HOA $600 assessment charge for lawyer fees...

Im new on the board, I just felt compelled to see if there were anyone out there with my problem. My condo units are in litigation with the builders of the condos because there are many errors with the building. It was not my choice to go to court that I know of at least. So since we are in court, the lawyer fees are stacking up lick crazy, and our reserve is literally all gone now. We have about 6-12 months left in court and hopefully we will win, our rep says we will win, but if we don’t, we will still have to pay lawyer fees, and possibly the builder’s lawyer fees too. So I get my mail this month, and I am left with a $600 one time assessment fee from my HOA, this is after about 3 weeks ago we had an HOA meeting and they said this wouldn’t happen and we are caught up on lawyer fees.

I am at a loss for what to do at this point, it is right before Xmas, $600 is a lot of money, plus I am newly engaged and have a wedding to pay for. I am wondering, why are we even going to court! And if the damage was that bad that we had to actually sue.

The other issue is the communication of the letters sent by the HOAs. They dotn send email, which is the only way I will even read what they have to say, since the mail I get from them usually is just a verification that they got my automatic payment. I suggested to them to get email so we can communicate better, and they said it was too expensive to implement. Seriously.

James - read your documents. And your state law. A special assessment (usually) has to be approved by the vote of the membership by whatever percent your documents specify. Did your board have such a vote?
Your foray into litigation may or may not have had to be approved by the membership. Your documents should answer that too. Good luck. Harold
p.s. - of course your legal rep says you have a good case. However, note, he will get paid win or lose. Actually if he loses, he can recommend appeal, which earns him even more.

Thanks for the replys, just a little background here, im only 28 and I bought this place with no experience 2.5 yrs ago. I dont have much knowledge on HOA stuff, in fact, i just thought of the payment as another monthly payment, and that it wouldnt go up, assuming that when I bought it, the rate was locked in! haha, yeah, i really have some learning to do, but thankfully this is where I am starting.

Im not on the board, i went to an HOA meeting last month since i was available, and it was SHOCKING the way things were ran. They even had the lawyer there the whole time we had the meeting, and it cost us money every minute he was there. They voted to renew the landscaping and they didnt have any other quotes from other companies. We talked about the lawsuit, and many of us wer confused. The head of our association did not want to raise the prices of our HOA's because he personally didnt want to pay more each month, however, our reserve is down to NOTHING, and our monthly dues for 2008 arent going to improve our situation. If things go wrong, we will have thousands out of pocket to pay in the future.

So lets just say we win the case, what does that mean for us? yes, the lawyer is rich either way, but do we see any of our extra money spent on the lawyer? I have no idea. The lawyer says that most cases like this will be a settle. Will that amount be enough to fix all the damages even?

Looks like i need to do my research! Any advise is great

Hi James,

Sounds like your HOA has a construction defect lawsuit against the developer. They can be expensive and time consumimg, but are often the only way to get the money needed for repairs. Your claim probably has some validity to it or the court would have most likely dismissed it by now.

It seems like either your Board of Directors is doing a bad job keeping everyone informed as to what is going on or you're not getting the information because you said you don't look at whatever the HOA is sending out to you.

Try talking with your neighbors, especially if they've been living there for years. They may be aware of what the lawsuit is about.

Your Board of Directors was dumb to not raise dues because they didn't want to pay more. It's a narrow minded, short sighted strategy that can easily backfire, as it did in your case. If they had raised the dues each year to cover expenses, then you wouldn't have that $ 600 assessment now and no money in your Reserve Fund.

Good luck and keep us informed as you learn more.

I feel like im talking with people that are professionals in HOA related topics! Im glad I found HOATalk when i did. I was surprised by the choice to have the lawyer cost us out of pocket. I think our fearless (fearfull is more like it) decided this because the lawyers take will be greater. I will have to see if i cant get my hands on docs regarding HOA's and the lawsuit, currently i dont have any or know where they are.

These forums are great however because i can read about other issues people are having and better prepare myself for any future isses.

Thanks again and ill be sure to post results from the lawsuit!