Civ. Code 5655(a) provides that payments a homeowner makes to an HOA for delinquent assessments must to allocated first to repay the delinquent assessments and only thereafter to pay attorney fees, costs, and interest incurred in connection with the HOA’s attempt to collect the delinquent assessments. This decision holds that the protections afforded by that section benefit the public, in part, and therefore the statutory priority of payment allocation cannot be waived voluntarily by a homeowner. Also, Civ. Code 5720 prohibits an HOA from seeking to collect or secure a debt for less than $1,800 in delinquent assessments or for assessments that have been delinquent for 12 months or more. Here, the debt collector’s pre-notice of default letter could be understood by the least sophisticated consumer to threaten the recordation of a notice of default for debts that could not be “collected” under section 5720. The notice was therefore an FDCPA violation.