Paying dues

Each April, our management company GHA mails out the annual assessment, which is due May 1st. There are two ways to pay:

Mail your check to:
Folkstone HOA
c/o GHA Community Management
P.O. Box 105007
Atlanta, GA 30348

*Please include your Folkstone Homeowner’s account number on your check.  Find your Folkstone Homeowner’s account number of your bill from GHA.

OR

Pay online at: https://portal.ghacm.com

You will need:

a. Association Name – enter all or part of “Folkstone” and click Find.
b. Homeowner’s Account Number – find this on your bill from GHA
c. Address and payment information

If You Do Not Have a Login: Please click the "Sign Up" link on the right. That will take you to the Registration page. Fill out the fields that include Email, Name, Phone, Account, Password, Confirm Password, and Registration Key.

If you do not have a Registration Key: Click the "I Do Not Have a Valid Key" hyperlink to be taken to the Sign Up page. There you will fill out the fields, submit your Sign Up request, and a member of our team will review your request and reply back within one business day.

If you need assistance with log-in or creating account, email contact@ghcm.com or call (703)752-8300.

Paying late

If dues are not paid on time, a reminder notice is sent by our management contractor, GHA. A late fee of 20 percent ($20 based on the current $100 dues) is also added to the bill. This is set out in Policy Resolution 2007-2, a copy of which may be found under Documents on this website. The late fee covers the cost of sending the reminder notice, which is separately billed to the Association by our management company. At the present time, the Board has waived imposing interest charges on unpaid balances.

Actions on unpaid dues

In its discretion, the Board may request that GHA send an additional reminder notice or may prepare its own communication to the homeowner explaining the consequences of continued failure to pay dues. However, it is not required to give any additional notice before pursuing legal remedies. Costs of additional mailings are added to the homeowners’ bill as provided in the above referenced policy.

Legal remedies

The Board may sue the owner for a money judgment in court or submit the account to a lawyer for filing of a memorandum of lien against the property in county land records. If your account has been turned over to our attorney for preparation of a lien, you will receive a notice of intent to file a lien by mail. If a court suit is commenced against a homeowner seeking a judgment, the sheriff will serve process at your place of residence. The Board can foreclose on a lien or wait until the property is sold, and the title must be cleared of liens, to satisfy the lien. If the Association elects to seek a money judgment and is successful in a suit, the Board can attach property of the owner to collect on the money judgment. It can also file a lien for the amount of the money judgment. The time limit for filing suit, five years, is longer than that for filing a lien, which makes this an option for older debts.

Legal costs

The 2013 costs for filing and releasing a lien are as follows: Notice of intent to file lien $ 50.00 Preparation of the lien and filing 150.00 County recording fee ($21/page) and copying 22.80 Drafting Release of lien 50.00 County recording fee ($21/page) and copying 22.80 The published policy of the FHA is to charge homeowners all costs of collection and to first apply payments to reimburse these costs.

Fiduciary duties

The Board of directors has a fiduciary duty to timely file for liens and commence suits for unpaid assessments. Virginia law presently allows HOAs one year from the date assessments are due to file a memorandum of lien in county land records for nonpayment. A separate lien must be prepared each year assessments are not paid. Because of the one year limit to file a lien, and because it is far more expeditious to file a lien than seek a court judgment, the board will usually elect to timely file a lien against the property. The costs are a consequence of the duty to take prompt and possibly multiple legal actions to protect the interests of the community. The Board does not believe it has the option to allow assessments to go unpaid because it is deemed uneconomical to collect them or causes expense to the debtor.

I need more time to pay

Please contact the Board in a timely manner and request that you pay in installments or request more time to make a payment. The Board imposes a penalty when it does not get a response from a homeowner and must incur the cost of sending a reminder. It resorts to liens only when a prior notice of an overdue assessment has failed to produce a response. Don’t wait to communicate with the Board until it has been forced to incur substantial costs sending reminders or having a lawyer prepare to file a memorandum of lien or incur other costs. The Association must pay these bills, and will seek reimbursement from the homeowner who caused the community to incur these expenditures. The Board does its best to control costs and keep association dues as low as possible consistent with maintaining our neighborhood as a great place to live and raise a family. Please help us by supporting our community activities and paying your annual assessment when it is due.