Hundreds of condo owners marched through the streets of Doral on Saturday, April 16 to demand that authorities take steps to stop a wave of fraud hitting their neighborhoods. You can read the entire story in the link that I have provided below at the end of the blog:

After I read this story I sent it to my fellow board members and one of the directors on my board who has a lot of experience governing the condo replied with an outstanding observation of the condominium concept.  I have edited some names out so that we don’t get sued by the unscrupulous management company that had control of our condominium for ten years but everything else he says here is verbatim:

Yikes,Mr. Collections Man:

our community association has some members who are not paying their maintenance fees and our attorney bills are already more than what is owed. Is there no other way to collect these fees without spending more money.

Signed,

Sleepless in Saratoga

Dear Sleepless in Saratoga:

Of course there is a way to recover your money but your board of directors needs to think out of the box.  Your attorney is working hard but all that he/she can do is put a lien on the unit and if you want to become landlords foreclose on the unit and recover your money from rental revenue.  Maybe, that is not such a good idea because if a bank forecloses  its possible that all you will recover is the safe harbor amount of the lesser of 12 months or 1% you will be out of a lot of legal fees.

Community association Collections or for that matter any debt that is delinquent often deteriorates into a bitter cycle of pain.  The property owner may fall into hard times and cannot afford their payments due to unforeseen consequences and an unfortunate process begins.  First, there is the courtesy notes from the association and then when that fails to result into a payment the matter is sent to either an attorney or debt collector for action.

Written by: Mitch Drimmer
Every business has their share of those who are unwilling to pay what they owe, and this happens often in Homeowners and Condominium Associations. If you come across unresponsive members, you should be ready to act. Regarding community association collections one option is to hire a collections agency to do the work for you.