Posts (RSS)Nonpayment of Association Dues May Put Homes on Repo List
Many homeowners know that if they missed paying several installments of their mortgage, they are going to end up on a repo list. Or that if they also missed paying their property taxes, they could be put on the foreclosure block.
Now, many are also finding out that nonpayment of homeowners’ association dues could also mean facing the threat of foreclosure.
Most homeowners never thought that neighborhood and condominium associations that mow lawns, oversee security patrol, clean the swimming pool in the community and plant flowers have the right to put their houses on the repo list when they failed to pay their association dues. The right of homeowners’ associations to foreclosure is stated on the purchase contract signed by homeowners.
Dennis Bucher, general manager of Condominium Association of Wildewood Springs in Manatee County, Florida, said 15 out of the 558 condominium units are delayed on their quarterly maintenance fees.
Since the start of this year, the association pool a part of its collected maintenance fees to an operation recovery fund to cover unpaid fees. Bucher pointed out that all association members are paying for few people who are delinquent on their maintenance fees.
In Wildewood Springs, quarterly maintenance fees, which are based on the property’s square footage, can reach to as much as $1,296. According to Bucher, the association’s operation frecovery fund has so far collected nearly $90,000. The fund is used for maintenance operations at the condominium development.
Under Florida statutes, when banks place a condominium or house on repo list, they are not required to pay all unpaid association assessments.
Becker and Poliakoff attorney David Muller said that if homeowners decided to stop paying all their fees, there is a great chance that they will be slapped with a bank foreclosure lawsuit. He added that the financial burden really falls on homeowners who are both paying the mortgages and assessments.
Meanwhile, in California, homeowners’ associations have the right to foreclose on any property within the community after only a year of missing dues or $1,800 in back fees.
But the good news is, most homeowners and condominium associations are helping troubled members create some settlement to avoid putting properties on repo list because of nonpayment of dues.