Mission Creek Homes Avoid Auction

The foreclosure threat hanging over more than 80 homes in the Mission Creek community came to nothing on Tuesday after the homeowners association opted not to go through with the foreclosures after all.

Initially, the South Side homeowners association had filed to foreclose on dozens of homes because of unpaid association dues. That number of foreclosures — on about 21 percent of the homes in the neighborhood, according to foreclosure tracking service RexReport.com — would have been unprecedented.

Some homeowners had not paid their estimated $130 in annual neighborhood dues because they were upset that a promised park had not yet been developed and that the association didn't return phone calls and letters.

But most communities have covenants that give a homeowners association the right to foreclose for unpaid dues.

Neither the developer, builder, HOA management company nor association attorney responded to voice messages left by the San Antonio Express-News.

Randy Gool of the Austin-based Westar Realty Corp said homeowner associations sometimes use foreclosure as a way to get paid. “They really don't want the property and can't afford to have it,” he said.

If a homeowner association does foreclose, Texas homeowners have a 180-day right of redemption.

But even with that right, problems for the homeowner can snowball. “They're going to have the pay the fees, the late fees, the attorney's fees,” real estate attorney Carl Pipoly said.

And Gool said the homeowner association foreclosure might trigger the first lien holder — the mortgage lender — to foreclose, too.

The legislature passed the 180-day rule after an elderly Houston widow lost her home thanks to unpaid homeowner association dues, Gool said.

Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. said the Mission Creek postings made up half of the total homeowners association-related foreclosure postings for April and helped create a 745 percent increase in those postings compared with the same month last year.

By Jennifer Hiller - Express-News