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Does this violates the consumer protection law, debt collection practices?
Anonymous2 views3 answers
My homeowners association (HOA) sent me to a collection agency because my homeowners association dues were in arrears. I do not live at the property but have been paying the fees regularly since 2006. In the last two years the fees increased each year. I was not notified and continued to pay the same amount. In May a collection agency called, "I just want to give you a heads up that we are going to place a lien on the property. I sent the collection agency a letter disputing the legality of the penalties and fees they are charging me because they failed to meet their obligation to notify me of the debt. I paid the principle amount that was in arrears to the HOA and increased my monthly payment to keep the fees current. HOA won't talk with me because they don't have my file.
You need to deal with the attorney/collection firm assigned to the file.
If you did not get any notice AND you informed the HOA that you were not in the property, you may have some defenses. This is an all too common problem. No one attends board meetings or participates and changes are made including fee increases without anyone opposing them.
In the meantime, you need to speak to the collection office and make sure your bill is paid up before they start adding charges.
Have you checked with the HOA to see what address they have for you? You want to communicate in a non-adversarial way and make sure the problem is corrected so that you get future notices in a timely matter. You might also inquire about who, when and where the previous notice were sent. Unfortunately you will probably need to pay the agency this time. You could fight and may have some defenses as state in the previous answer, but it will still cost you and does not neccessarially address the underlying problem. It would probably be a good habit to proactively check with the HOA at least annually to verify your contact information and any important changes/notice yoiu may have missed.i
