Bradenton house for sale narrowly avoids foreclosure when homeowner association (HOA) calls off aggressive law firm.
Beware lawyers foreclosing HOA liens, negotiations are FIERCE!
Please do not stop paying your HOA dues, even if you can’t afford your house payment.
You absolutely do NOT want to face an aggressive law firm desperately trying to foreclose on an HOA lien for unpaid dues.
A recent short sale listing took every ounce of strategy, appeal & luck to help a property owner avoid foreclosure.
No doubt, without the involved help of Tony Burdett, Director of Community Development for Lennar Homes, LLC, this property most certainly would fallen into foreclosure.
Click READ MORE below now to discover the worst case scenario of what happens when a property owner stops paying HOA dues and stops maintaining the property, forcing HOA to turn delinquency over to an aggressive law firm.
You DON’T want to miss this…or what had to be done to call of Association Law Group.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
You absolutely must beware some lawyers and law firms who are extremely greedy, seeing HOA liens as their own private ATM – free money.
Bradenton Home For Sale DETAILS
- 239 Golden Harbour Trail, Bradenton, FL
- Heritage Harbour community
- Two homeowner associations: Heritage Harbour Master Association & Stoneybrook HOA.
- Delinquent HOA fees and no property maintenance since April 2008 – at approximately $410.91 /quarter ~ almost 16 quarters delinquent.
- Deferred property maintenance – property owner did not maintain outside of property since April 2008, forcing HOA to cut “weeds” at $40-45.00 /cut.
- Delinquent HOA fees and deferred maintenance quickly totaled around $7,300. This is what the HOA legitimately deserved to be paid.
Unfortunately, Association Law Firm (representing Heritage Harbour & calling itself a “mortgage terminator” in its presentation to homeowner associations) found it necessary to pile on legal fees – see image below for just ONE of 2 homeowner associations on which Association Law Group billed this account:
Delinquent HOA fees PLUS outside maintenance totaled approximately $7,300. For “legal services rendered,” Association Law Group (on behalf of its client Heritage Harbour Master Association and Stoneybrook HOA) demanded payoff $21,619.38.
Heritage Harbour HOA demanded nearly $14,000 in legal fees!
Association Law Group refused to negotiate their legal fees.
Association Law Group believed it could foreclose the HOA lien & get all its legal fees paid.
Consequently, seller’s attorney was not successful in (attempting to) negotiate with Association Law Group.
At this point, I stepped in to (attempt to) reason with the homeowners’ association. Lennar Homes, Heritage Harbour developer, remains the decision-making entity.
To Mr. Burdett, I appealed for help, requesting the HOA confront its Association Law Group for reasonable consideration.
After many discussions, it was Heritage Harbour’s HOA (& especially Mr. Burdett) that (must have) convinced its law firm to reduce its outrageous fees & settle the HOA lien for MUCH less than $21,619.38.
Bottom line: if you ever face an HOA lien jeopardizing a short sale, I strongly urge you to confront the HOA board members and/or Developer (if applicable). HOA board members are volunteers; they don’t want drama.
They want an eyesore to be removed from the neighborhood with buyers who will move in, clean up the property, assimilate into the neighborhood & PAY DUES ON TIME.
In our case, the HOA would receive every penny it was owed – that’s only right. It was Association Law Group that demanded outrageous fees far exceeding the amount due the HOA.
What questions or comments do you have? Please scroll down & share your thoughts. To save a property owner from foreclosure, I once again had to go way beyond a real estate agent’s job description. In today’s market, we CANNOT hope this issues work themselves out – they don’t! They turn to foreclosures, and that’s what this law firm wanted.
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