California HOA laws & resources.

Laws & regulations impacting California associations.

California is the opposite of a light-touch state. The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act runs from Civil Code § 4000 to § 6150 and covers governing documents, board conduct, meetings, elections, assessments, collections, records and dispute resolution — and it is only the start. A second code governs your association at the same time, and several of the answers homeowners most want sit in neither. HOPB hosts every one of these statutes in full, each with a plain-language guide, alongside the federal laws that apply nationwide.

Five things are worth knowing about how California’s HOA law works:

• Whether the Act applies to you is a recording question, not a name question. The Davis-Stirling Act applies, and a common interest development is created, whenever a separate interest coupled with an interest in the common area or membership in the association is conveyed — provided a declaration, a condominium plan if one exists, and a final or parcel map where one is required have been recorded (Civ. § 4200). Two limits follow from that. Nothing in the Act “may be construed to apply to a real property development that does not contain common area” — and the Legislature added that this is declaratory of existing law, not a change to it (Civ. § 4201). And the Act does not apply to a commercial or industrial common interest development (Civ. § 4202), which is governed by a much thinner separate act — no $1,800 foreclosure floor, no 20 percent assessment cap, no $500 records penalty. That comparison is set out on the related laws page.
• Two codes govern your association at once — and each gives you something the other does not. Most California associations are nonprofit mutual benefit corporations, so the Corporations Code runs alongside Davis-Stirling. On elections the Act wins outright: its balloting article applies to incorporated and unincorporated associations alike, and “in the event of a conflict… the provisions of this article shall prevail” (Civ. § 5100(c), (e)). But the corporate code supplies remedies Davis-Stirling never wrote down. Five percent of the members may call a special meeting (Corp. § 7510(e)). If the association skips its regular meeting for 60 days past the date set, or 15 months where no date was set, the superior court may summarily order the meeting on a single member’s application — and whoever turns up constitutes a quorum, whatever the bylaws say (Corp. § 7510(c), (d)). A contested election can be taken to the superior court by any director or member, or anyone who had the right to vote in it, with the hearing set within five days unless good cause is shown, and the court may order a new election (Corp. § 7616). And a director can be removed by the court for fraudulent or dishonest acts or gross abuse of authority, at the suit of a director, or of twice the authorized number of members or 20 members, whichever is fewer, where fewer than 5,000 votes may be cast (Corp. § 7223(a), (b)(2)).
• Two numbers decide most assessment fights. Without a member vote, a board may not raise the regular assessment more than 20 percent over the preceding fiscal year, and may not impose special assessments that in the aggregate exceed 5 percent of the budgeted gross expenses for that year — and that limit binds notwithstanding more restrictive limitations in the governing documents (Civ. § 5605(b)). On the collection side, an association seeking delinquent assessments of less than $1,800 — not counting accelerated assessments, late charges, fees and costs of collection, attorney’s fees or interest — may not foreclose, judicially or nonjudicially. It may sue in small claims court or record a lien, but it may not foreclose on that lien until the assessments alone reach $1,800 or are more than 12 months delinquent (Civ. § 5720(b)). If a demand letter threatens foreclosure over a smaller sum, check the arithmetic before you panic.
• Construction defects have their own statute, and the association is the claimant. Where a community was built by a builder who sold the homes under purchase agreements signed on or after 1 January 2003 (Civ. § 938), the Right to Repair Act (SB 800) supplies the standards and the procedure. It names associations expressly: “claimant” or “homeowner” includes an association (Civ. § 895(f)), and associations “shall be considered to be original purchasers and shall have standing” to enforce it (Civ. § 945). The clock runs differently for an association than for an individual owner: its “close of escrow” is the date of substantial completion or the date the builder relinquishes control over the association’s ability to decide whether to bring a claim — whichever is later (Civ. § 895(e)) — with an outer limit of 10 years from substantial completion, or the date a valid notice of completion is recorded if that is earlier (Civ. § 941(a)). Two features make the Act unusually favourable once you are inside it: a claimant “need only demonstrate… that the home does not meet the applicable standard”, with no further showing of causation or damages required to establish the violation — subject to the builder’s affirmative defences in Civ. § 945.5, and provided the violation relates to the original construction (Civ. § 942). But the prelitigation notice to the builder comes first — it is a precondition to filing, not an option (Civ. § 910).
• You usually have to try to settle before you can sue — and the fee award runs both ways. Every association shall provide a fair, reasonable and expeditious internal dispute resolution procedure, which either party may invoke in writing and which the association must participate in when a member invokes it (Civ. §§ 5905, 5910); where an association has not adopted one, the statutory procedure applies by default (Civ. § 5915). On top of that, neither an association nor a member may file an enforcement action in the superior court without first endeavouring to submit the dispute to alternative dispute resolution — a rule that reaches actions for declaratory, injunctive or writ relief, but not small claims actions and not assessment disputes (Civ. § 5930). Then the sting: in an action to enforce the governing documents, “the prevailing party shall be awarded reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” (Civ. § 5975(c)). Shall, and either side. The one place the balance tips your way is records: a court that finds records were unreasonably withheld shall award you costs and fees and may assess a civil penalty of up to $500 for each separate written request denied — and you can bring it in small claims (Civ. § 5235).

Find HOA contact information & documents.

• Who runs your association. Search the Secretary of State’s business search — or use HOPB’s HOA Directory and select California — for corporate status, registered agent, officers and filings. California adds something most states do not have: the common interest development statement that every association must file under Civ. § 5405, incorporated or not, which names the managing agent and gives the development’s front street and nearest cross street. If a search on the community name finds nothing, try the street.
• Association records — and there are two separate rights, not one. Under the Act, records for the current fiscal year must be produced within 10 business days and for the previous two fiscal years within 30 calendar days; minutes of member and board meetings are inspectable permanently (Civ. §§ 5205, 5210). Time spent redacting an enhanced association record may be charged at no more than $10 per hour and no more than $200 total per written request (Civ. § 5205(g)). Independently of all that, the Corporations Code opens the accounting books and records and the minutes of members, the board and its committees to any member on written demand at any reasonable time for a purpose reasonably related to their interest as a member (Corp. § 8333), and gives a separate right to the membership list on five business days’ written demand — though the association may instead offer, within ten business days, a reasonable alternative method of achieving your stated purpose (Corp. § 8330(a), (c)). Those corporate rights “may not be limited by contract or the articles or bylaws” (Corp. § 8313). Put every request in writing and keep a copy.
• Recorded documents. The declaration — the CC&Rs — together with amendments, the condominium plan, maps, deeds and liens, are recorded with the county recorder where the development sits. Recording is not a formality in California: the Act only applies at all once a declaration has been recorded (Civ. § 4200), so the recorded document is the foundation of everything the association claims. Search under the subdivision or community name. Unlike association records, these are genuinely public.
• Before you buy. Two disclosure regimes stack. The seller must give a prospective purchaser all governing documents — including a written statement from the association if it is not incorporated — the age-restriction statement where one applies, and the most recent annual disclosures, as soon as practicable before transfer of title (Civ. § 4525). Separately, in a new development the subdivider must hand over the DRE public report together with a statutory notice that is worth reading twice: purchase “automatically entitles and obligates you as a member of the association”, delinquent assessments may mean your unit “may be liened and sold through the exercise of a power of sale”, and — the Legislature’s own words — “‘they’ in a common interest development is ‘you.’” (B&P § 11018.1(c)).