HOA Liens and Foreclosure

A lien is a recorded claim against your property. An HOA lien is usually for unpaid assessments, plus the interest, late charges, and collection costs the statute and the declaration allow. Foreclosure is how that claim gets turned into a sale. This is the part of HOA life that can cost you the house. Read it slowly, and if you already have a recorded lien, stop reading and call a lawyer in your state.

Assessments and fines are not the same debt

Associations collect two kinds of money. Regular and special assessments fund the community. Fines punish a rule violation. Legislatures often let associations lien and foreclose for assessments, and they often restrict liens for fines.

Florida is explicit. Under section 720.305, a fine of less than $1,000 may not become a lien against a parcel. Unpaid assessments are a separate track under section 720.3085. California limits nonjudicial foreclosure for delinquent assessments in Civil Code section 5720, which uses both a dollar floor and a time floor. The dollar figure in that section is amended from time to time. Read the current text. Do not memorize a number from a blog and walk into a trustee sale with it.

If your state page is not published yet, the safe assumption is: assessment debt is dangerous, fine debt might be, and only the statute and your declaration say which.

The notice that should come first

Most statutes require a detailed written notice before a lien is recorded, and another notice before a sale. California Civil Code section 5660 requires notice by certified mail at least 30 days before the lien, including how the amount was calculated and a warning. Other states use different clocks and different words. Missing that notice can matter. So can ignoring a notice that was done correctly.

Open every certified letter. Photograph the envelope and the postmark. The date starts more fights than the adjectives do.

What to do this week

1. Get the payoff ledger, not a one-line demand. You want assessments, fines, interest, and fees on separate lines.
2. Get a copy of anything recorded against the property.
3. Pay undisputed assessments if you can, and write that the payment is for assessments. In some states, how a payment is applied is regulated. Say what you are paying.
4. If a sale date is printed on the letter, treat that date as real until a lawyer tells you it is not.
5. Ask about a payment plan in writing. Get the plan signed. A phone promise from a manager is not a plan.

Bankruptcy, a quiet title claim, or a wrongful-foreclosure theory are lawyer work. So is deciding whether to tender a disputed attorney-fee line. The attorney guide is the next page, not another template.