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    'I owe the HOA 1 cent': Resident of 20+ years in the neighborhood refuses to pay the $0.01 he owes in HOA fees on principle

    This resident had no plans to follow up about the alleged single cent he owed his HOA.

    The purpose of homeowner's associations is to protect the privacy, safety, and interests of those living in the neighborhood, but we know that this is rarely what they're actually about. The vast majority of HOA board members appear to be insecure, power-hungry folks who want to relive the glory days of being class president in high school. These are people who either have too much time on their hands or an insatiable appetite for enforcing bogus rules and regulations. Of course, homeowners wish they could avoid HOAs at all costs, though unfortunately, it's hard not to end up in neighborhoods and buildings with these kinds of unnecessarily strict community guidelines and so-called "standards." 

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    • Trying to reason with HOA board members is its own challenge. A friend of mine once attempted to delay paying a fine for an air conditioner that was not properly installed according to her HOA handbook. She felt that she should not have had to pay the fine because it was installed by the previous owner, and no one seemed to have any issue with its installation prior to her time there. Shouldn't the HOA have dealt with the air conditioning drama before she moved in or before the former homeowner left the neighborhood for good? Shouldn't he be the one who should be fined? Unfortunately, my friend could only delay the process for so long, and she did have to pay a small amount, though she was able to negotiate it down to something slightly more reasonable.

      However, this resident seems committed to refusing to pay back his HOA because of a spreadsheet error on their part. After all, it was just one cent, and while he very well could pay it, he had no desire to do so on principle alone.

    • A man crosses his arms in front of his house in a suburban neighborhood.
      via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

      A man crosses his arms in front of his house in a suburban neighborhood.

      Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    • Essentially, what transpired was that annual HOA fees were due at the end of the year. The author paid the amount that was emailed to him based on a spreadsheet that an HOA board member created. He then received a follow-up email after his payment that there was an error and the balance was slightly different. By “slightly,” they meant that it was different by one cent. The fact that these folks wasted time and energy to insist upon settling that one payment says everything about the ridiculousness of HOA board members in general.

    • I owe the HOA 1 cent

      I've owned my condo for 20 years, it's a silly place and a money pit but I love this neighborhood and my neighbors.
      via charmparticle
    • Every year our HOA fees rise. Aging building issues, property security, maintenance on the pool and hot tub and landscape.
      via charmparticle
    • The property manager sends out a spreadsheet of updated fees for the new year on Dec 27, a tight deadline to update our payments due on Jan 1.
      via charmparticle
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    • I updated my payment on time. A neighbor pointed out that property manager had made a mistake on the spreadsheet and we owe 161.64 instead of 161.63 as listed on the spreadsheet.
      via charmparticle
    • I updated my payment again, but the autopay had already been sent for Jan 1. Now my account is all paid up except for .01.
      via charmparticle
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    • I am envisioning lots of creative ways to settle up this outstanding balance if the HOA board comes after me for delinquency.
      via charmparticle
    • gextyr Send them a certified check for $0.02 via registered mail. Once it clears, demand a refund for the accidental overpayment.
      via charmparticle
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    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply I love this idea! I think the property management office accepts payments at their office location, maybe I'll drop off my 2 cents there in person.
      via charmparticle
    • gextyr See if you can find Canadian pennies.
      via charmparticle
    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply Perfect. I do have Canadian pennies. Am going to a lunar new year event this week so I might see if I can acquire a Chinese penny.
      via charmparticle
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    • PSUAth How is your HOA board? are they reasonable people or do they tend to be have large sticks associated with a certain part of their body? If they are somewhat chill, i'd just ask them to forgive that 1 cent as it was an error on their part. Our HOA pretty much wipes away any debt that's less than $5. our dues are round numbers like $45 or $120 (we have single family and carriage homes), so I don't get how people get accounts that are off by like $2.73.
      via charmparticle
    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply Our board is resident-owners who care about our community and I've known all of them for years. The property manager doesn't live here and tends to have the large stick associated with himself, but our board and residents have given a lot of feedback to him about his behavior and he has improved recently. The property management accounting situation is completely wacky, but no one is coming after me or any of my neighbors about the off by .01 error.
      via charmparticle
    • Electronic-Bee2484 Is everyone missing the fact that the HOA billed him for the wrong amount. He paid it, so, legally, he is not delinquent. It was the HOA's mistake. They should just request the additional amount for the next bill.
      via charmparticle
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    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply Yep. I'm just posting here for amusement purposes, I have no plans to do anything about this yet. The .01 error spreadsheet was sent out to all 300+ homeowners by our property management, so it's a matter for their accounting department.
      via charmparticle
    • Intrepid00 HOA hate isn't just the board or PM. It's also the membership that makes HOA life miserable that you can hate on. Some fool upset over a penny mistake looking to drive up their neighbors costs is 100% a /r/fuckhoa gripe. OP is the exact person you never want on your HOA/Condo board.
      via charmparticle
    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply Who me? This isn't a hate post and I'm not upset, I just think it's hilarious that I owe .01 to the management company. I have no intention of doing anything petty about this small error, which would cost ME and my neighbors, many of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes. We are all in this HOA together and we pay the management company to do their thing. The HOA board is made up of volunteer owner-residents and although there is plenty of drama in the neigh
      via charmparticle
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    • Usual Singer_4222 Something like this happened to a friend when he moved out of the dorms, owed like 10 cents for the phone bill. He forgot. They mailed him an invoiced in a stamped letter with a stamped return envelope. He thought it was a joke because they spent more than what he owed. But then he got multiple duplicate letters. He took care of it when the school put a hold on his graduation until he paid. He gave mailed them a check for 11 cents.... no they did not refund the difference lol
      via charmparticle
    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply My boyfriend's dad did not officially receive his college degree because of an unpaid library fine. He went on to have a nice successful career, and the fine went unpaid for the rest of his life. :)
      via charmparticle
    • IP_What Am I understanding that not only have the simplest possible solution of calling and asking the rounding error deficiency be forgiven not been tried, but the property management company has not even notified you of any delinquency? I mean, I know what sub I'm in, but I think imagining that HOAs could have problems maybe indicates that they're not always the unreasonable ones...
      via charmparticle
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    • charmparticle Original Poster's Reply Yep, the property management company has not contacted me about it, nor have I contacted them. It's not a problem for me. Our annual meeting was yesterday, I saw all the board members and property manager in person and no one called me or anyone else out about .01 balances. It's just a silly story I wanted to share.
      via charmparticle
    • WhatsMyNameAgain 1701 I over paid my American Express bill by one cent when I was still in the military...a long time ago in a country far away. They sent me a check for that one cent six months later. It cost them something like $.29 to send it to me...not to mention the processing of it.
      via charmparticle
    • PhoenixJive Definitely ask about a payment plan. And if it's not available, pay by cheque.
      via charmparticle

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