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 aggregate, exceed 5% of the HOA’s budgeted gross expenses for the fiscal year unless a majority of a quorum of the members approves them. Civil Code 5610, however, carves out a narrow exception to that rule for emergencies, which lets HOA boards exceed the 5% cap without a membership vote. The Davis-Stirling Act allows HOAs to invoke the emergency exception only under strict conditions, but in the real world, a lot of HOAs (i.e., the bad HOAs) abuse the emergency exception to bypass the membership vote and push through major repairs they should’ve funded years ago, often to cover up years of gross negligence and fiduciary breaches.

Bad HOAs know that most homeowners won’t question the word “emergency,” so they lean on “safety” as a magic word, cite vague consultant notes or no documentation at all, and send the bill. Some go further and take a limited, legitimate emergency and use it as cover to fund unrelated or long-deferred projects, a tactic I refer to as “lumping.”

This Fact Sheet explains what qualifies as an emergency under Civil Code 5610, what HOA boards must show to justify an emergency assessment, and how homeowners can tell a legitimate emergency from a pretext. It also explains why lumping exposes an emergency assessment to challenge, and why a genuine emergency that the HOA board’s own neglect created still leaves directors exposed to claims for gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duty. This Fact Sheet also gives homeowners a playbook for challenging an emergency assessment, from demanding the HOA board’s supporting documentation and testing the 5% calculation against the current budget, to using the dispute resolution tools the Davis-Stirling Act provides.

Key Points

Despite what too many bad HOAs in California want homeowners to think, Civil Code 5610 doesn’t let HOA boards decide for themselves what counts as an emergency to justify a large special assessment without a membership vote. Civil Code 5610 limits the exception to three specific situations, and HOA boards must fit an assessment squarely within one of them before they can exceed the 5% cap established in Civil Code 5605. Once homeowners understand what each emergency requires, they can quickly separate a legitimate emergency assessment from one that is illegal and ultimately reversible. The points below explain what each emergency condition requires, how bad HOAs routinely ignore the plain language and intent of Civil Code 5610, and what remedies homeowners have when an HOA board’s own wrongful conduct created the emergency in the first place.

