Condo and HOA Delinquent Assessments: Outbound Calls Can Be Very Helpful

One of the courses of action a community association can take to resolve the issue  of delinquent assessments is an outbound call.  Outbound calls have proven to be a very effective method to get people engaged, informed & paying.  Now, this is not to say that your manager or any member of the board of directors should pick up the phone and start calling, because outbound calls are more then what you may think they are.  Reaching out to delinquent unit owners is a task that requires skill, training, compassion, and in some cases a very thick skin.  The call should be more of a consultation and never a confrontation.  This is why specialists should be engaged for this job.  It should also be noted that outbound collection calls are seldom if ever done by community association attorneys.

Let us assume that you have correctly chosen a collection company who is fully compliant with all of the Federal and State Rules regarding outbound collection calls.  Let us further assume, that you have chosen a quality company that is not only compliant, but has an outstanding training program that properly trains their callers.   What you should be looking for is: What will be said to your delinquent unit owners, how they will be positioned, and what solutions can be provided to them.

In the community association collection industry we are dealing with a much more complicated dynamic then we would be for other types of collections.  We are talking to people about their homes and residences, a subject that relates directly to their very own identity.  You cannot take that fact lightly and must approach a homeowner in very specialized manner.  This is their home, be it a condo apartment or house, and their very own sense of security and safety is at stake here, so any outbound collection call must be handled cordially and in a consultative nature.  Yes, the ultimate object of this call is to extract a payment from a delinquent homeowner but how you get there is of paramount importance.

Outbound calls for community associations should be made by people who are not only trained and certified by organizations like the ACA(The Association Of Credit And Collection Professionals) but are knowledgeable in the industry itself.  If your outbound caller does not understand condos, HOAs, Governing Documents, Covenants & Deed Restrictions, Foreclosures, short sales, mortgages, and association budgets then they should NOT be making these calls. It’s important to train callers to be compliant with the FDCPA, TCPA, and FCRA (all government regulations relating to the treatment and handling of collections) but it is just as important that they understand community associations.

Once engaged a delinquent member of an association must be advised of the issues involved and how important it is for everybody in the community to properly and timely contribute their share of the maintenance fees.  With kindness and respect the conversation should be framed within the context of community and the importance of everybody doing what is expected of them.  Nobody should ever be threatened or even feel threatened, but rather this call should be of a consultative nature.

In these calls you will inevitably come across people who are on the defensive and may even feel offended that such a call was made in the first place.  The caller must first advise the recipient of all of their rights and then put them at ease by reviewing the options for resolution, and the consequences of continued non-payment.  If this caller does not understand the complexities of the community association concept then the call is doomed to be a failure and will only result in a more intransigent delinquent owner.  So for this reason, it is imperative that when boards of directors are faced with community association collection issues they employ a collections specialist who not only understands collections but are schooled in the business of community associations.

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