)
Posts:288
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| 03/31/2010 8:10 PM |
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First of all we have 3 separate atty s an we have them for a reason. Be care full of the replies as each state laws are different.
Why do we have 3 lawyers simple:
1. Handles nothing but foreclosures Lienco of Broward County anything to do with foreclosures he handles no matter what we have been with-them for the past 20 years an thank god we use them because every month we are cashing checks from foreclosures of 2-8 years ago. Right now we have 112,000 in accounts receivables for a 386,000 budget with a new clubhouse new entrance monuments 4 new fountains for air eating our 3 lakes and new landscaping at both entrances. With our own roving security 12 hours a day 360 days a year. It took us 6 years to accomplish all of that .
2. handles Income Tax problems with the IRS. We do 24 television commercials a month on common ground he negotiates all the tv an film commercials he is a show biz specialist we make serious money a year. We were told by our primary law firm to use a Show Biz type for that stuff...........
3. We have our standard law firm for all else which is a mountain. We are engaged with a cable tv company over threshold expenses. An we have 18 empty units an we are exactly spending what we bring in we have zero ad debt so far but it is catching up with us........ Donna of Tenn an I have talked over many issues in the past. Their is no single rule that answers all problems....keep this in mind I get free lawyer advise from the 2 associations I belong to an I attend 4-8 different seminars a quarter an still use them for new ideas an then take it to my paid guys an we do it...........in this age of idiots in government forcing banks to give out mortgages to people who throw there garbage out the window we have to be very innovative......just to keep what we got before they take that away from us.............. |
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