• Civil Code 5605 requires a membership vote before HOA boards can impose special assessments above 5% of the HOA’s budgeted gross expenses. HOA boards can impose special assessments without a membership vote as long as the total of all special assessments for the fiscal year stays at or below 5% of the HOA’s budgeted gross expenses for that year. Civil Code 5605 separately bars HOA boards from raising regular assessments more than 20% over the prior fiscal year without a membership vote. To exceed either cap, HOA boards need approval from a majority of a quorum of the members. [For example, if your HOA has 150 homes, a quorum would be 76 homes/votes, and a majority of a quorum would be 39 homes/votes.] The 5% cap applies to the aggregate, so HOAs can’t dodge the vote by splitting one large project into several smaller special assessments during the same fiscal year. Civil Code 5610 lifts both caps for assessment increases necessary to address an emergency, which is why bad HOAs reach for the emergency label whenever they expect the members to vote no. [To learn more about when HOA boards can and can’t raise assessments without a vote, read my Fact Sheet, “When Can a California HOA Raise Dues Without a Vote?”]
• Civil Code 5610 allows emergency assessments in only three narrow situations. The first covers an extraordinary expense a court orders the HOA to pay. The second covers an extraordinary expense necessary to operate, repair, or maintain the community when the HOA discovers a threat to personal health or safety, or another hazardous condition on the property. And the third covers an extraordinary expense necessary to repair or maintain the community that the board couldn’t have reasonably foreseen when it prepared the annual budget report. Civil Code 5610 also lifts the caps only for assessment increases necessary to address the emergency, so HOA boards can’t use an emergency to collect more than the emergency itself requires. [To see how these three emergencies apply in the face of the massive spike in insurance premiums throughout California, read my Fact Sheet, “Can My California HOA Charge a Special Assessment for Rising Insurance Costs?”]
  • The first category of emergency requires an order from a court, not the threat of one. Civil Code 5610 covers an extraordinary expense that a court order requires the HOA to pay, such as a judgment against the HOA that exceeds its insurance coverage or an order requiring the HOA to complete specific repairs. A demand letter, a threatened lawsuit, or an attorney’s opinion that the HOA will probably lose a pending case doesn’t qualify. Neither does a notice of violation or a red tag from a city, because a city agency isn’t a court, although a hazard serious enough to draw a red tag will often fit the second emergency category anyway. When an HOA board relies on a court order, homeowners should ask the HOA board to identify the case and produce the order, and they can confirm both through the court’s public records.
  • The second category of emergency covers dangerous and hazardous conditions. Civil Code 5610 authorizes this second emergency exception for an extraordinary expense necessary to operate, repair, or maintain the community when the HOA discovers a threat to personal health or safety, or another hazardous condition on the property. Once a condition becomes dangerous, it falls within this emergency regardless of how long the HOA board let it deteriorate first. So, a balcony that’s at risk of collapse after a decade of deferred maintenance and repairs qualifies just as much as one that a sudden storm damaged. Unlike the third emergency, the second emergency doesn’t require the HOA to adopt written findings or explain why it didn’t see the expense coming, which is why bad HOAs lean so heavily on the word “safety.” The board still needs a real hazard, and homeowners should insist on seeing the engineer’s report, city red tag, or other evidence that identifies the specific condition and the danger it poses. Even when an HOA’s own neglect created the hazard, thus justifying the emergency assessment, homeowners still have recourse. If homeowners can prove that years of neglect by the HOA board caused the emergency, they can file a lawsuit for gross negligence or breach of fiduciary duty. [The word “discovers” gives homeowners a narrow argument against some safety-based emergency assessments. If an HOA knew about a dangerous condition long before they acted, they couldn’t possibly meet the “is discovered” requirement tacked onto the end of the exception. While that argument wouldn’t apply to reports that only warned of deterioration, aging components, or repairs the HOA would need in the coming years, it could apply to situations where an HOA absolutely had notice of a dangerous condition, and chose to do nothing. This is just my opinion at the moment because no California appellate court has ruled on this issue.]
  • The third category of emergency covers unforeseeable repair and maintenance expenses. Civil Code 5610 authorizes this third emergency exception for an extraordinary expense necessary to repair or maintain the community that the board couldn’t have reasonably foreseen when it prepared the annual budget report. Before an HOA may impose or collect an assessment under this category, however, it must pass a resolution containing written findings that explain why the expense is necessary and why the board didn’t or couldn’t reasonably foresee it during the budgeting process. It must then send that resolution to the members with the notice of assessment. If the HOA skips the resolution or leaves it out of the notice of assessment, it can’t rely on this emergency. Repairs that the HOA’s reserve studies, inspection reports, or meeting minutes flagged before the HOA board prepared the budget don’t qualify because the HOA was aware of them. Since a dangerous condition already falls within the second emergency, the third emergency matters most for repairs that aren’t hazardous, such as a failed pool heater or a broken irrigation system. When an HOA board invokes this emergency, homeowners should compare its written findings against the reserve study and the minutes from prior budget cycles because those documents often show whether the HOA was, or should’ve been, aware of the expense. [There is a highly nuanced issue that I’d like you to be aware of. Civil Code 5610 uses “operate, repair, or maintain” for the second emergency but only “repair or maintain” for the third. At least one prominent HOA-side firm has argued on its website that because the third emergency refers to maintaining the “common interest development” rather than the “common area,” it reaches operating expenses such as an unbudgeted spike in insurance premiums. I think that’s an absurd position to take. If “maintain” already covered operating expenses, the Legislature would’ve included the word “operate” like it did in the second category. It chose not to. You should, therefore, reject any claim by your HOA or its attorneys that the third category justifies an emergency assessment to pay for unexpected insurance premiums.]
