Foreclosing on an owner’s unit after obtaining an unsatisfied money judgment

January 8th, 2020 | Community Association Law Blog

By Eric F. Frizzell, Esq.

Your condominium association or HOA has obtained a judgment against a unit owner for past due common expenses and other charges, but you have been unable to find where he is employed so that you can garnish his wages, or locate a bank account to attach, or discover other personal assets to levy in an effort to pay the association’s judgment. So now you want to start a foreclosure lawsuit against his unit.

Wait! Instead of filing a new foreclosure action, with the accompanying legal fees and months, if not years, to wait to obtain a foreclosure judgment, you instead can simply file a motion with the court seeking an order authorizing the county Sheriff to levy on the unit owner’s condominium unit, and then sell that unit at Sheriff’s sale. The court will normally grant the motion as long as your association demonstrates that it has exhausted reasonable efforts to locate personal property of the unit owner in New Jersey.

For more information on this process, please feel free to contact our law firm.