Mandatory home owner associations I have to deal with all the time. I recently encountered a situation that I have not encountered before and now finding is all to common. I was contacted to list a home and prior to listing appointment I did my research. Upon looking at the tax role of the property address I was given, I noticed that the owners name was different from the person who contacted me. The owner was listed as the area homeowners association. I called my contact person to verify the address. When she gave me the address I asked her about the owner being the Homeowners Association.
This is a young couple who bought their first home from a builder. They were told that the subdivision had a Mandatory Homeowners Association and they would be billed for annual dues. They told me that they never got a bill and did not think about it until the received a letter from an attorney informing them that they were being foreclosed upon for failure to pay their homeowner association dues. They called the attorney but were not able to get through or receive a return phone call until some time later. The phone call they did receive was from the attorneys office informing them that the homeowners association had foreclosed on their home and if they want to remain in the home they could pay a monthly fee, which they did.
The primary lender was not notified of the foreclosure and was unaware until I asked the client to contact them and also recommended that the contact an attorney. In the mean time I find out that many homes in San Antonio have been foreclosed on by Homeowner Associations for non payment of dues. This couple lost their home because they owed $680. I have since learned that a homeowner lost his $200,000 home to a homeowners association for non payment of $450.00. Unfortunately there is no law that prevents homeowner associations from doing this but hopefully our legislature will correct this next year. In the mean time I am alerting all my present and past clients to make sure they stay up to date on their homeowner association dues to present this from happening to them.
Comments(1)