Duty to Collect. Homeowner associations must assess fees on the individual owners in order to maintain the complexes. Civ. Code §1366(a). When an owner defaults, the association may file a lien on the owner's interest for the amount of the fees. Civ. Code §1367.1(d). If the default is not corrected, the association may pursue any remedy permitted by law, including judicial foreclosure or foreclosure by private power of sale. Civ. Code §1367.1.

Assessment Liens. A "litigation privilege" attaches to the publication of an assessment lien even if the homeowners association has not decided, at the point the lien is filed, that it will pursue a judicial foreclosure, and even if the lien is ultimately enforced by a private sale. To conclude otherwise would make the privilege hinge upon factual inquiries into which remedy associations intended to use, and might lead associations to resort to judicial foreclosure in every case simply to avoid the risk of tort liability. The Legislature has given homeowners associations a remedy of private sale, and court must avoid deterring the use of that remedy while at the same time protecting associations' access to the courts for purposes of judicial foreclosures. The litigation privilege is created to afford "the utmost freedom of access to the courts without fear of being harassed subsequently by derivative tort actions." Wilton v. Mountain Wood HOA.