Selma Feit, a widowed grandmother, still has trouble sleeping at night after a six-month battle with her Tamarac homeowner association.

The problem centered on a $25 late charge that ballooned into a $1,099.18 debt.

Although she could afford the late fee, Feit said she didn't think she owed it and therefore refused to pay. As a result, she received an onslaught of threats that she would lose her $125,000 house in a foreclosure sale.

Then, the Landings on Cypress Greens Homeowners Association this month dropped its demand for payment, withdrew its threat to foreclose on her house and released the lien it had put on her home.

Feit isn't alone. Although filing a lien to collect a late charge is unusual, it is common for associations to file liens to collect debts as low as $4 and then file foreclosure suits when the debts aren't paid. The home or apartment is then sold at auction to recover the debt.

The state Homeowners' Association Task force and House Select Committee on Condominium Governance are investigating collection abuses by associations. Their recommendations are expected next year.

Most home and condo owners are unaware they can lose their homes for not paying association debts.

"It's no different than a mortgage foreclosure," said Allen Levine, partner in charge of foreclosures at Fort Lauderdale-based Becker Poliakoff, a law firm that represents 4,000 condo and homeowner associations statewide.

Feit has lived in her two-bedroom, attached villa since 1990 without a problem. Every month she goes to the clubhouse and deposits her maintenance check into the slot in the door, getting no receipt. Payments are due the 10th of each month.

On May 4, she said, she slid check No. 196 for $114 into the slot. After the 10th, the treasurer called to say she hadn't received the check. Feit offered to write another. The treasurer said to add a $25 late fee.

She refused to add the $25, writing it for $114 and sliding it into the slot.

"The next thing, I get a letter from [the association attorney] saying I owe $120, plus the $114 that I paid twice, and threatening a lien if I didn't pay," she said. The $120 was the $25 late charge and a $95 attorney's fee.

"I wasn't going to pay. I already paid my maintenance twice," she said.

At the end of the month she received her canceled first check, which showed it cleared the association's bank on May 20. She never received the canceled second check.

"I wrote the attorney asking them to show me how I was late," she said.

The attorney, Gustavo G. Alarcon of Fort Lauderdale, said the charge was justified.

By August, the association acknowledged receiving the $114 but demanded the other $120 for the late charge and attorney's fee. Feit refused to pay, and the attorney again said the money was due.

On Oct. 24, Alarcon filed a lien on Feit's house for $1,099.18. That includes $1,074.18 in attorney's fees and costs for all the letters, and the $25 late fee. The letter warned Feit a foreclosure suit would be filed on Nov. 23 if the debt wasn't paid.

Feit contacted the Broward County Consumer Affairs Division and F. Blane Carneal, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represents unit owners.

Although the agency has no jurisdiction over homeowner associations, on Oct. 29 it notified the association of Feit's complaint. A week later, on Nov. 7, Alarcon dismissed the lien, and the following week he notified Carneal the association would not pursue the debt.

"The woman filed a complaint with Consumer Affairs so the association decided not to get into litigation that might cost thousands of dollars over the $25 fee," said Ferren Korr, Alarcon's boss in the law firm of Katzman & Korr.

Korr said the association's position was justified but "it wasn't worth the heartache to go forward."

"They have made me sick," Feit said. "My nerves are shot completely, and I haven't slept in I don't know how many nights with what they were doing to me, saying I owed $1,099 and threatening to put me out."

The only change the association made in its collection procedure since the incident, she said, is to lock the pay slot after the 10th of the month.

Carneal wants to change the system of debt collecting.

"The law is oppressive as hell. The only people who profit is the lawyers, not the associations," he said.

He doesn't dispute the need for aggressive collecting by associations. "There are deadbeats out there, so I don't have a problem with taking an aggressive approach with recalcitrant owners. But when it becomes oppressive and too aggressive, the owner doesn't stand a chance," Carneal said.