Advice on Fees- Please!

I am a recent first time home buyer, therefore, this is my first experience with an HOA. I purchased a HUD foreclosure. It was foreclosed on in May and I closed the first of November. Part of my closing costs were the HOA dues for the months of November and December. Last week, I received a bill charging me for the unpaid balance of all of 2008 plus half of 2009- all due the 31st. Am I responsible for paying all of the 2008 dues? I know that foreclosures can sometimes come with back taxes and past due HOA fees, but I was never notified of this prior to closing. My lawyer checked for liens and all of that and everything was fine. Plus, wouldn't HUD be responsible for paying most of the 2008 fees? They owned the house for 6 months. And, I already paid 2 months.
I am going to call them tomorrow. I was just hoping for some insight before I called so I know exactly what I am responsible for.
TIA

It's really hard to say without knowing the exact wording in your Deed Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions or some other governing document such as the HOA by-laws.

In our HOA, we can only bill for dues or assessments that are due and owing from the legal owner of the property at the time the assessments are due.

So in your case, we could not be able to collect the dues/assessments prior to November from you. We would have to go after the legal title holder prior to that time for the period the assessments were due.

We could, however, collect 2009 assessment from you at this time.

In fact, our governing documents specify that assessments must be prepaid . . . so we bill in November for assessments due for the coming year, and the due date is the last day of the year in December. Any assessments not paid by January 1 of the year they are for are automatically assessed a late fee and penalty.

That, too, is spelled out in our governing documents.

It's also possible that North Carolina will not allow them to collect money from a non-owner at the time the assessments were due. You'd have to contact an attorney in North Carolina who specializes in HOA issues to help you on that one.

But I would like to recommend one thing: Please go ahead and call them. As the treasurer of our HOA for the last 2 years, I would be much more willing to work with someone if he or she would contact me the minute they have an issue than wait until it's almost time to file a lien to discover there was some sort of conflict or confusing information.

By the way, you might want to check some of the papers you signed during the closing. There might be one in there from the Title Search attorney waiving any errors that they might have made in researching for a "clear title." It's a document many use at closing to cover their rears when there actually are mechanics liens or association liens against a property that makes it difficult for you to go back on them if it is discovered that one existed.

All suggestions above are on the money.

I would further suggest that you obtain a set of CC&R's from the HOA and read for yourself the part about assessments, liens for assessments and procedures for filing any liens on specific parties.
As a new owner you should have been offered a copy of the HOA documents (CC&R's). In my condo in SC under our documents and barring any agreements among interested parties, the buyers are not liable for back assessments. Whoever held this property up to the closing date is responsible (if the HOA can get it). But that is another story.