Filing A Property Lien in GA

I live in Athens, Georgia (Clarke County) and am the treasurer of our HOA. Our dues is $100.00 per year due by 1/31. Our covenants allow the board to file a lien against the property of owners who are delinquent in their dues. However, the HOA has never had to file a lien. Second notices were sent out early last month and we collected $2400.00 as a result. $1900.00 is presently owed. We are about to mail out third notices and want to include a reminder that the HOA does have the authority to file a lien for non-payment of dues. The type of lien we would like to file is such that if the property is sold, the lien for dues owed must be satisfied before the sale can be effected.

Question: How easy is it to file the above type lien? I called the court house and was told that we should have a lawyer file the lien as it is an involved process. Others say it's simple. We are clueless in this area. Any suggestions. Many thanks.

Daniel-

I am from Georgia too. We have an attorney on retainer for $1650 a year and worth so much more. We do have to pay extra for them to file a lien, however we first have them do a "Payablility Report". This is a finacial background check on those accounts in question and will process if the resident can pay. We have found some accounts we should not proceed with the lien process. You have to know before hand because you file a lien it only puts you in line with other collectors.
Also, I have a question: Are you an HOA or POA?
POAs in Georgia have an easier way to file liens against their owners than HOAs. In a POA the recorded documents serve as the first notice (you don't have to mail additional notices- the owner defaults when they don't pay by the due date).
You also need to think about your cost to collect VS. the amount you will collect. True all additional fees should be paid by the owner at fault according to your CCRs (check your CCRs for this), but is it worth the associations time and money to pursue collection on $100 accounts? Look at the cost to file and remove plus the time to do each and the letters that have to go out. I am not suggesting to stop the efforts, but factor the cost first. Suspend privileges, add past due fees, use the tactics outlined in the CCRs to the fullest. If you have a pool (on $100 a year I'm not sure) most people pay right before the pool opens.
I do recommend an attorney for your association,but you don't have to have one to file a lien the process is not the hard.
janice

Janice,

Good advice.

I'm a contractor and I don't file my own liens. I don't know of a single contractor silly enough to file his own liens.
The Lawyer who deals with all our problem clients charge us 100.00 dollars plus postage to file a lien, so why take a chance in making a small mistake and then loosing.

Leter from you saying your are filing a lien < letter from the attorney saying he is filing a lien.

I think the problem here is that "you are going to need and attorney" is being confused with "you must have an attorney"

Janice,
Did I read you were happy with your attorny? We are being told we have the best attorny in the erea (woodstock), but he hasn't done a thing for us in regards to collections and his retainer is very expensive. Our conttract expires at the end of this year and I would like to see if I can find another attorney who will actually work for us. Can you tell who you guys use?