We have incurrred attorney's fees due to the uncooperative
behavior of one owner. The uncooperative owner/trustee, refuses to follow the
condo association bylaws and has not paid condo fees on time if at all.
Due to the poor payment
performance and lack of cooperation, we have incurred attorney's fees for bylaw
enforcement and monthly dues collection. The 30 day HOA collection letter goes out, notice is
given and on day 58, the bylaw infractions were corrected. Only to be started
again in a week. We cannot collect on the attorney's fees nor the infraction
fine as all is required to go to the mortgage company on day 60. The condo fees
every month since the unit was purchased have been late-if paid at all. On the
fees that were not paid-we received payment on day 54 and we were "short-paid"
in advance for the next month. We collected on one late fee.
The uncooperative
condo unit owner refuses to acknowledge the fee increase for 2010, which was voted prior to
her purchasing her unit.
The condo association meeting minutes and budget information were
provided before she purchased and after she moved in. Most recently, we had an
incident as the uncooperative owner created a scene yelling at the landscaping
service-as she wanted to be sure she was getting what she paid for. Scheduled
maintenance was interrupted and not completed as she sat in her car running
until the landscaping company left. The landscapers have been in place for 5
years without any issue. The uncooperative owner-7 months.
The uncooperative
owner feels that the "bylaws are ridiculous". The other 3 owners have no issue
with the bylaws and are fine with them. All other pay their monthly dues on
time. The bylaws are consistent with other condo associations researched in the area.
The condo fees are also low in comparison to other associations in the area.
Everything is done according to MA law and the condo bylaws. One other
owner/trustee handles the collection and deposit of monthly fees, writing
checks, bookkeeping, secured current service providers-without service or
payment issues, and sends out the initial collection/bylaw infraction letters.
We have had emergency meetings-including the uncooperative owner, tried e-mail
communication and have received nothing but lengthy, irrational e-mails. The
uncooperative owner was supposed to get estimates as she wanted to change all of
our service providers. All were amenable to researching and doing a cost
analysis. No estimates were ever provided. Nothing seems to stabilize the
situation. The other owners/trustees researched several property management companies in
the area. Although, they didn't want to incur the cost,they were hoping it would
eliminate the noxious behavior of the uncooperative owner-who has since refused
to vote - the uncooperative owner does not like the current process nor wants to
implement a management company. We have a small budget.
Our attorneys fees were
over $1600 last year and that does not include the late fees that could have
been collected $750. The reserve fund has been depleted.
Any ideas on how this
condo association board can handle the uncooperative owner? The 3 owners/trustees have accomodated
requests about changes to service providers, without using the service, and we
accomodeated by asking for estimates, none were provided as requested. All was
in place before she moved in and all is done without a management company and
there is no compensation provided to the trustee doing the work.
As a small
condo association, we researched several management companies and we found two locally
who handled small associations and our budget can handle the cost. The
uncooperative owner refused to vote, and doesn't want a management company that
was researched by the other trustee. The one memeber handling everything is
happy to turn it over to the management company as the new owner is not equipped
to make financial decisions nor is responsible to pay the bills-especially if
she is not paying her monthly dues.
