Cohousing-L Mailing List: Lien on unit in arrears on HOA dues?

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

The author of the message below opted not to be identified to protect the
household with finacial difficulty.   It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Has any HOA in California been faced with non-payment of HOA dues for 6
months or more, and what steps have you taken? We have one household who
got caught in the subprime mortgage mess and while they ARE working to
modify their mortgage, they have not paid their HOA dues for 6 months now.
As the treasurer I feel I should probably take some steps to protect the
HOA, such as putting a lien on the property, but I am unclear as to
whether the lien can just sit there guaranteeing that the HOA would be
paid in case the property is sold or foreclosed, but otherwise not forcing
any action. That would be what we would prefer at this point.  I'm not
even sure who to ask this question of, so I'm starting here.

Thanks,
Joe Treasurer
Somewhere in California