Assessment liens and foreclosure in West Virginia

Be clear-eyed about this: yes, a West Virginia association can lien your unit over unpaid assessments, and unpaid fines, and W. Va. Code § 36B-3-116(a) makes that lien automatic the moment either becomes due, no separate court filing required to create it. But the statute wraps real limits around that power. The lien's priority generally sits behind liens recorded before your declaration, a first mortgage or security interest recorded before your delinquency date, and real estate tax liens, though the association does get a narrow super-priority for roughly six months of common expense assessments ahead of that first mortgage. And under § 36B-3-116(d), the lien is extinguished outright if the association doesn't institute proceedings to enforce it within three years after the full amount became due.

The lien isn't just about assessments, either. Section 36B-3-116(a) folds in fines, late charges, and interest as amounts enforceable the same way, which is exactly why a disputed fine matters well before it ever reaches this stage (see the fines guide). Enforcement itself runs through an action in court, the statute speaks of "a judgment or decree in any action brought under this section" and awards costs and reasonable attorney's fees to whichever side prevails, not automatically to the association, which means a defective lien claim can cost the association money if you beat it.

The paperwork the association has to get right first

Section 36B-3-116(h) requires the association to give you notice, either in the manner set out elsewhere in the Code for service of process or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, in a form reasonably calculated to tell you that you're liable for the assessment, and to record a notice of the lien with the county commission clerk describing the unit, naming the owner, and stating the amount due and the date it fell due. Skip or botch that notice-and-recording step, and the lien can be vulnerable, especially against a later purchaser, since the statute discharges the lien as to a subsequent purchaser for value without notice unless that recorded notice exists. Once you pay, the association has to record a written release, at its own expense.

Two more tools worth knowing: § 36B-3-116(g) forces the association to hand you a written statement of unpaid assessments within ten business days of your written request, binding on the association and every unit owner, and § 36B-3-116(i) gives a cooperative unit owner (or a subordinate lienholder) a specific right to cure a default and stop a sale or disposition by tendering what's owed plus reasonable foreclosure expenses before that sale happens. For a legacy Chapter 36A condo, the older act's own method of enforcing charges, § 36A-7-3, runs through a civil action indexed as lis pendens rather than this modern lien scheme, though § 36B-1-204's reach-back applies the modern § 36B-3-116 lien to those communities too for delinquencies after 36B's effective date. Keep mechanics' liens separate: § 36A-7-4 makes those liens for repairs or improvements a different animal from the assessment lien entirely.