Gentlemen, I have a question or two or three for you. I live in a neighborhood where the houses range from $250,000 to $350,000. In central Texas, that is a pretty nice neighborhood. We have been living here for 14 months since moving from Jarrell. There is a home owner's association that collects dues at the rate of $75 per house per QUARTER. That is pretty low as HOA dues go. We have paid our dues faithfully on time or early every quarter. We receive a letter today that states: There is a total of over $85,000 in delinquent HOA dues so they are shutting down the community pools until those dues are paid. 85,000 dollars... That means that 283 homes would have to miss all 4 quarterly payments in a single year. My questions are: Can they legally lock out people that have paid for these services? Can we oust the property management company for mismanagement of dues collection?
I'm anxious to hear the responses as we are facing a potentially similar situation in Hobe Sound, FL. I assume you have read your POA documents thoroughly.....
Nothing I see gives them the power to sit on their arses, wait until the arrears are up to $85,000, and then take action against everyone, even those paying. That letter in e-mail yesterday was the first we heard of any such issue... probably... hopefully, because we were not one of the dead beats. I am going to copy the entire e-mail here: I added the bold/underline and removed two names and one personal e-mail but the rest is untouched. Notice that this is effective September 4th. The message was sent out at 14:30 on September 4th... the friday before the last Summer holiday and their office is not open again until Tuesday. I ask anyone here: If I am paying child support and my neighbor is not, can the government garnish my wages to pay his support? This is essentially what this HOA is doing.
Those are incredibly low dues! By the letter it appears that some folks have not paid their dues in over three years. Has the POA put liens on their homes already? That should have been the first step. You must have a Board of owners who you helped elect. I would contact them immediately.
Besides the pools what else does your HOA cover? I'd inform management it the pools are now closed why should you be still paying them? They've waited way too long and this problem is completely out of hand. I'd like to see what they were supposed to be doing under the terms of their contract.
The dues paid go for the landscaping and upkeep of commons areas: pools (2), park area for young kids, and subdivision entrances. The major expenditure is pool maintenance.
I'd give them $20 to cover the landscaping and tell them that you're withholding the remaining money until the pools reopen. Why should you have to pay full dues for partial services. If folks are more than $1,000 in arears the haven't paid for 3 1/2 yrs. Now times might be tough now but they weren't 2 and 3 yrs. ago. You've got deadbeats who have been getting a free ride because management has beeen neglegent in keeping them current. I see that they're threatening legal action. Guess who's going to have to pay the legal fees?