Condo Association Management Blog

What is your Board doing about this delinquency?? It is their responsibility to take action. If yhey fail to do so your action would be to sue them and not the delinquent owner.

While this is technically a legal question, i can tell you your Assn's docs and by-laws should give power to the board of directors to act on behalf of the membership of the Assn to collect any unpaid assessments. These powers will vary from state to state; however, they normally rely upon a continual lien which contractually obligates members to pay this assessment or face the consequences of not doing so. These consequences can include forclosure if your state's laws allow.  
 
On the legal side; you as a member of an Assn do not have a contract which is enforceable to another member. The contract implied, or otherwise, in the Documents and by-laws is with the Assn and the unit owner, not between two unit owners.

The association is taking legal action when possible, but in many cases it is not practical. The contract is between them and the association, but I am suffering damages because of their delinquency. I am being assessed an additional amount to make up for their delinquency. Are there any other grounds that I can sue on besides breach of contract.

Anyone can sue anyone for anything.  
 
But, it seems to me that owners have turned over the authority and responsibility to the Association. 
 
 
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Chilly, your situation is so frustrating. Your humor is appreciated. 
 
This is a little off topic, but you might get an insight on people.  
 
 
We lived with a situation about 15 years ago. Came up against the board when they tried to assess each member for $3K and gave us 30 days to pay or they were putting a lien on our home. Why? The board, who was meeting in a private home, not allowing any of the community to attend meetings, voted to do a 4 phase sprinkler system starting with the area where all of the BOARD members lived. The "project" was going to cost over $1,000,000.00! 84 units x $3K x 4 phases! Their goal was to rip up all sidewalks and street to put in a sprinkler system in this two year old community. I kid you not! And 3 of the 5 board members were ATTORNEYS and intimidated everyone. There were about 15 people that were duped by the developer/builder with lies and they grabbed hold of this community and ran it like a Gestapo! (We lived in the NoVa/DC area at the time.)  
 
Well, I was a SAHM at the time, home educating my kiddos. I **HAD** to educate myself about the HOA/Condo laws and then started yanking chains. I made them move the meetings, play more fair, etc. I then was sued. So, believing that they protesteth too much considering I had not really 'done' anything, to them... yet. So, I pulled the records from the Association management and AUDITED THAT ASSOCIATION! What an eye opener! 
 
The board had private parties and billed them to the HOA! We paid for catering, booze, ice, deliveries, etc... At the annual meeting, I caused such a stir with my 'simple' math and made people think! I also proved that in my audit, I found $63,000 of plants and tree installations made on private property owned by members of the BOARD. (This was a townhouse HOA, so land was owned by owners, not HOA.)  
 
The Board was recalled, I was elected to the Board, along with other new people. We put liens on those people's properties these people and they SUED US (my husband and I) FOR SLANDER and DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER in retaliation. That's right. I had to pay hire a snake to bring them down several notches. I also threatened the attorney's licenses. However, their suit could only be won if I was lying and I was malicious, which I was not. 
 
I in turn sued them for libel, because one of the board members that remained that did a newsletter and published lies about us and they all signed this newsletter. :D At the end of the day, the last thing they wanted was me on a court stand with my records. It was the most hateful, vicious time in my adult life. I came out unscathed financially and the STUPID, gutless other homeowners were AFRAID of those attorneys when they saw how they went after us, so they voted them back on the board when the attorneys threatened to sue the HOA! I learned a lot back then about the legal gymnastics and how people play REALLY dirty. Intimidation is EFFECTIVE. I also learned a lot about how to put on my 'game face'. Seems silly to write this, but it's so true if you want to govern fairly and effectively. 
 
Being in the real estate business, I can assure you, crooks have to live somewhere. If they are not in your local jail, then they might live in your neighborhood. There is also no moratorium on stupidity. Stupid people have to live somewhere, too. And sometimes 'Stupid' looks cute and then gets elected to your HOA boards. 
 
So, I will tell you what I believe with all my heart: if you do not trust or like the people you live with or near, then save yourself some grief and MOVE! ASAP, MOVE! SELL your home and MOVE OR RENT THAT PLACE OUT and get out from underneath it ASAP. And when you do, kick the dust off your feet and let the Lord deal with those people. If PEOPLE/ OR your BOARD members are hell bent on being stupid, lazy, and dishonest, then you CANNOT AFFORD TO BE AROUND THEM: literally and figuratively! Bad company corrupts good character. 
 
We will not live around people like that ever again. Life is a constant stress when you have people always dipping into your pocket. I will not knowingly live in a neighborhood Gestapo again.  

Jimmy, 
 
While it may be true that "anyone can sue anyone for anything" There has to be grounds to a suit for it to prevail. I will have to leave further comment re this issue to any attorneys on the blog. 
 
