How do you know when a house sells in your HOA

I have a question about how does a HOA know when a home sells and a new owner needs to needs to be added to the HOA to be responsible for the dues. We have 97 homes spread out on several streets. We have had one home that was foreclosed on and the bank is listed first and the new homeowner (which moved in months ago) is second on the tax role.The management company told me that they didn't know the house had a new owner.
I think I have convinced to board to get rid of the management company, but how will the HOA find out there is a new owner on homes that have sold.
We have another home that the owner just walked off and left it, and in a mess. Is the mortgage company responsible to pay the dues or do we just file a lien. Since the owner is no where to be found how do we serve 30 day notice that we are filing a lien. We are in South Carolina if it matters.
I want to thank everyone here for helping out in my last posts. I was ready to step down a few weeks ago but now the other board members are starting to listen to me and see the light at the end of the tunnel. They have run the HOA into a hole and I am trying to dig it out by my self. But now I think the President is seeing what I see.
Thanks Scott

Thanks for the info, the problem is that our HOA dues is paid once a year in January.
Scott

A few tips...There is one thing in life for sure...Death and Taxes...You can find out who owns the property within about 6 months of it exchanging hands through the tax assessor's office. Just need to know the lot # to the property. They should be able to tell you the last name on record. You can get the lot # through the courthouse.

Another thing...It is irrelevant on what name is on the house in the long run. The HOA serves the property. That means that the HOA sends it's notification to the lot # / address in the HOA. If there is no name, then just address it with the addressee at so and so address. The communication goes to that direct property. Having the name can be kind of a courtesy at some points. There's no real standard of anyone reporting to the HOA when and if the property has exchanged hands. Possibly the former owner who sells the property may inform the HOA so they stop getting notices. I used to watch for sale signs get taken down and take note of the real estate company who had the property. They can atleast tell you when the property sold then you can go to Zillow.com for pricing information and such. That way you can confirm it's sold but maybe not names.

There is also the issue that many times when filing a lien or foreclosure, the name or lot # is ran in the local newspaper. It is considered PUBLIC NOTICE when it is ran in the newspaper with the notification of lien/foreclosure. Each state varies on this but my state does print this information. It is in the legals section of the classifieds which isn't always printed out daily. I've found several homes this way.

Some suggestions here on how to do some of the legwork. People always assume the HOA would know who owns the homes. It is NOT always true. You do have to do some research to confirm. It's really can be no ones specific responsibility to do so in the reporting. Which can be very frustrating when you start looking....Good luck!

In Colorado this is how our management company keeps track of the current owners. We receive a request for a status letter from the title company when there is a transfer of title for a planned sale. When there is a foreclosure with no title transfer (sale), we receive a legal notice of the upcoming foreclosure because we have previously filed a lien against the property. When necessary we can also check the county records on line for ownership of the property.