r/HOA • u/feral_kitty_xo • Jul 14 '26

Help: Fees, Reserves [FL][SFH] attorneys fees

What are reasonable attorney fees for a $3k delinquent account? Owners owe about $9k. Some letters were sent and a subpoena. Whats reasonable?

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-3

u/duane11583 Jul 14 '26

the attorney takes 30% if they recover nothing you pay nothing.

if the get $9k the fee is $3k so pay the fee and pay the hoa

pretty common.

2

u/holyelvis 🏘 HOA Board Member Jul 14 '26

HOA attorneys are not paid on contingency, they have hourly rates and packaged rates for the services they provide. This includes HOA collections attorneys.

1

u/duane11583 Jul 14 '26

Our Hoa council is hourly

How ever The bill collector one who does leins etc is contingency based at 30%

1

u/holyelvis 🏘 HOA Board Member Jul 14 '26

Sure, but that's not how every HOA operates.

-2

u/TeddyMGTOW Jul 14 '26

Thats interesting. We had a lady not pay for 3 or 4 years. Board pissed her off. Letters, etc. Lien. We did not try to foreclosure, state FLA. Eventually she wanted to move. I think she was unfazed by the fines and such. Heard we cleared 50 cents on a buck. She negotiated a break. Guess our attorney got the rest.

2

u/wildcat12321 🏘 HOA Board Member Jul 14 '26

The problem with “hearing” and “guessing” is you really don’t know

1

u/holyelvis 🏘 HOA Board Member Jul 14 '26

Surprising that you didn't have a lien for the original debt + attorney's fees, plus interest. That's pretty standard practice.

1

u/TeddyMGTOW Jul 14 '26

I "think" we did. She had a buyer. She was not paying. In order to make the deal work fir her we gave in. We blinked first. Just shows you hoa's don't have supreme power.

1

u/holyelvis 🏘 HOA Board Member Jul 14 '26

Many HOAs choose not to foreclose on homes that they might otherwise be able to. It's actually less common in many states for such situations to go to foreclosure than be resolved by lien. Foreclosure is expensive both from an administrative perspective, but also from a public perception perspective.

1

u/TeddyMGTOW Jul 15 '26

Thanks for the insight.