READING CC&RS: A CALIFORNIA HOMEOWNER’S GUIDE
OVERVIEW
For California homeowners living in HOA-governed communities, the Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (commonly referred to as the CC&Rs) that govern their HOAs feel impenetrable. They are long, dense, and often written in outdated, jargon-laden language that confuses rather than clarifies. The result is predictable: almost nobody actually reads their CC&Rs before moving into the neighborhood.
That is a mistake. Your CC&Rs represent the controlling document regulating your place within the community. They determine who pays when something breaks, what you can and can’t do with your property, and how rules are adopted and enforced. Ignoring such essential provisions can cost you dearly, both in terms of money and time. At the same time, many provisions of the CC&Rs have nothing to do with you, or they address rare contingencies that will never touch your daily life.
The good news is you do not need to read every page of your CC&Rs. In fact, you can skip most of it.
This article separates the noise from the signal. It identifies the sections of your CC&Rs that you can safely set aside for now, and the sections that you must read and understand to protect your interests. If you’re strategically selective about what you read and what you ignore, you’ll find that it’s quite easy to learn what you have to know without getting bogged down in provisions that are boring and densely written.
In short, if you approach your CC&Rs with a focused plan in mind, then reviewing them becomes manageable, and it gives you the practical knowledge you need to assert your rights, hold your HOA accountable, and avoid being blindsided by rules you never knew existed.
WHY MOST OWNERS DON’T READ THEIR CC&RS
For most homeowners, the CC&Rs feel like an impenetrable wall of text. They are long, often well over 100 pages, and written in legal jargon that makes even simple concepts hard to understand. To make matters worse, much of the content is technical, repetitive, or outdated, covering scenarios that are unlikely ever to affect the average owner.
The result is predictable: very few people ever read their CC&Rs from start to finish. Some flip through the first few pages and stop. Others rely on word-of-mouth from neighbors or general assumptions about what the rules must say. Still others ignore them altogether until a conflict arises with the HOA.
While this reaction is certainly understandable, it is also risky and unwise. The CC&Rs are legally binding on every member (and on the HOA itself), and boards rely on them when enforcing rules, levying fines, and allocating maintenance responsibilities and costs. The truth is that you do not need to read every provision of your CC&Rs. Large portions of that document deal with technical matters, historical developer rights, or rare contingencies that will never affect your daily life, such as a catastrophic fire, the government’s exercise of its eminent domain rights, or the annexation of new property. Unless one of those unlikely scenarios arises in the future, you can set those provisions aside in the present without losing anything important.
This will make it far easier for you to instead focus your time on the sections that actually matter to your life the most. If, therefore, a provision appears on the list of “must read” sections that follows in this article, then it deserves your attention. If it does not appear on that list, you can probably ignore it for now.
WHAT PART OF MY CC&RS CAN I SKIP?
Not every provision in your CC&Rs deserves equal attention, or for that matter, any attention from you at all. The developer who built your community and had an attorney craft your CC&Rs included numerous provisions decades ago and had to address to whole host of issues that play literally no role in the day-to-lives of most HOA members.
The following categories of provisions are, in most cases, safe to set aside unless a very unusual situation arises. While they remain legally binding, they almost never come into play for homeowners once the community is established and under homeowner control. Fortunately, you’re not deleting those provisions, so they’ll always be there if circumstances change and they become relevant to you. But for now, it’s likely safe for you to ignore all of the following provisions of your CC&Rs:
- Conflicts Between Documents. California Civil Code section 4205 already establishes the order of priority: state law controls first, followed by the CC&Rs, then the Bylaws, and finally the Rules or Architectural Guidelines. Because the statute sets this hierarchy, you do not need to spend time reviewing the “conflicts” section in your CC&Rs.
- Declarant or Developer Provisions. These provisions grant rights to the developer (often called the “Declarant”) while the community is still under developer control. Unless your HOA is brand new and still in the development phase, these rights have long since expired and have no bearing on your ownership.
- Damage or Destruction Provisions. These sections only matter if the community suffers a catastrophic loss, such as a wildfire or earthquake that destroys large swaths of the community. Short of such an event, these provisions will not affect your day-to-day rights or obligations.
- Eminent Domain or Condemnation. This describes what happens if a government entity takes part or all of the association’s (or your) property for public use, such as widening a road or building a utility easement. While important in the rare cases it happens, most homeowners will never encounter this scenario.
- Mortgagee or Lender Rights. These clauses protect banks/lenders, not homeowners. They typically address the rights of lenders in foreclosure, subordination of liens, or even the right of mortgagees to attend meetings. Since they do not give homeowners meaningful rights, you can safely set them aside.
- Annexation. Annexation provisions explain how the HOA can add more property or new phases to the development. Unless your HOA is still expanding, these are irrelevant to you.
- Power of Attorney to the HOA. This is boilerplate language that grants the HOA authority to act on behalf of the membership for certain technical purposes. It has no practical impact on your daily rights or obligations.
- Tax Lien Priority. Provisions stating that tax liens have priority over HOA liens simply restate California law. Where older CC&Rs say otherwise, the statute still controls. You can ignore these provisions because they add nothing beyond what the law already provides.
- Fidelity Bond Coverage. HOAs are required by law to carry fidelity insurance to protect against fraud or dishonesty by those handling association funds. While your CC&Rs may contain language about it, the Davis-Stirling Act already imposes this requirement, so reviewing this section is unnecessary.
