Perry Law Firm/Troublesome collection on HOA lien

Does anywone have experience with Perry Law Firm (or any collection company) muddying the waters by trying to collect on an HOA lien that should be wiped out via trustee sale?

We bought a condo in Orange County at trustee sale related to foreclosure on 1st trust deed. As usual, there was a recorded HOA lien on title. Since the HOA lien is junior, it becomes uncollectable against any new owner. Technically speaking, the lien does not get released or rescinded, instead it kind of hangs out on title but gets ignored by title officers so that you can successfully transfer title when you close escrow on your flip transaction.

In this case, when we requested the HOA docs and a demand from the HOA (regarding normal transfer documents for HOA and any HOA dues we may owe) they referred us to their collection agency/attorney, THE PERRY LAW FIRM (PLF).

The Perry Law Firm issued us a demand which had the normal stuff plus notification of a lien and all past due balances, attorney fees and collection fees related to the past due balances (from previous owner). When we wrote solid correspondence, indicating we want an HOA payoff that only includes what we owe, they wrote us a crafty worded letter indicating any payoff needs to include moneys owed from lien that is still attached to the condo.

The bottomline is the HOA (via The Perry Law Firm) refuses to give us a clear payoff regarding only those customary fees we should owe on a normal escrow transaction. Rather, they are "muddying the waters" on our HOA payoff demand. Now escrow is concerned about proper disclosure of unenforceable lien that should have been wiped out (or ignored by the world).

We are lucky the disputed dollar amount is only $3k. But, if the Perry Law Firm plays this game on a $20k HOA lien it would have major affect on a transaction.

It seems all trustee sale investors/buyers (of condos) should be concerned about running into the Perry Law Firm and their tactics. Any suggestions?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2012 10:01PM by Island Time.