Can My California HOA Accuse Me of Harassment for Filming or Complaining?
Overview For years, HOA-side law firms in California have accused homeowners of “harassment” to silence those who push back against their HOA boards, and the tactic is becoming more common. It usually starts when a homeowner films vendors violating the CC&Rs, asks...
Is My California HOA Responsible When Its Contractor Damages My Home?
Overview California HOAs rely on outside contractors to carry out the common area maintenance the Davis-Stirling Act and their CC&Rs require. Landscapers mow and fertilize the lawns, pest control companies treat the grounds, plumbers fix the common area pipes,...
What Documents Does My California HOA Have to Send Me Every Year?
Overview Every year, California HOAs have to send homeowners a set of documents that show how the HOA spends their money, how well it’s saving for future repairs, and the rules it follows to collect assessments, impose fines, and resolve disputes. The Davis-Stirling...
Does My California HOA Have to Keep Reserve Funds FDIC Insured?
Overview If you’re a consistent follower of my published Fact Sheets, then you know that California HOAs are required by the Davis-Stirling Act to maintain accounts to hold reserve funds that homeowners pay in over many years to repair and replace roofs, paving,...
California Mobile Home Park Rules: Changing the Rules & Denying Home Improvements
Overview Park rules govern much of daily life in a California mobile home park, from pets and parking to landscaping, home exteriors, and what homeowners can build on their spaces. Civil Code 798.15 makes those rules part of every homeowner’s rental agreement, so they...
What are My Rights at a California HOA Violation Hearing?
Overview California HOAs can’t fine homeowners or suspend their privileges just because a manager or the HOA sent a letter or a director called out a purported violation of the governing documents. The Davis-Stirling Act requires HOAs to give homeowners written notice...
New California HOA Laws for 2027: ADUs, Reserves, Elections, and Windows
Overview The Governor has signed five new laws that change the rules for California HOAs and the homeowners who live in them. Four of them expand homeowners' rights to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs), overhaul how HOAs must fund their reserves, change the notice...
Is My California HOA’s Emergency Special Assessment Legal?
Overview Homeowners across California are seeing a massive surge in special assessments and so-called “emergency assessments,” often totaling tens of thousands of dollars per household. Civil Code 5605 bars HOA boards from imposing special assessments that, in the...
California Mobile Home Park Laws: Homeowner Rights Under the Mobilehome Residency Law
Overview California mobile home park homeowners have a law written specifically for them. The Mobilehome Residency Law, found in Civil Code 798 through 799.13, sets out the rights and obligations of homeowners and management in California mobile home parks. Civil Code...
When Your HOA Installs Flock Cameras, California Law Does Little to Protect Your Privacy
Overview Flock cameras and other generically named automated license plate reader (“ALPR”) cameras give HOAs a searchable record of when every resident, tenant, and guest drives in or out of the community. And yet, California law puts few limits on what HOAs can do...
Can My California HOA Ban Trick-or-Treating or Keep Out Non-Residents on Halloween?
Overview Plenty of people who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s spent Halloween night in someone else's neighborhood. Parents loaded kids into the car and drove them across town to the "rich neighborhoods," where homeowners handed out the good candy, and full-size candy...
Can My California HOA Ban Christmas Lights, Holiday Decorations, or Religious Items?
Overview Putting up holiday decorations is a tradition that families across America look forward to every year, whether they’re carving pumpkins for Halloween, stringing lights for Christmas, lighting a menorah for Hanukkah, hanging shamrocks in March, or putting up...
What Happens If I Can’t Afford My California HOA’s Special Assessment?
Overview Imagine the shock of opening a notice from your HOA telling you that you owe a special assessment of $26,000. Or $49,000. Your first payment is due in 30 days, and it doesn’t matter whether you write one check, split it into two payments, or tack an extra...
Can I Sue My California HOA for Defamation? The Anti-SLAPP Trap for Homeowners
Overview Homeowners get angry at their HOAs for good reasons. A director says something false and offensive about you at a board meeting or in posting to the members. The manager tells your neighbors that you're delinquent when you're not. The HOA sends out a...
Can My California HOA Call My Truck an RV and Fine Me for Parking in My Driveway?
Overview California HOAs routinely restrict recreational vehicles (RVs), boats, trailers, oversized vehicles, and commercial vehicles, and most of those restrictions are enforceable. Trouble starts when officious HOA boards stretch recreational vehicle restrictions to...
New Fannie Mae Condo Loan Rules: Can My California HOA Make My Unit Unsellable?
Overview California condo owners spent the past couple of years absorbing record-high special assessments and dues increases that seemed to have come out of nowhere. Some of that traces back to California’s insurance crisis, the balcony law (SB 326), and deferred...
Can My California HOA Charge a Special Assessment for Rising Insurance Costs?
Overview California is in the middle of an insurance crisis, and both good and bad HOAs are caught in it alongside the homeowners who live in them. Large carriers have pulled out of the state entirely or sharply limited what they’ll cover, and coverage that used to be...
Can My California HOA Foreclose on My Home for Unpaid Dues?
Overview California HOAs can foreclose on a home over unpaid assessments, and they can do it without ever setting foot in a courtroom. The Davis-Stirling Act lets an HOA record a lien against a homeowner’s property and then sell that property through a trustee, the...
Can You Win a California HOA Board Seat as a Write-In Candidate?
Overview I’ve received several questions recently from homeowners about write-in candidates in California HOA elections. One homeowner wrote to tell me that his HOA had just announced its election results, and that a woman who wrote her own name in took a board seat...
Can My California HOA Make Me Pay or Fix the Previous Owner’s Violations?
Overview Buying into a California HOA doesn’t make new homeowners responsible for the previous owner’s unpaid fines, but it can leave them responsible for the previous owner’s unfinished work. The Davis-Stirling Act splits the question by the kind of problem. Money...
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