A COUPLE has been slapped with $12,000 in fines and other wages owed to their homeowners association.

They were unaware that they would have had to pay such a sum when they moved in.

Jewel Inostroza bought her home in Newnan, Georgia, in 2008. She moved in with her husband Enrique.

The pair were informed after they moved in that they bought into a “common-interest community,” as reported by CNBC.

This means that owners are expected to pay a portion of expenses for shared amenities and common areas in that community.

These “common-interest” communities are typically overseen by a homeowners association, which acts like a local governing agency for the neighborhood.

Homeowners associations, or HOAs, are self-governing organizations that implement rules and manage the homeowners and renters within that community.

For the Inostrozas, their annual HOA dues were $200 a year.

But after their move, the HOA informed them that their property had an outstanding balance from before they bought the house.

The HOA fined them for that balance, late fees, and other fines that the couple would put onto their home “for lawncare or anything,” Jewel said to CNBC.

“All of that was attached to this home when we moved in,” she continued.

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The couple refused to pay the fines and said that the HOA, Homeowners Management LLC, were unresponsive to their attempts to void the balance. The balance has continued to grow, according to documents.

The HOA put a lien on the Inostrozas’ home in August 2015.

A lien is a charge on real or personal property to satisfy a debt.

This gives the HOA the ability to foreclose a home, or in this case, garnish wages from the Inostrozas.

Jewel said the HOA began garnishing wages directly from her paycheck in 2015 to satisfy the unpaid fees.

“I didn’t get any prior notice,” Jewel said. “There was nothing sent.”

She continued: “I got a notice two weeks after.”

But there wasn’t any reduction in the total balance owed, according to HOA invoices obtained by CNBC.

The Inostrozas said they hired a lawyer who came to an agreement with the HOA in 2016 to stop the garnishment.

The agreement required that they pay $3,100 in installments. The couple paid off the amount in January.

However, the pair said that they estimate they’ve paid about $12,000 in fines and garnished wages as well as the legal fees they paid to their lawyer.