On 27 Apr 2007 07:43:17 -0700, wrote:

On Apr 27, 9:21 am, yourname wrote:
110 dollars a quarter.



Shutting off the water to a family with a hardship, disabled person, medical
needs, etc, could lead to some nasty legal implications. Just put a lien on
the property and 18% interest. That is often all that is needed.

Geez, there ya go.

In Mass, it is illegal to shut off water to a tenant AFAIK. Shutting off
water is a pretty bad idea, if a lien is an available remedy

I would leave the aforementioned note if they insist on shutting off water

I've been resisting saying I might do that, because when I was in
Guatemala, I bumped into 8 people I knew in 8 weeks**, and I hardly
knew anyone, so even though the odds are really low, I imagine that
one of the other board members or the management company rep or one of
her co-workers will come across this thread.

But I've been considering that, and the guy at the meeting who
originally was concerned about the tenant also suggested it, after I
brought it up. Maybe I should have mentioned that when I said he
didn't mention it when he made his motion. Like I said in my first
post, I'd like to have more facts in my favor anyhow.

**I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel, wide open to the street,
waiting for my broken leg to heal, and the border guard I had met at
least 2 weeks earlier, and hundreds of miles away, walked by and
recognized me! Hobbling down another street and bumped into someone
who met me at the hospital. I think Guatamala City had 300,000 people
then.

I was president of a condo assoc here in NJ and from discussions I had
with our lawyer, I don't believe shutting off utilites is legal here
in NJ. To be clear, in our case, the water bill was not paid in
common by the association, so it's not exactly the same. However, I
did look into this enough that I don't think it would be legal to turn
it off even if the bill was being paid by the association for all the
units. There are strict laws governing this type of thing in many
states. Before I did it, I would get a second opinion from another
lawyer, who is very well versed in common interest property issues.
Another resource is the Community Association Institute, which

Do you know how many false hits one gets with a name that includes
association *and* institute? But Google is not stupid and it came
up first, even with no quotes! There are indeed two chapters in Md,
and one is on the other side of Baltimore but the current president
lives one big neighborhood over, only 5 miles from me. I'm figuring
he lives there since all 3 addresses given look definitely.

She belongs to an HOA of a n'hood I've never heard of, but they are
constantly building houses in that area.

I'm not going to lie and say we might joing, but maybe she'll give me
some free information. But I can't call her until I learn more about
why we aren't going the lien method all the way to foreclosure.

hopefully your association is a member of.

We're not. We do belong to some local community orgs, or send people
to attend their meetings, but not even so many of that. Only 110
houses and few stay at home house-wives who actually do usually serve
a good role in things like this.

This is a national
organization, with state chapters, that provide lots of helpful info
on laws, lobby for new laws, etc.

I also have to agree with those that wonder why your lawyer doesn't go
after them legally, instead of resorting to what should be a last
resort. Most HOA legal documents make it easy to file claims. For
example, if they miss their monthly payments, usually you can then
accelerate them and demand payment of a full year's assessment and go
after that amount.

We don't have that. I'll suggest it, but we also haven't been very
successful in amending the bylaws.

And filing a lien and ultimately foreclosing is
an option as well. Again, most HOA agreements also state that the
owner is responsible for not only the payment, but legal fees incurred
as well. One would think any competent lawyer would prefer that
route, as it makes him more money.

Yeah. I got to learn more about this part.

In answer to Brian V, who said:
Why not contact the
local water company, building department etc and ask them?

I think that's a good idea in that it would be a lot easier to get an
answer than from the water company than a judge. Because, they'd
probably disagree with me but i think the water company must have
fewer issues and fewer legal issues.

Well, I just called the water company, and even though I started with
the Baltimore County number, I got referred to another number and
midway in the conversation I found out she was giving me Baltimore
City rules and didn't know about Baltimore County (which doesn't
overlap the city at all.) so she gave me to her supervisor, who said
they could not disconnect an individual house in my situation. They
only disconnect where there is a meter, and we all share one meter.
Even though there are individual valves. So she didn't know anything
really about this. She did say that multiple homes sharing one meter
is not unusual at all, and sometimes they arrange to bill based on the
number of people living in each house. I would save a little if they
did that, but then we would have to have a PPHMC, a Person Per House
Monitoring Commission, and that would be bad. (Right now each house
pays the same.)