Legal Fees

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

One thing to keep in mind is that in years gone by, the HOA Board would work with homeowners who got behind. These days, the quarterly payment by invoice are now monthly and no reminders. It is up to you to remember to use your coupon. It is not the $15 late fee that is the issue, nor is it the interest on the dues and fees. It is the legal fees that start when you get the first letter from Maxwell and Morgan. These can put you hundreds or thousands of dollars in debt in the blink of an eye.

[Coldjett]

Unfortunately, I have experienced the Legal Fees issue with Snow Properties and their collections lawyers (Maxwell and Morgan) that you mention here.

My wife and I live in the Carter Ranch sub development, and have always stayed current with our home owners dues in the four years that we have lived in our home. We have witnessed one new home owners regime after another come and go...each one seems to be worse than the last, then in comes Snow Properties. Undoubtedly the worst of the bunch, and in my opinion, working as front men for Maxwell and Morgan in a fleecing operation meant to prey on unsuspecting home owners in developments like ours here in Carter Ranch.

As soon as Snow Properties took over managing Carter Ranch HOA, the rules changed, and the service to the individual home owners ceased as well. As you mentioned, the $15 late fee on homeowner dues was replaced with immediate transfer of past due accounts to the goon squad at Maxwell & Morgan.

My wife and I received a collections notice from the crooks at Maxwell & Morgan alleging past due HOA dues for two quarterly periods, totalling $218, on top of the past due amount was an appalling collection fee of $350, bringing the total to $568! I'd like to add that the collection notice from Maxwell & Morgan was the first and only notification that we received about supposedly being past due!

When I called Snow Properties to discuss the matter, I was told that they could not discuss acount matters that had been turned over to their collections lawyers, and that I would have to call Maxwell & Morgan. When I called them, I told the lawyer assign to my case that I believed that their information was in error as I believed we were current with our HOA dues. He said to send him proof of payment, and that they would handle the matter accordingly.

While on the phone I also asked him why the collections fee was so outrageously high, as it was more than the $218 we supposedly owed the Carter Ranch HOA. He stated that it was arrived at as their minimum $350 hourly rate. He then made an off handed remark that would come back to haunt me later..."Any time we spend working on your collections case will be billed @ $350 per hour or partial hour for attorney's fees". He then suggested that I just make payment in full now, in order to avoid incurring additional attorney fees! I asked him if I was incurring fees as we spoke and he stated that I wasn't, and implied that this inquiry was included in the $350 collection fee imposed in my letter.

After doing a bunch of digging into our bank records, I found proof of payment for one of the HOA dues that we were told we missed, and was not able to find the most recent quarterly HOA statement, or bank record proving that we had made that period's payment. Snow Property had just taken over at that time period, and they NEVER sent us a bill. My wife and I pay bills that we receive, and like most people, I assume, don't stop to wonder about about bills that don't arrive...especially if they aren't bills that we get every month, like the quarterly HOA bill.

After another call to the collections lawyer at Maxwell & Morgan to discuss the matter, and much rangeling (both on the phone and in emails) I got an acknowledgement by this Jerk that Snow Properties was able to locate my first missing quarterly payment ( it was mis-posted to someone else's account rather than our's). Then this rude jerk tried to say the error that Snow Property made, was actually our fault, because they mistook the house number on the check for the lot number, or some such BS. Funny how the previous three HOA management companies had never had this issue before with identically made out checks, but whatever!

The good news: we don't have to pay ONE of the alleged missed $109 HOA dues anymore; the bad news: in order to prove that we don't owe the payment, we now have incurred another $350 lawyer's fee for our trouble!

So if you're doing the math, we are now up to $809, not the original $568. I guess he DID try to warn me in the original phone conversation, didn't he?!!!

Because I felt like we were being victimized by what I was sure was a well rehearsed extortion plot by these crooks at Maxwell & Morgan, I Googled them and discovered that they have similar exploits written on multiple websites which discribe how they have builked other home owners in different HOA in much the same way as they were me and my wife at that time.

As a matter of fact, one website described how the author (a lawyer hired to battle Maxwell & Morgan in court on behalf of a number of victimized home owners in an HOA in Mesa) ran into problem after problem trying to stop them from their Mafia-like shake down collection methods. He recounted how hundreds of home owners eventually lost their homes to foreclosure due to Maxwell & Morgan's collection fees. Home owners who started out owing just a few hundred dollars, ended up very quickly with fees that spiraled into fees amounting to thousands of dollars in just a short period! If the home owners could not pay or refused to pay, their homes were foreclosed on, and sold at auction, according to the website's author!

