Condo associations suck (1 Viewer)

[TLEF316]

So I live in an association of around 100 units. Its part of a much bigger community with probably at least 15 other associations. Each separate assoc. is responsible for its own immediate area but we all pitch in for maintenance of the common areas (mainly one road that goes right through the center of town) and all the amenities (pool, gym, etc)

We obviously had a crazy winter this year in Jersey, so I was fully expecting a big assessment for snow removal. However, it turned out that we went to an all-inclusive snow removal contract this year, so no extra charge (I can't imagine the bath the contractor took on that deal...oof). So things were looking up. We got a small assessment for snow removal/damages on the main road, but its a small price to pay.

But then yesterday I get an email from my association. It turns out that one of the units on the neighborhood had recently gone into foreclosure and been sold by the bank. Apparently the previous owner owed TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND ####### DOLLARS in delinquent association fees. This is being written off as bad debt and the remaining unit owners are being forced to cover it. It comes out to just under $300 per unit.

This is not some fancy association with a 4 figure per month fee. I've only lived here for 3 years, and in that time, it has jumped like 10%. Assuming this has been the trend for a while now, it seems like the foreclosed unit went over 10 years without paying a dime.

How in the world does this happen? How was it not caught much earlier? I'm sure we'll just have to the bite the bullet and pay, but this just seems ridiculous. I'm a commercial insurance underwriter (standard property casualty) and I'm debating taking a stroll over to the specialty lines house on Monday to see if we have any sort of possible recourse. But at the end of the day, any claim against our policy would probably just raise our rates, which the board would probably recoup by increasing our monthly fee.

I'm actually tempted to head over to the next board meeting and confront what I'm sure is the group of blue hairs that let this happen.

 

[Abraham]

I went four years without paying mine. I thought that was a stretch and was surprised it took them so long to make a big deal out of it.

 

[SWC]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

 

[TLEF316]

I went four years without paying mine. I thought that was a stretch and was surprised it took them so long to make a big deal out of it.

If I had known I could go ten years without anyone looking into it, I probably would have never paid either.

 

[TLEF316]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

This really is horrible schtick but I appreciate the consistent effort, I guess.

 

[Juxtatarot]

What should they have done?

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia

Outstanding metaphor nesting.

 

[Mario Kart]

The association should be taking some of your monthly dues and investing them. Add up all of these small increments into an investment fund for such occasions as you are describing. It should not be up to all of the members to pony up for the one delinquent. The association is at fault for not jumping on this sooner.

If a condo association has expenses of $100 per unit per month... they don't charge you $100. They need to charge a higher fee to help prevent what you described.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

This really is horrible schtick

 

[TLEF316]

What should they have done?

Take this deadbeat to collections like 9 years ago? As elected officers, they have a fiduciary responsibility to keep up with stuff like this.

I'd be curious to know how long ago they stopped paying their mortgage as well.

 

[TLEF316]

The association should be taking some of your monthly dues and investing them. Add up all of these small increments into an investment fund for such occasions as you are describing. It should not be up to all of the members to pony up for the one delinquent. The association is at fault for not jumping on this sooner.

If a condo association has expenses of $100 per unit per month... they don't charge you $100. They need to charge a higher fee to help prevent what you described.

I've never looked at the balance sheet, but I believe they already do this. We've had plenty of other incidents (lots of downed trees and other damage from Sandy for example) that I'm sure were paid through a combination of insurance and the rainy day fund. They've also done other fairly large scale projects (some of which I believe were unnecessary, which is another issue) that we weren't specifically charged for.

 

[Rustoleum]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

 

[Abraham]

I would absolutely raise a ruckus. At a minimum propose that anyone more than x months delinquent gets foreclosed on.

 

[Mario Kart]

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

This is the only way to go but I am not sure how the foreclosure counteracts a possible lien. This would have been the appropriate answer long ago... like after the first year.

 

[TLEF316]

I would absolutely raise a ruckus. At a minimum propose that anyone more than x months delinquent gets foreclosed on.

Well, I just sent a fairly strongly worded email to the community manager. Not trying to be an #######, but I think we at least need some sort of explanation. It seems like someone dropped the ball in a major way.

 

[TLEF316]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

Good point. They've obviously gotten along without this money since the Bush administration. I'm not sure why they need to collect it now.

Next board meeting is on the 6th. Pretty sure I'll be making an appearance. At the very least, I'll be talking to some neighbors tomorrow to see what others are thinking.

