Unpaid Common Charges?
I found out last night from the neighbor below us that the neighbor on the garden level hasn’t paid her common charges for the past five months. Where do we stand? I would like to give her the opportunity to get current, but there is urgent facade work that needs doing, so where do we…
I found out last night from the neighbor below us that the neighbor on the garden level hasn’t paid her common charges for the past five months.
Where do we stand? I would like to give her the opportunity to get current, but there is urgent facade work that needs doing, so where do we stand legally?
Thanks.
Yeah, I certainly feel a bit blind sided by all of this. Coming in I suppose I wanted to give the current owners the benefit of the doubt (i.e. let the lady downstairs who doesn’t even own a computer take responsibility for being the treasurer), but in hindsight meeting at least every few months who have helped to avoid this problem. I’ll definitely check the bylaws invisible.
jland, unfortunately building business hasn’t been discussed since I’ve been here (almost a year). Certainly time for that to change.
Complaining about common charges? The time to complain is before buying, not after signing on as agreeing to pay. Aside from water charges, aren’t there others common to the building that get dealt with aside from the facade?
OTOH, if you’re only getting word of this complaint from the treasurer, it may not have actually been said.
Have you not talked any building business in months? We only have four units in our condo and we meet once a month and if there’s no major business to discuss it’s over pretty quickly and we all see it as a necessary inconvenience. Not having at least an online meeting once a month is a recipe for disaster.
“Apparently she has complained in the past about having to pay at all!”
Be very careful about people like this. You should be very very firm because there are people who go around as non payers for as long as they live in buildings, don’t believe they need to pay their maintenance, and try and settle it for pennies like an unpaid IRS debt.
Know what you can and can’t get via the bylaws (many do not allow late fees or interest) as well as attorneys fees and send a strong message.
My advice is do not take someone’s offhand comment like this lightly.
I always wondered about these small condo/coop buildings. I think 3 units might be too small a building to share… Unless you are certain in advance that your group all have the same ideas about sharing the building.
If things go wrong in a building this size, you don’t have enough buffer zone from problems. Seems like there is zero advantage to a condo on this scale.
Thanks for the great advice. Unfortunately, the ‘treasurer’ ought to have been on top of this months ago and I found out last night the other neighbor has only paid once in the last year. Pickle jar indeed. Apparently she has complained in the past about having to pay at all! Bizarre stuff since we all use water. It is a condo association with only three units in the building, so the treasurer will speak with the neighbor to see if and when she will pay the back fees, otherwise I guess I’ll have to explore the next options.
Thanks all.
Your coop’s treasurer should be onto this as soon as maintenance is in arrears. If the property is financed, the coop should contact the financial institution that services the mortgage, more than likely they’ll sort the problem out for you.
Plus it seems since you don’t have enough in your reserve funds to cover the facade work without the back payments you probably need to raise your common charges too.
I second the pickle jar comment.
you should have started warning letters on month two and legal action on month 3.
this is a big problem with small buildings.
forget the facade work, concentrate on taxes, water, insurance and debt service until you get caught up.
*read your bylaws*. if you can recover legal fees you can start to take action when you like. If not, you might want to wait till there is enough in arrears to justify spending the $$.
practically speaking 5 months isn’t a long long time in the scheme of people who can’t or won’t pay (some people are years behind before they get taken to court).
of course you can’ get blood from a stone so if the money ain’t there you have bigger problems. however, a letter should be written about what remedies you have and what action will need to be taken to protect other shareholders. if this person has a history of this then take them to the mat.
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