In addition to approximately 200 home foreclosures in this Mesa HOA, the author alleged that missing HOA funds were pilfered to the tune $200,000.

After reading about Maxwell & Morgan on this website; I promptly, although reluctantly, paid my balance to them.

Beware of this plot to victimize you if you're unlucky enough to fall behind on your HOA dues for any reason.

It's my opinion that we need to band together in Carter Ranch to oust Snow Property Management and more importantly Maxwell & Morgan, before we are all victimized!

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

On Tuesday morning, Joe Ducey from Channel 15 News in Phoenix did a story on HOAs. It was about the HOA coming after a homeowner for using her garage for storage and not having room for a car in the garage. Keep in mind that our HOA made a similar remark in January that the same rule is in our CC&Rs and/or Bylaws and they may enforce it. The piece can be viewed here: http://www.abc15.com/news/let-joe-kn...se-your-garage. Well, I posted that link on my Facebook page and one of the responses was from a dear friend who lives in Power Ranch. A couple years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Her husband had been laid off and insurance was minimal. The expenses were high. They skipped a couple HOA dues payments. This is the conversation on Facebook. Sound familiar Mike?


Jaimie Harel More power to ya!!! I admire your perseverance!! Our first house here in AZ had no HOA.... I can't stand them!!



Thomas Van Dan Elzen You've got one now.



Jaimie Harel Yes!! I am reminded by them often!!! 😡



Jaimie Harel Too long of a story really but multiple things including I did get behind to them when I went through my breast cancer. They they had a lawyer contact us and long story short... The bill increased by $9000. For lawyer fees so I pay huge $$ to the lawyer every month who disburses the past due Amt to the HOA and then keeps a big hunk for themselves... When I had already come to a payment plan agreement ... But the lawyer stayed involved and tacked on those fees.....


Thomas Van Dan Elzen That is the same story I hear over and over here since Snow Property Management took over. Not quite that big of a number but small fine turns into hundreds and thousands of dollars due to legal "fees".


Jaimie Harel Yep, and it could have been resolved without the lawyer and when I spoke to an attorney, he said the law firm for the HOA are unethical, aggressive.... Etc....



Thomas Van Dan Elzen Not Maxwell & Morgan by chance?



Thomas Van Dan Elzen They are known to rack up huge fees and then force forclosure and purchase the home for 0.01 on the dollar.


Jaimie Harel That's exactly who it is!!!!!! Maxwell & Morgan!!!



Jaimie Harel And that's exactly what it feels like is happening... Payment INCREASED and must be in their hands by the 10th of the month... Or else

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

For what it is worth, I have put together a large compilation of our issues with the Carter Ranch HOA to send to Joe Ducey as he was looking for additional feedback on HOAs and their practices. Here is the preliminary cover letter:



7 June, 2016

ABC15 515 North 44th Street Phoenix, Arizona 85008

Attn: Joe Ducey

Subject : HOAs

Dear Joe,

For the record, it is not usually the HOA that is the issue. More likely it is the hired "Property Management" company. Some make money by charging the HOA for every letter they send out, frequently at the rate of $15 to $25 per letter. It is advantageous for them to send as many as possible. In other cases, the Property Management company is aligned with an HOA legal firm and switch the homeowner over to the lawyers as soon as possible. Then the lawyer tacks on a fee (typically in the $350 range) for every letter and/or telephone call they make to the homeowner. Quickly, the homeowner advances from a $25 or $50 fine to $$700 or more.

We built our home with Pulte in Coolidge (Carter Ranch) in 2005. We were the first occupied home on our street in June 2005. For more than 5 years, we fought a serious pigeon problem on our roof. We tried nearly everything. Next on the list was poison corn but that would be expensive and I worried about all of the feral cats in the neighborhood. I feared that the pigeons would eat the poison and the cats might eat the poisoned pigeons. Then the proverbial light turned on and I realized that all I needed to do would be to give the feral cats access to my roof. As my garage roof was peaked perpendicular to the second floor roof, all I needed to do would be to give the cats access to the low garage roof and they could almost step up to the high roof. I took a 2x12 and carpeted it and attached it to the side of the garage. Then I seeded it with catnip and 48 hours later, I had no more pigeons. A few rains later and my roof and the walls of my home were finally clean from pigeon poop.

