Can My Condo Board Take Away My Amenities Because I'm in Arrears?
May 5, 2014 — When times get tough and the choice of paying your mortgage or paying your condo's common charges looms, the bank usually wins. But that doesn't mean a condo board is just going to stand still as arrears build up, so expect your board to take action. How, you wonder? By taking away the very thing that enticed you to buy in the first place: your amenities.
The Windbrooke Homes condominium in Central Islip, on Long Island, is facing this problem now. The condo board has tried various collection strategies over the years. "Some of the owners, where we have threatened foreclosure after being strung along with these payment agreements, have suddenly come up with some money," says Joan Quinn, treasurer at the Windbrooke. "But it's not going to be steady. They're just going to string us along."
No Parking Zone
While owners were trying to juggle their own finances, the Windbrooke board had bills to pay, too. So the board turned to the one thing they hoped would catch owners attention — parking.
"The only thing we can punish them with is, 'You can't use the pool, and you can't park here,'" says Quinn. "Well, not using the pool is no big deal. Who cares? It's ten weeks out of the year. They don't care about that; they're working people anyway. But the parking is a big deal. Now we can tow cars out. Some years back, about five years back, we were doing that. But what a hassle!"
Then the board got tougher: they put boots on car wheels, making it impossible for the owner to use the vehicle. "One guy had his car flat-bedded out of here to some [outfit] that cut off the boot," recalls Quinn. "We tell people in the first letter that goes out to them when they're not paying their common charges: You are facing the probability of losing your parking privileges and your pool."
Adapted from "The Gambit" by Bill Morris (Habitat, May 2014)
Photo by Carol Ott. Click to enlarge.
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