While the list above highlights some of the most common CC&R provisions that you can safely set aside, it is not exhaustive. The key point is that many sections of your governing documents exist only to address rare or technical issues that will never touch your daily life. The real value lies in the provisions you cannot afford to ignore, such as the sections that control maintenance responsibilities, use restrictions, architectural approvals, and enforcement powers. Those provisions form the backbone of your rights and obligations, and they should be kept handy because you will return to them again and again whenever disputes arise. The next section identifies those critical provisions.
CC&R PROVISIONS EVERY CALIFORNIA HOMEOWNER MUST READ
While you are safe skipping a variety of your CC&Rs provisions, others define the very core of your rights and obligations, and you absolutely should not skip any of those. Those sections dictate how your HOA operates, what rules you must follow, and how responsibilities are divided between you and the association. Overlooking them can lead to costly mistakes, enforcement actions, or even litigation.
The following CC&R provisions are non-negotiable. Every California homeowner living in an HOA should locate, read, and understand these sections in their own governing documents:
- Maintenance and Repair Obligations. These provisions spell out who is responsible for repairing and replacing critical components such as roofs, exterior walls, balconies, plumbing, and landscaping. If your HOA is responsible, it must pay from assessments. If you are responsible, the cost comes directly out of your pocket. Misunderstanding these obligations can result in expensive disputes.
- Definitions of Common Area and Exclusive Use Common Area. Knowing what parts of the property are shared versus what areas are for your exclusive use is essential. This distinction directly affects your maintenance duties and your right to make changes to areas like patios, balconies, storage units, or assigned parking spaces.
- Use Restrictions. These are among the provisions that most affect your daily life. They may cover pets, vehicles, parking, rentals, smoking, noise, running a business from your home, and other activities. Because boards rely on these provisions to enforce discipline, you must understand them to avoid violations, as well as to understand where some of the board’s limitations apply.
- Architectural Control and Approval Process. Nearly every HOA requires members to obtain approval before making changes to their property. And while many HOAs have separate architectural guidelines, your CC&Rs may also contain language regarding how to submit applications, the timelines for review, and whether silence means approval. This section is critical for any homeowner planning improvements, especially because architectural guidelines can add to, but not directly conflict with, what appears in the CC&Rs.
- Rulemaking Authority. Your HOA cannot simply invent rules at will. It must be authorized by the CC&Rs, Bylaws, or Articles of Incorporation. This section tells you whether your HOA is like almost all HOAs in California, which empower the board with the legal authority to adopt rules and, if so, under what limitations.
- Enforcement and Fines (Discipline). These provisions describe the process the board must follow before imposing fines or suspending privileges, including notice and hearing requirements. They also limit punishment to actual violations of the governing documents, meaning the board cannot penalize you just because it dislikes your conduct. Knowing what’s in these provisions is important not only to educate you about your limitations, but more importantly, to educate you about your HOA’s limitations.
- Nuisance Provisions. Almost every set of CC&Rs prohibits nuisances that interfere with another member’s use and enjoyment of their property. This covers noise, odors, smoke, and other disruptive activities. Because HOAs have a duty to enforce nuisance provisions, they are among the most frequently litigated.
- Signs and Displays. Your CC&Rs often regulate what signs, flags, and displays you can post on your property. While state law protects certain rights, such as displaying non-commercial signs and American flags, other displays remain subject to your HOA’s restrictions. It’s important for you to know what those are.
- Party Walls and Shared Structures. These provisions address shared walls, fences, driveways, or other structures between units. They determine who pays for repair and maintenance and how costs are shared between neighbors.
- Easements. CC&Rs typically contain easement provisions for utilities, access, or maintenance. These grant you rights to use portions of HOA or neighbor property or require you to allow others limited use of your property for specific purposes. For example, in communities with zero-lot lines, neighbors often have easement rights to access the exterior of their homes, which can, by definition, only be accessed by entering someone else’s property.
- Insurance Requirements. Some CC&Rs obligate homeowners to maintain certain types of insurance coverage, particularly in condominium associations. Failing to comply can put you in breach of the governing documents and expose you to liability. In addition, you may wish to know what types of coverage (and in what amounts) your HOA is obligated to carry, and these provisions will also be found in the CC&Rs.
- Voting Rights and Amendment Procedures. These sections explain how votes are counted, how meetings can be called, and what percentage of members is required to amend the CC&Rs. Because these provisions control how power is exercised within your community, they are fundamental.
- Assessment Allocation. Your CC&Rs explain how regular and special assessments are calculated, whether equally among all members, by square footage, or by housing type. Knowing this ensures that you are paying the correct amount and allows you to challenge improper assessments.
Together, these provisions form the backbone of your rights and obligations under the Davis-Stirling Act. Ignoring them can leave you vulnerable to enforcement actions, unfair financial burdens, or loss of rights you didn’t even know you had.
CONCLUDING THOUGHT
Your HOA’s CC&Rs are not meant to be read like a novel, but neither are they a set of documents you can safely ignore. They are legally binding, they control every aspect of your rights and obligations as a homeowner, and they provide the foundation for how your HOA operates. The key is knowing which provisions matter and which do not. By focusing your attention on the critical sections, such as those that govern maintenance, use restrictions, architectural approvals, enforcement powers, and voting rights, you put yourself in the strongest possible position to understand your obligations, protect your property, and hold your HOA accountable.
Ignoring the rest is not negligence. It is efficiency. With a targeted approach, the CC&Rs stop being an impenetrable wall of legalese and become what they were intended to be: a rulebook for how your community is supposed to function.