That lasted for almost 6 pigeon free years. HOA boards and property management companies came and went and no issues. Then along came Snow Property Management and Maxwell and Morgan (lawyers). All of a sudden, my cat board had to come down. Not allowed. I took a hard look and it wasn’t all that pretty so I asked for a hearing to see if we could come to some compromise. Maybe something small and almost invisible would be acceptable? My requests for a hearing went unanswered. First a fine for $25 and a note letting me know that I could request a hearing. Then a second fine of $25 and a note that I could request a hearing. I replied both by email requesting a hearing and by registered mail requesting a hearing. I even sent the company a copy of Arizona law 33-1803.B (B. After notice and an opportunity to be heard, the board of directors may impose reasonable monetary penalties on members for violations of the declaration, bylaws and rules of the association.). Basically, Arizona law prohibits the levy of fines for infractions until AFTER a hearing takes place.

Shortly after the second fine, I received a letter from Maxwell and Morgan. Their lawyer, Mr. Ebertshauser, supposedly an HOA law expert, informed me of how bad things could become if I didn’t pay up. At this point, I knew that if I paid the $50 fine, I would also be subject to hundreds of $$ for legal fees. As I was aware that the fines were illegal, I struck up a frequent conversation with him. I also asked if he had informed the HOA Board that they would never collect a dime. I continued to ask for either my hearing or my day in court. This all started in August of 2015 and finally culminated with my hearing on January 26th, 2016. As a result, our HOA was presented with a bill for $5500.00. They all finally understood that they couldn’t collect from me. This is how unscrupulous HOA Property Management companies and legal firms make their money. Maxwell and Morgan had a client responsibility to alert their client (Carter Ranch HOA) that the fines and legal costs would never be collected BUT Maxwell and Morgan knew that they would collect from the HOA if not from me.

This normally works for them because most homeowners don’t understand their rights and capitulate under the fear of a "Letter from a Lawyer" panic syndrome. This is what those leaches survive on. The HOA has a perfect right to refuse to pay that bill but they, typical sit at home homeowners with nothing better to do and no legal guidance (even though they paid $5500 for the advice), also live in fear of the "Letter (invoice) from the Lawyer".

I did remove the original carpeted board and erected in its place a flagpole. Now the HOA insists that I am in violation of HOA rules for flagpoles as mine is taller than 6 feet as stated in the CC&Rs. Once again, I informed them of Arizona law (ARS 33-1808) that says that HOAs can only limit the homeowner to a flagpole that does not exceed the roofline of the home as long as the flagpole is on the homeowner’s property. Alas, again this has fallen on deaf ears and I am on my second $25 fine. I have asked the HOA and the Property Management company to please pass this on to Maxwell and Morgan so that once again I can generate a very large bill for the HOA to pay.

As a result of the blatant disregard for Arizona law shown by Maxwell and Morgan (Mr. Ebertshauser), I wrote a short form of this complaint to the Arizona Bar Association asking for him/them to be reprimanded. As you can see by the reply from the Arizona Bar Association, "They called Mr Ebertshauser and talked with him and he said he tried to explain Arizona law to me" and so they dropped the case. As you can see from the included binder, I have compiled all of my correspondence with Mr. Ebertshauser and the only discussion of Arizona law was from me to him, not visa-versa. I have compiled the attached to make a second attempt to get the attention of the Arizona Bar Association. As mama dogs protect their litter, I doubt this will do any good either.

Stay tuned for the further saga of Carter Ranch Flags and Flagpoles. Almost forgot, as a result of all of this stress imposed on my wife and I, I now fly my flag in the back yard upside down as a sign of distress. Now I have been notified by my HOA board that they were considering fining me for flying my flag upside down, which is also protected by FEDERAL law.

Our HOA Board has turned all operations over to the management company including the bank account. They have made themselves ONLY approachable 4 times a year at quarterly meetings. Any other time your only choice is the Snow Property Management. In an effort to help homeowners share issues and get the attention of the HOA, I created a bulletin board website www.CarterRanchHomeowners.com. To inform the Carter Ranch Homeowners of the website, I got the names and addresses from Snow Property Management and sent a letter to all 253 homeowners in our HOA. It has only been up a couple of weeks but I get a lot of emails (all good so far) and a couple of homeowners have posted.

[Tom@CarterRanchHomeowners.com]

Well, the documents arrived at the Arizona Bar Association a few minutes ago. Also the set sent to Joe Ducey arrived at Channel 15 ABC News. Maybe there will be some action someplace.