Overview

If your home is in a California fire-risk area, you’ve probably been told to clear flammable material away from the house. The newest fire-safety rules go further than the old ones. They zero in on the first five feet right around your home, the strip fire officials now call Zone 0, and they tell you to pull out the wood mulch, the shrubs pressed against your walls, the dead plants, and eventually the wood fence or gate that touches the house. The governing documents for a lot of HOAs often demand the exact opposite, like foundation plants along the walls, a matching wood fence, and no bare dirt showing.

That leaves homeowners stuck in the middle. Clear the five-foot strip to pass a fire inspection, and an HOA could hit a homeowner with a violation notice and a fine for changing the yard without approval. Keep the landscaping to keep the HOA happy, and a homeowner can fail a fire inspection or run into trouble with their insurer. Homeowners in fire country are getting squeezed from both sides, and the squeeze tightens every year as more of California phases these rules in.

So who wins when an HOA’s rulebook collides with fire-safety law? HOAs can’t use their governing documents to force homeowners to break a state or local law, and that principle is settled. What’s still moving is the five-foot Zone 0 rule itself. California hasn’t finalized the statewide version, so it isn’t being enforced against existing homes everywhere yet. Some cities, however, already enforce their own version. For example, San Diego’s version of Zone 0 kicked in during early 2026.

This Fact Sheet explains what the fire rules require close to a homeowner’s home, where an HOA’s landscaping and fence rules cross the line, and how to push back when bad HOAs interfere with homeowners trying to keep their homes safe.

Key Points

The answer to whether an HOA can force a homeowner to keep fire-unsafe landscaping turns on separating what fire law demands today from what’s still coming. Some fire rules bind homeowners right now. The newest five-foot rule is still finalizing statewide, but it’s already live in some cities. Underneath all of it, an HOA can’t use its rulebook to force a homeowner to break a fire law. Here’s how those pieces fit together.

• The older defensible space rule already forces homeowners in fire-risk areas to clear space around the house. Public Resources Code 4291 requires homeowners in California’s higher-risk fire areas to maintain defensible space, generally out to 100 feet around the home, by removing dead plants, thinning and spacing vegetation, and keeping flammable material away from the structure. Government Code 51182 imposes the same kind of requirement in the very high fire-risk areas that cities and counties enforce directly. These rules bind homeowners today, and a homeowner who ignores them can fail an inspection, receive an order to clear the property, and in some areas draw a fine. [If you’re interested in reading an article I wrote about fire-related disclosures for condo owners, read “Selling a Condo in a Fire Zone? Why California Law Puts You on the Hook for What Your HOA Controls.”]
• The newest layer, Zone 0, targets the first five feet right around the house, but that’s the part still being finalized statewide. Recent amendments to Public Resources Code 4291, passed through AB 3074 and SB 504, create an ember-resistant zone covering the first five feet around a home, which fire officials call Zone 0. Public Resources Code 4291 delays this five-foot rule on its own terms. The requirement doesn’t reach newly built homes until the Board of Forestry finalizes its Zone 0 regulations and updates its official guidance document, and it doesn’t reach existing homes until three full years after that. The statute also blocks the state fire agency from applying the five-foot zone in its defensible space inspections and enforcement until the State Fire Marshal confirms in writing that the Legislature funded the work. So a homeowner in an existing home, outside a city that runs its own fire ordinance, can’t face a citation under the statewide five-foot rule yet, and won’t for years after the Board of Forestry finishes. The current draft phases the work in over several years, starting with combustible mulch, dead plants, and shrubs pressed against the walls, and reaching the wood fence or gate that touches the house later in the rollout. [Some cities already enforce their own five-foot rules even though the statewide version isn’t final. Local jurisdictions can adopt and enforce their own Zone 0 requirements without waiting for the state. For example, San Diego’s version of Zone 0 took effect in early 2026 with a phased rollout that starts with education and tightens over the next few years.]
• An HOA’s governing documents cannot require homeowners to violate state law. When an HOA’s CC&Rs or architectural rules demand foundation plants, a matching wood fence against the house, or ground cover that fire law requires a homeowner to remove, the fire requirement controls and the HOA can’t enforce the conflicting provision. Civil Code 4205 applies here, and according to that law, an HOA can’t discipline a homeowner, or withhold architectural approval, to compel that homeowner to keep the property in a condition that violates a state or local fire requirement. [You can read more about the hierarchy of your HOA’s governing documents vis-a-vis the law by reading my Fact Sheet, “California HOA Governing Documents: What Controls?”]
• A home kept out of fire compliance to satisfy an HOA can end up creating an insurance problem that dwarfs any discipline. Most California insurers require homeowners to keep up their existing defensible space, and it’s likely that carriers will deny claims in situations where a homeowner fails to maintain the property to defensible space standards when a fire hits. Remember, insurers set their own underwriting terms and aren’t required to wait for the state to switch on statewide Zone 0 enforcement. Some carriers, in fact, are already treating the five-foot zone as a condition of writing or renewing a policy. A homeowner who keeps fire-unsafe landscaping to dodge an HOA violation, therefore, faces the very real possibility of trading a modest fine for a denied claim after a fire.
• A homeowner whose HOA is blocking or fining mandated fire-safety changes should call the HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman. The HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman rank among the most respected homeowner-side HOA lawyers in California, and they know how to stop an HOA from enforcing rules that keep a home fire-unsafe. If your HOA fines you, withholds approval, or demands landscaping that violates fire law, contact us.

Fire law and an HOA’s rulebook can point in opposite directions, but they don’t carry equal weight. The defensible space rule binds homeowners now, the five-foot Zone 0 rule already binds homeowners in some cities while the state finishes its version everywhere else. And no HOA gets to override any of it through its CC&Rs.

FAQs

About Michael Kushner

Michael Kushner is a California attorney with over 30 years of experience representing homeowners in disputes with their HOAs. He is widely regarded as California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, and has built one of the state’s most prominent law practices dedicated to holding HOAs accountable under the Davis-Stirling Act and California law.

In addition to his law firm’s work, Michael is a recognized lecturer, author, and the host of the hit HOA HELL podcast, where he provides homeowners living in HOA-governed communities with clear, practical strategies for dealing with bad HOAs. He’s also the author of the best-selling book, HOA HELL | California Homeowners’ Definitive Guide to Beating Bad HOAs, which has become a go-to resource for both homeowners seeking real-world solutions to their HOA disputes, as well as those good HOA board members who are interested in doing a good job.

About MBK Chapman Fact Sheets

Homeowners searching for answers online will often come across articles that appear authoritative, but are actually written as search-engine marketing content rather than by an experienced HOA lawyer. These pieces tend to prioritize keyword density over clarity, accuracy, or legal context, which often leaves homeowners more confused than informed.

At MBK Chapman, our Fact Sheets are part of our HOA Law Library and are written by Michael Kushner, an HOA lawyer with decades of hands-on experience representing California homeowners. In fact, Michael Kushner is the HOA lawyer who pioneered the systems and strategies used by some of California’s most successful homeowner-side HOA law firms.

Each Fact Sheet is deliberately concise, statute-based, and designed as a quick-reference guide to help homeowners understand key HOA laws and enforcement rules at a glance.

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