 
 
Judy, 
 
I would suggest you re-read the docs and by-laws of your Assn. If the Board is following them in the case of the Assessment, then you may have to pony up the assessment. However, i would also suggest you make certain the board is following these same docs with regard to the delinquent members. If they are not, then there would be grounds for suit. As Charles said... the Board is the actionable party here not the other unit owner. Make sure they are actively trying to collect the delinquent accounts up to and including forclosure if this is an option. Please note that foreclosure on the unit would ultimately result in an assessment for expenses to the remaining unit owners as the actions taken are a common expense to the Assn.

Good for you. Your story cleasrly shows that if you take the time to study ytour state condo act along with your bylaws and other documents that you can challenge and win. You did a superb job-even exceeds what I had to do in my own condo, In my case we had a corrupt,unethical,illiterate building manager who spent most of his time ripping off tyhe residents. In each instance that I uncovered I reportesd it to the board. But the board never took any action. Finally, I support three candidates for election to out 5 man board. Spent quite a bit of my own mioney soliciting support from absentee owners scattered all over the worldf. esult the three incumbents who were standing for rer election got beaten very badly. Like you,I got to reach my goal just as you did by sticking it out. It can be done as we both experienced.

Just wanted to comment on Sheri's story. It is horrible from start to finish, if there is a finish. Just consider the ego that allowed the Board to hold Condo meetings away from home and come up with a million dollar assessment. Sounds like not one objection - everyone was cowed or really bought the whole boondoggle. I had a similar but not same experience. I have come to believe that we needed condominiums to show us what people really are like. Yes, you can move, sue, resettle, but you don't know what you are dealing with when you make a change. I have close friends, we started out as neighbors sometimes 34 years ago. But they were always clean, decent guys. My condominium now is headed up by an individual with a clear personality disorder. Chaos and neglect are persistent.  
My view: condominiums will perish as the damage done by maladjusted individuals becomes too frequent and too costly to continue. 
Good luck, 
Elinor

I have a question. You all seem to understand this HOA stuff. i'm new and the President and on the Board for my HOA. WE have 18 units and money is difficult. We have one unit that has been in foreclosure for 2 years now and has not paid any dues. So, then next years budget we took the total for that units monthly assessment and divided it up between the other 17 units (cam out to 11.42 extra a month. Sometime in March the unit foreclosed and we received 6 months worth of backed dues. Then, the question was should we divide the money back to ourselves, or use it for repairs that we could get done this year instead of assessing ourselves for that repair next year. The question i have, is this proper? the goal was just to make sure that at the end of the year we have a budget that covers our expenses and keeps our condos in good shape. They are old and repairs are needed. I have not been sneaky about how we run the Association. I have all of our Documents on GoogleDocs for all of the Homeowner's to read, as well as the recordings and minutes from every meeting back to 2008. So, i don't think my heart is in the wrong place, but for certain i want to make sure that I am operating this is the proper manner. any thoughts would be very helpful, thank you. 
 
Chris

Chris--for a new board member yiou are on the rught track. It is sometijmes amazing what common sense,such s you demonstrate can do. Please download a copy of your states condominum act and scan througyh it. You'll find there are state laws which you can use to protect your unity owners and force recalcitract owners to obey the law. I think you should have recfouped all unpaid condo fees at the foreclosure sale. Was your associatioon represented by legal councel at that event?? If you have a condio lawyer you should check this out. Good luck

Ahh, good idea on the State Law, i will do that. And, according to Washington State Condominium Act, we can only collect the last 6 months of condo dues. Any balance prior to the foreclosure is on that unit owner and we would need to file against them, but we know that would be squeezing blood from a turnip. No, the association was not represented at the foreclosure but we did receive a statement for the 6 months worth of dues, which was a little less than half what was owed. This year, our budget is still short every month because that unit is not paying. So, we made up the difference ourselves figuring if we get money back, we would just redistribute that money back to ourselves pending we actually got money? (make any sense to anyone? haha)

You seem to hacve a natural talent for doing the right thing. As your read your state condo or HOA act try amnd learn about the required reserve account. The Board of Directors have a fiduciary responsibility to execute a budget that preserves the financial stability of the association.

I own a condo in 4 unit building there is one person in charge for caring of the person and paying bills. I just found this person has not paid our master insurance in 5 mths, I however pay my share into our insurance co myself. I don't trust the person who's ahead of the assoc. Since this is a whole package for one building and I've paid they cancelled the whole policy, I live in Mass, can I sue him for this. He never said a word to me even after 2 weeks.

Is this forum still running? I have a question, especially if you are familiar with Florida Condos.