Follow-up on my HOA disconnecting the water of a home with a tenant,
when the HOA pays the water bill in one lump sum for the whole n'hood,
from HOA fees paid by the individual homeowners.

It turns out it's not legal to do when a tenant lives there. At the
HOA meeeting Sat. afternoon, those in favor of doing so "admitted" it
to me.

For those who don't remember, I can no longer keep track of all the
laws for collecting HOA fees in this state, and don't remember why
this would be necessary, but my position was that one has to notify a
tenant directly, and can't do this to him based on his landlord's
failure to pay.

They claimed one wasn't allowed to notify him directly, but I don't
think that is true either. No one, even on a different legal group,
has given me a good reason why this would be true, but we get to ask
quesions of our lawyer once a year at a meeting in the winter. I'll
bet she will say it was never true, or maybe she'll even admit she was
wrong (though that is not too likely. ).


At any rate, so as to not fight with them 3 months ago, I notified the
tenant anoynmously within about 2 weeks of their voting to, in 30
days, disconnect the water. Here it is, about 101 days later, and no
one has had any water disconnected! Not even houses occupied by the
owners, which were all but one of them.


In an exaggerated sense of privacy, at today's meeting, they woudln't
even discuss this when no names or addresses were mentioned, but as a
board member, they still give me printed info. Before someone
convinced them to shut up, they said that 6 owners had made no effort
to pay the bill, including that landlord, but the typed, xeroxed sheet
they gave me a half hour later tells a different story.

I should really find my previous quarter's paperwork before
continuing, but IIRC the landlord owed over 1000 dollars. Now he only
owes 250, which is just the second quarter, and being late 34 days on
this third quarter (and no one is delinquent until over 30 days). So
he is still behind but it's no thousand dollars.

Two of the other 6 also owe only 250, and I would never disconnect
anyone's water for 250, but some of my neighbors would. "Teach a dog
a new trick."

Then 3 of them owe over 2000 dollars and for 2 of the three we have
legal judgements, and I presume we have liens. (The liens have to be
renewed every couple years and we can't force a sale, but when they
sell, we get paid, if we kept the lien active.)

The pres. said they were waiting for this meeting before disconnecting
the water to these 2 or 3 or 6 houses, but there was no discussion of
whether to do this, no motion, and no vote. Someone is lying or being
stupid. At the last meeting, they first wanted ten days before
disconnecting, and I insisted on 30, and now it's 101! If I had known
it was going to be over 101 days, I wouldn't have bothered pushing for
30!


Tell your children to make a lot of money so they don't have to live
in a n'hood like this. Not that people with more money are any less
petty, or less obnoxious, but I assume some of this stuff wouldn't be
happening. Maybe I'm mjust imagining it.

On Aug 5, 2:56 am, mm wrote:
Follow-up on my HOA disconnecting the water of a home with a tenant,
when the HOA pays the water bill in one lump sum for the whole n'hood,
from HOA fees paid by the individual homeowners.

It turns out it's not legal to do when a tenant lives there. At the
HOA meeeting Sat. afternoon, those in favor of doing so "admitted" it
to me.

For those who don't remember, I can no longer keep track of all the
laws for collecting HOA fees in this state, and don't remember why
this would be necessary, but my position was that one has to notify a
tenant directly, and can't do this to him based on his landlord's
failure to pay.

They claimed one wasn't allowed to notify him directly, but I don't
think that is true either. No one, even on a different legal group,
has given me a good reason why this would be true, but we get to ask
quesions of our lawyer once a year at a meeting in the winter. I'll
bet she will say it was never true, or maybe she'll even admit she was
wrong (though that is not too likely. ).

At any rate, so as to not fight with them 3 months ago, I notified the
tenant anoynmously within about 2 weeks of their voting to, in 30
days, disconnect the water. Here it is, about 101 days later, and no
one has had any water disconnected! Not even houses occupied by the
owners, which were all but one of them.

In an exaggerated sense of privacy, at today's meeting, they woudln't
even discuss this when no names or addresses were mentioned, but as a
board member, they still give me printed info.

Agree. When no names are mentioned, I see no privacy issue. It
sounds more like a case of the board not wanting the community to know
that their water shut off is a bluff.


Before someone
convinced them to shut up, they said that 6 owners had made no effort
to pay the bill, including that landlord, but the typed, xeroxed sheet
they gave me a half hour later tells a different story.

I should really find my previous quarter's paperwork before
continuing, but IIRC the landlord owed over 1000 dollars. Now he only
owes 250, which is just the second quarter, and being late 34 days on
this third quarter (and no one is delinquent until over 30 days). So
he is still behind but it's no thousand dollars.

Two of the other 6 also owe only 250, and I would never disconnect
anyone's water for 250, but some of my neighbors would. "Teach a dog
a new trick."

Then 3 of them owe over 2000 dollars and for 2 of the three we have
legal judgements, and I presume we have liens. (The liens have to be
renewed every couple years and we can't force a sale, but when they
sell, we get paid, if we kept the lien active.)

Why exactly can't you foreclose? Are you sure about this? Here in NJ
you can foreclose for non-payment of any association fees,
assessments, etc. It's clearly covered and spelled out in the Master
Deed and I've done it Have you checked yours? It's possible the MD
says you can't do it, or there may be some state law. But since you
seem to have a problem with getting correct advice from the HOA
attorney, I'd do some investigating.






The pres. said they were waiting for this meeting before disconnecting
the water to these 2 or 3 or 6 houses, but there was no discussion of
whether to do this, no motion, and no vote. Someone is lying or being
stupid. At the last meeting, they first wanted ten days before
disconnecting, and I insisted on 30, and now it's 101! If I had known
it was going to be over 101 days, I wouldn't have bothered pushing for
30!

Tell your children to make a lot of money so they don't have to live
in a n'hood like this. Not that people with more money are any less
petty, or less obnoxious, but I assume some of this stuff wouldn't be
happening. Maybe I'm mjust imagining it.

Thanks for the update. I remember your original post and have
wondered what happened.

Not that I have any advice, but your story reminds me how happy I am
to have moved out of an HOA and into an old neighborhood with no
association. I drive through my old neighborhood once in a while and
there are still some of the same cars parked in the visitor parking
spots that I complained about four years ago. With the windows down,
I can smell the dog poop piled in the common area next to my old
townhouse. Yuck.



On Aug 5, 2:56 am, mm wrote:
Follow-up on my HOA disconnecting the water of a home with a tenant,
when the HOA pays the water bill in one lump sum for the whole n'hood,
from HOA fees paid by the individual homeowners.
...

On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:13:34 -0700, The Reverend Natural Light
wrote:


Thanks for the update. I remember your original post and have
wondered what happened.

Not that I have any advice, but your story reminds me how happy I am
to have moved out of an HOA and into an old neighborhood with no
association. I drive through my old neighborhood once in a while and
there are still some of the same cars parked in the visitor parking
spots that I complained about four years ago. With the windows down,
I can smell the dog poop piled in the common area next to my old
townhouse. Yuck.

You smell poo and see cars after four years?

Stay away from the area; best advice, I can offer!



On Aug 5, 2:56 am, mm wrote:
Follow-up on my HOA disconnecting the water of a home with a tenant,
when the HOA pays the water bill in one lump sum for the whole n'hood,
from HOA fees paid by the individual homeowners.
--
Oren

"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."