A very important duty of the Board of Directors is to enforce the rules for home upkeep. It is critical that a buyer read the expectations in the Governing Documents carefully, especially if you are considering a single-family home in a Homeowners Association. If the landscape and exterior maintenance of someone’s home doesn’t meet the written criteria of the community, the owner gets notified. If the problem isn’t rectified in a reasonable amount of time, the owner can be pursued legally and potentially court ordered to correct the issues along with ending up with a legal judgment on their record if the case goes to court. It is so important for the Board of Directors to be consistent and keep up with the exterior violation enforcement or the community will start to look dumpy and unappealing. The most important rule that the Board of Directors must enforce is assessment collection. Homeowner assessments are mandatory annual fees that are charged to every homeowner in the community. Assessments pay for common area maintenance, management services, landscape crews, utility bills, taxes, corporate and legal fees, and many other items depending how many amenities and green areas are part of the community. Once a homeowner becomes delinquent on assessments, the Association has the duty of enforcing the rules regarding payment. If an owner ignores multiple requests for payment, legal collections is the next step. A lien is placed on the home and if the account isn’t settled, it is sold at a lien foreclosure auction to cover the amount of assessments, legal fees and costs owed to the Association. If this happens, the owner may still have a mortgage, but no home to go with it. That may sound harsh, but everyone who buys in a Community Association is contractually bound to do what is required. When people don’t do what is expected, the whole community suffers. Consistent enforcement of assessment collections ensures that
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