Sunrise Assessment Services 4401 Hazel Avenue, Suite 225 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 http://www.sunriseassessment.com

Sunrise Assessment Services promotes itself as a "collections agency" for Homeowner Associations who are searching for assistance in collecting delinquent dues from their members. Sunrise Assessment Services and its sister company, Foreclosure Link, are not collections agencies. They are companies specializing in foreclosure and sale of the properties - a process that can take as little as 125 days from referral to the sale of the property, per their own websites.

Sunrise Assessment Services focuses on Home Owners Association related properties, while Foreclosure Link directs its services to solely owned homes.

Promoted as a "no-cost to the HOA" way of collecting delinquent dues, Sunrise Assessment Services forces the homeowner to pay thousands of dollars in "fees" to resolve the delinquency and keep the home from being sold through non-judicial foreclosure. Fees range from $2.00 for a notice sent to the homeowner to $1000 to promote the sale of the property.

Sunrise Assessment does not allow the homeowner to make payments for the current dues owed but rather adds them to the total amount owed forcing the homeowner to fall further and further behind with fees and costs compounding. This is in direct violation of CA Civil Code 1367.1(6)b) and CC&Rs for some Homeowner Associations.

Sunrise Assessment Services will allow a 9 month payment plan once the property has reached the point that it is ready to sell and the company has been able to charge the maximum amount for its "services." By this time, the repayment amount per month can be hefty and unsustainable for most low-income condo owners in Davis.

Payments are applied to Sunrise Assessment's fees before applying them to the delinquent dues owed to the HOA causing additional months of delinquent dues, late fees and interest due to the HOA to increase. This practice appears to be in violation of CA Civil Code 1367.1(6)b) and CC&Rs for some Homeowner Associations.

The homeowner can obtain and temporary injunction to stop the foreclosure or declare bankruptcy in extreme cases, but Sunrise will then collect its fees directly from the homeowners association. If the homeowners association tries to intervene in the process, it is threatened with legal action and the collection of fees directly from the HOA. Sunrise Assessment Services does not play well with others.

In addition, Sunrise Assessment Services does not immediately forward payments made to the HOA, per contract agreements, and it is necessary for the HOA to make repeated efforts to collect the money from Sunrise Assessment Services once they become aware of the payments by their members.

The only way to break free and protect ownership in the property is to pay the amount due in full. The amount owed can be mind boggling with collection "fees" far exceeding the amount owed. For example, one fixed-income homeowner in Davis, CA in 2008 paid nearly $8500 to resolve final delinquent dues of $3724 with this predatory company on the eve of the sale of his condo through non-judicial foreclosure.

Sunrise Assessment Services was sued in Federal Court, CA Eastern District in May 2007 for abusive collection practices in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act.

Interesting Facts

  • Eric Nelson of Sunrise Assessment Services, is the President of the Board of Directors for the CA North Chapter of the Community Associations Institute, a non-profit organization supposedly dedicated to "educate and represent America's residential condominium, cooperative and homeowner associations and related professionals and service providers." On this Association website, Sunrise Assessment is listed as a Business partner. Recent association event (Mar 20, 2008) in Sacramento: "Managing foreclosures: Learn the Dos and Don'ts."
    • Marsha Townsend, CFO, Sunrise Assessment Services is on the Board of Directors for the United Trustees Association - offering foreclosure certification courses and exams and legislative advocacy for the foreclosure/trustee industry.

Media Coverage

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2012-03-19 13:05:49   Are there a lot of people having this problem with Sunrise? We are looking at possible legal actions against this company and its owners for alleged illegal practices in addition to their predatory tactics. —LLAMBERT

2015-09-19 14:16:35   I am a victim of these thieves. I am working with my lawyer on it. They stole my condo and all of the contents. The Nonjudicial foreclosure is obviously illegal fraud, condoned by the great state of California. I have notified Kamala Harris, the Attorney General. —tim2v

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