What should the HOA treasurer do when an owner's dues payment bounces?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 26, 2026

What an HOA treasurer does when a dues check or ACH payment bounces: reverse it on the ledger, tell the owner, and stay under the TX, FL and CO fee caps.

Part of the HOA board handbook: treasurer and money.

The short answer

Reverse the payment on the owner's ledger the day the bank reports it, so the account shows the dues as unpaid again. Find out why it came back before you charge anything. Then send the owner a short, factual notice with the amount due, any returned-payment fee your governing documents allow, and a deadline to replace the payment. Keep the fee under your state's cap: $30 in Texas, a sliding $25 to $40 or 5 percent in Florida, and $20 in Colorado unless the association goes to court. After two returns, a written policy can require certified funds. Rules vary by state and by your declaration and collection policy, so treat this as general education, not legal advice.

Put the ledger back the way it was

A bounced payment was never a payment. The bank took the deposit back, and the owner's account should show that. Post a reversing entry dated the day of the return, with a memo that names the check number or ACH trace and the bank's return reason. Do not delete the original payment. An auditor, a title company asking for a resale certificate, or a judge in a collection case will want to see both lines. Check the bank statement for a fee the bank charged the association on the returned item. Record it as a bank charge on the association's books. Whether you can pass it to the owner is a separate question, covered below. If you use an online payment processor, the return usually shows up as a separate withdrawal several days after the owner paid, sometimes netted against a later payout. Match it to the owner right away. A return left sitting in a suspense account for a month means the owner gets a clean statement that is wrong, and a late notice later that looks like a mistake.

Find out why it came back

The bank's return notice gives a reason. The common ones are insufficient funds, a closed account, a stop payment, a wrong account number, and an ACH debit the owner told their bank they did not authorize. The reason changes what you do next. Insufficient funds and closed accounts are the owner's problem to fix, and they are the cases the fee statutes were written for. A stop payment may mean the owner disputes a charge. Read the owner's file before you treat it as a bounced check, because Colorado's statute, section 13-21-109(7), does not apply to a check stopped over a dispute about what was bought. A wrong account number is often a typo in an autopay enrollment, and the fix is a corrected form, not a fee. An unauthorized-debit claim means stop drafting that account until the owner signs a new authorization. Call or email the owner before sending anything formal when the reason is unclear. Plenty of these calls end with "my bank changed my account number" and a replacement payment the same week.

What the association can charge

Start with the governing documents and the board's collection policy. If neither mentions a returned-payment fee, adopt one at an open meeting before you charge it, and send owners the new policy. Then check the state cap. Texas: Business and Commerce Code section 3.506 lets the holder of a dishonored payment device charge a processing fee of up to $30. The statute defines a payment device to include a check or an electronic payment, so an ACH return counts. Florida: section 68.065(2) lets the payee collect the bank fees it actually paid plus a service charge of $25 on an item of $50 or less, $30 on $50.01 to $300, and $40 over $300, or 5 percent of the face amount if that is greater. The definition of a payment instrument includes an electronic funds transfer. On a $750 quarterly assessment, 5 percent is $37.50, so the $40 tier applies. The administrative late fee under section 720.3085(3)(a), the greater of $25 or 5 percent of the installment, is a different charge with its own trigger. Colorado: section 13-21-109(1)(b)(I) allows the face amount plus a reasonable posted or contractual charge of no more than $20. Colorado's HOA statute says nothing more specific, so $20 is the practical ceiling unless the association sues. California: Civil Code section 1719 caps the charge at $25 for a first bad check and $35 for each one after that. One fee per returned item. Do not add a late fee on top unless the replacement payment actually arrives after the grace period in your documents, and waive both when the return was the bank's error.

The notice to the owner

Send it by email and first-class mail within a few days of the return. Keep it short and neutral. A version the board can adapt: "Your payment of $[amount], [check number or online payment] dated [date], was returned by your bank on [date] marked [reason]. The payment has been reversed on your account. Please send $[assessment] plus the $[fee] returned-payment fee allowed by [policy or section of the declaration], for a total of $[total], by [date, at least 15 days out]. You can pay by [methods]. If you think this is a bank error, send us the bank's letter and we will remove the fee. Questions go to [name, email, phone]." State law adds optional steps for boards that plan to sue over the check itself. Colorado's section 13-21-109(3) and (4) spells out a notice by certified mail or regular mail with an affidavit, a 15-day payment window, and required contents. Florida's section 68.065 uses a 30-day written demand before triple damages. Most associations never need either. The unpaid assessment is already collectible through the collection policy, and a small-claims case over a single check rarely pays for itself.

How the replacement payment gets applied

State law may decide where the owner's next dollar goes, and it is often not where the owner expects. In Texas, Property Code section 209.0063(a) applies payments first to delinquent assessments, then current assessments, then collection costs and attorney fees, then fines, and last to any other amount. A returned-payment fee falls in that last group, so if the owner sends only the assessment, the fee stays on the ledger until the next payment covers everything ahead of it. A different rule applies if the owner is in default on a payment plan, under 209.0063(b). In Florida, section 720.3085(3)(b) runs the other way: interest first, then the administrative late fee, then collection costs and attorney fees, then the delinquent assessment, regardless of any note the owner writes on the check. Colorado's statute sets no order, so follow the collection policy, which should state one. Explain the order in the notice so the owner is not surprised that a $300 check left $30 open.

Repeat returns and autopay

One return is a mistake. Three in a year is a pattern, and a written policy should say what happens. A common rule: after two returned payments in 12 months, the association accepts only certified funds, a cashier's check, or a money order from that owner for the next 12 months. Put the rule in the collection policy, adopt it in an open meeting, and apply it to every owner the same way, directors included. A treasurer who makes the rule up for one owner invites a claim of unequal treatment. For an autopay owner, suspend the automatic draft after a return until the owner confirms the account is funded or signs up with a new one. Some processors retry a failed draft automatically, and a second failed attempt can trigger a second bank fee for the owner and a second processor fee for the association. Turn off automatic retries if the processor allows it, and ask the owner to pay the replacement by hand. Keep a list of returns by owner in the treasurer's files. You will need it the day someone asks why they are on the certified-funds list.

When a bounced payment becomes a delinquency

If the owner does not replace the payment, the account is past due from the original due date, and the ordinary collection timeline takes over. The returned payment does not restart the clock or create a new grace period, unless your policy says it does. The statutory notices still apply before third-party collection costs: in Texas, section 209.0064 requires a certified-mail notice and at least 45 days to cure before the owner can be charged a collection agent's fees. Our guide on the past-due dues timeline for boards walks through the Texas, Florida and Colorado notices in order. Mistakes boards make with returned payments: - Leaving the payment posted and finding the return a month later at reconciliation. - Charging a fee the documents never authorized, or charging more than the state cap. - Stacking a returned-payment fee, a late fee and interest in the same week for the same $250. - Discussing the owner by name at an open board meeting. - Refusing all future payments from the owner, which leaves the association with no way to collect. If your community still takes paper checks and wants fewer of these, our guide on moving HOA dues to online payments covers autopay authorizations and the reconciliation that goes with them.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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