Insights from a Community Association
Collections Attorney
By Alexis (Ali) Ducich of Barker Martin, P.S. A
do not change the address of record on the account. Often delinquent accounts are the result of owners moving and
1 28 Community Associations Journal | March 2024
s many of you may know, the Washington state legislature somewhat recently updated the laws related to community
association collections and added a series of requirements that an Association must meet before it can initiate a foreclosure action against an owner. This article is not going to get into the nitty gritty details of those requirements… but if you want to discuss them, your Association’s collection attorney would be the best resource.
Instead, this article will relay insights on actions an Association might take to help address and/or minimize delinquent account balances, and hopefully avoid consideration of foreclosure all together.
Reach Out to the Forwarding Address If you receive return mail with a forwarding address, consider sending a letter to that address; however,
not notifying the Association of their updated address. While not required, a simple action that might lead to resolving the delinquent account is to send a letter to the forwarding address.
If you receive return mail with a forwarding address, consider sending a letter to that address.
owner an email (if the owner has provided it). Often after we send our initial demand letter, owners will contact us and ask why the Association didn’t send them an email about their delinquent account.
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Owners do not always open letters mailed to them by the association.
For every account turned over, I have copies of numerous courtesy and delinquency notice letters sent by the
If Snail Mail is Inneffective, Try Sending Letters Via Email In addition to snail mail (mail via USPS), send the
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