Improper Notice and Accounting Bars HOA Foreclosure

This case involved a dispute between a condominium association (“Association”) and an individual condominium owner (“Owner”) over Association’s right to foreclose on a lien that Association had placed on Owner’s unit for his nonpayment of monthly assessments.

Owner had paid his monthly assessment charges late several times during 2010 and 2011. The late payments triggered the imposition of interest and late fees that began to accrue. Without resolving those charges, Owner made his monthly payments until November of 2013, and then stopped making payments to Association because the payments he made were not being properly credited to his account by Association. Owner’s delinquencies resulted in Association placing two liens on Owner’s unit. After placing the first lien on Owner’s unit in March of 2011, Association stopped crediting Owner’s account with subsequent payments which were forwarded to Association’s attorney and placed in a trust account. From that point, the payments made by Owner that got sent to Association’s attorney were not credited to the account that Association maintained for Owner, but Association continued to assess the monthly assessment, late fees, and interest each month. Association never informed Owner about the manner in which his account was being handled and failed to respond to numerous requests by Owner for information concerning his account.

Association’s Declaration required: