Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: hoa attorney fees

If you are being charged fees for a non-jundicial foreclosure, those fees are set by statute. The Court looks at other fees as to their reasonablenss.

Re: hoa attorney fees

Any amount that you and the firm agree to that is not "unconscionable" or obviously excessive.

Re: hoa attorney fees

I assume you didn't hire the law firm and are being required to pay them under an attorney-fee provision in your HOA agreement. The answer then is that, under the agreement, you must pay "reasonable" fees.

Courts have studied and written about this over and over in their decisions, and in broad general terms the following factors will bear upon what's reasonable:

First and foremost will be the question of what's a reasonable number of billable hours for doing the job. Here, in a collection case, the process is usually very straightforward and simple. Not knowing whether you paid after the first dunning letter, or whether the matter went through jury trial and judgment, it's impossible to say how many hours is appropriate, but in general a collections matter should require no legal research, only basic form pleadings, and little if any discovery.

Next issue would be an appropriate rate. I'd say an allowable rate might be in the $150 to $250 per hour range; courts set the allowable rate based on the skill and experience required and the general level of fees in the community. If this were a complicated suit over technical patents in New York or Washington, maybe $400 to $600 an hour would be appropriate, but any lawyer with a few years' experience should be able to handle a collections matter.

I hope this gives you a rough idea. Basically, it depends pretty much on how much work had to be done, but in a collections matter neither the amount of work nor the skill level is going to be as high as in most other types of legal proceedings.