GA real estate law, homeowners association fees, default on HOA dues

What's the worst that can happen when you fail to pay your "condo dues?"

Short answer: the condominium association can foreclose your ownership of your condominium unit, leaving with you nothing but legal fees and bad credit.

Section 44-3-109 provides that the assessments (often commonly called "dues" or "fees") imposed by the condominium association to pay the common expenses of the condominium's maintenance and operation constitute a lien against the individual units (i.e. the separately owned apartments) within the condominium. The lien is not enforceable until the association records a claim of lien against the unit in the county real estate records. Most associations will not take this action until you are 30 days or more past due in the payment of your assessments. Once a claim of lien is recorded against your unit, the association can make you pay interest on the past-due assessment, late fees, and any attorney's fees incurred in the process of collection. If you fail to pay the past due assessment, interest, attorney's fees, etc., in full, the association may then initiate judicial foreclosure proceeding against your unit.

Failure to pay your assessments when due is also an event of default under the standard Fannie Mae form of mortgage (in Georgia, a deed to secure debt), which virtually every residential lender in America uses. Often, smart association management companies will simply notify your mortgage lender of your failure to pay the assessment. The lender in turn will send you a default letter demanding that you pay the condominium assessment, or the lender will initiate a foreclosure of the mortgage (or security deed).

Bottom line: there is no legal excuse for not paying your condominium assessment to the association, even if the association is failing to properly maintain the condominium's common areas. After your monthly mortgage payment, your assessment is the second most important payment you will make each month as a condominium unit owner. Failure to pay either will ultimately lead to foreclosure.