I was taking to a neighbor in my complex about my favorite topic, the RE market. He proceeds to tell me about an acquaintance of his who lives in a condo complex in El Cajon. She has a dilemma. She is one of four people left who are paying HOAs.
Now unfortunately I don’t have details and he didn’t either, as in name of complex or how many units, etc.
The problem is all the other owners have defaulted on their loans, are stil living there, just not paying on the loan or HOAs. Banks have not foreclosed yet.
The real problem is the four owners who are making mortgage and HOAs are paying and are now getting regular special assessments which are getting very expensive.
Apparently they got a HUGE water bill assessment and they are in a bind b/c if they don’t pay, the water will be turned off, is what he was saying.
Can the water department do that?
We discussed this further, that if the bank eventually forecloses, the bank is obligated to pay the HOAs, right? But I guess whichever bank has the first loan, if they sell and get lower than what is owed to them, then the second lien holder and the HOAs are $hit out of luck.
So do these four owners continue every month to pay this very high water bill and other special assessments? They don’t want to walk and f/up their credit.
Very catch-22 situation. One more reason to hate HOAs, besides their military rules and regulations.
If this happened in EC, what’s to stop it from happening in other complexes that get real bad?