What are my rights regarding late fees imposed by my HOA?
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What are my rights regarding late fees imposed by my HOA?
My HOA fee is a fixed amount every month (although we do not get an invoice monthly). We made our monthly payments as usual but 2 of our payment were re-funded after 90 days. We were not aware of this until we received a notification. The only problem I had is that we received the notification 1 year later, and now the HOA property management company is asking us to pay 1 years worth of late fees. I feel that this is unethical and unreasonable. Is this something I can fight in court?
Asked on December 6, 2015 under Real Estate Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
If two of your monthly payments were not received and/or did not go through, you may be charged late fees for those two months--not for a whole year, and especially not in light of the HOA'S failure to notify you in a timely manner so you could correct or "cure" the problem, which violates their duty to mitigate, minimize, losses. While you should double check exactly what your HOA agreement says, since it defines your rights and obligations, typically, you would have a good chance of keeping your late fees to 2 months if this went to trial, based on what you write.
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