Dues Chaser

Dues Chaser is the automation most communities turn on first and never turn off. It runs on a schedule, identifies overdue properties, and sends escalating reminders without you having to do anything. This article covers configuration and how to keep it from feeling robotic.

What it does

When dues are past due, Dues Chaser:

1. Checks the ledger nightly for properties with overdue balances
2. For each, looks at how long they’ve been overdue
3. Sends the configured action for that delinquency tier (email reminder, formal notice, etc.)
4. Logs the action on the property’s record

You configure the ladder — what action happens at what point. Then it runs forever.

The standard escalation ladder

Most communities run something like this:

Days overdue	Action	Channel
1	Friendly reminder	In-app + email
7	Second reminder	Email
14	First formal notice	Email + push
21	Second formal notice	Email + push
30	Late fee assessed	(automatic)
30	Late fee notice	Email + letter
45	Third notice — pre-collections	Email + certified letter
60	Hand-off to manual collection	Admin notification

Adjust the days and content to your bylaws. The ladder is fully configurable.

Setting it up

Configuration → Dues Chaser

You’ll see:

• Enabled / disabled — toggle on
• Tiers — list of escalation tiers, each with days overdue + action
• Cooldown — minimum days between actions (so you don’t double-message)
• Excluded properties — properties Dues Chaser ignores (manual handling)

For each tier, configure:

Field	Purpose
Days overdue	When this tier triggers (e.g., 7 days past due date)
Action	Email / In-app / Push / Letter / Apply late fee
Template	Pre-written message; supports variables like {resident_name}, {balance}, {days_overdue}
Skip if recently contacted	If true, skip if any communication has happened in the cooldown window

Templates that work

Default templates are decent. Customize them to fit your community’s voice. A few patterns:

Tier 1: Friendly reminder (1-7 days)

Hi [resident name],

A friendly reminder that your dues for [property address] are now past due. Your current balance is [balance].

You can pay online at [pay link] — takes about a minute. If you’ve already paid, please disregard.

Thanks, The [HOA name] Board

Tier 2: Second reminder (14 days)

Hi [resident name],

Your dues for [property address] are now [days overdue] days overdue. Current balance: [balance].

Please pay by [late fee date] to avoid a late fee of [late fee amount].

Pay online: [pay link]

If you’re experiencing hardship and need to discuss a payment plan, please reply to this email.

Tier 3: Formal notice (21-30 days)

Notice of overdue dues

[Resident name] [Property address]

Per [HOA name]‘s bylaws (Section [X.Y]), dues for the above property are now [days overdue] days overdue. Your current balance is [balance].

A late fee of [late fee amount] will be assessed on [date].

Payment options:

• Online: [pay link]
• Mail: [HOA address]

If you have questions about this notice, please contact [board contact].

Sincerely, [HOA name] Board

Tier 4: Pre-collections (45-60 days)

This one usually goes via letter (Physical Mail) for legal record. More formal, references next steps if unresolved.

Cooldowns — preventing harassment

Without cooldowns, Dues Chaser would email the same resident every day. The system has built-in safeguards:

• Daily limit — max one Dues Chaser action per property per day
• Tier cooldown — once a tier fires, that tier won’t fire again for that property until they’re cured of dues delinquency
• Channel cooldown — same channel won’t fire twice within X days

Configure under Configuration → Dues Chaser → Cooldowns.

Pause Dues Chaser community-wide

Sometimes you want to pause the whole automation:

• Holiday week (don’t escalate around Christmas)
• During a community event with payment booth
• After a billing error you’re correcting
• During a system migration

Configuration → Dues Chaser → Pause stops all scheduled actions until you un-pause. Existing balances continue to accrue late fees per your dues policy; only the communication is paused.

Auto-applying late fees

The “Apply late fee” tier action is special — it adds a charge to the property’s ledger automatically.

This is the same as manually adding a late fee, just automated. Configure:

• Amount — flat or percentage (per your bylaws)
• Reason — appears on the ledger entry
• Memo template — e.g., “Late fee for [month] dues; per bylaw [X.Y]”

If you want late fees applied but not the auto-communication that follows, configure the tier with the late-fee action and skip the email/letter actions.

Reviewing what Dues Chaser sent

Activity & Usage in the admin sidebar

You’ll see a log of every action Dues Chaser has taken in the past N days:

• Date / time
• Property
• Tier triggered
• Action taken (email / letter / fee)
• Result (sent / failed / skipped)

Useful for:

• Investigating a resident complaint about “I never got a notice”
• Verifying the automation is working as expected
• Auditing escalation timing across the community

When residents respond

When a resident replies to a Dues Chaser email:

• The reply goes to your unified inbox
• An admin should respond
• Do not auto-cancel future tiers based on a reply — sometimes residents say “I’ll pay tomorrow” and don’t

If a resident agrees to a payment plan with the board, the cleanest current approach is:

• Pause Dues Chaser community-wide if you need a brief halt while you arrange the plan
• Track the agreed payments manually as they come in
• Resume Dues Chaser once the situation is resolved

There isn’t a built-in payment-plan tracking feature or per-property exclusion — this is handled outside the automation.

Common situations

”We just turned this on and residents are getting double-emailed”

Probably you have an email already in flight from manual sending. Pause Dues Chaser for 48 hours, let any in-flight communications complete, then un-pause.

”Dues Chaser sent a notice to a property that was already current”

Check the timing — the property may have paid right after Dues Chaser ran. The system runs nightly; payments after midnight aren’t reflected until the next night. Annoying but harmless.

If you see consistent false positives (paid properties getting chased), email support@homeherald.ai with a sample case.

”A resident says they got a fine notice on day 1 of being overdue”

Either:

• Your tier is configured for day 1 (probably wrong)
• The cooldown isn’t working (rare; report to support)
• The fine was applied manually and Dues Chaser separately sent a notice

Check the property’s Dues Chaser activity log to see what happened.

”We want a different message for big balances vs. small balances”

Currently each tier has one template. For balance-based variation, you’d need separate tiers triggered at different days for different balance ranges. Future versions may add per-balance templates.

A workaround: use the same days-overdue but a tier check on balance, with two templates that route based on amount.

Where to go next

• Configuring dues — the dues schedule Dues Chaser is enforcing
• Issuing refunds — for waiving late fees
• Herald Shield — similar automation for violations
• Dues Chaser feature page (marketing): /features/dues-chaser/