Assessments

An assessment is a one-time charge created by your HOA board for a specific unit or all units.

Fourplex does not automatically charge your saved dues or autopay method for assessments. When your board creates an assessment, you receive an email with a link to the member portal. An owner or co-owner must review the assessment and approve payment.

Assessments follow their own schedule. They do not use the 14-day window that dues, water, and trash use, and autopay never pays them. The due date is the one your board chose. You can pay an assessment as soon as your board adds it. You don't have to wait for the due date.

You do not need autopay to pay an assessment. If your unit already has a saved payment method, you can use it for the assessment. You can also choose a different payment method before approving payment.

How it works

1. Board creates the assessment — your board sets the amount, due date, and which units are charged. Fourplex suggests a date 30 calendar days after the HOA's current date, but the board can choose a different date before issuing it.
2. You receive an email — the email includes a link directly to the assessment detail page in the portal.
3. Review and approve — sign in to the portal, review the amount and due date, continue to the review step, confirm the final total, and click Pay.
4. Payment is processed — after you submit payment, the charge shows Processing until Stripe confirms the result. You receive a confirmation when the payment succeeds.
5. Offline payments stay visible — if your board records a check or other offline payment, the portal shows the charge as paid without a Stripe payment action.

Fourplex may prepare a Stripe invoice when the board issues an assessment, but that is not a payment attempt. The assessment should remain Open / Due until you submit payment yourself or your board records an offline payment.

Units without an owner yet

When your board charges all units, a unit that has no owner or co-owner yet is not skipped. Its charge waits on the unit, and the board sees it as Waiting for owner. When the first owner or co-owner joins the unit, the charge is added for them and they get the usual email. The charge is due on the later of the original due date and 14 days after it is added.

If you are selling a unit that has a waiting charge, the board sees a warning during the transfer. Settle it with the buyer at closing, because it posts to the new owner.

Who the charge is billed to

When a unit has more than one owner, the assessment goes to the same person who pays the unit's dues: the person marked primary on the unit first, then an owner before a co-owner. Every owner and co-owner on the unit can still see and pay it.

Payment methods

You can pay an assessment with:

• A saved payment method from your autopay setup (shown by default if one exists).
• A different card or bank account — enter it on the payment form. You can optionally save it for future use.

You can also include an open assessment in the main Payments page checklist with any dues you choose to pay. That combined payment is still manual: you review the selected items and click Pay before anything is submitted.

Saving a method does not enroll any recurring service in autopay. Autopay is a separate, explicit confirmation.

Assessment statuses

Status	Meaning
Open / Due	Assessment is open for payment and no payment attempt is currently processing
Pending release	The board created the charge but online payment is not available yet
Processing	You submitted payment and Stripe has not confirmed success or failure yet
Paid	Payment succeeded
Paid offline	The board recorded the charge as paid manually
Failed	The latest payment attempt failed — retry the assessment by itself, include it in a combined payment, or choose different items from the checklist
Voided	Assessment was cancelled by the board

When a payable assessment needs attention, it appears in the payment banner on the portal home page. Paid, paid offline, voided, or not-yet-payable charges remain visible in the unit billing list as view-only items.

Back dues

Boards bill dues for months before their first billing month as a one-time assessment, not as monthly dues. If your board needs to collect dues for earlier months, you receive an assessment for that amount with its own due date. Pay it the same way as any other assessment.