The HOA where I live is not accepting personal checks from me to pay my fees, is this discrimination? I spoke to the Paralegal at the HOA and was told that “other” residents have passed bad checks and they will no longer be accepting personal checks from anyone. Now I have to pay with a certified check or bank draft check, all this time and money is coming out of my pocket. I told the HOA that I would be accounting for all the expenses that I had to incurred due to this. Is this discrimination?
Answer: My usual response to questions is discovering discrimination in situations that are occurring in people’s lives, this is not one of those situations. Discrimination is when you are treated differently because you are a member of a particular group, not simply because you’re forced to do something you do not want to do. The simple fact that they are making all the residents pay with certified funds, makes it not discrimination. If they were making all the Hispanic residents pay this way, but the white residents could still pay with personal checks, that would certainly be discrimination. But the fact that they are making everybody do the exact same thing, is not discrimination it is the way they are accepting payment. Not everything that happens in life is discrimination, a business has a right to dictate how it accepts payments, in this does not arise to a level of discrimination simply because it’s a hassle to you. If for any reason this is being done to you and you alone, I would look deeper into the subject, but the simple fact that they’re doing this for everybody, simply means this is the way they are choosing to accept payment and is not a form of discrimination.
Joseph F. Botelho, Esq.
BOTELHO LAW GROUP
Attorneys At Law
901 Eastern Ave.
Unit 2
Fall River, MA 02723
Office: 888-269-0688
Email: jbotelho@botelholawgroup.com
https://www.botelholawgroup.com/
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