Our small HOA has one member who has not paid dues for nearly a year. It appears that he (the owner of the property) ia actually living elsewhere, perhaps out of state, and
His son occupies the property. We have reason to believe that our notices are not reaching the owner... the son trashes them. The account is now nearly $1000 in arrears,
Which includes about $400 in late fees which are 10% of the balance overdue 90 days.

In nearly 40 years we have never had to take legal action, but never has anyone gotten this far behind. Also, there have been times when we simply waited and collected from an escrow officer when the property sold. But in this case we are thinking the house is not far from foreclosure, and maybe we should take action to be sure we get paid in the foreclosure sale.

Is this something we should be seeing an attorney about, or can we handle it ourselves in Small Claims Court? I've read that one can get a lien on RE by filing the EJ-001 Summary Judgement form with the County Recorder, but I would think we would need to get a court to issue a judgement first.

In short, what's our best action here?

Ed

You can probably get the judgement and the lien all in one action. Take your case to small claims court and ask the judge to issue a lien for the property in question, for the amount of association fees that's owed. That way, when the property is sold you'll get your money.

You can probably get the judgement and the lien all in one action. Take your case to small claims court and ask the judge to issue a lien for the property in question, for the amount of association fees that's owed. That way, when the property is sold you'll get your money.

Thanks. On another forum I have read that a Summary Judgement form EJ-001 could
Be filed with the County Recorder. I am thinking that it can't be as simple as that. Surely one needs a court to issue a judgement before that step, I would think. Or am I wrong about that? I've read about how to sue in Small Claims and it looks like the main problem in our case would be in serving notice since the owner is out of state. I have read that a judge will not issue a judgment in favor of the plaintiff if there is no proof of the defendant having been served.

Also, supposing we got a judgement and filed a lien. As you say, we can't collect until the property is sold. Now I'm wondering it the lien is worth the trouble since we will almost certainly get the money when it sells just by normal escrow proceedures. At least we have in the past. The realtors and escrow officers in our area are well aware of these community pool HOAs and automatically ask us for current balance for the property. Only differences here are (a) this one will in all likelihood wind up in foreclosure, and (b) the amount here will likely be very large since the 10% per month will continue to compound through the lengthy foreclosure process.

Anyway, thanks for you help. Anything else you might add would be appreciated.

Ed