[psicodude]

So I am willing to suffer the embarrasment of publicly acknowleding I am an idiot in return for some legal advice. Here is the story...

I live in Cranston. Our residents association fees are about $140 a year. I could go on a huge rant about this, but that is another thread. Anyway, I recently changed banks, and sent a cheque to the res. assoc. on the old, closed account. Yeah, stupid, I know. Of course it came back NSF. I just got a letter stating that they are charging me $50 for the NSF, plus $150 for "recovery fees". I called the lady in charge of my account, and she says these fees are to cover their expense of pulling my land title, sending me a letter, and sending my mortgage company a letter. I tried to negotiate with her, but she said there is nothing she can do. Seriously....$150????? So, to make a long story short, my $140 has turned into over $350 because I wrote a bad cheque by mistake.

So, the question is...can they even do this? I mean I would be happy to pay the nsf charge and interest. But $150 to send some letters? The $350 is not a lot of money to us, but this just doesn't seem fair. Aren't there laws about fees that can be charged?

I appreciate any help.