California HOA Foreclosure

Section 1 — Overview: How HOA foreclosure works in California

California gathers the rules for common interest developments into a single law: the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 4000 et seq. The assessment-lien and foreclosure provisions sit at §§ 5650 through 5740.¹ Those rules apply the same way to condominiums, planned developments, stock cooperatives, and community apartment projects, so the foreclosure sequence looks much the same whatever the property type. An association cannot enforce an assessment lien through judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure unless the delinquent regular or special assessments reach at least $1,800 — leaving out accelerated assessments, late charges, fees, collection costs, attorney fees, and interest — or the assessments run more than 12 months past due.² At least 30 days before it records a lien, the association must mail the owner a specific pre-lien notice by certified mail under § 5660.³ The board itself must vote to record the lien, and it must take a separate majority vote in executive session to foreclose, then enter that vote in the minutes of the next open meeting under § 5705.⁴ Before it records a lien or forecloses, the association has to offer the owner a way to resolve the dispute: internal dispute resolution (IDR) under §§ 5900-5920 and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) under §§ 5925-5965.⁵ Foreclosure can move nonjudicially as a trustee's sale wherever the declaration grants a power of sale, and that nonjudicial sale carries a 90-day post-sale right of redemption under § 5715.⁶ California never adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and Davis-Stirling grants no super-priority — an HOA assessment lien stays junior to a first deed of trust recorded before the delinquency.⁷ What follows lays out the statutory framework, the step-by-step sequence, the recent legislative and judicial activity, and where California stands nationally, for the compliance professionals who manage assessment collection.

Section 2 — The statutory framework

2A. The Davis-Stirling assessment lien (§§ 5650-5685)

Regular and special assessments become the owner's debt the moment they are levied under § 5650, which also lets the association recover reasonable collection costs, late charges, and interest.⁸ Those amounts become a lien on the owner's separate interest from the moment the association records a notice of delinquent assessment with the county recorder under § 5675.⁹ The recorded lien secures the delinquent regular and special assessments, reasonable collection costs, reasonable attorney fees, late charges, and interest, all as § 5650 permits. Before it records the lien, the association must clear two separate hurdles. First, at least 30 days ahead, it must mail the owner of record — by certified mail — the pre-lien notice that § 5660 requires.³ That notice has to spell out the association's collection and lien-enforcement procedures and how it calculated the amount owed; tell the owner about the right to inspect association records under § 5205; carry a statutory warning, in 14-point boldface or capital letters, that the owner's separate interest may be sold without court action; itemize the charges; and lay out the owner's rights to request a payment plan, IDR, and ADR. Second, before recording, the association must offer the owner dispute resolution under § 5670, which points to the IDR "meet and confer" program of §§ 5900-5920; the owner may also ask for ADR under §§ 5925-5965.¹⁰ Only the board can decide to record the lien — it cannot hand that decision to an agent — and it must do so by majority vote in an open meeting, with the vote recorded in the minutes, under § 5673.¹¹ Within 10 days after recording, the association must mail the owner a copy of the recorded lien by certified mail under § 5675(e). Section 5680 governs priority: the lien stands ahead of other liens recorded after the notice of delinquent assessment, the declaration may subordinate it, and it stays junior to a first deed of trust recorded before the delinquency.⁷ California offers no super-priority.

2B. Foreclosure procedure (§§ 5700-5740)

Thirty days after the lien is recorded, the association may enforce it — by a court sale, by a sale conducted by the trustee named in the notice of delinquent assessment, or by a substituted trustee, under § 5700(a).¹² Two gates stand before any sale. First, only the board may decide to start foreclosure; it cannot delegate that choice to an agent; it must approve it by majority vote of the directors in executive session; and it must record that vote in the minutes of the next open meeting by parcel number, which protects the owner's privacy, under § 5705(c). The vote has to happen at least 30 days before any public sale.⁴ Second, the debt must clear the § 5720 threshold: an association may not collect through judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure when the delinquent regular or special assessments — again, excluding accelerated assessments, late charges, fees and collection costs, attorney fees, and interest — come to less than $1,800, unless they run more than 12 months past due.² A nonjudicial trustee's sale runs under Civ. Code §§ 2924, 2924b, and 2924c, which § 5710 incorporates, and which also requires the association to serve a notice of default on the owner.¹³ The notice of default starts a clock of at least three months before the association may give a notice of sale under § 2924, and the notice of sale then follows under § 2924f.¹⁴ Judicial foreclosure is available under Code Civ. Proc. § 725a et seq.¹⁵ A nonjudicial sale carries the 90-day post-sale right of redemption under § 5715.⁶ A judicial foreclosure carries a redemption period of three months if the sale proceeds satisfy the judgment, or one year if they do not, under Code Civ. Proc. § 729.030.¹⁶ Throughout the nonjudicial process, owners keep their reinstatement and cure rights under § 2924c.

