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Alaska Statutes.

Title 34. Property

Chapter 8. Common Interest Ownership

Section 470. Lien For Assessments.

previous: Section 460. Assessments For Common Expenses.
next: Section 480. Other Liens.

AS 34.08.470. Lien For Assessments.

(a) The association has a lien on a unit for an assessment levied against the unit or fines imposed against its unit owner from the time the assessment or fine becomes due. Unless the declaration otherwise provides, fees, charges, late charges, fines, and interest charged under AS 34.08.320 (a)(10) - (12) are enforceable as assessments under this section. If an assessment is payable in installments, the full amount of the assessment is a lien from the time the first installment becomes due.

(b) A lien under this section is prior to all other liens and encumbrances on a unit except (1) a lien and encumbrance recorded before the recordation of the declaration and, in a cooperative, a lien and encumbrance which the association creates, assumes, or takes subject to; (2) a first security interest on the unit recorded before the date on which the assessment sought to be enforced became delinquent, or, in a cooperative, the first security interest encumbering only the interest of the unit owner and perfected before the date on which the assessment sought to be enforced became delinquent; and (3) a lien for real estate taxes and other governmental assessments or charges against the unit or cooperative. A lien under this section is also prior to all security interests described in (2) of this subsection if the common expense assessments based on the periodic budget adopted by the association under AS 34.08.460 (a) would have become due in the absence of acceleration during the six months immediately preceding institution of an action to enforce the lien. This subsection does not affect the priority of a mechanic's or materialman's lien, or the priority of a lien for other assessments made by the association. A lien under this section is not subject to the provisions of AS 09.38.010 .

(c) Unless the declaration provides otherwise, if two or more associations have liens for assessments created at any time on the same property, each lien has equal priority.

(d) The recording of the declaration constitutes record notice and perfection of the lien. Further recording of a claim of lien for assessment under this section is not required.

(e) A lien for an unpaid assessment is extinguished unless proceedings to enforce the lien are instituted within three years after the full amount of the assessment becomes due.

(f) This section does not prohibit an action to recover sums for which (a) of this section creates a lien or prohibit an association from taking a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

(g) A judgment or decree in an action brought under this section is enforceable by execution under AS 09.35.010 .

(h) The association upon written request shall furnish to a unit owner a statement setting out the amount of unpaid assessments against the unit. If the interest of the unit owner is real estate, the statement must be in recordable form. The statement must be furnished within 10 business days after receipt of the request and is binding on the association, the executive board, and each unit owner.

(i) In a cooperative, upon nonpayment of an assessment on a unit, a unit owner may be evicted in the same manner as provided by law in the case of an unlawful holdover by a commercial tenant, and the lien may be foreclosed under this section.

(j) The association's lien may be foreclosed under this subsection as follows:

(1) in a condominium or planned community, the lien of the association must be foreclosed as a lien is foreclosed under AS 34.35.005;

(2) in a cooperative whose unit owners' interests in the units are real estate, the lien of the association must be foreclosed as a mortgage or deed of trust on real estate is foreclosed or as a lien is foreclosed under AS 34.35.005 ; or

(3) in a cooperative whose unit owners' interests in the units are personal property, the lien of the association must be foreclosed as a security interest under AS 45.29.

(k) In a cooperative, if the interest of the unit owner in a unit is real estate,

(1) the association, upon nonpayment of an assessment and compliance with this subsection, may sell the unit at a public sale or by private negotiation, and at any time and place; each aspect of the sale, including the method, advertising, time, place, and terms must be reasonable; the association shall give reasonable written notice to the unit owner and a lessee of the unit owner of the time and place of the public sale or, if a private sale is intended, of the intention of entering into a contract to sell and of the time after which a private disposition may be made; the same notice must also be sent to any other person who has a recorded interest in the unit that would be cut off by the sale, but only if the recorded interest was on record seven weeks before the date specified in the notice as the date of a public sale or seven weeks before the date specified in the notice as the date after which a private sale may be made; the notices required by this subsection may be sent to any address reasonable in the circumstances; sale may not be held until five weeks after the sending of the notice; the association may buy at a public sale and, if the sale is conducted by a fiduciary or other person not related to the association, at a private sale;

(2) unless otherwise agreed, the debtor is liable for any deficiency in a foreclosure sale under AS 09.45.170 ;

(3) the proceeds of a foreclosure sale must be applied in the following order:

(A) the reasonable expenses of sale;

(B) the reasonable expenses of securing possession before sale including holding, maintaining, and preparing the unit for sale, payment of taxes and other governmental charges, premiums on hazard and liability insurance;

(C) satisfaction of the lien of the association;

(D) satisfaction in the order of priority of a subordinate claim of record; and

(E) remittance of any excess to the unit owner;

(4) a good faith purchaser for value acquires the unit free of the association's debt that gave rise to the lien under which the foreclosure sale occurred and any subordinate interest, even though the association or other person conducting the sale failed to comply with the requirements of this section; the person conducting the sale shall execute a conveyance to the purchaser sufficient to convey the unit and stating that it is executed after a foreclosure of the association's lien by power of sale and that person conducting the sale was empowered to make the sale; signature and title or authority of the person signing the conveyance as grantor and a recital of the facts of nonpayment of the assessment and of the giving of the notices required by this subsection are sufficient proof of the facts recited and of the authority of the person to sign; further proof of authority is not required even if the association is named as grantee in the conveyance;

(5) at any time before the association has disposed of a unit in a cooperative or entered into a contract for its disposition under the power of sale, the unit owner or the holder of a subordinate security interest may cure the default of the unit owner and prevent sale or other disposition by tendering the performance due under the security agreement, including an amount due because of exercise of a right to accelerate, plus the reasonable expenses of proceeding to foreclosure incurred to the time of tender.