Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland

Reasonable collection fees for HOA

used bank online system to pay HOA

fees, my management company

requested since I do not send them a

debit form to use another address to

send my payments, I made a

mistake in zip code while changing

the address. The HOA attorney

contacted me via mail, I called them

back, but they informed that 10 day

period passed, now they request my

payment 2 month payment plus fee,

and they add over $1,000 dollars of

attorney and collection fees. Every

time I called them they keep

charging me more and more fees. Is

any action I can do against the HOA?

What is reasonable collection fees?

My HOA fees is 200/month


Asked on 2/11/09, 2:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Sher Wagshal and Sher

Re: Reasonable collection fees for HOA

There should be a late fee spelled out in your HOA bylaws, and it should be around 5%. If this was the first time you had this problem, it shouldn't have been escalated to the legal level so quickly. You need to speak to someone with authority to adjust the amount due to a reasonable level so they don't lien your property with these fees. If this were in court, no judge would approve that much in attorney fees on a $200 debt, but they usually just file a lien and wait until you go to pay off your loan to collect.

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Answered on 2/11/09, 5:11 pm


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