CC&Rs for a real estate development contained provisions allowing the homeowners association a lien on an adjoining golf course if the course’s owner failed to pay for its maintenance, forcing the association to do so. This decision holds that the lien was not imposed upon recordation of the CC&Rs but instead arose only when the association paid for maintenance later. Nor did the lien relate back to the recordation of the CC&Rs for lien priority purposes. However, the CC&Rs also provided that the association’s lien would take priority over all liens created after recordation of the CC&Rs. That provision was effective and binding on subsequent encumbrancers since they had constructive knowledge of the terms of the recorded CC&Rs. So, though later recorded and effective, the association’s lien took priority over a third mortgage that was recorded after the CC&Rs but before the association’s lien.
California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 2 (Fields, J.); October 19, 2018 (published October 31, 2018); 28 Cal. App. 5th 809