 

[Josie Maran]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

 

[shadyridr]

What should they have done?

Take this deadbeat to collections like 9 years ago? As elected officers, they have a fiduciary responsibility to keep up with stuff like this.

I'd be curious to know how long ago they stopped paying their mortgage as well.

im part of the board of my homeowners assoc. we have a person who hasnt paid fees in years also and owes thousands. Were suing them but they still havent paid.

 

[bentley]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

As someone who spent several years as the president of an hoa I can tell you that bak liens trump anything. Once foreclosure (or bankruptcy) proceedings started, we went ahead and wrote off any unpaid dues or fines. Which is exactly why the association should have been on this promptly and not wait so long.

When we took our association over from the developer, we had some people that hadn't paid their dues in five or six years. It took a while to work through it because the association has to take care of the legal costs up front. Now the hoa is at the point where action starts much, much sooner.

 

[jon_mx]

What should they have done?

Take this deadbeat to collections like 9 years ago? As elected officers, they have a fiduciary responsibility to keep up with stuff like this.

I'd be curious to know how long ago they stopped paying their mortgage as well.

im part of the board of my homeowners assoc. we have a person who hasnt paid fees in years also and owes thousands. Were suing them but they still havent paid.

It is not easy to collect on a unit going through foreclosure. They probably could have collected from the bank from the time they took over, but collecting on the dues prior won't happen.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

As someone who spent several years as the president of an hoa I can tell you that bak liens trump anything. Once foreclosure (or bankruptcy) proceedings started, we went ahead and wrote off any unpaid dues or fines. Which is exactly why the association should have been on this promptly and not wait so long.

When we took our association over from the developer, we had some people that hadn't paid their dues in five or six years. It took a while to work through it because the association has to take care of the legal costs up front. Now the hoa is at the point where action starts much, much sooner.

I'm still not getting it. What does the bank have to do with anything? Isn't this money that was (should have been) paid to the HOA, which is then presumably going into an account that they use to spend on projects for the people living within the HOA? It's not like this is money owed on a loan, it's just money that was never collected and hence can't be spent on new stuff.

If hypothetically I'm running a fantasy football league and we can't fill one of the teams and decide to just let the league run it to get us through the season, it's not like everyone else in the league would have to pay a higher entry fee to get us to the same prize pool as normal. We'd just have a prize pool that is $x smaller than usual.

I'm sure I am missing something very large because I know basically nothing about this, so explain it to me like I'm tim.

 

[eurotrashman]

I went four years without paying mine. I thought that was a stretch and was surprised it took them so long to make a big deal out of it.

And what was your reason for not paying? Seems like a pretty lame thing to do.

 

[eurotrashman]

What should they have done?

Take this deadbeat to collections like 9 years ago? As elected officers, they have a fiduciary responsibility to keep up with stuff like this.

I'd be curious to know how long ago they stopped paying their mortgage as well.

im part of the board of my homeowners assoc. we have a person who hasnt paid fees in years also and owes thousands. Were suing them but they still havent paid.

It is not easy to collect on a unit going through foreclosure. They probably could have collected from the bank from the time they took over, but collecting on the dues prior won't happen.

You can also put a lien on their unit as well.

 

[Abraham]

I went four years without paying mine. I thought that was a stretch and was surprised it took them so long to make a big deal out of it.

And what was your reason for not paying? Seems like a pretty lame thing to do.

It was. I had conflicts with some of the people on the board and how they enforced things. but that is no excuse. I'm paid up now.

 

[jon_mx]

What should they have done?

Take this deadbeat to collections like 9 years ago? As elected officers, they have a fiduciary responsibility to keep up with stuff like this.

I'd be curious to know how long ago they stopped paying their mortgage as well.

im part of the board of my homeowners assoc. we have a person who hasnt paid fees in years also and owes thousands. Were suing them but they still havent paid.

It is not easy to collect on a unit going through foreclosure. They probably could have collected from the bank from the time they took over, but collecting on the dues prior won't happen.

You can also put a lien on their unit as well.

You can put a lien, but assuming they are upside down, all the money from the foreclosure will go to the bank and your lien will be wiped off. When the bank sells the house, then you can collect but only for the fees which accumulated after the bank took possession. Hopefully they at least collected those fees.

 

[bentley]

I'm sure I am missing something very large because I know basically nothing about this, so explain it to me like I'm tim.

