The Owner of Unit 9 Died in August: Nobody Has Paid Since, and the Heat Is Off

Alcott Place is a 22-unit association in Arlington. Common fees are $395 a month.

The owner of Unit 9 was 84, had lived there since the building converted in 1991, and died in August. The board learned about it from a neighbor.

Since then: no payments. The balance is $1,580 plus late charges. The association’s letters, addressed to the owner by name, are going into a mailbox nobody empties. A daughter in Arizona called the manager once in September, said she was “handling the estate,” and has not responded to two follow-up emails.

In October a neighbor reported that the unit looked dark and the thermostat, visible through the window, appeared to be off.

The board meets Thursday. The treasurer wants the account sent to counsel like any other delinquency. One trustee thinks that is heartless and wants to wait until the estate settles. A third is worried about something nobody has raised yet: it is November, the unit is unoccupied, and if those pipes freeze the damage will not stop at Unit 9.

Discussion Question

Which of those three trustees is right — and what is the most urgent thing on this list, given the date?

Recommended Approach

The third trustee, and it is not close. There is a collections question here and it is not the one with a clock on it.

Take the Freeze Risk First

An unoccupied unit with the heat apparently off, in November, in a building with shared walls and stacked plumbing, is an emergency in waiting. If that pipe lets go it will not be Unit 9’s problem. It will be three units, the common areas, a deductible, and a claim on the association’s loss history.

Under c. 183A, unit ownership is subject to the association’s right of reasonable access, during reasonable hours, for maintenance, repair or replacement of the common areas, and for emergency repairs necessary to prevent damage to the common areas or other units. Read your own documents for the notice your access provision requires, then act this week rather than after the first hard freeze.

Practically: get in, confirm the heat is on and set to a safe minimum, check for anything already leaking, and document what you find with photographs and a dated note. If you cannot reach anyone with authority and the risk is immediate, your emergency access provision is what governs — follow it exactly and tell counsel the same day.

And notify the insurer that a unit is unoccupied. Vacancy can affect coverage, and an insurer that learns about it after a loss is in a different frame of mind than one told in advance.

Then Deal With the Money, Which Is Less Dramatic Than It Feels

The second trustee’s instinct is kind and the first trustee is closer to right on the substance, for a reason neither has stated: the obligation did not die with the owner.

Common expenses run with the unit. The unit still exists, it still carries its percentage interest, and assessments continue to accrue against it. The association is a creditor of the estate for what was owed, and the ongoing obligation attaches to whoever ends up owning the unit. Waiting does not make the balance go away. It makes it bigger, and it quietly burns the strongest remedy the association has — the c. 183A, section 6 priority lien, which reaches six months of regularly recurring common expenses.

So refer it to counsel now, and do it in a way that reflects the facts. Counsel can establish who the personal representative is, whether a probate case has been opened, where to send notices so they are legally effective, and whether a claim needs to be filed in the estate within a deadline. That last point is the one boards miss: estates have claim deadlines, and a board that waits politely for someone to call back can find the window closed.

Stop addressing letters to a deceased person. Among other things it is distressing for the family to receive.

A Few Practical Things

The daughter in Arizona may or may not have authority. “Handling the estate” is not the same as being the appointed personal representative, and the board should not take instructions from, or give information to, someone whose standing has not been confirmed. Counsel sorts that out quickly.

Keep the tone human in every written communication. A board can be accurate about an obligation and decent about a death at the same time, and the ones that manage both have far fewer problems later.

Watch for a sale. When the unit sells, the balance surfaces on the 6(d) certificate, which is often where this resolves. Make sure whoever prepares your 6(d) knows the full balance.

And look at your own records. The board found out from a neighbor. An emergency contact on file for each unit — someone to call who is not the owner — costs nothing to collect and is the thing that would have made this entire autumn easier.

Why This Matters

This happens in every association eventually, and boards handle it badly in both directions — either chasing a grieving family like an ordinary debtor, or doing nothing for six months out of discomfort. The obligations are straightforward and they continue. What changes is who the board is allowed to talk to, and that is a question for counsel, not for the meeting.