SACRAMENTO - Legislation to give homeowners' association members greater protections against losing their homes because of their failure to pay dues on time passed its first test in the California Legislature on Tuesday.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee approved a bill by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, that would require a homeowners' association to get a court order to foreclose on a residence whose owner had fallen behind in paying association assessments.

Meanwhile, a bill by Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, that would bar a homeowners' association from using nonjudicial foreclosures in cases involving less than $2,500 in late payments was awaiting a hearing later in the day in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bills were triggered by the increasingly common use of foreclosure procedures by homeowners' associations to collect overdue fees, sometimes for small delinquent amounts. An elderly couple in the Sierra Nevada foothill community of Copperopolis lost their home last year to foreclosure for failing to pay $120 in homeowner fees on time.

Steinberg said his bill would ensure that homeowners who were threatened with losing their homes would get "due process and a full judicial hearing." Courts typically view foreclosure as a last resort, he added.

"Under current law, a homeowners' association can actually take a home of someone who is $50 behind in their assessments," he said. "The penalty is disproportionate to the alleged violation and it's not fair. ... It should be a last resort."

Ducheny's bill would allow a homeowners' association to foreclose without a court order to recover late fees of $2,500 or more, but the homeowner could first contest the amount owned by going through a binding arbitration process.

Her legislation also would require minimum bids on foreclosed homes - the amount of money owned plus a homestead exemption that would go to the old homeowner. The exemption would be $50,000 for a single adult, $75,000 for a family and $150,000 for senior citizens.

The bill also would create a 90-day redemption period after the auction during which the homeowner could pay off the debt and the new owner and reclaim the residence.

In cases involving late fees of less than $2,500, Ducheny's bill would allow a homeowners' association to file a lien that would be paid off when the homeowner refinanced or sold the residence. The association also could go to small claims court to try to force payment.