I love it.The mortgage holder has the first lien until the home is paid off. By making the loan, they reserve the first place in line when it comes to collections. All other liens, like one an HOA or condo association might file, are going to be next in line. The only way anyone other than the mortgage holder is going to get their money back in a foreclosure is if the foreclosure sale covers the entire amount of the outstanding mortgage and then some. Which never happens.

Edit - Damn, I totally missed the point of the question. Luckily John answered it. The only thing I would add is that the size of the association would matter. Our HOA had 1000 homes, so a few not paying really didn't have much of an effect on the overall budget. On the other hand, I have a friend in a 10 unit condo association. One person not paying is going to shoot their budget all to hell. And from my experience, most of the money in an association goes to maintenance, not new stuff, so that money is a necessity.

 

[jon_mx]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

As someone who spent several years as the president of an hoa I can tell you that bak liens trump anything. Once foreclosure (or bankruptcy) proceedings started, we went ahead and wrote off any unpaid dues or fines. Which is exactly why the association should have been on this promptly and not wait so long.

When we took our association over from the developer, we had some people that hadn't paid their dues in five or six years. It took a while to work through it because the association has to take care of the legal costs up front. Now the hoa is at the point where action starts much, much sooner.

I'm still not getting it. What does the bank have to do with anything? Isn't this money that was (should have been) paid to the HOA, which is then presumably going into an account that they use to spend on projects for the people living within the HOA? It's not like this is money owed on a loan, it's just money that was never collected and hence can't be spent on new stuff.

If hypothetically I'm running a fantasy football league and we can't fill one of the teams and decide to just let the league run it to get us through the season, it's not like everyone else in the league would have to pay a higher entry fee to get us to the same prize pool as normal. We'd just have a prize pool that is $x smaller than usual.

I'm sure I am missing something very large because I know basically nothing about this, so explain it to me like I'm tim.

The HOA has to spend money for insurance and maintenance on all units whether they are paying or not. So presumably the money charge by the association is just enough to cover all bill plus reserve that is put aside for major maintenance effort like roof replacements. So if one unit does not pay, the HOA will be short of the funds they need.

 

[northern exposure]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

As someone who spent several years as the president of an hoa I can tell you that bak liens trump anything. Once foreclosure (or bankruptcy) proceedings started, we went ahead and wrote off any unpaid dues or fines. Which is exactly why the association should have been on this promptly and not wait so long.

When we took our association over from the developer, we had some people that hadn't paid their dues in five or six years. It took a while to work through it because the association has to take care of the legal costs up front. Now the hoa is at the point where action starts much, much sooner.

I'm still not getting it. What does the bank have to do with anything? Isn't this money that was (should have been) paid to the HOA, which is then presumably going into an account that they use to spend on projects for the people living within the HOA? It's not like this is money owed on a loan, it's just money that was never collected and hence can't be spent on new stuff.

If hypothetically I'm running a fantasy football league and we can't fill one of the teams and decide to just let the league run it to get us through the season, it's not like everyone else in the league would have to pay a higher entry fee to get us to the same prize pool as normal. We'd just have a prize pool that is $x smaller than usual.

I'm sure I am missing something very large because I know basically nothing about this, so explain it to me like I'm tim.

Based on my experiences with condo associations they have to have a reserve fund that will take care of future projects (i.e. roofing, paving roadways) and they have to have a budget for these upcoming expenses. So, this owner being in arrears for 27K puts a 27K sized dent in their reserve fund. Since they should have already forecast for this amount for upcoming expenses, they need to make up the shortfall now or be behind at some point in the future. Better to pay a small amount now then get a big one time payment to "catch up" in the future.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Ok, that makes more sense now. I was thinking in terms of the HOA's we've had on our houses where it's typically for community areas and stuff like that. I hadn't considered that in a condo the HOA covers stuff specific to each unit.

It still seems like there should be some kind of vote though. Like "hey we've been paying all these fees on unit 7A the last 10 years and never actually collected from them so now we're $27k short on all these other improvements we want to make to the community area. Should we bill everyone for the missing money or just cut $27k out of future improvements?"

ETA: I was posting at the same time as Northern Exposure. So I guess the issue is not that missing that $27k could mean they have to cancel some new community improvement, but it could mean that unit 11B needs a new roof and can't get it because of the missing money. Makes sense.

 

[jon_mx]

Ok, that makes more sense now. I was thinking in terms of the HOA's we've had on our houses where it's typically for community areas and stuff like that. I hadn't considered that in a condo the HOA covers stuff specific to each unit.

