Boca Raton HOA Goes After Homeowner In Court, Wants Its Money.
BY: LITIGATION DESK | BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2023 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Another Boca Raton homeowners association is going after a homeowner for a small amount of money — reminding HOA, COA, and POA members everywhere that paying your dues isn’t an option. If you do not pay, you run the risk of foreclosure.
That’s the risk being experienced by Donald and Melissa Sills of the 11000 block fo Autoro Court in Boca Raton. The Sweetwater at Boca Chase HOA just filed a lien of foreclosure against the Sills for $2371.28. What seems like a small amount is past-due for several months, and apparently part of an ongoing payment delay for the defendants.
The filing reveals that Sills were late paying $1104.00 during the first half of the year, then neglected to pay four assessments valued at $196.00 each — reaching a total of $944. Adding attorneys fees of $1370, court fees of $10.60, and then reducing the amount by a payment of $196, attorneys for the HOA says that the homeowners are delinquent by $2371.
The Sweetwater at Boca Chase HOA is represented by Wasserstein, P.A. Of Boca Raton. Homeowners who agree to live in a property governed by an association are required to pay all association fees and dues — this is made clear when one takes title to a home. This specific home was purchased for $143,000 in march of 2013, according to records maintained by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s office.
I’m a previous HOA Board member and previously commented to your newspaper. Under Florida regulations passed a few years ago an HOA normally for a relatively small amount of a few thousand we would normally just file a lien on the property bThis lien could stay dormant for years until the property is sold when the lien amount has to be satisfied. Currently however a lien can only be maintained I think for 90 days upon which it has to be cancelled or a foreclosure initiated. Also keep in mind a property cannot be foreclosed unless a judge allows it. Very unlikely a judge would approve property seizure for just a few thousand dollars. Why do you keep trying to portray HOAs as money grubbing when they are just following the law and looking out for the finances of all the other residents
Good point thank you, I’m a real estate agent and people say to me all the time they don’t wanna live in an HOA community and I recommend other states in that case. They make the choice and they agree to the rules and regulations. But there’s certainly a lot of animosity out there towards these associations and I think part of the problem is the autonomy they have to act independently, there’s so many horror stories out there about dubious association practices and there’s a complete lack of trust out there. Perception is they are run by the personalities of the people running them and somehow this needs to change. Especially as the older generations age out there will be an over supply of inventory and an under supply of confidence for people to buy in them. the perception is associations can do whatever they want and that may or may not be true but perception is everything
To the credit of “fascist” HOAs, they have kept most Boca Raton-area neighborhoods from looking like central Palm Beach County (Greenacres, Palm Springs, etc.), or even worse cities in Broward County that used to be affluent like Lauderhill, Sunrise, and even Coral Springs.
Comments are closed.