HOA fines and late fees

[mede]

Washington State here.

(1) My landlord charged us HOA fines even though we never agreed to pay their fines for them. I was planning on asking for that money back and taking them to small claims court if they refuse. My question is this: should I try to get that money from the home-owner or from the property management company? The property management company were the only ones we ever dealt with.

(2) In our lease agreement it states "there will be a $70 charge" if rent is a day late. We were one day late twice and both times they charged us $140 saying that both me and my wife had to pay a late fee. Are they allowed to do that? It was never stated there would be a $70 late charge "per tenant."

Thanks for any help!

 

[FarmerJ]

I suggest you not be late with the rent because 70 is rather steep but the nitty gritty of it is your lease is a valid contract and if it only says 70 for a late fee , does it say how many days that covers ? The LL in your case I think is full of them self if they really think 70 per person is okay since from what you posted the lease didn't say that. AS far as any other so called fines If its not in your lease then If it was me id refuse to pay them any more and take steps to prepare for the LL / owner to act badly re deposit funds. If the property management firm is the one who claimed you owed fines etc then they are the ones to sue but IN the end it wont hurt you to name both the actual owner and the management firm since the PM firm is representing the owners interest supposedly.

 

[mede]

Thanks for the response. I guess if I end up going to small claims court I will name both of them as defendants.

How should I go about it? Should I just call them and send a letter and then file in small claims if that doesn't get anywhere?

 

[FarmerJ]

If you just want refunds try certified letter to the property manager, in it out line what your lease says about late fees , so called HOA fines if you are positive its not hidden in the lease or any other document such as mention that you agreed to follow HOA rules , see whats messed up is that you have already paid fines as far as asking for refund of fines goes Id say that it may be harder to get that money back. If the property manager does not respond to you id say your free to sue . but whether you actually win every amount you ask for is another story. Id suggest you begin to treat your relationship with this pm firm a bit more aggressively once you send them a letter telling them your going to sue them if they do not refund fines and late fees they were not entitled to collect. if you have repair request to send them via certified mail, they send to you a bill for a fine dispute it via certified mail. MAKE sure your rent is not late, use a self storage unit in your last month there and take out the things you wont need for at least two months or more first then more and more and more so you can clean and clean and clean every thing from A to Z and take pictures of how clean you leave it , date them and document your units final condition so you have proof of its condition in case you must sue them for your deposit after you move out.

 

[Shadowbunny]

Washington State here.

(1) My landlord charged us HOA fines even though we never agreed to pay their fines for them. I was planning on asking for that money back and taking them to small claims court if they refuse. My question is this: should I try to get that money from the home-owner or from the property management company? The property management company were the only ones we ever dealt with.

(2) In our lease agreement it states "there will be a $70 charge" if rent is a day late. We were one day late twice and both times they charged us $140 saying that both me and my wife had to pay a late fee. Are they allowed to do that? It was never stated there would be a $70 late charge "per tenant."

Thanks for any help!

Were the fines due to your actions?

 

[mede]

I expect it is at least a bit harder to get the money back then to keep the money in the first place, but if we didn't pay it then we would have been charged a $140 late fee and possibly be threatened with eviction etc.

The HOA fees were actually for landscaping. We were fined for the condition the property was in when we received it.

By the way, this is a landlord for the house we just moved out of.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[FarmerJ]

When you write to the PM outline the date you moved in and the date they said they were owed a fine ( ill guess they deducted it from the rent you paid ? because if they had you could have forced them to take you to court and prove that you were responsible for that fine wich would have made your rent short) SO again use certified letter , keep copy and in the future stop bending over for those people , put up a fight , in the end they are supposed to be the professional landlord so that means they are going to be held to a much higher standard in any legal disputes than you and that includes them following the leases terms and not riding by the seat of their pants making crap up and trying to force a tenant to do something the lease doesn't allow them to do.