All attempts to communicate with them went unanswered. Since the Board had not been established, and the Association was not formed, we residential owners had no other choice but to engage a lawyer and sue the new owner (as individuals) for back assessments (around the August 2010 timeframe). We felt we had a pretty good case, but of course, the legal system has a way of complicating things. The judge (Chancellery court), allowed the defendants’ attorney to claim they weren’t paying the assessments because the commercial units were not complete, yet they were, as they are on the 1st floor of a 3 story building. They weren’t fit-out as there weren’t tenants, but all structural components were completed; in fact we had copies of the Certificates of Occupancy for them. The judge instead appointed another attorney to act as Receiver, whose job it was to establish the Board. He appointed another attorney to act as a mediator to try and get the 2 sides to come to an agreement. Since then, as individuals, we’ve incurred over $50k in attorney fees, the Association has paid the Receiver and mediator in excess of $25k. After numerous court hearings and pleadings, the new owner has slowly agreed to pay his back dues and future dues. We are awaiting the last ~$9k payment (not including any late fees or penalties). Now the big issue is attorneys’ fees, and the purpose of my question. The judge, for some reason, believes this needs to go to trial to determine. We are hesitant to expend more money and potentially come away with nothing. To those of you who might have gone through similar circumstances, do you think we have a case for awarding of attorney’s fees?