2C. Federal and state overlays

Federal law reaches into HOA collection too. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., applies to HOA assessment collection when third-party collectors and law firms do the collecting. In Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. 466 (2019), a unanimous Supreme Court ruled on March 20, 2019 that "[a] business engaged in no more than nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings is not a 'debt collector' under the FDCPA, except for the limited purpose of §1692f(6)."¹⁷ Read that narrowly. Obduskey does not free California trustee's-sale firms from the FDCPA across the board; pre-sale dunning communications and any conduct beyond what state foreclosure law strictly requires stay fully covered, and the Court expressly refused to bless abusive practices. California's own Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Civ. Code § 1788 et seq., reaches further than the federal statute. Under § 1788.2(c), a "debt collector" includes anyone who regularly collects consumer debts for themselves or for others — which sweeps in many first-party collectors that the federal FDCPA's creditor exclusion would leave out — and § 1788.17 adopts most of the federal FDCPA's prohibitions.^18,19 So the familiar claim that the FDCPA does not apply because the collector is the creditor is, in California, incomplete. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3953, makes a nonjudicial foreclosure or sale invalid during military service and for a year afterward — absent a court order or a valid written waiver — when the secured obligation began before service; knowing violations carry criminal penalties.²⁰ And the bankruptcy automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362 stops a foreclosure the moment a petition is filed, until the stay is lifted or terminated.²¹

Section 3 — The procedural sequence

A. Lien establishment and priority

The assessment becomes the owner's debt when it is levied under § 5650, and the lien attaches and is perfected once the association records a notice of delinquent assessment under § 5675.^8,9 The recorded lien secures the delinquent assessments, reasonable collection costs, reasonable attorney fees, late charges, and interest. Priority follows § 5680: the lien stands ahead of liens recorded after the notice of delinquent assessment, the declaration may subordinate it, and it stays junior to a first deed of trust recorded before the delinquency.⁷ This step is the same for judicial and nonjudicial foreclosure, because both enforce the same recorded lien.

B. Pre-lien notice, IDR/ADR offer, and cure period

At least 30 days before it records the lien, the association must mail the § 5660 pre-lien notice by certified mail, carrying the itemized statement, the records-inspection statement, the statutory foreclosure warning, and the notice of payment-plan, IDR, and ADR rights.³ The IDR offer points to the meet-and-confer program of §§ 5910-5915; if the owner invokes IDR before the lien is recorded, the association must take part before recording, and it may not charge the owner for IDR under § 5910(g).⁵ ADR under §§ 5925-5940 is a separate path, run by a neutral third party whose costs the parties share under § 5940(c); binding arbitration is off the table where the association means to pursue judicial foreclosure.²² A first-party or third-party collector covered by the federal FDCPA must give the § 1692g validation notice, and a pre-lien letter that demands payment inside the dispute window can violate the FDCPA — a risk that HOA collection litigation has already flagged. The decision to record the lien must be documented in the board minutes under § 5673.¹¹ All of this comes before either judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure.

C. Pre-foreclosure decision and sale procedure

The board's decision to foreclose must come by majority vote in executive session and go into the minutes of the next open meeting under § 5705(c), at least 30 days before any public sale, and the association must serve the owner with notice of that decision under § 5705(d).⁴ The § 5720(b) threshold gate has to be met: $1,800 in delinquent regular or special assessments, apart from fees and costs, or assessments more than 12 months past due.² For nonjudicial foreclosure, the trustee works through §§ 2924, 2924b, and 2924c as § 5710 incorporates them — recording and serving a notice of default, waiting at least three months, then giving a notice of sale under § 2924f, then holding the trustee's sale.^13,14 The association may credit bid the amount of its lien. For judicial foreclosure, the association files a complaint, obtains a decree of foreclosure, and the court oversees the sale.¹⁵ Where the owner is a protected servicemember and the debt predates service, § 3953 of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act requires a court order before a nonjudicial sale.²⁰

D. Post-sale rights

A nonjudicial HOA foreclosure carries a 90-day post-sale right of redemption under § 5715 — a feature no other power-of-sale state shares.⁶ The notice of sale must say the property is sold subject to that right, and the trustee must serve a post-sale notice of the right of redemption under Code Civ. Proc. § 729.050; skip that notice, and a court may set the sale aside.²³ For judicial foreclosure, the redemption period runs three months if the proceeds satisfy the judgment, or one year if they do not, under Code Civ. Proc. § 729.030, with the redemption price set by § 729.060.¹⁶ After the lien and any senior interests are satisfied, surplus funds go to junior lienholders and then the former owner. California's anti-deficiency statutes — Code Civ. Proc. §§ 580a, 580b, and 580d — mainly govern purchase-money mortgage obligations and a nonjudicial sale under a power of sale; how they apply to assessment-lien foreclosure is a separate question, and § 5700(b) expressly keeps alive the association's right to bring a personal money action against the owner for the assessment debt.¹² No one may evict a foreclosed owner or occupant until the redemption period has run and the trustee's deed has recorded.

