Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

When a note secured by a deed of trust (what we informally call a "mortgage" although technically it isn't) is foreclosed by trustee sale, the lender on that note cannot recover any balance left after the sale via filing a lawsuit. This rule has no application to other creditors with or without security interests in the property, however. For example, if you have a first and a second deed of trust, and the holder of the first forecloses, the holder of the second becomes an unsecured creditor (to the extent it doesn't get paid off from the first's proceeds) and can sue. I would expect the same is true for your HOA obligations. The rule you mention does indeed exist, but affects only the particular obligation being foreclosed, and in some cases additional obligations owed to that foreclosing creditor.

The HOA can sue you for unpaid assessments up to the date of the foreclosure. The fact that the lender foreclosed on a deed of trust does not affect the HOA's right to recover unpaid assessments during the period you owned the property.