FIGHTING THE HOA 4 posts by 4 users

Posted: 11/06/2009 at 05:17PM

OMG:
Nov 2007: I updated all my contact info with the Property Managers of our HOA b/c they were sending mail to the wrong address.
Feb 2008: Our board hires a new Property management company. They research each and every file and change all the addresses to match what is on public record. Our address on public record no longer exists as it was an old PAK MAIL box.

1) They changed my address without provocation
2) They did not notify my at my good address that they were about to get rid of it for the old dead box
3) They sent mail to the old address and it was returned to them...and they CONTINUED to send mail to that same address!

I never received any correspondance from them. I was overseeing about 15 of our families properties at the time and since I had just updated my contact info I merely responded to the mail that I received. I hadn't noticed that I wasn't receiving mail from them either.

May 2009 After numerous attempts to reach us at the old address they finally filed a lien and hired an attorney who filed a foreclosure action.

August 2009 They sent a certified letter to the old Pak Mail box and "SOMEONE SIGNED FOR IT". It was certified mail and it was sent as "RESTRICTED DELIVERY" which means you needed to have ID to sign for it. WTF!

Well, The Board of the HOA is willing to release the late fees and interest (15%) but won't release the legal fees. AND they are siding with the Property Management company saying they agree with their practice of changing the addresses to that on public record.

What in the world. Why aren't they defending their homeowners? They are siding with the company that screwed me up and got our account so messed up that we now owe over $3,000. What a mess.

Any REALLY GOOD ADVICE? They were set to auction last month and for some reason pulled it off the auction block. Then scotch taped a note to the property door asking us to call. I called right away. "What can I do for you?" I asked...You need to call our attorney.

ANY REALLY GOOD ADVICE? How do you fight this? They can foreclose at any moment. Oh one more thing. Their attorney said I could file a "MOTION TO SET ASIDE" does anyone know what that is and how to do it?

Posted: 11/06/2009 at 07:08PM

And if you are managing 15 properties, I would hope you already have an attorney to serve as legal counsel for this matter. So refer this to your attorney. If not, then go hire one ASAP.

The term "set aside" probably is in reference to the judgment that the HOA has obtained in court; you probably will want to appeal that judgment, on the grounds of improper service if your attorney feels that the service was defective. But as Rich says, sometimes it is sufficient to direct things to the address on public record, without any obligation to first determine the "correctness" of that address. Think about it this way to understand the position of the legal system: who had knowledge of this new address, you or the party that is filing suit? What knowledge was the party filing suit able to obtain from the public records?

And the old management company could have gone out of business and all records that they had may have gone away with them, so the new company may just have taken the stance of what the legal system would uphold - take address from public record.