Dear Collections Guy:

After four years a bank has foreclosed on a unit in our association that has not paid maintenance fees all that time.  We thought that when the bank took title the situation would improve, but now we see that the bank is not paying the dues, what can be done?

Signed,

Frustrated in Florida

Highly Unusual Win for a Collection Agency by Association Financial Services, L.C.

Palm Beach, FL (PRWEB) January 09, 2014

SNAP Collections has won the annual Readers Choice Awards for financial services sponsored by the Florida Community Association Journal and Florida Community Association Professionals. “This comes as a complete surprise to us, but is not undeserved,” said Mitch Drimmer, VP of Business Development at SNAP Collections by Association Financial Services.

By Mitch Drimmer, VP Association Financial Services

Community associations are faced with having to deal with collecting delinquent assessments in good times and bad. If a community association were to advertise for a collections company this is how it may appear.

HELP WANTED FOR COLLECTIONS

The board of directors of our community association is looking for a collections solution that will not only help us recover our delinquent assessments, but will not cost us five dollars to collect one dollar. We have been working with our community association attorneys, and although they know the community association business well, they are not effective with their collections efforts. We need more than an attorney placing a lien and then maybe foreclosing on said lien. We need action and we need it now because our collections are costing us an arm and a leg, and we are not seeing any return on our investment with our current solution.

I recently posted a question on a few social media groups that are exclusive to the community association.  In this question I asked; “How can the good paying members of a community association know who is delinquent in paying their maintenance fees?” It was a simple enough question, or so I thought, because the response was plentiful and a heated debate ensued.

Many felt that such information was not and should not be available to the members of the association.  Others pointed out that in some states financial information, regardless of its content, must be made available to every member by statute. Some felt that it was a violation of the FDCPA (which is not so because a first party creditor (the association) is not subject to the FDCPA).  So as far as the access to such information I would say that every state and almost every association needs to look at their bylaws as well as their local community association laws.  So access is still a debatable issue, and I was not surprised by the responses.  What came next, while not totally a surprise and to a large extent sad.