📉 HOA Fees and Fraud: My Fight Against Unjust Charges!

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It all started when I tried to be responsible, paying my HOA dues each month by mailing in a check. I just couldn’t trust the online payment system they offered, not with its extra fees and questionable security. So, in late June, I sent my check for July’s dues, thinking it would be the usual routine. But as weeks went by, my July dues hadn’t cleared. By mid-August, I got anxious, imagining that check just floating around out there somewhere. So, I reached out to the HOA, thinking they could cancel the processing.Their response? Basically, they shrugged. The checks, they told me, go off to a “processing center,” and there’s no way to stop it once it’s in their system. If it bounced, they added almost cheerily, I’d be hit with a nice little $45 NSF fee. Not a word about how unusual it was for a check to be MIA for weeks, just the threat of yet another fee from them. I could feel my jaw tightening, but I told myself I’d keep calm. Little did I know this was just the beginning of a much bigger mess.Meanwhile, early August came, and I’d rented the clubhouse for my son’s birthday party. I sent in two checks: one for $200 as a rental fee and another $150 for the security deposit. The birthday party went off without a hitch, and we left the clubhouse spotless. Supposedly, they mailed back the security deposit check. But by the end of August, there was still no sign of it. When I reached out, they gave a lukewarm response about it “being on the way.” A couple more weeks went by, and I started thinking this check was lost too, just like the July dues.Then in late September, I get a surprise on my bank statement: the $150 check had cleared! Only, there was just one problem—it was supposed to be mailed back to me. The HOA claimed to have returned it, but here it was, cashed by someone who, according to the HOA, didn’t even work for their organization. I felt my stomach drop. How could a check be cashed by a stranger? And with my bank info, no less! I raced to the bank, where they flagged it as fraud. So, now I was caught up in a full-blown investigation.That $150 check fraud incident sent my life into a tailspin. I had to file a police report, open a brand new checking account, and order all new checks. Meanwhile, I was locked out of my own money for nearly a week. My bills didn’t care about my HOA’s incompetence; they kept coming in, and I was left juggling them. Then, finally, two agonizing weeks later, the bank refunded my $150, but not without putting me through the wringer first.By the end of November, I figured the worst was over. But, of course, the HOA had other plans. In my mailbox, I found a statement saying they had attempted to cash the July dues check—just last week. A check they’d held onto for almost five months before even trying to cash it! And they still went ahead and slapped me with a $45 NSF fee because, thanks to the check fraud nightmare, the bank had closed that old account. There it was, clear as day, the NSF fee—boldly highlighted on my statement as if mocking me. By now, my patience with the HOA was wearing thinner than a thread. I immediately fired off an email, explaining the whole absurd chain of events, step by step, hoping they’d realize just how completely out of my control this was. But no, they were as immovable as stone. They were holding firm to that fee, their only defense being some bland statement about “policy.”I sat there reading their response, each word making me angrier. How could they not understand that I had been forced to close my account due to fraud? I went back and forth with them over email, each response getting colder and more automated, like I was talking to a robot. They didn’t care about the hoops I’d jumped through just to protect my own money. They didn’t care that I had followed up every step of the way, trying to keep things smooth. All they cared about was that $45 fee they believed they were owed.Days turned into weeks, and every time I checked my inbox, there was another email from them—same indifferent tone, same refusal to take responsibility. They treated my situation like I was just some nuisance, someone trying to wiggle out of paying a fee. It didn’t matter that the whole mess was caused by their ridiculously slow processing. It didn’t matter that I’d had to open a whole new account just to secure my money from the check fraud nightmare they’d essentially triggered.

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