(a) If any amount is due and payable to the department as a result of a sustained overpayment to a provider for care and services in the AFDC-FC program, the department may file, in the office of any county clerk of any county in which the provider has real or personal property, a certificate if any of the following conditions are met:
(1) No formal hearing is requested, the provider has not submitted a voluntary repayment agreement with the first payment, and 60 days have elapsed from the notice of audit results.
(2) The provider has not submitted a voluntary repayment agreement along with the first payment, 30 days have elapsed after an adverse appeal decision by a hearing officer sustaining an overpayment, and that decision has been adopted by the department or is effective by operation of law.
(b) The certificate provided for pursuant to subdivision (a) shall contain:
(1) The amount due, owing, and unpaid, plus simple interest on the amount owing and unpaid beginning on the date the certificate is filed.
(2) A statement that the department has complied with this section prior to the filing of the certificate.
(3) A request that a lien be recorded against the provider in the amount set forth in the certificate.
(c) The county clerk immediately upon the filing of the certificate shall record the lien for the State of California against the provider in the amount set forth in the certificate. The lien may be filed in the chain of title of the property.
(d) The department shall pay the cost of the first lien, and providers shall be responsible for any subsequent liens on a sustained overpayment.
(e) For the first certificate filed by the department pursuant to this section, the county shall waive all filing fees.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 773, Sec. 98. (AB 403) Effective January 1, 2016.)