It still seems like there should be some kind of vote though. Like "hey we've been paying all these fees on unit 7A the last 10 years and never actually collected from them so now we're $27k short on all these other improvements we want to make to the community area. Should we bill everyone for the missing money or just cut $27k out of future improvements?"

ETA: I was posting at the same time as Northern Exposure. So I guess the issue is not that missing that $27k could mean they have to cancel some new community improvement, but it could mean that unit 11B needs a new roof and can't get it because of the missing money. Makes sense.

It is $27,000, there is no way anyone would pay that out of their own pocket. The association was not necessarily negligent here either. There is very little they could have done given the limited details we have been provided here. Except they probably could have forced the foreclosure sooner.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Did you ever get that meth lab situation handled? Or was that just an Indian couple making curry?

 

[Bucky86]

This is stupid. Can't hoas put a lien on property and collect debts when sold?

 

[jon_mx]

This is stupid. Can't hoas put a lien on property and collect debts when sold?

This is stupid. Can't hoas put a lien on property and collect debts when sold?

They can put a lien on, but the foreclosure process wipes out the lien. The association should be able to collect only for the time the bank has possession of the property and sells it to a new owner.

 

[Juxtatarot]

I have exactly zero experience or knowledge of HOA's condo boards, etc. , so can someone explain to me why this needs to be collected at all and can't just be written off?

Apparently this represents multiple years' worth of fees, so it isn't like the association is in danger of going bankrupt. I would be furious if the clowns in charge of collecting money tried to jack up my fees to cover money they failed to collect from someone else. Especially since they've just demonstrated that nothing happens if you don't pay the fees to begin with.

Would a lien on the condo have accomplished anything, or does the bank's claim trump that?

As someone who spent several years as the president of an hoa I can tell you that bak liens trump anything. Once foreclosure (or bankruptcy) proceedings started, we went ahead and wrote off any unpaid dues or fines. Which is exactly why the association should have been on this promptly and not wait so long.

When we took our association over from the developer, we had some people that hadn't paid their dues in five or six years. It took a while to work through it because the association has to take care of the legal costs up front. Now the hoa is at the point where action starts much, much sooner.

I'm still not getting it. What does the bank have to do with anything? Isn't this money that was (should have been) paid to the HOA, which is then presumably going into an account that they use to spend on projects for the people living within the HOA? It's not like this is money owed on a loan, it's just money that was never collected and hence can't be spent on new stuff.

If hypothetically I'm running a fantasy football league and we can't fill one of the teams and decide to just let the league run it to get us through the season, it's not like everyone else in the league would have to pay a higher entry fee to get us to the same prize pool as normal. We'd just have a prize pool that is $x smaller than usual.

I'm sure I am missing something very large because I know basically nothing about this, so explain it to me like I'm tim.

The HOA has to spend money for insurance and maintenance on all units whether they are paying or not. So presumably the money charge by the association is just enough to cover all bill plus reserve that is put aside for major maintenance effort like roof replacements. So if one unit does not pay, the HOA will be short of the funds they need.

Don't they build an allowance for uncollectible dues? That is the main issue I have with this. They should have seen it coming.

 

[The Ref]

How in the world did they not have a bad debt reserve commiserate with the amount of money outstanding?

 

[The Ref]

I'm on my neighborhood HOA for the first time this year (I moved in just over 2 years ago). One of the reasons why the HOA is a majority of new members is because the board had the same guys for almost 8 years and they fell down on the job. Long story short they went almost the whole time without raising the HOA dues but kept absorbing the increased costs out of reserves. I'm not 100% surprised that your association let something like this happen. I try and explain the financials to the other members and I get the deer in the headlights look.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

did anyone suggest putting a lien on the property?

 

[Gopher State]

So I live in an association of around 100 units. Its part of a much bigger community with probably at least 15 other associations. Each separate assoc. is responsible for its own immediate area but we all pitch in for maintenance of the common areas (mainly one road that goes right through the center of town) and all the amenities (pool, gym, etc)

We obviously had a crazy winter this year in Jersey, so I was fully expecting a big assessment for snow removal. However, it turned out that we went to an all-inclusive snow removal contract this year, so no extra charge (I can't imagine the bath the contractor took on that deal...oof). So things were looking up. We got a small assessment for snow removal/damages on the main road, but its a small price to pay.

But then yesterday I get an email from my association. It turns out that one of the units on the neighborhood had recently gone into foreclosure and been sold by the bank. Apparently the previous owner owed TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND ####### DOLLARS in delinquent association fees. This is being written off as bad debt and the remaining unit owners are being forced to cover it. It comes out to just under $300 per unit.

