Does your community association’s procedure for authorizing a collection lawsuit against a delinquent unit owner comply with New Jersey law?

February 18th, 2020 | Community Association Law Blog

By Eric F. Frizzell, Esq.

Before a community association files a collection lawsuit against a unit owner for past due charges, it is imperative for the lawsuit to be properly authorized. New Jersey law recognizes two permitted methods for authorizing the lawsuit: (1) the association’s Board, with as full a briefing as possible regarding the particular situation, has made a collective decision to sue, and that decision has been properly memorialized; or (2) the Board has adopted a detailed, predetermined, uniformly applied protocol for when a suit should be instituted. Property managers do not possess the authority to independently decide to institute suit – the Board must make the decision or the protocol must be in place. So ruled the New Jersey appellate division in the 1996 case of Billig v. Buckingham Towers.

BFC has handled thousands of collection actions for our community association clients over the years – if you have questions about the collection process, please let us know and we will be glad to answer them.