Is This Tenant on the Hook?

Q My landlord hasn't been paying his condo fees, and now the association is suing him. Much to my surprise, I'm also listed as a defendant. The complaint says I'm an occupant of the property and "may have an interest in the property" under the lease. Is it common for an association to sue tenants for a landlord's action or inaction? I don't know what they're trying to accomplish. The worst part is, now I not only will not get my deposit back, but I will also be looking at lawyer fees.

-- Washington

AWhen the owner of a condominium unit has failed to pay assessments, action is usually taken against only the owner, said Pia Trigiani of Mercer Trigiani, a law firm in Alexandria that represents community associations.

However, "once the legal action results in a judgment against the unit owner, the association (or any creditor, for that matter) . . . enforces on the judgment through several different means -- including rent garnishment," she wrote in an e-mail.

"If a unit is rented, the association can serve the tenant with a garnishment summons. In that action, the tenant is technically a defendant. If the court orders garnishment, the rent the tenant would normally pay to the unit owner is paid to the court and then disbursed to the association to satisfy the debt of the unpaid assessments," she said.

The tenant should carefully review the language of the lawsuit to see if that's what happened here. If the tenant's name is mentioned only in connection to a garnishment summons, then he doesn't need to hire a lawyer, Trigiani said. "He just needs to do what the court tells him to do."

If, however, the tenant really is being sued, she said, he may prefer to have a lawyer. The D.C. Bar can provide the tenant with referrals for lawyers specializing in such disputes.

The landlord's failure to pay his condo dues should not affect whether the tenant gets back his security deposit. "The deposit issue is between him and the landlord, not with the association," Trigiani said. In that case, the tenant should look to landlord-tenant law for information about recovering his deposit, she said. Local housing offices can provide this information. In the District, for example, residents can contact the Office of the Tenant Advocate by calling 202-442-8359.

Disputes over unpaid assessments are on the rise, said Trigiani, who also occasionally represents homeowners in disputes with their associations. Historically, community associations' budgets have assumed about a 4 percent delinquency rate. It's more than 6 percent now, she said, a situation that worries many boards. "Every association is focused on it."

-- Mary Ellen Slayter