Hopefully you all know that when you record a Notice of Claim, NOC, it is only for that term or terms the owner refuses to pay. It does NOT represent any FUTURE dues owed.
Our association generally but not always, performs the written notice procedures to record a notice of claim every other year. When a member doesn't pay their dues after the appropriate time frame from the written notice, we record a NOC on their deed (registry of deeds calls it as a lien).The next year, they refused to pay.
Instead we will only record an extension on the NOC. The following year (this is now 2 years since their first recording of a lien) the owner continues to refuse to pay. We send to the owner a written notice for the past and current terms owed and the total owed to discharge the previous lien. They refuse to pay. We record a NOC for the 2 terms currently owed and an extension for the previous NOC.
Over many years, the list on the registry of deeds gets huge; liens, extensions, liens plus extension and so on. It's like a chain letter of liens. Then suddenly, there's a surprise! The owner decides to discharge the total cost of all the liens. The registry of deeds charges extra fees for listing additional book and pages on a document.
We record a discharge on the LAST book and page recorded (whether it's a NOC plus extension or just an extension). The fun fact is that the Registry of Deeds is not responsible for the expiration of any liens in their system. When we discharge the last document, it represents all the CHAIN of current and past liens. The Registry of Deeds will record the discharge on that last lien. Registry of deeds does not automatically discharge all the other past liens.
The next event is like the breaking of a chain letter. I get people, banks, title companies, realtors and even Registry of Deeds calling me saying that the other liens are not discharged. My answer is yes they are, just like a title search, FOLLOW THE CHAIN OF LIENS thereby that one discharge, does in fact represent the discharge of ALL the past liens.
An easier approach to all this madness, besides the obvious - PAY YOUR DUES, is to have a municipality lien. Thereby we just take the house and we don't have to record all those liens but I digress. Happy trails to the person in your association responsible for not breaking the Chain of Liens.