Community Associations such as Condos and Homeowner Associations often have good reason to report non-paying members to the credit reporting agencies. The only problem is that don’t have the ability to do so, and usually it is not a function of their community association attorney who has taken on the collection of this particular debt. Therefore, one of the most important and potent tools that exist for the purpose of effective collections is not being used. So what can a community association do to get credit collection services delivered to them and have delinquencies reported to credit bureaus?

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.

Things have changed in the last two years, and for the most part the news is good for Condos and HOAs.  Nationally prices have begun to rise, banks are finally coming for their collateral, and community associations are welcoming new good paying owners into their developments and buildings.   On the other hand, associations are still not out of the woods yet because there is still a lot of money on the books that has yet to be collected.  Millions if not Billions of dollars are still owed for delinquent maintenance fees and the question remains; How can that money be recovered in a manner that the cost of the recovery does not exceed the recovery itself?