COA and HOA boards, call your lawyers and tell them it's time for Oregon to have a Super Lien Law (also called Priority Lien Law). Community residents, ask your board members to get moving on this. Here's why.

If a lender forecloses on a home, all junior liens--the home equity line of credit, the plumber's work lien, the home owners' assessment liens--are extinguished and the debt holders are stuck. But with an HOA or COA assessment lien, the rest of the owners will have to make it up.

That's because HOA assessments pay for landscaping, painting, etc., which benefits the property and the community--not the individual owner. If a roof gets fixed, it's still fixed whether or not an owner leaves, and the bill to fix it still has to be paid.

What if an assessment is for construction defects? What if each owner in an association is assessed $10,000 for building remediation and an owner is foreclosed? As the law stands now, all the other owners are stuck and have to pay it. The lender takes the property improved by the assessment and pays zip for it.

With a Priority Lien statute, association assessments would remain after the foreclosure. The owner of the proprerty following the public auction--usually the lender--takes ownership and has to pay the assessment.

But the lending lobby has successfully fought this law in Oregon for 26 years. It's time to stand up and say, "No longer."

These are the same lenders who have taken billions in public bailouts and demand that HOAs and COAs maintain their reserves in order to be eligible for mortgage financing. Well, lenders shouldn't have it both ways. If they take back a property through foreclosure, they should have to take the whole property, not just the part they want.