{"id":175,"date":"2010-06-24T16:26:25","date_gmt":"2010-06-24T16:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=175"},"modified":"2010-06-24T16:26:25","modified_gmt":"2010-06-24T16:26:25","slug":"delinquent-common-area-fees-the-only-policy-is-zero-tolerance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=175","title":{"rendered":"Delinquent Common Area Fees–The Only Policy is ZERO TOLERANCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the late 1980’s. Condominiums in Massachusetts were literally going “broke” because unit owners were not paying their common area fees. That meant that water bills and common electricity bills were not being paid. The towns and utilities tried to work with the Trustees to the extent they could. In many situations, Condominiums went bankrupt because the amounts due and owing got “out of hand”.<\/p>\n

But help was on the way. Condominium Trade groups organized in states across the country started drafting new, and effective, legislation which gave Condominiums some clout with the Unit Owners. Massachusetts adopted this statute in 1992. It should have proved a Godsend, but unfortunately, it has not. There are still condominiums in trouble because of delinquencies. The statute involved, which has become part of Section 6 of Chapter 183A, is not being used to its fullest capacity.<\/p>\n

In effect the new statute gave the Trustees tremendous power to collect. Fall behind by 60 days or more, and the Trustees can commence an action against you, force you to pay penalties and legal fees, and if you do not get caught up, sell your Unit at foreclosure and wipe out all mortgagees.<\/p>\n

The last sentence is the important one. Once this type of action is commenced, the only thing the Trustees need to do is notify the Mortgage Lender(s) for the Unit. It has been my experience that the Unit Common area fees get “caught up” in days. WHY, you ask? Because if the Lender does not pay, in full (including attorneys fees and penalties) the Lender will lose out on the collateral.<\/p>\n

So, my advice to each and every person reading this post who owns a condominium is to question your Trustees to make sure they have an automatic procedure for collectionm once Common Area fees become 60 days deliquent. If they so not, they should, and there should be zero tolerance for not proceeding. The enforcement action costs the Condominium nothing!!!!<\/p>\n

If any of you have further questions on enforcement procedures, please contact me at etopkins@topbev.com. This is an important Condominium right, and SHOULD NOT EVER BE IGNORED OR DELAYED.<\/p>\n

The post set forth above was originally included in my blog, www.realtorsresourceblog.com<\/a>, which is intended to assist the real estate profession with various topical issues. I am an experienced Massachusetts real estate and estate planning attorney. I hope you will find these materials useful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the late 1980’s. Condominiums in Massachusetts were literally going “broke” because unit owners were not paying their common area fees. That meant that water bills and common electricity bills were not being paid. The towns and utilities tried to work with the Trustees to the extent they could. In many situations, Condominiums went … Continue reading Delinquent Common Area Fees–The Only Policy is ZERO TOLERANCE<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[123,69,120,121,122],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-actions-by-trustee","tag-common-area-fee","tag-delinquent-unit-owners","tag-massachusetts-title-attorney","tag-massachusetts-title-expert"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":179,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=179","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":0},"title":"New Condominiums–More TRAPS for the unwary","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It is starting to happen again. Just like it did in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Condominiums are in financial trouble, I have previously written a Featured Post about delinquent condominium Unit Owners and what Trustees MUST do to collect common area fees from them. A similar, but potentially\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condominium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":264,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=264","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":1},"title":"Massachusetts Condominiums Should have Websites–It outta be the Law","date":"June 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Condominiums in Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding towns come in all shapes and sizes. There are a plethora of 2 and 3 Unit condominiums, former personal\u00a0properties where the owner usually lived in one of the apartments, and rented out the other apartments to family or third parties. These \"Mom and Pop\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condominium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=285","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":2},"title":"Having Trouble with Unit Owners in Massachusetts who are behind in their Monthly Common Area Fees?–There is a Simple Way Out, and We can Help","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The current economic slowdown has hit people's pocketbooks\u00a0across the board. People are behind on their mortgage payments, and people are behind on their taxes, and people are behind on their monthly common area fees. Lenders are dragging their feet on starting, and completing, foreclosures. Their data may indicate that things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condominium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=144","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":3},"title":"Condominium Operations–It’s Time for a Change","date":"June 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the years, I have had many opportunities to become part of the Condominium process. I have drafted Condominium Documents, both conversions and new projects. I have\u00a0closed literally thousands of mortgage loans, which involved either Condominium purchases or refinancing. I have also represented Buyers and Sellers of Condominium Units of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condominium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":190,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=190","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":4},"title":"Difficult Condominium Trustees and Officers–The Enemy Down the Hall","date":"June 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently. I have experienced difficulty in dealing with Condominium \"management\", so-called, with respect to matters which involve my clients. I am a Massachusetts title and real estate attorney, and in the course of my representing both Buyers, Sellers and current\u00a0 Unit Owners of condominiums in Massachusetts, I have experienced an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condominium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":355,"url":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/?p=355","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":5},"title":"Condominium Trustee Meeting Minutes–Important Information Often Neglected","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem is this. Many condominiums are frightfully mismanaged. Nobody wants to serve as a Trustee, and so the people who do serve are either megalomaniacs or people who don't have much business savvy, but have a lot of time on their hands. Meetings of Trustees are poorly attended. A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condominium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.topbev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}