![]() For instance, association boards, managers and legal representatives should carefully evaluate claims from owners stating they have paid the monetary obligations alleged to be owed to the association – particularly when the owner claims to have a receipt to prove it. While issues certainly do rarely arise, the circumstances from this case as presented by Decker in this news report describe what may be characteristic of errors in judgment that may be made both by associations and their legal representation. ![]() ![]() ![]() While the association did not respond to the station’s requests for an interview or statement, it is our understanding that the new law firm released a statement saying its attorneys rely on information provided by others and issues arise on rare occasions. She states the HOA president blamed her for paying the wrong law firm and refused to end the foreclosure.ĭecker hired an attorney, and the association was soon facing a claim that it violated the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, a law which protects consumers from improper practices, abuses or harassment in connection with efforts to collect certain debts.Įventually, the association and its new attorneys settled the case prior to going to trial to the tune of $33,000 in damages to Decker. She claimed to have a receipt to show the full payment was received, but the new attorneys insisted she now owed $1,300.ĭecker said she pleaded her case to the HOA’s board at a meeting to no avail. The suit was filed by the association’s new law firm, but Decker had purportedly paid its previous attorney right before the switch. They claimed that they eventually made good on their debt with the issuance of a check for $892 to cover everything they owed, but Cindy Decker said one month later the association filed a claim of lien against her home to collect the dues and fees that she had just paid. The Deckers, who had raised six children in the home where they have lived for the last 26 years, say they fell behind on their association dues to the Lake Harney Woods Property Owners Association. “They put me through hell,” she says in the report. residents Cindy Decker and her husband were threatened with foreclosure by their HOA for a debt they claimed to not owe. The station’s report chronicles how Mims, Fla. One example of such a report appeared recently in the newscasts of WFTV Action 9 News (ABC) in Orlando and Central Florida. However, occasionally we learn of erroneous or overzealous community association collections efforts reported on local news outlets across the country, perpetuating a negative stereotype of associations being exorbitantly stringent. Given that many families are now struggling with lost work and businesses, some associations have cut back on expenses wherever possible and carefully considered their collections options with debtor owners. Community association collections of monthly dues and other monetary obligations from unit owners have been strained by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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