Real Estate Tip: Contribute to the Homeowners Association

REAL ESTATE STORY

Sometime in the early 90s, Mrs. Garcia bought a repossessed lot from one of the top ten banks in the country. The 700 square meter lot area was located somewhere in Paranaque, Metro Manila. The bank sold the lot on an "as is where is" basis. Mrs. Garcia paid for the lot in full.

When Mrs. garcia was about to build her house on the said lot, the homeowners association refused to allow her to build her house, due to the previous owner's non-payment of the past dues amounting to Php45,000.00. The bank did not tell her about this so Mrs. Garcia had to pay the Php45,000.00.

Contribute to the Homeowners Association

There are fully paid buyers of subdivision lots who refuse to pay the association dues charged to them by the developer or homeowners association. They reason out that they are not living in the subdivision yet. The buyers, however, will still have to pay their dues since the dues are needed for security, grass cutting, or maintenance of the amenities. Eventually the buyers will have to pay their back association dues with penalties if they are going to build their houses on their lots.

In Quezon City, the city engineer will not issue the building permit to the owner of the lot or even the developer of the subdivision if there is no endorsement from the homeowners association.

REAL ESTATE TIP

Even buying a lot incurs some obligation from the buyers to pay some dues and taxes. There is no point in not paying, since eventually, penalties will be added later on if a house is going to be built.