Is it Fair to Your Neighbors to Stop Paying Your HOA dues?

Did the HOA pay the water bill?

As a realtor with Prudential California Realty I have all sorts of conversations with different people and hear various opinions on San Diego real estate. I also listen to people’s different schools of thought. A few days ago I had one of these interesting conversations thus the title of this post.

I believe that with every generation, values and beliefs change and that times have changed and along with that so have values and beliefs. I can tell you that my parents came from the school of thought that your word and a hand shake was worth more than any contract. They also believed in always paying your debts even if it meant a bit of sacrifice.

In this recent economic meltdown, some of those values have been literally tossed out the window. I’m not here to pass judgement nor make generalized assumptions of what has caused people to walk away from their particular homes but what I am touching on is the decision of home owners to stop paying their HOA dues.

I can accept someone stopping payment on their mortgage due to total loss or reduction of income as a result of corporate restructuring, lay-offs, medical ailment preventing the capacity to work or simply the place of employment going out of business.  If a person’s situation has changed in such a drastic manner that they have to decide between continuing paying the mortgage or be able to provide either medication, food, utilities, etc. then so be it and stop paying the mortgage. I don’t think any of us would argue that this person is being sociably irresponsible by taking such action.

But what about the HOA dues? Why do people stop paying these? Are people aware that HOAs have several means of collecting payment by, and not limited to, foreclosing on the property, levying liens, etc. I can be empathetic if someone has to stop paying their mortgage due to a tough change in their personal economic situation but what I question is their reasoning to forego the HOA dues when they’re probably still capable of continuing payment?

HOA dues are a share of the cost of some basic needs such as water, building maintenance, insurance, security, commom area lighting, complex amenities, etc. People that have stopped paying their dues are still benefiting from this arrangement and are basically taking advantage of their neighbors who are still paying their dues. All of the services I mentioned would be turned off for failure of payment seeing as all of the things I mentioned, with a few exceptions,  would be a seperate cost to the person owning a detached home.

In some cases people have stopped paying their mortgage but are more than capable of paying their HOA dues and still won’t. Why do they stop and better yet what are they doing to the money they’re not sending the bank holding their mortgage? I would venture to call this type of action flat out stealing because that’s basically what it is. It’s not like they can put that money in the bank where it can be counted as an asset that their mortgage bank can see in their financials. More often than not these people spend it on whatever they want such as electronics, shopping sprees, vacations and all of those other things we all wish we had extra money for.

In the end I’d just like to appeal to people’s ethics, civility and social responsibility to pay their HOA dues. It’s in everyone’s best interest, including their own, to keep the HOA financially stable and with plenty of reserves. Financially unstable HOAs can affect financing for the entire complex and in most cases even those people that I’ve spoken about who are more than likely trying to sell their property and are unaware of this. So if you don’t pay your dues you just might not have any water, no light in your garage, no water in the pool, no gym in a filthy unlandscaped, complex where no one will want to nor be capable of buying and selling.

 And the number one reason to pay your HOA dues,  it’s the right thing to do!