• Bad HOAs frequently use legitimate emergencies to fund repairs that don’t qualify. Some HOAs take a limited emergency and use it as cover to fund unrelated or long-deferred projects, a tactic I refer to as “lumping.” For example, a city red-tags 8 balconies in a 120-unit community. The HOA responds with an emergency assessment large enough to rebuild every balcony in the community and replace the roofs. That is illegal. Civil Code 5610 lifts the 5% cap only for assessment increases necessary to address the emergency, not to repair the balconies not covered by the emergency, and certainly not the roofs. Civil Code 5600 separately bars HOAs from imposing or collecting an assessment that exceeds the amount necessary to cover the costs they levy it for. The non-emergency portion counts toward the 5% cap in Civil Code 5605 like any other special assessment. If it pushes the year’s total special assessments past 5%, the HOA board needs a membership vote for that portion. Nothing stops the HOA board from repairing everything at once, as long as it gets that vote when the 5% cap requires one.
• Disputing emergency assessments doesn’t stop HOAs from collecting them. Civil Code 5615 requires HOAs to give homeowners individual notice of any assessment increase at least 30 days and no more than 60 days before it comes due. That notice period is the window homeowners have to test HOA boards’ emergency claims. Disputing assessments doesn’t stop the clock, and Civil Code 5658 confirms that disputes don’t impede HOAs’ ability to collect. Under Civil Code 5650, assessments become delinquent 15 days after their due dates unless the CC&Rs allow longer. Once they’re delinquent, HOAs can add late charges and recover reasonable collection costs and attorney’s fees, along with interest of up to 12% per year starting 30 days after the due date. And under Civil Code 5660, HOAs can record liens against homes once they give homeowners at least 30 days’ notice by certified mail.
  • Homeowners must pay emergency assessments in full and on time even when they’re convinced the HOA had no legal right to impose them. Homeowners have no right of offset, so they can’t withhold payment of assessments even if they believe an emergency assessment is illegal, wrongful, violates the rules, or whatever. Withholding payment turns a dispute over the board’s conduct into a collection case against the homeowners, which exposes them to late charges, collection costs, attorney’s fees, and potentially a lien. Paying keeps homes out of the collection process and keeps the dispute focused on whether the HOA board had the authority to impose the assessment. Homeowners can still challenge the assessment through internal dispute resolution, alternative dispute resolution, and, if necessary, a lawsuit. [Civil Code 5658 gives homeowners a specific route when the disputed amount doesn’t exceed the small claims court’s jurisdictional limit. Homeowners can pay the disputed amount under protest, along with any late charges, collection costs, and attorney’s fees the HOA has already added, and then sue the HOA in small claims court. Many emergency assessments run well past that limit, so this route won’t fit every case.] [To learn more about what happens when homeowners withhold disputed payments, read my Fact Sheet, “Can You Stop Paying Disputed HOA Dues in California?”]
• Homeowners can use their records rights to test HOA boards’ emergency claims. Civil Code 5200 gives homeowners the right to inspect and copy a widely defined list of HOA records, and several of them bear directly on the need for an emergency assessment. Meeting minutes show when HOA boards first discussed the condition and when they voted on the assessment. Executed contracts and the HOA board’s open-meeting approval of vendor and contractor proposals show who the HOA hired and what work it agreed to pay for. Annual budget reports, reserve account balances, and records of payments from reserve accounts show whether HOA boards saw (or should’ve seen) the need for maintenance, repairs, or replacements coming and whether they set aside a reasonable amount of money for it. When the emergency involves balconies or other exterior elevated elements, Civil Code 5200(a)(15) also gives homeowners access to the inspectors’ reports prepared under Civil Code 5551. [Civil Code 5200(a)(15) went into effect on January 1, 2026, precisely to put these reports into the hands of homeowners.] Read together, these documents go a long way toward letting you know whether a true emergency exists, when the HOA board learned about it, and whether the proposed assessment matches the cost of the emergency repair. [To learn how to request these records the right way, read my Fact Sheet, “How Do I Write a 5200 Document Demand Letter to My California HOA?”]
• Homeowners can require HOA boards to meet with them through internal dispute resolution (IDR). Civil Code 5910 lets homeowners invoke their HOA’s required IDR procedure with a written request, and once they do, the HOA must participate. HOAs can’t charge homeowners a fee to participate. IDR gives homeowners a direct forum to put the records they’ve gathered in front of the HOA board and demand that it justify the emergency label. If the homeowners and the HOA board reach a written resolution and both sign it, the resolution binds the HOA and courts can enforce it, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the law or the governing documents. [To learn more about how IDR works, read my Fact Sheet “What Is IDR in a California HOA? Does It Stop Fines, Lawsuits, or Enforcement?”]
• If your HOA imposed an emergency assessment you believe it had no right to impose, call the HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman. Emergency assessment disputes move fast. Civil Code 5615 gives you as few as 30 days between the notice and the due date, and late charges, interest, collection costs, and lien threats follow soon after the assessment goes unpaid. The HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman can review the HOA board’s notice, resolution, and records, determine which emergency category the HOA board relied on, and test whether the facts support it. When the HOA board’s own neglect created the emergency, we can also pursue claims for gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duty on your behalf. Call us as soon as the notice arrives, while you still have the full notice window to act.

Civil Code 5610 lets HOA boards fund repairs or replacements for genuine hazards without waiting on a membership vote, and homeowners must pay those assessments even if they believe the assessments violate the law. The emergency exceptions described in Civil Code 5610 are narrow, and may only be used to repair or replace whatever emergency conditions exist, and nothing more. Whatever HOA boards fold into an emergency assessment beyond that amount remains subject to the 5% cap and the membership vote required by Civil Code 5605. And when years of neglect created the hazard, those assessments can stand, but homeowners can still pursue claims against the HOA boards whose neglect forced them to pay.

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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.

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