Belt Auction

HOA - Home Owner's Association?

I asked this over the weekend but I did not get any replies so I am asking again. This might be lengthy but so is the problem. I am on the Board of a Home Owner s Association. Long story relatively short....We get an update every month on the status of everyone's HOA dues. This month I was looking thru the report and inquired about someone that owed 1800 dollars. The HOA rep replied back and said we have owned it (HOA ) since 5 August...this was Thursday am. We were never informed. I called the courthouse and it is still in the previous owner s name but the house is vacant. We are told it defaulted to us when it went to auction and no one bid. We even called the city 2 weeks ago because the grass was 2 feet high. So we called the city on ourselves. We cannot get a clear answer from the HOA regarding the legal ownership. 2nd problem Another house we inquired about owed 1k plus because they did not pay their dues. We tell people it is going to the courthouse for auction as a threat but they always follow thru with payment. Anyhow, according to court dockets it was auctioned off for $100 on 5 June and we have owned it since then. The HOA management company and the lawyer working for them did not tell us. We learned this on Thursday as well. So we have owned this house since June and were not aware of it. The previous owners are still living in the home, even though court dockets list the HOA as the owners . I do not know why the mortgage holder did not claim it but our name is on the courthouse records and the county tax appraisal docs. 3rd problem Another man owes 1774. He agreed to pay 300 a month over 6 months and did not pay for 2 months straight and paid 132 last week. The first payment in 3 months. The HOA rep seems to think this is ok even though the 6 month repayment is the standard and what we apply to everyone else. 4th problem We tried to collect 1800 from another man. Been trying since April. The last payment he made was in Feb of 2007. We had a date for the house to go to auction on 2 July for nonpayment. On 27 June he agreed to pay 25 percent down and the remainder over 6 months. Just like everyone else. Then he hired a lawyer . His lawyer and ours have been talking and our lawyer insists that we settle for 1300. Even though this is against our standard and in direct violation of our terms. And he had already agreed to pay the full amount. He has enough money to pay for a lawyer but not enough to pay his HOA dues. The HOA would have to absorb the additional 500 dollars. Question: Do we have a legitimate case against our lawyer and HOA rep ? Or should we just try to muddle thru the ownership issues and get past it ? I and others feel we have been betrayed and the lawyer has not been representing our interests and our HOA rep has been negligent. I mean how can they not inform us that we own 2 homes and not explain the ownership procedures ? Also...we live in the Northern Texas..ground zero for natural gas drilling.Both homes we are suppose to own were issued gas lease bonues since these ownership issues arised..about 4k for each home that should have gone to the HOA instead of the previous owners. So the HOA is out of 8k. And one of the 2 men listed above got his 4k bonus money 2 weeks ago...but he still will not pay his HOA dues. Should we get a lawyer ? Our work thru it ? Our HOA is meeting tonight - Monday - to discuss it.

Public Comments

1. This is the problem with HOA's. They need to be ran correctly with everyone doing their part. I would suggest hiring an attorney and then putting into place officers that will hold up their prospective duties. It does seem you are trying to make it right and fair for everyone. Then take an attorney to the HOA rep and get things started that way. Not sure if the HOA has monies to do this, but in the long run with the best atty, you might get things fixed. Good luck.