mm wrote:

I went to a Home Owners meeting tonight. The HOA plans to disconnect
the water of people who are delinquent on their fees, and the
management company rep says that it is *illegal* to tell the tenant
what is about to happen to him. That they can't tell him this without
the consent of the landlord. She says she has verified this with a the
HOA's lawyer, recently, but she knew it before that.

Could this be true?

Sure it could. The HOA's relationship is with the property owner, not
with the tenant. So the HOA may not have a right to butt in.

However, that doesn't preclude any neighbor or other individual (as
opposed to the HOA) casually mentioning it to the tenant, or leaving a
note on the tenant's door. Dilemma solved in a way that doesn't
officially drag the HOA into the mess.

Our HOA doesn't have many responsibilities, and the fees are only
about 110 dollars a quarter.

They'll start climbing for the rest of you dues-paying members as the
deadbeats continue to renege on their payments. That's exactly what
the HOA is worried about. It's odd that you don't seem to be
concerned. Don't you object to having to pay your deadbeat neighbors'
shares of the expenses in addition to your own?

Despite that, owners of 7 of the 110 townhouses are 500 dollars or
more behind, and at 550 a year, they are from 1 to 4 years delinquent.

Expect the number to grow as more debt-ridden desperate folks start
skipping payments. It's common for cash-strapped homeowners to skip
HOA payments while trying to keep up with their mortgage payments, so
that may very well be what's happening in this situation. If they are
seriously-debt stressed, their financial troubles will create more
problems for the HOA as their financial situation deteriorates.
Meaning their problems will become yours.

If I were you, I'd take the addresses of these townhomes down to the
county's property records division and see if Notices of Default have
been filed. The rest of you folks in the HOA will have a nasty
surprise if/when homes in the community start going into foreclosure.

The HOA has checked with a lawyer and since the HOA pays the water
bill for everyone, it is apparently legal for the HOA to turn off the
water to someone who owes money.

And this is wrong because...?
(Personally, I think enabling deadbeats is wrong. But that's just me.)

And they voted to do that tonight (They voted to do that last October
also, but didn't.)

Good for them!

BUT HERE IS THE KICKER. The management company rep says that it is
*illegal* to tell the tenant what is about to happen to him. That
they can't tell him this without the consent of the landlord. She says
she has verified this with a rental type lawyer, the HOA's lawyer,
recently, but she knew it before that.

So the HOA itself cannot *officially* notify the tenant. As noted,
there's nothing stopping anyone else from unofficially taking matters
into his/her own hands - as long as s/he isn't acting on behalf of the
HOA.

For that matter, there's nothing stopping anyone else from
volunteering to pay this deadbeat's bill. If this is such a matter of
concern for you, perhaps you should consider assuming the
responsbility for this property's HOA fees. One way or another, if the
property owner continues to default, you and the other community
members are going to have to pay it, anyway. You could be selfless and
carry the entire cost yourself.

I'm also annoyed because of the 12 or so people at the meeting, only 4
of us had any objection to this.

Oh, for pete's sake. If you are so outraged that your HOA is
attempting to compel someone to pay their bills, why don't you just
pay it for them? Are you nuts? Who do you think gets stuck with the
bills when other members of the HOA don't pay? If you are truly a
member of this community, you have a vested interest in compelling the
other property owners to pay their agreed-upon share of the costs.

Unless you're one of the deadbeats, in which case it's obvious why
you're irate.

Background, not necessary for my question:
In sort-of defense of the Board, they have written to the owners over
and over, offerred a payment plan and arranged a payment plan with a
couple others who owed a lot of money, made appointments with some of
the owners on the current list only to have the owners not even show
up for the appointments, even though they agreed to them. The owners
are terrible, I agree.

The property owner has options. They can pay. They can sell their
property.
The renter has options. If the HOA cuts off the water, the renter can
move. The renter can pay the arrears, then pursue a claim against the
landlord.

But this one tenant, and other perhaps in the future, has paid
everything he owes afawk and he's the one who's going to lose his
water.

If I were the renter, I'd be even more concerned about the risk of
losing my deposit, or coming home and finding an eviction notice
because the house has been foreclosed upon. Because if the landlord
can't bother to pay the HOA fees, he's probably cash-strapped, and has
probably spent the deposit, and is probably behind on the mortgage
payments. And if the home gets foreclosed on, the bank will probably
require the renter to vacate asap.

OTOH, if they told the tenant a month in advance, he would have a
better chance of convincing the ll to pay,

Get real. If the legal threats from the HOA got nowhere, the renter
will get nowhere. The landlord will ignore him, too.

You wanna be a good neighbor? Warn the tenant to go down to the county
and check on the status of the property he's renting. He can find out
if his landlord has been paying his property taxes or if he's received
a notice of default on his mortgage. If the landlord can't pay a
fairly cheap HOA bill, the landlord's (in) trouble. Time for the
tenant to find a more trustworthy landlord.

Or you can pay the property owner a visit yourself. Again, look up the
info at the county. Then you can approach the guy and appeal to his
better nature. Let us know how that works out.

HellT