Each of the three standard responses has a defect.

Sue the estate. There is no estate. Opening one as a creditor is possible and expensive, and it puts the association in the position of funding a probate to recover assessments that may be less than the cost.

Sue the occupant. The occupant is not the owner and does not owe the assessment. A possession action may reach them, but a money judgment against a non-owner is worth nothing.

Lien the unit and wait. This works — eventually. But “eventually” means until someone with authority sells, and in an heirs-property unit that may be a generation. Meanwhile the 15-year ceiling now on consumer debt judgments makes indefinite waiting a worse strategy than it was.

What the new section changes, and what it does not

It gives the occupant a statutory path to become the record owner — the party the association can bill, lien, serve and, if necessary, sue. That is genuinely useful, because the association's problem is not really the money; it is the absence of a defendant.

But the clock is long. Seven years of possession and tax payment, plus a declaration recorded two years before filing. An association discovering the problem today is not getting a record owner from this section for years, and only if the occupant chooses to use it. The section creates an option for the occupant; it creates no obligation and gives the association no standing to force it.

What a board can actually do with this

Tell the occupant it exists. This sounds like an odd thing for a creditor to do, and it is the highest-value move available. An occupant who perfects title becomes a payer. An occupant who does not remains a non-party, and the association's file stays open indefinitely.

Keep the tax record. The seven-year requirement is proof-intensive and the occupant may not be keeping receipts. An association that has been tracking the unit anyway can point them to what they will need.

Do not treat continued payment as an admission. An occupant who has been paying assessments voluntarily is doing the association a favour, and an association that responds by suing them personally will stop the payments and gain nothing.

The interaction with eviction filings

Heirs-property units are also where the new prohibition on naming minors most often bites, because minor children are frequently among the intestate heirs. An association filing a possession action against “the heirs of” a deceased owner needs to know who they are before it drafts the caption.

What to watch next

Whether the two-year declaration requirement produces a visible filing pattern at county recorders. Declarations of intent under the new section are recorded instruments, which means an association monitoring title on a problem unit will see one coming — two years of notice that the ownership question is about to resolve.