Management company should give owner break on fees

Q: I bought a home in an area with a home owners association. The fees are billed quarterly. Since I am away during the summer months, I went to a website for the property management and subscribed to receive all my bill notifications by e-mail. I also have my mail forwarded by the U.S Postal Services to my summer residence during the months I reside there. No notification was sent by e-mail and no bill was ever forwarded.

Upon my return to Las Vegas, I received a certified letter saying I was in default for two quarters and if I did not pay, it would be promptly sent to collections. The management company had added a $25 late fee for each quarter in arrears for a total of $50, plus interest, plus the cost of a certified letter for which they charged $50, making the amount owed roughly $250. The letter said that if the matter went to collections it would add an additional $250, plus fees.

We called the management company immediately to ask for a breakdown of the fees and to query as to why we never received notices. The management company informed us that they use "bulk mail" to send out the quarterly bills, which are never forwarded. They are returned to the sender. There is no attempt to contact the owner until a sufficient debt is accrued and then the company sends the certified letter and proceeds with the collections process.

Is it legal to charge late fees when the management has not sent the bill in a way that has a chance of getting to the owner?

Is it usury to charge a collection fee that is greater than the cost of the bill?

When we asked why no attempts were made to forward the bill, the property manager snapped, "What do you expect, we manage over 200 properties. Do you realize how many bills come back to us?"

Well, duh, maybe that's why they should send the bills presorted first class like every other bill is sent. In fact, the USPS site states that bulk or "standard" mail is to be used for ads and flyers, not for bills.)

When we asked about what happened to notifying us about bills via e-mail, the management company said it wasn't set up to do that. In fact, we had to inform them that it was an option on the website.

What are your thoughts on this matter. We are new to Vegas laws. Are these practices within the industry standards?

A: If the website is one of the management company's established method of communicating with a homeowner, then it should have received your request to send your bill by e-mail. Most management companies do not have the software to send assessment bills by e-mail. According to your letter, your management company does not have the ability to send bills by e-mail. If this is the case, someone from the management company should have responded to you and told you it could only send bills through the mail.

You also indicate that all of your mail was being forwarded by the United States Post Office. Many companies do mail by bulk in order to help reduce the operating expenses of the association. Even so, if the billing letter was returned to the management company, it could have resent the letter asking it to be forwarded. Many management companies take this step and often takes one more step by checking the mailing information found on the Clark County Assessor's Office.

Looking at this problem from the association's viewpoint, you know your association sends quarterly assessment billings. There is no requirement that statements have to be sent to an owner. You should have realized that you did not receive a statement and that you needed to send the dues to the management company.

As an owner of a home, you know that you have to pay utilities, telephone, cable and mortgage payments each month. If you did not receive a mortgage statement, would you not realize that fact and mail in a payment?

From the association's viewpoint, you should have realized that you were missing your quarterly statements and should have notified the management company and sent in your payments.

In this case, the homeowner did communicate to the management company through its website. If the website has been set up to receive messages from the homeowners, then the management company received proper notice and failed to act accordingly. In all fairness, the company should waive the collection and interest and late fees on your account.

In the last legislative session, AB 350 was passed. In Section 1.7, the law authorized the CICCH Commission to adopt regulations establishing the amount of fees that an association may charge regardless of what is currently established.

The new law also applies to the collection agencies that are engaged by the associations to collect pass assessments and any other money owed to the association.

The law lists what constitutes the cost of collecting and that includes any collection fee, filing fee, preparation fee, recording or delivery of a lien, lien rescissions, title search, lien fee, bankruptcy search fee, referral fee, postage, investigation and enforcement.

Barbara Holland, CPM, and Supervisory CAM, is president of H&L Realty and Management Co. To ask her a question, e-mail support@hlrealty.com.