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Posted by on August 5, 2007, 12:32 pm
> Follow-up on my HOA disconnecting the water of a home with a tenant,
> when the HOA pays the water bill in one lump sum for the whole n'hood,
> from HOA fees paid by the individual homeowners.
>
> It turns out it's not legal to do when a tenant lives there. At the
> HOA meeeting Sat. afternoon, those in favor of doing so "admitted" it
> to me.
>
> For those who don't remember, I can no longer keep track of all the
> laws for collecting HOA fees in this state, and don't remember why
> this would be necessary, but my position was that one has to notify a
> tenant directly, and can't do this to him based on his landlord's
> failure to pay.
>
> They claimed one wasn't allowed to notify him directly, but I don't
> think that is true either. No one, even on a different legal group,
> has given me a good reason why this would be true, but we get to ask
> quesions of our lawyer once a year at a meeting in the winter. I'll
> bet she will say it was never true, or maybe she'll even admit she was
> wrong (though that is not too likely. :) ).
>
> At any rate, so as to not fight with them 3 months ago, I notified the
> tenant anoynmously within about 2 weeks of their voting to, in 30
> days, disconnect the water. Here it is, about 101 days later, and no
> one has had any water disconnected! Not even houses occupied by the
> owners, which were all but one of them.
>
> In an exaggerated sense of privacy, at today's meeting, they woudln't
> even discuss this when no names or addresses were mentioned, but as a
> board member, they still give me printed info.
Agree. When no names are mentioned, I see no privacy issue. It
sounds more like a case of the board not wanting the community to know
that their water shut off is a bluff.
Before someone
> convinced them to shut up, they said that 6 owners had made no effort
> to pay the bill, including that landlord, but the typed, xeroxed sheet
> they gave me a half hour later tells a different story.
>
> I should really find my previous quarter's paperwork before
> continuing, but IIRC the landlord owed over 1000 dollars. Now he only
> owes 250, which is just the second quarter, and being late 34 days on
> this third quarter (and no one is delinquent until over 30 days). So
> he is still behind but it's no thousand dollars.
>
> Two of the other 6 also owe only 250, and I would never disconnect
> anyone's water for 250, but some of my neighbors would. "Teach a dog
> a new trick."
>
> Then 3 of them owe over 2000 dollars and for 2 of the three we have
> legal judgements, and I presume we have liens. (The liens have to be
> renewed every couple years and we can't force a sale, but when they
> sell, we get paid, if we kept the lien active.)
Why exactly can't you foreclose? Are you sure about this? Here in NJ
you can foreclose for non-payment of any association fees,
assessments, etc. It's clearly covered and spelled out in the Master
Deed and I've done it Have you checked yours? It's possible the MD
says you can't do it, or there may be some state law. But since you
seem to have a problem with getting correct advice from the HOA
attorney, I'd do some investigating.
>
> The pres. said they were waiting for this meeting before disconnecting
> the water to these 2 or 3 or 6 houses, but there was no discussion of
> whether to do this, no motion, and no vote. Someone is lying or being
> stupid. At the last meeting, they first wanted ten days before
> disconnecting, and I insisted on 30, and now it's 101! If I had known
> it was going to be over 101 days, I wouldn't have bothered pushing for
> 30!
>
> Tell your children to make a lot of money so they don't have to live
> in a n'hood like this. Not that people with more money are any less
> petty, or less obnoxious, but I assume some of this stuff wouldn't be
> happening. Maybe I'm mjust imagining it.
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