Ask Experts Questions for FREE Help !
Ask
    Rave3prez's Avatar
    Rave3prez Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #1

    Jan 7, 2008, 06:24 PM
    Overdue Condo Assessments
    Greetings everyone. I'm the (unfortunate) president of a small (16 unit) condo association in Illinois. One of the units went into foreclosure a few months ago and is now up for sale. No assessments have been paid since July 2007. We're owed $2000+.

    My question is this: In order to collect the monies owed us, should we file a lien, pro se; hire an attorney to file the lien; send a registered letter to the bank holding the mortgage, advising them of this situation; or wait until the association is contacted by a buyer's attorney for the "usual" documents required at closing to notify them of the situation?

    FYI, each time a unit has been sold, prior to closing, one of the items requested by the buyer's attorney has been a document verifying that the assessments are paid up to a specific date.

    Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.
    LisaB4657's Avatar
    LisaB4657 Posts: 3,662, Reputation: 534
    Expert
     
    #2

    Jan 7, 2008, 08:36 PM
    There is a pretty good chance that you're not going to be able to recover the money.

    You're going to have to carefully read your master deed and by-laws. Back when I was writing public offerings in NJ (10 years ago), there was a clause that was required to be in the master deed in order to get approved for FNMA loans. That clause stated that the condo association would not be entitled to collect any prior maintenance fees or special assessments from the lender or a purchaser at a foreclosure sale. Any fees that became due before the foreclosure had to be written off as a loss.

    I don't know if FNMA still requires this clause today and I don't know if it's in your condo docs. So you'll have to read them carefully. If you don't see that clause, consider contacting your association's attorney to see if you have the right to go after those fees. But I doubt you can.
    Fr_Chuck's Avatar
    Fr_Chuck Posts: 81,301, Reputation: 7692
    Expert
     
    #3

    Jan 7, 2008, 09:08 PM
    And I will add that even if it allowed a lien, Hardly ever does the foreclosure sale bring enough to even pay the first mortgage, which is paid first, so any other lien would normally never get paid.

    So while you have full rights to try, most likely you can't file, and if you can, still won't get anything at the sale anyway.
    Rave3prez's Avatar
    Rave3prez Posts: 2, Reputation: 1
    New Member
     
    #4

    Jan 7, 2008, 10:46 PM
    Oh great... thanks, though.

Not your question? Ask your question View similar questions

 

Question Tools Search this Question
Search this Question:

Advanced Search

Add your answer here.


Check out some similar questions!

Gifted Assessments [ 2 Answers ]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this. I think that my 15 year old daughter might be gifted but I don't know what to do about it. Do gifted children always do well on tests?Also, where is the best place to go to find out?Is one type of test better than another? I live in England...

How can I negotiate a settlement for an overdue judgement [ 1 Answers ]

Hi, Back in 98-99 I had a run of bad debt. I chose to simply ignore it and as a result 1 of my creditors filed a judgement. At the time I was unable to attend the hearing and the attorney who filed applied for a 29% interest rate on the judgement. The original debt was around 800 + the attorney...

Need to Paint my new Condo [ 1 Answers ]

Hi, We just purchased our first house. It's a two bedroom condo. I haven't painted even a wall before in my life. I asked for different quotes for professional painter, but everything seems to be pretty expensive and out of our budget. I have a 3-month old baby(I am breastfeeding) and 5 days to...

Overdue billing [ 3 Answers ]

I ordered dishes with a no payment for five months option. I received the bill about Jan. 20, the day before it was due. I phoned and said it would be late, since I just got the bill. It took 3 weeks to get to me. They said there would be a charge ($35) for being overdue. Should I be held...

I'm overdue and still not dialating? HELP [ 3 Answers ]

My baby was suppose to be born on Jan 1 of 2006 and I still haven't started to dialate or anything. My contractions are very far apart and seem to not be getting any closer together. Is there something wrong or can I do anything to make my labor start?? HELP


View more questions Search