HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 20, 2013
Published: Sun, 01/20/13
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Keep an Eye on These Trends for 2013
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In this week's tip, we give you a taste
of the trends our experts are seeing at
their associations-and that you need to
be on top of for 2013.
1. Chin up! Collections are improving.
If your association has been hit especially
hard by delinquencies, there's reason to be
optimistic. Things are looking brighter, and
associations are growing less and less shy
about pursuing delinquent owners.
"I've spent probably the past four to five
years dealing a lot with collection issues,"
explains Andrew Schlegel, CCAM(r), executive
vice president of community management for
Orange County and Los Angeles at Merit
Property Management in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
"It appears we're through the worst of that.
Overall, for our whole client base,
delinquencies were 4-5 percent then.
Now they're down to 2 percent.
"That's a good trend," adds Schlegel.
"But banks are still reluctant to foreclose,
and owners, if their intention is to
eventually give up the property, still
eventually stop paying. Our clients have
been filing liens against properties of
owners who don't pay and foreclosing on
those liens. That forces home owners to
make a decision. If they want to stay in
the property and are working to get a loan
modification, they can do that-but they
have to pay their dues.
"In the past, a lot of associations would
just get personal money judgments against
those owners but not go after the property,"
says Schlegel. "But it's very expensive
to get these judgments, and the owner
invariably leaves the county or state or
files for bankruptcy. So this is a different
tact we've been pushing."
2. Boards are pursuing delinquent lenders.
"A budding trend I think will continue to
grow rapidly is associations filing file
liens and foreclosures against bank-owned
units," says Ben Solomon, an attorney and
founder of the Association Law Group in
Miami Beach, Fla., who advises more than
500 associations and also represents
developers through his second law firm,
Solomon & Furshman LLP. "Banks have to
pay all association dues going forward,
like clockwork, like every owner. But
increasingly, they're ducking like the
original owners, and the HOA has to figure
out what to do next. We recommend treating
the bank like any other delinquent owner,
sending another collection demand letter,
filing another lien, and even foreclosing."
Be better prepared for this year by reading all
"Six HOA Trends to Watch in 2013" in our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/807.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Click here to read full article:
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