Homeowners Associations/ Condominium Associations – Failure to Pay Maintenance

A Homeowners Association (HOA) / Condominium Association provides valuable services to members of its residential community, including maintenance of common areas such as lobbies, hallways, pools/ parks, shared laundry facilities, etc. An HOA will generally require that the units in its residential community pay a monthly fee to cover the cost of these services, which is calculated based on an expectation that at least 80 to 90 percent of the units are occupied and, further, are regularly paying their dues.

So, what happens when, as now, a residential community faces a disproportionate number of foreclosures, when residents are evicted and banks take over the units, and no one is paying HOA dues for the unoccupied units? The HOA becomes severely under-funded and is unable to continue some of the services it provides. To retaliate, homeowners/ condo owners still in possession of their units stop paying their HOA dues, and, gradually, all services stop such that the residential community falls into disrepair. The property values of homes in the residential community collapse, and more residents are thus forced into foreclosure – and then the cycle repeats.

To protect against this situation, the law grants HOAs the right to enforce homeowners/ condo owners' duty to pay HOA dues. If you fail to pay your dues, your HOA can place a lien on your property and, further, foreclose on that lien in accordance with Florida law. This is true even if your HOA is NOT providing some or all of the services required of it. So, bottom line, continue to pay your HOA dues on time regardless of what services it has failed to provide and, if necessary, study your HOA / condominium documents to determine what, if any, legal recourse is available to you.

For more information, please see our page on Condominium Foreclosure to learn more.

If you have any questions about this topic, you can either post a comment to this blog, contact me, a Real Estate Lawyer, by email, or call me at (954) 458-8655 and I will be happy to answer your questions. I offer a free initial consultation.