OK, backstory:
We surrendered our condo in our chapter 13. We assumed the bank would foreclose pretty quickly, and couldn't afford the $529/month HOA fees. After about 5 months post-ch13 of no foreclosure and accruing HOA debt, our lawyer suggested getting a tenant to pay back-fees/fees moving forward etc. So we found a wonderful tenant, gave her a great price, was completely upfront with her etc. The HOA made it a pain in our butt and wouldn't let us or our tenant into the public space of the building until we signed an agreement with them promising to pay them 100% of the net rent until all post-petition back-fees had been paid. OK, fine, whatever, we agreed to that.
Fast forward to December, when we are all paid up (I kept incredibly detailed accounting of every penny we sent them and every line item them sent me on statements), I start getting nasty emails from the HOA management company saying we still owe more money and are not holding up our end of the deal. They are trying to collect on pre-petition debt. I push back and send them a very nice, organized letter (I cc the board of directors for the building), complete with my accounting and spreadsheets, explaining that they cannot collect on pre-petition debt, and that we are all caught up to date. That they will be receiving the HOA dues of $529 moving forward.
Today I receive a statement from them, getting rid of the pre-petition debt (that's a start), but now they have added over $600 in legal fees in the past couple of months that they expect me to pay. In addition, they are continuing to charge a $20/month late fee on our account, even though we are all current. Do I really have to pay the legal fees for their incompetence? Every time I send them an email correcting them on something, or even just communicating info about my account, it apparently costs me money in legal fees. I refuse to engage them anymore, but I just don't know what recourse I have, if any. Do I pay them to just make it go away? Do I have our lawyer send them a nasty-gram? Do I just ignore and wait quietly for foreclosure (the condo has been in default for almost 3 years now)?
Oh, and one other super annoying thing is that their ledger/accounting is TERRIBLE. It is full of errors, includes fees multiple times, is just plain wrong. I don't really know how to fix stupid, but I can't send them anything about their mistakes because apparently I will get slapped with legal fees. ugh.
HELP!! (and thanks!)
We surrendered our condo in our chapter 13. We assumed the bank would foreclose pretty quickly, and couldn't afford the $529/month HOA fees. After about 5 months post-ch13 of no foreclosure and accruing HOA debt, our lawyer suggested getting a tenant to pay back-fees/fees moving forward etc. So we found a wonderful tenant, gave her a great price, was completely upfront with her etc. The HOA made it a pain in our butt and wouldn't let us or our tenant into the public space of the building until we signed an agreement with them promising to pay them 100% of the net rent until all post-petition back-fees had been paid. OK, fine, whatever, we agreed to that.
Fast forward to December, when we are all paid up (I kept incredibly detailed accounting of every penny we sent them and every line item them sent me on statements), I start getting nasty emails from the HOA management company saying we still owe more money and are not holding up our end of the deal. They are trying to collect on pre-petition debt. I push back and send them a very nice, organized letter (I cc the board of directors for the building), complete with my accounting and spreadsheets, explaining that they cannot collect on pre-petition debt, and that we are all caught up to date. That they will be receiving the HOA dues of $529 moving forward.
Today I receive a statement from them, getting rid of the pre-petition debt (that's a start), but now they have added over $600 in legal fees in the past couple of months that they expect me to pay. In addition, they are continuing to charge a $20/month late fee on our account, even though we are all current. Do I really have to pay the legal fees for their incompetence? Every time I send them an email correcting them on something, or even just communicating info about my account, it apparently costs me money in legal fees. I refuse to engage them anymore, but I just don't know what recourse I have, if any. Do I pay them to just make it go away? Do I have our lawyer send them a nasty-gram? Do I just ignore and wait quietly for foreclosure (the condo has been in default for almost 3 years now)?
Oh, and one other super annoying thing is that their ledger/accounting is TERRIBLE. It is full of errors, includes fees multiple times, is just plain wrong. I don't really know how to fix stupid, but I can't send them anything about their mistakes because apparently I will get slapped with legal fees. ugh.
HELP!! (and thanks!)
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