Blog

By Randy Newma
This article first appeared in our Communicator Magazine, Winter 2026 Issue.

If your association has ever had to foreclose on a home for unpaid assessments, you probably know how stressful and complicated the process can be. A recent California Court of Appeal decision, Bird Rock Home Mortgage, LLC v. Breaking Ground, LP (2025) D084138 (filed September 16, 2025) makes it clear that foreclosure sales may take longer to finalize than many expected.

WHAT HAPPENED

The Oceanside Community Association foreclosed on a property after the owners stopped paying their assessments. At the foreclosure sale, a bidder, Bird Rock Home Mortgage, offered $60,000 and thought they had won as the successful bidder at the foreclosure sale. Wisely, instead of handing over the deed, the trustee kept the sale "open" for the mandatory holding period under the recent California law, Civil Code § 2924m. During that time, a qualified nonprofit called Breaking Ground stepped in and submitted a bid ...

Caller: Help! We need an Assessment! It’s an EMERGENCY!

By Zer Iyer, Esq.

This article first appeared in our Communicator Magazine, Summer 2025 Edition.

Unexpected expenses. Unanticipated cost increases. Unforeseen repairs. Unprecedented rate increases. These are examples of all‐too‐common situations affecting homeowner associations in the state and the all‐too‐common response of most boards to levy an emergency assessment. An association needs money, doesn’t have the money and that board is pretty sure the membership won’t approve the assessment on their own, so an emergency assessment makes sense, right? I mean, what could go wrong? Actually, a lot could go wrong and in fact, a lot often does go wrong when boards decide to levy emergency assessments. The purpose of this article is to explain what an emergency assessment is, when it is appropriate to levy and, perhaps most importantly, how to approach an emergency assessment to minimize challenges by homeowners. 

First, a quick re...

By Becky Jolly, CCAM & Jasmine Hale, Esq., CCAL

All too often, when managers, counsel, and experts warn boards and their communities that the failure to maintain their association’s infrastructure can result in liability and create safety hazards, the calls for action fall on deaf ears. Sometimes those deaf ears lead to recalls when the board is attempting to do the right thing and move forward with lasting repairs to the failed infrastructure. Doing what is right sometimes means making the unpopular and hard decisions.

So, what should the board do when the siding has failed, balconies are about to fall off, or the association is underfunded in their reserves and cannot realistically pay for its upcoming SB 326 inspections? Oftentimes, there is no way these projects can wait when life potentially hangs in the balance. Here we will try to answer these questions by focusing on the legal issues and strategies for assisting communities in successfully navigating the process to implement ...