Straley Otto understands that with today’s financial difficulties, the primary focus of many community associations and their managers is the collection of delinquent assessments. We recognize that that maintenance fees and other assessment income is the financial lifeblood of a community association, and Straley Otto has assisted community associations with the collection of delinquent assessments since the early 1980s. With the importance of associations being able to fund the operation, maintenance, management of their communities, a large part of our practice necessarily concentrates on the collection of delinquent assessments for our community association clients. Most community associations have at least some collection difficulties, and the delinquencies’ effect on a community can be devastating through the loss of income, budget shortages, limits on funds for maintenance and repairs, wasted time, and the possible imposition of a contractor’s lien if a community association is not able to meet its financial obligations to its vendors.
Straley Otto has always used a distinctive approach to the collection of delinquent assessments which almost always results in no legal fees being paid by a community association, except in very limited situations. Demand letters and claims of lien are filed within twenty-four (24) hours of referral, as our law firm and its bi-lingual staff of legal secretaries, assistants, paralegals, and attorneys is committed to a quick turnaround on assessment collections. Delinquent accounts are collected professionally, with all due respect to the delinquent unit owners, however, Straley Otto aggressively pursues the delinquent accounts as, again, we are aware of the financial necessity of associations collecting their delinquencies.
Straley Otto is familiar with and works aggressively in situations involving delayed bank foreclosures, collection of maximum sums from banks and other parties that take ownership of units following a lender’s foreclosure, unit owner short sales, the collection of rent from the tenants of delinquent unit owners, as well as other unique assessment collection methods and techniques developed by Straley Otto.
With regard to the collection of delinquent assessments, Straley Otto provides status reports online (or by mail if preferred) to the Presidents, Board members, and/or managers of its community association clients. The online accessibility is provided through a secured password, to ensure privacy and the protection of any attorney-client privileged matters, and these reports are provided at no charge to our clients to ensure that they are privy to up-to-date information on the progress and success of our firm’s collection efforts.