Carrollton homeowners group sues resident over dues payments | News for Dallas, Texas: "A Carrollton man says his homeowners association is trying to take his home for what originally amounted to a jar's worth of change – $266.82 in what he calls inadvertently missed dues payments. James Alderman says the original amount he owed his homeowners group would have filled his change jar. [He] said the sum grew to $558.97 with lawyer fees and other charges and has now swollen to nearly $2,000...If Mr. Alderman loses his house over delinquent dues, he won't be the first. Dallas resident Linda Jones lost hers in 2004 because she was late paying $500 in association dues for 2002. "
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I expect to see more aggressive collection procedures as the economy worsens, unless state legislatures step in to protect owners.
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What people in other jurisdictions do not understand is that the management companies and attorneys collude to re-characterize homeowners payments to be applied to items other than assessments. The management company or paper will proclaim the homeowner to be a 'deadbeat' or that the homeowner owes only X dollars. However, due to the re-characterization scam, the management company and attorney simply continue to tack on additional fees - all the while claiming that the homeowner did not pay their assessment. You'll see stories about losing a home over a few hundred dollars. However, the management company is often demanding several thousand dollars and any payments are being applied to what the managment claims it or the attorney is owed rather than to the HOA assessment. CAI promotes this re-characterization scheme indirectly by proposing that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act should not apply to HOAs.
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