This is not some fancy association with a 4 figure per month fee. I've only lived here for 3 years, and in that time, it has jumped like 10%. Assuming this has been the trend for a while now, it seems like the foreclosed unit went over 10 years without paying a dime.

How in the world does this happen? How was it not caught much earlier? I'm sure we'll just have to the bite the bullet and pay, but this just seems ridiculous. I'm a commercial insurance underwriter (standard property casualty) and I'm debating taking a stroll over to the specialty lines house on Monday to see if we have any sort of possible recourse. But at the end of the day, any claim against our policy would probably just raise our rates, which the board would probably recoup by increasing our monthly fee.

I'm actually tempted to head over to the next board meeting and confront what I'm sure is the group of blue hairs that let this happen.

If you have a good individual insurance policy(condo HO 6 policy, they will pay for it. Same thing happen under my condo association, I just turned it into my insurance company and they paid for it. But if you have cut rate insurance you might be in trouble.

 

[Raider Nation]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

This really is horrible schtick but I appreciate the consistent effort, I guess.

It was fresh for a couple of weeks, but I never make it past "brohan" anymore.

 

[Juxtatarot]

So I live in an association of around 100 units. Its part of a much bigger community with probably at least 15 other associations. Each separate assoc. is responsible for its own immediate area but we all pitch in for maintenance of the common areas (mainly one road that goes right through the center of town) and all the amenities (pool, gym, etc)

We obviously had a crazy winter this year in Jersey, so I was fully expecting a big assessment for snow removal. However, it turned out that we went to an all-inclusive snow removal contract this year, so no extra charge (I can't imagine the bath the contractor took on that deal...oof). So things were looking up. We got a small assessment for snow removal/damages on the main road, but its a small price to pay.

But then yesterday I get an email from my association. It turns out that one of the units on the neighborhood had recently gone into foreclosure and been sold by the bank. Apparently the previous owner owed TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND ####### DOLLARS in delinquent association fees. This is being written off as bad debt and the remaining unit owners are being forced to cover it. It comes out to just under $300 per unit.

This is not some fancy association with a 4 figure per month fee. I've only lived here for 3 years, and in that time, it has jumped like 10%. Assuming this has been the trend for a while now, it seems like the foreclosed unit went over 10 years without paying a dime.

How in the world does this happen? How was it not caught much earlier? I'm sure we'll just have to the bite the bullet and pay, but this just seems ridiculous. I'm a commercial insurance underwriter (standard property casualty) and I'm debating taking a stroll over to the specialty lines house on Monday to see if we have any sort of possible recourse. But at the end of the day, any claim against our policy would probably just raise our rates, which the board would probably recoup by increasing our monthly fee.

I'm actually tempted to head over to the next board meeting and confront what I'm sure is the group of blue hairs that let this happen.

If you have a good individual insurance policy(condo HO 6 policy, they will pay for it. Same thing happen under my condo association, I just turned it into my insurance company and they paid for it. But if you have cut rate insurance you might be in trouble.

Seems like one of those times that you still end up paying one way or the other.

 

[TLEF316]

So I live in an association of around 100 units. Its part of a much bigger community with probably at least 15 other associations. Each separate assoc. is responsible for its own immediate area but we all pitch in for maintenance of the common areas (mainly one road that goes right through the center of town) and all the amenities (pool, gym, etc)

We obviously had a crazy winter this year in Jersey, so I was fully expecting a big assessment for snow removal. However, it turned out that we went to an all-inclusive snow removal contract this year, so no extra charge (I can't imagine the bath the contractor took on that deal...oof). So things were looking up. We got a small assessment for snow removal/damages on the main road, but its a small price to pay.

But then yesterday I get an email from my association. It turns out that one of the units on the neighborhood had recently gone into foreclosure and been sold by the bank. Apparently the previous owner owed TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND ####### DOLLARS in delinquent association fees. This is being written off as bad debt and the remaining unit owners are being forced to cover it. It comes out to just under $300 per unit.

This is not some fancy association with a 4 figure per month fee. I've only lived here for 3 years, and in that time, it has jumped like 10%. Assuming this has been the trend for a while now, it seems like the foreclosed unit went over 10 years without paying a dime.

