Condos

We help Condominium Boards in filing liens for unpaid commons charges and with Actions to recover unpaid commons charges.

When a Condominium Unit Owner is delinquent in payment of common charges and related ancillary charges, there are several options available to the Condominium Association:

• We prepare and file a Lien for unpaid common charges due from the Unit Owner pursuant to the Condominium Act. Thereafter, we frequently pursue collection of the outstanding arrears by commencing and prosecuting an action either in Civil Court or the Supreme Court for recovery of the outstanding arrears (the selection of the Court will depend upon the amount in controversy). This action proceeds as an ordinary law suit (as opposed to a summary proceeding) with the ultimate goal of entering a judgment against the delinquent Unit Owner, and then seeking to locate assets against which that judgment may be satisfied. A summary proceeding is not available to the Condominium Association as there is no landlord/tenant relationship which exists between the Condominium Association and the Unit Owner (as opposed to the landlord/tenant relationship which does exist between a Cooperative Corporation and its Shareholder).
• There is another option available to the Condominium Association and that is to commence a foreclosure proceeding to foreclose upon the Lien of unpaid common charges. This foreclosure option can be extremely costly and time consuming and may even be overridden by a foreclosure proceeding commenced by any bank or lending institution which holds the first mortgage upon the Condominium Unit which is a Lien, superior to that of the Lien for unpaid common charges held by the Condominium Association.