Why Condo Associations Are Sweating After A Judge's Ruling
It’s probably going to take years to unravel the legal and financial uncertainty now facing condominium associations and law firms that used nonjudicial foreclosures — private sales without supervision by courts — to collect unpaid maintenance fees or other assessments prior to 2012.
That’s the best guess after the recent ruling by a federal judge in Honolulu that condominium associations were not legally eligible to use the streamlined, nonjudicial foreclosure process that allowed properties to be sold at auction with minimal notice to — or procedural protections for — the unit owners.
In a 57-page ruling filed March 30, U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi concluded condominium associations did not have the power under Hawaii law to pursue quick, nonjudicial foreclosures under Part I of the state’s foreclosure law, which gave special rights to lenders whose mortgage contracts include a “power of sale” clause.
Part I dated back more than a century to 1874, during the era of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and allowed mortgagees to foreclose without going to court, and subject only to the terms contained in their mortgages.
Read more: http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/04/ian-lind-why-condo-associations-are-sweating-after-a-judges-ruling/