Reduce Delinquencies, Enhance Cash Flow and Reward Good Payers
Just as credit card companies and other consumer creditors will report delinquent and timely payments to credit bureaus, so too can a community association. This is a new process that will force Condo and HOA members to re-evaluate the importance of their obligations to their community association.
Credit Bureau reporting can reduce delinquencies in community associations and may prevent defaults by owners. An owner who is considering paying one bill over the association’s maintenance fee will now reconsider. Since all members of a community are being reported, this service is also a boon to good paying owners, as they receive a good mark every month for timely payments.
Axela’s technology and credit reporting protocols are customizable to each community’s collections policy. This allows the Association and its members to rest assured that their own rules are being followed and enforced.
What If We Don't Have Delinquencies?
If your association doesn't have any delinquencies, we want to congratulate you on the excellent job you have been doing (and get you to tell us your secret!) You should reward your good paying owners with positive marks on their credit reports.
Community associations get new owners every month, so with this program you are assured that this good behavior will continue. Keep up the good work and let’s try together to keep the financial integrity of your association in excellent shape.
Benefits of Credit Reporting
Credit Reporting is one of the many tools that Axela provides its customers. Combined with our suite of products, Credit Bureau Reporting can:
Improve Cash Flow
Reduce Delinquencies
Protect Property Values
Minimize Special Assessments
Increase Access to Association Loans
Positive
Reinforcement
Axela will report payments made on time to the credit bureau as a positive credit to help improve credit scores and reward good paying homeowners.
Negative
Correction
Axela will report delinquent assessments to the credit bureau after 7 days of the due date. This action can affect credit scores and encourages owners to pay maintenance fees on time in the future.
More Details
Incentivize Payment of Condo/HOA Assessments
It’s up to the board of directors to establish a Uniform Collections Policy to determine what the parameters of when a unit is delinquent. We will dial in your policy and only report those delinquent units when the board determines they are in arrears.
The reporting process is fully automated and reliant on the information provided by the association or management company.
Axela has back-end integrations with various community association management software programs and these connections allows us to seamlessly aggregate the information required by the credit bureaus. This does not interfere with the management company or cause them any additional work. Management companies will receive a report every month.
Who Can Qualify for Credit Reporting?
Any community association can take advantage of this valuable program. There are no size restrictions. We accept communities with 5 or 5,000 units (or more!)
This program applies only to unit owners. Rental units will not be reported for payment or non payment.
What Credit Bureaus Does Axela Report to?
Axela is one of only a handful of companies nationwide that are authorized to report community association assessment payment data to Equifax.
The only bureau currently accepting association payment data is Equifax. It is our opinion that the two other major agencies will soon follow suit. When that happens, Axela will expand our reporting services to include the new bureaus.
No Personal Information Required
Axela does not require detailed personal information like social security numbers from the association or management company in order to report credit events.
The information required to report is tied to the unit owner and property address, both of which are publicly available information.
Is Credit Reporting for Associations Legal?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows this type of information to be reported. As a matter of fact, credit reporting by associations is encouraged, as it provides more data to be able to assess an accurate credit score.
Axela is compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
What if There is a Dispute Over What is Reported?
Axela will address a dispute within 7 days of notification that there is an issue. We are given 30 days under FCRA Rules to address these disputes, but our policy is to try and get these issues resolved in a week or less.
Most of these disputes are handled by Axela so that neither the management company nor the community is burdened with this task.
How to Get Started
If Axela is already integrated with your community association’s software platform we can begin reporting as soon as the agreements are signed. If not, we simply need the association or management company to send us the unit ledgers.
You will also be required to generate a letter to every homeowner informing them of the new protocol. When an association signs up for this service every member of the association must be notified in writing before we can proceed with credit bureau reporting.