HOA Violation Letters - Fines sooner

 Be sure to read the front-page article in the September 2020 issue of The Summit Scoop about the new scheme for fines for violations.

In the olden days, if you were a bad boy, you got a letter from the HOA office telling you that you had ten days to straighten up. Like, paint your shutters, get your car off the street, put away your recycle barrel. You know, important stuff like that.

If you didn't do it, you got a second letter that threatened you with fines. And if you still didn't do it, the dreaded third letter arrived, telling you the clock on your fines had started running (from the date of the second letter, as I recall). We only got two of them. Different violations. One was a daughter's car legally parked on the street in front of the house for three daylight hours..

Now? The HOA will save postage and only send two letters, starting October 1, 2020.

BUT the fine is assessed as of the Letter Date!!! You now get 20 days to straighten up. If you do, then you must contact the HOA office "and provide proof that the violation has been corrected."

I suppose this means that, if your daughter visits and parks her car on the street and a week later you get a letter with a photo of her parked car, then you must drive to Omaha and take a picture of her car back in her own driveway. Or maybe there's another way to "prove" it.

If you fail to straighten up within 20 days or don't contact the office and prove to their satisfaction that the violation no longer exists, then you'll get a second letter. The Second Letter tells you that the fine has been assessed to your account and that you have ten more days to cure the violation.

I don't know where the Schedule of Fines is, but I recall something about fines being daily or weekly. Is that the way it is?

And Heaven help the homeowner, if the USPS loses the mail or if he is out-of-town on vacation. 

And that fine that has been added to your account? Will the HOA file a lien on your home if you don't pay it? Will that keep you from selling your house five years from now? 

If you don't like the new scheme, be sure to show up at the October 6 board meeting (oh, wait; you can't. It's on Zoom) and complain to the Board. Maybe if 1,500 people show up, they'll get the message. No guarantee of that, of course. They just refuse to unmute you.



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