Behind on Your HOA Fees? Forget the Pool and Pizza Delivery.

Many struggling homeowners have to make tough choices about which bills to pay. If you live in a community with a homeowners association or own an apartment in a building with a condo association in Florida, you'd better pay those monthly fees -- or you could lose your house.

Florida law puts a homeowners association on par with the bank. Don't pay association fees or special assessments and the association could foreclose on your house. Across the state, HOAs are cracking down on delinquent members, barring them from common areas and even from getting their pizza delivered. With HOA delinquency rates as high as 50 percent in some communities, several bills up for consideration in Tallahassee would give associations even more power to deal with in arrears members.