Setting up late fee policies

Late fees only work when they are consistent — applied the same way, to everyone, every time. AI HOA does that with a written policy plus an automatic nightly job. Boards manage this under Financials → Late fees.

Creating a policy

Select New policy and define:

• What triggers it — which kind of assessment the fee applies to.
• The grace period — how many days after the due date before a fee applies.
• The fee — a flat amount or a percentage of the overdue balance.

Once the policy is active, a nightly job checks overdue accounts and applies the fee to any invoice past its trigger plus grace period. No one has to remember; no one gets singled out. Every applied fee is written to the account and to the audit log.

The Georgia cap

For communities that have opted into the Georgia Property Owners' Association Act, state law caps late charges — the platform knows the cap and will not apply a fee above it, no matter what the policy says. If your community has not opted into the POA Act, the Act's cap does not apply and your declaration governs what you may charge; the platform then follows your documents rather than the statute. If the platform doesn't yet know your community's POA status, it applies the cap conservatively until you confirm the election in Settings.

When a board deliberately overrides a cap-related restriction (for example, because your declaration predates the POA election), the override requires a written reason, and that reason is recorded in the audit log.

This is general information, not legal advice — consult an attorney for your specific situation.

Fairness, in practice

A few habits make late fees defensible and keep the peace:

• Announce the policy before it starts — an announcement plus a portal FAQ goes a long way.
• Keep the grace period realistic — a few days of mail float prevents a lot of angry calls.
• Don't hand-waive quietly. If the board waives a fee, note why. The audit trail protects the board precisely because it is complete.

Late fees pair naturally with the Aging report — the policy handles routine lateness automatically, and Aging tells you when an account needs more than a fee.