When other assessment collection methods fail, most associations’ declarations, as well as the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (CCOIA), allow associations to sue an owner personally and obtain judgment for not only the delinquent balance but all legal fees and costs. The first step to a judgment against a delinquent owner is serving the owner with a summons and complaint, requiring the owner to appear in court. Until the owner has been served in the manner required by law, the association cannot move forward to obtain, and then collect, a judgment.
Colorado law requires that service be made by delivering in person a copy of the summons and complaint to the person personally, or to a member the person’s family over the age of eighteen at the person’s home, or to certain individuals at the person’s workplace.
Service must be made by a person not a party to the action. Therefore, law firms typically hire private process servers to serve process. For a higher fee, a county sheriff’s Deputy is available to serve process.
Neither process servers nor deputies are empowered to, nor paid enough for normal service to do more than ring the doorbell and, if the person is not found, report back the circumstances observed. If the defendant seems never to be home, or appears to be actively avoiding service, a “stake-out” to find the owner at home can be performed for an additional cost. If the unit appears vacant, skip-tracing can be performed to locate a new address.
If the Summons cannot be served within ten days after it is filed with the court, a new summons must be issued and then served. Such new summons, called an Alias or Plurius Summons, can be issued only after approval of the court.
Obtaining service can stretch delinquency recovery time and add service-of-process costs to the amount the delinquent owner must ultimately pay. How can associations cut service-of-process delays and costs?
Association boards should share with their law firm information about
• when an owner may be found at home
• a description of the vehicle(s) an owner drives
• where a non-resident owner may have moved to
• where the owner works & unrelated places the owner is known to frequent, from bars to softball fields.
Armed with such information, process servers or deputies can do their jobs quicker and costly, time consuming stake-outs and Alias or Plurius summons can be avoided.
Associations possess powerful tools to assure they collect the assessment revenues they need to operate. It all begins with service of process.
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