Section 4 — Recent legislative and judicial activity

4A. Recent bills

California's lawmakers keep revisiting how associations collect — and how they discipline. Three recent measures shape the ground rules for assessment and fine collection.

4B. Recent appellate rulings

California's appellate courts have been filling in the practical details of how an HOA foreclosure sale actually works. Two recent decisions stand out.

4C. Active legislative debates

The Legislature amends the Davis-Stirling Act nearly every cycle. Right now the action centers on assessment increases for deed-restricted affordable units, electronic voting, and reserve funding — not the foreclosure threshold itself. No pending measure has been enacted to change the $1,800/12-month threshold or the 90-day redemption period.

Section 5 — National positioning and related coverage

California is a non-super-priority state. Some states hand associations a limited lien priority ahead of first mortgages — Connecticut, for one, where Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b) gives associations a super-priority lien for up to nine months of common charges plus attorney's fees and costs, along with the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act priority regimes in Alaska, the District of Columbia, and Delaware. California does the opposite: Davis-Stirling keeps an HOA lien junior to a first deed of trust recorded before the delinquency. California's defining feature is the § 5720(b) minimum-debt gate — $1,800 in regular or special assessments, or 12 months' delinquency. That gate now sits well below Arizona's, which SB 1494 (2025) raised, effective September 26, 2025, to the highest in the country: under Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1807 a planned-community association may foreclose only once an owner runs "delinquent in the payment of any assessment or portion of the assessment for a period of eighteen months or in the amount of $10,000 or more, whichever occurs first," with the older $1,200/one-year figure surviving only for condominiums under § 33-1256.³⁰ It also contrasts with states that set no dollar threshold at all. On method, California — like Arizona, Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee — leans mainly on the nonjudicial trustee's sale. On redemption, California stands out: its 90-day post-sale right of redemption under § 5715 contrasts with Arizona, which bars redemption after a trustee's sale, and differs from judicial-foreclosure redemption regimes such as Alabama's one year. On collection conduct, the Rosenthal Act piles state-law liability on top of the federal FDCPA. For multi-state operators, California's threshold gate, mandatory dispute-resolution offers, and post-sale redemption make it one of the most procedurally exacting foreclosure environments anywhere — and templates built for no-redemption states create real liability here.

Associations and their managers should treat every statutory deadline in the Davis-Stirling sequence as a strict-compliance checkpoint. A defective pre-lien notice, an undocumented board vote, a sub-threshold foreclosure, or a missing post-sale redemption notice can void a sale and expose the association to liability under state and federal law.

Footnotes

1. Cal. Civ. Code § 4000 et seq. (Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act) ↩
2. Cal. Civ. Code § 5720(b) ↩
3. Cal. Civ. Code § 5660 ↩
4. Cal. Civ. Code § 5705 ↩
5. Cal. Civ. Code §§ 5910–5915 (internal dispute resolution) ↩
6. Cal. Civ. Code § 5715 ↩
7. Cal. Civ. Code § 5680 ↩
8. Cal. Civ. Code § 5650 ↩
9. Cal. Civ. Code § 5675 ↩
10. Cal. Civ. Code § 5670 ↩
11. Cal. Civ. Code § 5673 ↩
12. Cal. Civ. Code § 5700 ↩
13. Cal. Civ. Code § 5710 ↩
14. Cal. Civ. Code § 2924 ↩
15. Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 725a ↩
16. Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 729.030 ↩
17. Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, 586 U.S. 466 (2019) ↩
18. Cal. Civ. Code § 1788.2 ↩
19. Cal. Civ. Code § 1788.17 ↩
20. 50 U.S.C. § 3953 ↩
21. 11 U.S.C. § 362 ↩
22. Cal. Civ. Code §§ 5925–5940 (alternative dispute resolution) ↩
23. Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 729.050 ↩
24. Assemb. B. 130, 2025–2026 Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2025) (amending Cal. Civ. Code §§ 5850, 5855) ↩
25. S.B. 1286, 2023–2024 Reg. Sess., 2024 Cal. Stat. ch. 522 ↩
26. S.B. 71, 2023–2024 Reg. Sess., 2023 Cal. Stat. ch. 861 (amending Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 116.221) ↩
27. Cal. Civ. Code § 2924m ↩
28. Bird Rock Home Mortgage, LLC v. Breaking Ground, LP, No. D084138 (Cal. Ct. App. Sept. 16, 2025) ↩
29. Shetty v. HSBC Bank USA, N.A., No. G060657 (Cal. Ct. App. May 18, 2023) ↩
30. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1807 (amended by S.B. 1494, 2025); Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47-258(b) ↩