[mcjulien]

I received a letter from a law firm on behalf of my HOA management asking me to pay interest and late fees and legal fees for more that 1k in order to avoid a lien in 30 days because I failed to pay from 2009 to 2012.
The argument is: My HOA was 254 quarterly and I always paid between 1st and 9. I was never EVER notified of an increased of 290 instead of 254. I always brought the checks to the office and no one at the management office said anything to me.
Please let me know that to do because I have copies of the checks.

Thanks

[ScottGem]

Talk to the HOA and point out that you never received notice of the increase and point out that you have been paying the old amount regularly and no one has mentioned a problem in 3 years. Tell them you are prepared to pay the actual amount you owe, right away, but that you ask them to waive interest and late fees because you were never informed.

Your problem here is that HOAs tend to be arbitrary. Legally, they are entitled to file a lien and don't need to go to court about it. If they do, you have to go to court and get a judge to order them to waive the interest and fees (not easy to do).