AP Wire | 08/07/2004 | Foreclosure ban would make California first among Sun Belt states

JIM WASSERMAN

Associated Press


SACRAMENTO - If California bans the majority of its homeowner association foreclosures, it will become the great exception among major Sun Belt states where private communities thrive.

Like California today, associations in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Nevada all have authority to ultimately collect their members' unpaid assessments by selling their homes. Combined, the five states represent much of the nation's development and more than half its supply of association-governed housing.

In Virginia, where nearly all housing in new suburbs outside Washington, D.C., are in associations, nonjudicial foreclosure - actions taken without a judge's oversight - are also the norm. This year, the Legislature tightened the rules, giving homeowners more notice of a potential sale and requiring independent trustees to conduct it.

But the rest of the United States remains a mixed scene of varying laws and approaches.
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Another excellent Jim Wasserman story, this one showing the variety of approaches to foreclosure over unpaid assessments. There is one method he doesn't mention. Here in Illinois we use forcible detainer. In other words, the condo owner is treated like a tenant who hasn't paid the rent. The condo association takes you to eviction court and can throw you out of your own home if you don't pay. But you still retain ownership. Strange, but true.