Lueder, Larkin & Hunter, LLC

Common Sense Collections

Lueder, Larkin & Hunter, LLC has a stellar reputation for our ability to collect assessments. We were also the first law firm in the Atlanta metro area to create a comprehensive collection program to incorporate deferred attorney’s fees into our collection liens and lawsuits so that our collections are results-oriented. We named this unique approach to collections: Common Sense Collections.

The purpose of Common Sense Collections is to remove the financial burden of collections from the association and place it where it should be – on the delinquent owner. Simply put, rather than an association paying its law firm mountains in attorney’s fees per delinquent owner with the hope of one day being reimbursed when money is eventually collected from the owner, we generally add our attorney’s fees to the delinquent owner’s balance and collect the fees when the owner pays. Common Sense Collections works because a delinquent owner in Georgia is in most instances required to pay the attorney’s fees that an association incurs in seeking unpaid assessments against the owner.

For association clients under our firm’s Retainer Option and Declarant Control Retainer Option, we generally defer the attorney’s fees for liens and collection lawsuits. For association clients that are Non-Retainer, we defer the attorney’s fees for liens but not collection lawsuits. For association clients under our Modified Retainer Option, we do not defer the attorney’s fees for collection lawsuits but instead charge substantially reduced rates, and for liens, the association has the option of deferred fees or greatly reduced non-deferred fees. Please ask about our Common Sense Collections for full details.

In addition to Common Sense Collections, our firm revolutionized the collection of assessments in Georgia by providing detailed collection information online for each owner in our state-of-the art collection system. Clients and managers are provided secure login ID’s and passwords upon request. By providing detailed collection information online in real time whenever a board member or manager chooses to login and view an owner’s collection status, our firm must always stay up to date on our collections. We also give owners the option to make credit card payments.

Another aspect to our collections is the use of escalating attorney’s fees within our Common Sense Collections. Our initial collection letters to delinquent owners are $70 for Retainer clients and $90 for Non-Retainer clients. We start our collection process with these relatively small fee amounts, and each owner is informed in our letters that attorney’s fees will grow the longer the owner does not pay (or enter into a payment plan where appropriate). The owner thus controls the amount of attorney’s fees. The threat of escalating attorney’s fees is the leverage that prompts many owners to pay in order to avoid growing collection fees. By contrast, we have seen some firms bill $270 or more for their very first letter to the owner.

We developed Common Sense Collections because it is effective and fair. The specifics of Common Sense Collections are addressed in a question and answer format that we will provide to clients, potential clients, and managers. Please contact us for more information.