Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
In Fremont, California there is a townhouse that is in foreclosure. Does a HOA lein that was recorded after the Notice of Trustee Sell have special priority. What happens to the HOA lein after the Trustee Sell? How is the HOA able to get their lein paid off?
1 Answer from Attorneys
This seems to be my third go-around with the same question. My answer is that an HOA is not entitled to a special priority AS FAR AS I KNOW. I am not an expert in this area, but I have checked the usual references that a lawyer ought to check, and I did not see any mention of a super-priority beyond the pecking order established by sequence of recording. However, the time of recording a "Notice of Trustee Sell (or "Sale") is not the determinative factor -- what you should be looking at is the date on which the lien being foreclosed was recorded. For example, if a loan (deed of trust) was recorded in 1995, its seniority is based on 1995, not the date the Notice of Trustee Sale (or the Notice of Default) were recorded. Thus, the lien being foreclosed is probably much older than the HOA lien.