Washington · HOAWashington HOA assessment lien: priority, the six-year limit and the binding payoff statement

Under the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, the association has a statutory lien on each unit for any unpaid assessment from the time it is due. Recording the declaration is record notice and perfection of the lien; no separate claim of lien has to be recorded. The lien is prior to other liens except those recorded before the declaration, a security interest recorded before the assessment became due, and real estate taxes and other governmental charges. It also takes priority over that earlier security interest for the regular common expense assessments that would have come due in the six months before foreclosure proceedings began, plus the association's foreclosure costs and attorneys' fees up to the lesser of $2,000 or that six-month amount – but the cost portion is prior only if the association gave the lender at least 60 days' written notice of the default; once the lender pays those amounts, the lien is subordinated to its security interest. Fines, late charges and interest don't get that priority. The lien and the owner's personal liability are extinguished unless proceedings to enforce or collect start within six years after the full amount becomes due. On written request, the association must furnish a unit owner or mortgagee, within 15 days, a signed statement of the unpaid assessments or the priority amount; it binds the association except to the extent the recipient knows it is false (RCW 64.90.485). For associations under the older homeowners' association act, if the governing documents provide for a lien, the association must mail a notice of delinquency no later than 30 days after an assessment becomes past due, and until the 15th day after that notice it can take no other collection action and charge only the mailing cost, an administrative fee of up to $10 and one late fee of up to $50 or 5% (RCW 64.38.100).