Community associations fund the services they provide for homeowners’ benefit only through collected assessments. Delinquent homeowners often assert that they are dissatisfied with association-provided services, and so may withhold assessment payments until they become satisfied. If such delinquents are correct, isn’t the association trapped in a “death spiral,” with services becoming poorer due to inadequate funding, and collected assessments then diminishing even further?

Of course the association’s governing documents, which such delinquents are bound by, and the law provide that such delinquents are incorrect. An often-cited analogy is the obligation to pay federal income taxes even if a taxpayer disagrees with the way Congress spends the money. “Protest votes” cast by refusing to pay simply increase collection legal fees that such delinquents ultimately have to pay, over and above their assessments.

Community association governing documents typically oblige homeowners to pay without what lawyers call “right of set-off.” The homeowner’s obligation to pay is separate and independent of the association’s service obligations. Courts routinely recognize the concept of assessments as an independent obligation. They recognize that if governing documents were construed to allow homeowners to pick and choose paying assessments, associations could not function. Courts also recognize that a homeowner who presents such an invalid defense not only suffers judgment for the withheld assessments but for the association’s late charges, interest, court costs and attorney fees incurred in collecting. “Protest votes” are thus not only disruptive to the association, they are expensive for the protesting delinquent.

Is there a proactive way to deal with such delinquents’ arguments? Certainly. Invite dissatisfied owners to pay their assessments, but to become actively involved in the community and in governance. Most governing documents, in fact, allow denial of governance participation to delinquents. The message we all got in high-school civics holds true for community associations: Get involved! Try to make things better! If you haven’t tried, you haven’t earned the right to complain.