Kentucky 75-year-old's house seized, sold over $288 unpaid HOA dues

[haele]

20. Aren't they required to get someone to hand-serve the eviction/sale notice?

Most states require some sort of owner's signature or proof of legal condition/notification of the owner or estate if a private company is going to seize a property asset.
There are lots of small business owners who aren't very well versed in legal issues and contracts. Heck, a lot of them barely graduated high school, and others rely more on verbal and handshake agreements in their dealings than written contracts.
When I owned my house, it was the last at the end of a common driveway for which we had a "HOA", where every year we paid a portion of the insurance for that alley. We would have a big "After Thanksgiving/insurance payment" party so everyone would remember they had to chip in for it.

As for what she owed - small claims court at the most. There is no reason why they should be able to sieze and sell physical property she owned seperate from a "maintenance contract" with them. $48 a year? That's gardner money, or at most, insurance on common property, not an escrow account.
Would it be the same if they siezed her car and sold it instead of her home, since she owned both outright, and both were on the common property?

She should sue for any amounts collected in the sale above what she owed to the HOA, at the very least.

Haele

Edited because I assumed with such low HOA fees - even for a retirement "village" in the SE, it was a trailer park.