In a 2-1 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overruled the 2014 decision from the Nevada Supreme Court about which we previously wrote. In Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., (August 12, 2016), the federal appellate court holds that the non-judicial foreclosure of Nevada HOA superliens cannot constitutionally extinguish a mortgage lender’s security interest.
In 2014, the Nevada Supreme Court held that, as a matter of lien priority, the foreclosure of a superlien for HOA assessments can extinguish a first mortgage. However, the Nevada Supreme Court did not address whether the provisions of Nevada state law governing notice to purported junior lienholders, including mortgagees, were constitutional.
In Bourne Valley, the home in question had a mortgage loan for $174,000 from Plaza Home Mortgage. The beneficial interest in the noted and deed was subsequently assigned to Wells Fargo, N.A. in 2011. After the homeowner fell behind on her HOA payments, the HOA recorded a notice of delinquent assessment lien for $1,298.57 in August 2011. In October 2011, the HOA recorded a notice of default and election to sell the home. Then, on April 9, 2012, the HOA recorded a notice of trustee/foreclosure sale against the property. The Horse Pointe Avenue Trust then paid $4,145 for the home at a foreclosure sale, before conveying its interest in the property to the Bourne Valley Court Trust, which then filed an action to quiet title and extinguish any other junior liens.
In Bourne Valley, the Ninth Circuit panel notes that Nevada state law requires a purported junior lienholder to “opt in” before receiving notice of an HOA foreclosure sale, which the Court calls a “peculiar scheme” for providing mortgage lenders with information about when an HOA intended to foreclose on a property. “Even though such foreclosure forever extinguished the mortgage lenders’ property rights, the [Nevada] statute contained “opt in” provisions requiring that notice be given only when it had already been requested,” the Court noted. “Thus, despite that only the homeowners’ association knew when and to what extent a homeowner had defaulted on her dues, the burden was on the mortgage lender to ask the homeowners’ association to please keep it in the loop regarding the homeowners’ association’s foreclosure plans,” the Court continued. “How the mortgage lender, which likely had no relationship with the homeowners’ association, should have known to ask is anybody’s guess.”
Therefore, the Court concludes, Nevada’s laws violate the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution. From the Court’s decision:
Nevada Revised Statutes section 116.3116 et seq. strips a mortgage lender of its first deed of trust when a homeowners’ association forecloses on the property based on delinquent HOA dues. Before it was amended, it did so without regard for whether the first deed of trust was recorded before the HOA dues became delinquent, and critically, without requiring actual notice to the lender that the homeowners’ association intends to foreclose.
We hold that the Statute’s “opt-in” notice scheme, which required a homeowners’ association to alert a mortgage lender that it intended to foreclose only if the lender had affirmatively requested notice, facially violated the lender’s constitutional due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. We therefore vacate the district court’s judgment and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The Court gets specific:
But that the foreclosure sale itself is a private action is irrelevant to Wells Fargo’s due process argument. Rather than complaining about the foreclosure specifically, Wells Fargo contends—and we agree—that the enactment of the statute unconstitutionally degraded its interest in the property. Absent operation of the statute, Wells Fargo would have had a fully secured interest in the property. A foreclosure by a homeowners’ association would not have extinguished Wells Fargo’s interest. But with the statute in place, Wells Fargo’s interest was not secured. Instead, if a homeowners’ association foreclosed on a lien for unpaid dues, Wells Fargo would forfeit all of its rights in the property.
For now, the Bourne Valley opinion is binding on all Nevada federal courts. It will also serve as strong persuasive authority (at the very least) in actions pending in Nevada state court, as well as throughout the U.S. in states with similar paradigms.
“HOA liens, the elderly, and those with military service may now board.”
