In this tip, we lend a hand to an HOAleader.com reader who lives in a Florida condo association and says, "I just received a letter threatening to take me to collections for a special assessment passed in October that I wasn't aware of. I guess an email
was sent, but I get so much spam I must have missed it. They verified I never opened it. I was never sent a bill or notified I was behind until now, and there's $600 in interest added. Is this legal?"
Let's step back: Our question is
whether it's possible this community handled notice of a special assessment by one email?
Since our reader is in Florida, we first turn to an expert from that state for insight.
Brad van Rooyen, CPMS, the founder and senior member of Florida-based HomeRiver Group and its national specialist for community association management, which oversees more than 230 associations throughout Florida, says there are unknowns here that could affect his analysis.
"You could peel this onion in so many layers," he says. "Was this special assessment passed correctly? Was the homeowner notified? Was it the association's responsibility to notify them? The answer to that last question is yes.
"But is it reasonable for the owner to say, ‘I get so much spam I didn't see it?'" asks van Rooyen. "Is it the association's responsibility that the email wasn't seen? It seems like the association has the owner's correct email since the email landed in this
person's email in-box."
To avoid comments from owners like this one, van Rooyen recommends that boards take strong communications measures. "As much as we've gotten to owners allowing ecommunications, in important situations, like a special
assessment, I'd advise that a board send notice in written format as well, just so we've covered all our bases.
"That said, the burden is on the homeowner to pay," says van Rooyen. "The owner stated that he must have missed it because he
gets so much spam. Then why did you elect to receive ecommunications? Maybe the board needs to ask: ‘Can we text you in the future?'
"A collections policy or a policy on how communications are handled, if adopted, would put the burden on
the homeowner to prove they didn't receive proper notification," he states.
The interesting thing for Todd J. Billy, CCAL, an attorney at Sandberg Phoenix in St. Louis, who is licensed in Missouri and Illinois and has more than 1,000 active
condo and HOA clients, is that he's not particularly surprised by this.