In April 2013, a Tarrant County homeowner wrote to her property owners’ association asking for a payment arrangement. She was three months late on that year’s dues. She put her balance at “$1,140.00” and offered to pay at least $100 a month until it was cleared. The board voted unanimously to accept and sent her a plan.
She never made any of the payments. Five years later a judge signed an order that her house could be sold to cover what the balance had become.
The subdivision was a gated Colleyville development created in 2002. Its recorded declaration let the association charge monthly compounding interest on unpaid amounts, add special assessments, and hold a lien on the lot for whatever was owed. Every buyer granted that lien by accepting the deed…