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Collections

If you have served on the board of directors for any length of time, you probably have experienced the frustration of homeowners who refuse to willingly pay their assessments. You take your responsibilities as a director seriously, you spend countless hours creating a fair budget to maintain the high quality of your community for the benefit of all owners, you educate the owners about the need for everyone to be timely in payment of their assessments, and you still have some owners who reject all efforts you make to collect their assessments.

One of the greatest challenges and frustrations of community association boards is collecting assessments from the usually small minority of homeowners who refuse to contribute their fair share towards the services and benefits provided by the association. Certainly, anyone can have financial difficulties at times in their lives, and those owners who contact the board to work out a reasonable repayment typically are not the source of frustration. Rather, the frustration usually is with those owners who will not even acknowledge their obligations, who know that federal laws often help protect the not-so-innocent, and who know that the legal system often is slow.

It is easy to get discouraged in these situations, but you can collect your money. Your community's legal documents usually identify powers and procedures available to collect assessments, or you may want to establish a board resolution for collection policies and procedures consistent with your legal documents. The starting place is to know some of the methods which can be effective to collect the money and determine if these methods are permitted and appropriate for your community. Although not exhaustive, the following are some effective tools for collecting assessments. If you would like to discuss your community's collection issues with us, please contact us.

• Pick up the phone and call your delinquent owners. Good collection attorneys and agents use this regularly as a collection tool.

• Know your neighbors. Collect work or daytime phone numbers, copy checks to identify where they bank, record vehicle license plate numbers, get tenant names for rented property.

• Suspend privileges and services. If authorized under your legal documents and complying with applicable Georgia laws, suspending voting or common area use privileges, or water or other services paid for by the association, can be very effective collection tools.

• File liens if required. Protect your interest with liens as soon as delinquencies arise.

• Use experienced collection attorneys and paralegals. Experienced collectors can help advise you what remedies are effective in particular situations and when it makes sense to use lawsuits or foreclosures as collection tools.

Collection Work Request Form

If you would like to discuss your community's collection issues with us, please contact us.

Payoff Line:
Fax: 404.926.4815
Phone: 404.926.4615