chapter 7 hoa

[jlc212]

hi everyone,
i filed chapter 7 two days ago on past due hoa fees plus the hoa filed a judgement to forclose on our house and 3 judgements from previous creditors. we are keeping our home as we just completed a loan mod with wells fargo in sept. but we are behind in our hoa dues and because of that they shut our clickers off so now we have to enter the community thru the guest side and provide id each time and they will not allow our guests in unless we are physically in the car with the guest. the bankruptcy court told me that the hoa is supposed to reinstate our gate access and guests priveledges. does anyone know if that is true, i am in florida, i faxed our BK paper to the management company and their lawyer as well and the management company told me she didnt think the board will go for turning our clicker back on, the president of our hoa has a personal issue with us for not paying and its not because we didnt want to but we had a business that was not doing well and we got behind. thank you for advice

[Freddy03]

Gotta Love HOAs!!!

From my understanding it's not up to the board to decide to turn your gate access back on. I would have your attorney call them. Once you are discharged the past HOA dues will be discharged. You will need to pay HOA dues from now on.

Back in 06 our HOA tried to foreclose for back dues of $150!! HOAs are a joke here in FL.

Good Luck!

[jlc212]

Hi Freddy,
thanks for getting back to me, i appreciate your input. you are probably going to think im crazy but i dont have an attorney we are doing this ourselves because we cant afford an attorney. im trying to figure out if we regain or gate priveledges after the bankruptcy is over or the day we filed for bankruptcy. i havent seen too many posts on people filing chapter 7 but retaining their home. have you seen anything on that?

[RichM]

Maybe you can find some local storefront attorney who'll write a nastygram to the HOA RE: the clicker matter for you for a few bucks, without actually representing you in the bankruptcy. There's one in my neighborhood who'll write nastygrams for $50.00 - $100.00 each for pretty much anyone who walks through the door. He's come in handy a bunch of times over the years when I needed a mouthpiece for some particular purpose (ironically, often when I was trying to collect past-due fees from clients), but was otherwise handling things myself.

-Rich

[tobee43]

my understanding about the terrible HOA fees are as follows:....you can get your past due amounts discharged...i would even think if they had a judgment PRIOR to the filing you would be able to possibly vacate that judgment with a motion to vacate after the discharge......

however.......AFTER the discharge you will unfortunately be responsible for any HOA dues going forward until the sale of the property....HOA's really stink...but some will work with you...i know ours here does.

[scorpion35]

Gotta Love HOAs!!!

From my understanding it's not up to the board to decide to turn your gate access back on. I would have your attorney call them. Once you are discharged the past HOA dues will be discharged. You will need to pay HOA dues from now on.

Back in 06 our HOA tried to foreclose for back dues of $150!! HOAs are a joke here in FL.

Good Luck!

if u don't like HOA's don't buy a house in a community that has one.simple
i live in one and love it

[Freddy03]

if u don't like HOA's don't buy a house in a community that has one.simple
i live in one and love it

Maybe I should have edited to say that Not all HOAs are a joke. But mine sure is. Currently our board consists of ONE person and only 25% of the houses have paid since 2009. So it's the community's fault also.

FYI: I never knew we had an HOA when we built the house. The contractor told us there wasn't one. Then 6 months later we had one (assigned by the county).

[jlc212]

hi everyone,
thank you for all for the quick reply, i am so overwhelmed with this, we dont have an attorney, too much money. we are keeping our home but i guess i didnt realize that eventhough we are keeping the home they still notify the mortgage company so now i am panicking thinking wells fargo will cancel our loan. we are current on our mortgage. im guessing that our gate access wont be reinstated until our bk is discharged but i was told that it should be reinstated as soon as we file. the hoa attorney noted our acct that as soon as they received my fax they were going to call the property management to turn our clicker on but of course the management company told me they wont and i should read the florida statutes. they told me that the bankruptcy only protects me from them taking our home it has nothing to do with our gate access so i dont know what to do. i hope we are doing the right thing, my only concern is i dont want this to jeopardize us keeping our home.

[jacko]

Since when is HOA debt discharged in a BK? Have been told you can not discharge HOA fees.

hi everyone,
i filed chapter 7 two days ago on past due hoa fees plus the hoa filed a judgement to forclose on our house and 3 judgements from previous creditors. we are keeping our home as we just completed a loan mod with wells fargo in sept. but we are behind in our hoa dues and because of that they shut our clickers off so now we have to enter the community thru the guest side and provide id each time and they will not allow our guests in unless we are physically in the car with the guest. the bankruptcy court told me that the hoa is supposed to reinstate our gate access and guests priveledges. does anyone know if that is true, i am in florida, i faxed our BK paper to the management company and their lawyer as well and the management company told me she didnt think the board will go for turning our clicker back on, the president of our hoa has a personal issue with us for not paying and its not because we didnt want to but we had a business that was not doing well and we got behind. thank you for advice

[dasmom]

Since when is HOA debt discharged in a BK? Have been told you can not discharge HOA fees.

I have HOA fees that will be discharged. Anything due prior to the date of filing Chapter 7 will be discharged. Anything from the date of filing forward I am still responsible to pay. Once they received notice of Chapter 7 filing my HOA withdrew their foreclosure lawsuit and have started accepting regular monthly payments from me [only payments that were due after the date I filed Chapter 7]. Prior to filing Chapter 7 they would only accept payment of all arrears in full.

I verified that this is the correct procedure with my attorney.

dasmom

[tcreegan]

Hi all,

Some HOAs (not yours scorpion!) get a little uppitty about someone filing BK. But their debt is no different from any other debt. Pre-petition is discharged in the Ch 7, you owe the dues past the file date.

So if someone files BK and gets discharged. They stay current w/ everything after they file. ......now we enter the twilight zone (cue spooky music) .......

1) HOA says 'sorry to hear about your troubles' I pay for debts dated after petition date. Great, here is your clickler/gate key/key/whatever/

2) HOA says 'sorry to hear about your troubles' I pay for debts, get told dated before petition date. We will take your $ but it gets applied to the oldest charge then forward

3) HOA says 'sorry to hear about your troubles' I pay for debts, they stop me, you must pay all these old fees on top of the new fees before you get clicker/keys/whatever'

Option #1 is what should happen

Option #2 and #3 are both violating the automatic stay andor the dishcharge injunction.

For options 2&3 be sure to record all comunication and how you have been affected. Take all you have collected and approach lawyer to go back to the BK court and sue for damages + legal fees. Cases I have read show judges very sympathetic towards debtors.

There is a current post about "HOAs gond Wild" Good read for anyone butting heads w/ an HOA.

Goood Night all, time to turn in....

Tom in Colo......zzzz.zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[jacko]

You got to love HOA's. They did the same to me. I could of paid at least half of my fees per month until my income improved to get caught up. Instead, they tacked on $50 in monthly late fees and lawyer collection one to. Thats when I threw the towel in and gave the condo back to the bank. They have their worthless judgment and will never see a dime from me.

I have HOA fees that will be discharged. Anything due prior to the date of filing Chapter 7 will be discharged. Anything from the date of filing forward I am still responsible to pay. Once they received notice of Chapter 7 filing my HOA withdrew their foreclosure lawsuit and have started accepting regular monthly payments from me [only payments that were due after the date I filed Chapter 7]. Prior to filing Chapter 7 they would only accept payment of all arrears in full.

I verified that this is the correct procedure with my attorney.

dasmom