How in the world does this happen? How was it not caught much earlier? I'm sure we'll just have to the bite the bullet and pay, but this just seems ridiculous. I'm a commercial insurance underwriter (standard property casualty) and I'm debating taking a stroll over to the specialty lines house on Monday to see if we have any sort of possible recourse. But at the end of the day, any claim against our policy would probably just raise our rates, which the board would probably recoup by increasing our monthly fee.

I'm actually tempted to head over to the next board meeting and confront what I'm sure is the group of blue hairs that let this happen.

If you have a good individual insurance policy(condo HO 6 policy, they will pay for it. Same thing happen under my condo association, I just turned it into my insurance company and they paid for it. But if you have cut rate insurance you might be in trouble.

Seems like one of those times that you still end up paying one way or the other.

Yeah, I'd rather just pay cash than put in a claim on my condo policy (I have a good company, but I don't know if this would be covered). I've already put in a claim on something legit and I'd hate to be non-renewed or get a huge rate increase.

 

[None_More_Black]

I am on the board of my condo association and understand the problem. If the condo owner has no equity, then a lien will not do you any good. You can rack up thousands in legal fees to force a foreclosure and still get nothing. If you wait, you hope that maybe the owner somehow becomes current. Waiting ten years is probably too long, but if you know you will get nothing why rack up lawyer fees. You should probably have a bad debt fund or something so current owner are not bearing the complete brunt of very old debt. Should have gone to meeting and made a case against the assesment, but too late now.

 

[TLEF316]

Did you ever get that meth lab situation handled? Or was that just an Indian couple making curry?

They moved out a while back under somewhat suspicious circumstances. One day they rented a small truck and moved out all their furniture (there wasn't much), clothes, ect. Then like 3 nights later, like 10 Indians showed up at like 10 PM and moved a bunch of unmarked boxes and containers out into a van assembly line style. It was eventually rented to an older couple (who's only crime is having a bunch of tacky #### on their porch, which doesn't bother me) but not before it was "repainted". Again, it was weird. The painters worked very late hours, made a ton of extra noise and wore extra gear (gloves and surgical masks) that you don't typically see from someone freshening up an 1100 square foot condo. Something shady was going on.

Other than the hot ### blond who just moved in across the street, this neighborhood sucks.

 

[TLEF316]

I am on the board of my condo association and understand the problem. If the condo owner has no equity, then a lien will not do you any good. You can rack up thousands in legal fees to force a foreclosure and still get nothing. If you wait, you hope that maybe the owner somehow becomes current. Waiting ten years is probably too long, but if you know you will get nothing why rack up lawyer fees. You should probably have a bad debt fund or something so current owner are not bearing the complete brunt of very old debt. Should have gone to meeting and made a case against the assesment, but too late now.

They never notified us that it could happen until it actually happened.

 

[Gordo]

Tell them that you are willing to add $1 dollar extra on top of your regular association dues for the next 300 months.

 

[butcher boy]

I live in a similar condo situation and after only 2 months or so of non-payment, they send you to collections and put a lien on your unit. This happened to me one time I completely forgot to pay for a while and holy lord are collections fees high. Will never space out on that again.

Your association is absolutely negligent in not collecting here.

 

[Johnny Rock]

Not a big fan of the power of these HOA.

 

[Drunken Poster]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

This really is horrible schtick but I appreciate the consistent effort, I guess.

It was fresh for a couple of weeks, but I never make it past "brohan" anymore.

Not his best effort but I still appreciate soul brohan number one so take that to the bank brochemedies

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

brohan one thing you could think about doing is going to the meeting and challenging the leader of the condos to a break dance contest which some people call a break down and then when you bust out a double worm in to a flying back spin he will realize he has lost and it will be like the song the devil went down to the georgia except it will be you went down to the condo board for a break down and won and bam instant respect for you and they will probably never charge you another fee again you are welcome in advance take that to the bank brochacho

This really is horrible schtick but I appreciate the consistent effort, I guess.

It was fresh for a couple of weeks, but I never make it past "brohan" anymore.

Yea, but those "few weeks" were a couple of years ago now. Not only is it horrible, it's completely lifted from Suds.

I'd like to put a lein on his shtick.

 

[Quez]

I went through the same thing with a condo in Tampa but it was26 units and about 4-5 were in foreclosure. There was also a 24k assessment. Bought it for 220k in Jan 2006 & dues were $350. Dues are currently down to $500, they were $680 for a few years. The condo may be worth 100k now. I can't even sell it so I am just renting it out at $1300 a month.

My advice is sell the condo before all of the insurance rates spike in the NE due to Sandy.