In a Chapter 13 with Hoa past due

[memaria]

Hello,
I am currently in a active Chapter 13 and have been paying on it going on 3 years now I fell behind in my HOA of 2 months due to medical reasons. Anyways we received a letter from HOA attorney saying they were going to try to lift my automatic stay. We tried to pay the balance owed plus attorney fees. I also tried to go thru my chapter 13 lawyer who was basically useless and never bothered to phone us back. We finally got a letter in the mail from the HOA attorney saying if we payed the past due fees etc they would not go to court. So we went to there office to pay the full amount and they are saying they cant speak to us regarding it nor take are payment. We showed them the letter they sent to us and there reply was they didn't know we were in a chapter 13???? Which is not possible they did know because on the paperwork I first got for the court date its regarding the chapter 13 and them trying to lift it

I am planning on going to this court date with all the paper work and try to explain are side we had every intention of paying the past due amount but they wouldn't accept it? Does anyone know if we show up to court will they make arrangments for us to pay it or do you think they will try to foreclose on us ?
I just don't know were to look for advise anymore not sure what to do

[LadyInTheRed]

The best thing to do would be to get your attorney to handle this. Have you had any communication at all with your attorney regarding the motion for relief?

If your attorney really is completely useless, go to the hearing. Bring a cashier's check for the amount necdessary to bring the fees up-to-date, plus whatever attorney fees they originally agreed to accept. It's up to the judge, but if you show up with a cashier's check in hand and documentation of your side of the story, I suspect the judge will not lift the stay.

When is the hearing?

[memaria]

The best thing to do would be to get your attorney to handle this. Have you had any communication at all with your attorney regarding the motion for relief?

If your attorney really is completely useless, go to the hearing. Bring a cashier's check for the amount necdessary to bring the fees up-to-date, plus whatever attorney fees they originally agreed to accept. It's up to the judge, but if you show up with a cashier's check in hand and documentation of your side of the story, I suspect the judge will not lift the stay.

When is the hearing?

We had the court hearing yesterday we went there and explained to the judge are Lawyer doesn't return are calls and the association said the same thing.
We told him that we had every intention to pay it back in August but they would not take are payments because we are in a chapter 13. My lawyer didn't help us at all. Anyways, good thing we went told the judge all we want to do is pay it and he accepted it and no longer can do anything to lift automatic stay.
Never mess with HOA they are pure evil we were only 2 months behind at the time and they automatically sent us to a lawyer and they charged us fees ect...

[justbroke]

Yes, you need to understand how your particular HOAs handle late dues/assessment payments. My HOA does them annually, and it's only $300 a year (we are a large HOA and some CDD items are included as non-ad valorem in the property taxes). We are not late until 30 days past, and then it doesn't go to collection, the attorney, for another 45 days.

HOAs have only recently become more aggressive in collecting association dues and assessments, because of the housing climate. The smaller the HOA and/or the larger the HOA dues, the more aggressive they appear. it appears to me that this is exacerbated because the dues are important to operating the community. In my community, $300 wouldn't even pay for the plants for one month at one entrance to one of the subdivisions within my community. Nor would it even cover the costs of hardly anything at any of the two swim centers, sport parks, or playgrounds. However, i would understand why they would become quicker to invoke collections if, say, 1,000 homeowners were late paying.

(Example, in my 2008 Chapter 13, I owed the HOA for one year of assessments. I put them in the Plan, but the HOA failed to file a claim so the Trustee did not pay them. Never heard a peep from them until 2012; well after my 2010 discharge. Again, the HOAs are interesting anomalies.)

I am glad that you were able to have the RFS motion denied. I wish you the best of luck.