Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Arizona
lien on trustee sale
Recently purchased a foreclosure property through a trustee sale. There is a lien against the property from the HOA. Did the trustee sale eliminate the lien? There was money leftover from the sale that will apparently go back to the previous owner. Would that money be used to take care of any liens? Don't want to pay the HOA for something that they have already been paid for. Any help you can provide is much appreciated!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: lien on trustee sale
I may disagree. The HOA lien arises from the CC&R's, which undoubtedly call for a HOA, and provide that they can set fees. I do not believe that the trustee's sale washes HOA fees owing necessarily, because they can file a new lien with unpaid charges listed. It is true that a trustee's sale washes out junior liens, but some charges against the property, such as unpaid taxes, are not washed off. And I do not understand how you say the fees were already paid. If they were paid, they are not owing.
Best regards,
James D. Jenkins
Re: lien on trustee sale
Briefly, you should be OK so long as the HOA lien was a junior lien to the Deed of Trust. Liens generally have priority in the order they are recorded, so if the HOA lien was recorded after the Deed of Trust (not the Trustee Deed)was, it will be a junior lien that was extingushed upon the Trustee Deed being issued to you. If there were excess proceeds from the Trustee Sale, then the amount left after Trustee costs are paid should be paid to the junior lienholders in the order of priority. See Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) Sections 33-811.E and 33-812.