Overview

When something breaks in your HOA’s common areas (e.g., a leaking roof, a rotted balcony, or a burst pipe), the first question a lot of homeowners ask is, “Who’s responsible for paying for this?” The answer isn’t always what your HOA claims. Under Civil Code 4775, unless your CC&Rs say otherwise, the default rule is straightforward:

• The HOA is responsible for repairing, replacing, and maintaining common areas.
• When it comes to exclusive use common areas (balconies, patios, etc.), the homeowner is responsible only for maintenance, but the HOA is responsible for repairs and replacement.

That means if your HOA’s CC&Rs are silent, vague, or poorly written, the law controls, not board opinion. This Fact Sheet explains how Civil Code 4775 divides responsibility, how HOA boards from HELL routinely misapply it, and what homeowners can do when their HOA tries to unfairly and wrongfully shift repair costs.

For a deeper dive into this topic, see my full article on HOA obligations to maintain common areas, “Why California HOAs Are Legally Required to Maintain Common Areas and What Happens When They Don’t.” You can also watch an episode of my podcast, HOA HELL, entitled “Is Your HOA Ignoring Unsafe Common Areas? What the Law Requires in California.”

Key Points

Civil Code 4775 establishes the legal default that applies when your HOA’s CC&Rs don’t otherwise allocate maintenance, repair, and replacement obligations related to your HOA’s common areas and exclusive use common areas. The following points explain what that means in practice.

• Common areas are the HOA’s responsibility. Unless the CC&Rs explicitly say otherwise, the HOA must repair, replace, and maintain all common area components (Civil Code 4775). If your condominium’s roof leaks or a main sewer line breaks, the HOA, not individual owners, must pay for the repair. The same rule applies to the exterior siding, the foundation, structural supports, elevators, hallways, stairwells, retaining walls, parking structures, and the shared plumbing and electrical lines that run through the building. If the component is common area, the cost belongs to the HOA, no matter how expensive the repair turns out to be.
• Exclusive use common areas split responsibility. Unless the CC&Rs explicitly say otherwise, homeowners must maintain their respective exclusive use common areas (e.g., balconies or patios), but the HOA must repair and replace those components. If you have an exclusive use balcony or patio, you may need to sweep, clean, or paint it, but the HOA pays for structural repairs or replacement when it cracks or leaks. The same split applies to other common exclusive use components, such as the windows, exterior doors and sliders, and the pipes or conduits that serve only your unit. So when a homeowner asks who pays to replace a leaking window, repair a rotted balcony, or fix a cracked patio slab in a condo or townhome, the default answer under Civil Code 4775 is the HOA, even though the owner handles routine upkeep.
• “Exclusive use” doesn’t mean “exclusive cost.” The phrase simply means the homeowner has the right to use that space, not that they have to pay to repair it. HOAs often misrepresent this distinction to wrongfully push costs onto homeowners. A bad HOA will tell you, “It’s your balcony, so it’s your repair,” as if your exclusive right to use the space also makes you the one who pays to fix it. That is exactly the trick Civil Code 4775 prohibits. Your exclusive right to use a balcony, patio, or window says nothing about who funds its repair or replacement, and unless the CC&Rs expressly assign that cost to you, the HOA carries it.
• Governing documents can override Civil Code 4775. Many CC&Rs rewrite the repair-responsibility split, but vague or conflicting language won’t override the statute. If the CC&Rs are silent or ambiguous, Civil Code 4775’s default rule applies. And the document that does the overriding has to be the CC&Rs themselves. A board cannot rewrite the repair-responsibility split through a rule, a policy, an architectural guideline, or a newsletter announcement, because Civil Code 4775 keys the override solely to the CC&Rs, not any lower ranking governing documents.
• Ambiguity in the CC&Rs always favors the homeowner. California courts interpret unclear maintenance provisions against the HOA because they’re the party that drafted or enforces the documents. If your CC&Rs are unclear about balcony repairs, the HOA’s duty to repair and replace under Civil Code 4775 (and yours to maintain) controls. Courts call this construing ambiguity against the drafter, and it is why an HOA cannot win a repair-cost fight by pointing to a murky or self-serving reading of its own CC&Rs. If the provision is genuinely unclear about who pays, the unclear language breaks in your favor, not the HOA’s.
• Common area vs. exclusive use common area. Homeowners must understand the difference between the two types of common area because that difference is critical.
  • Common area. Shared by all members (e.g., in a condominium, it includes roofs, exterior walls, structural supports, shared plumbing, and landscaping).
  • Exclusive use common area. Common area reserved for a single member’s use (balconies, patios, exterior doors, windows, and often certain pipes or conduits serving one unit). The legal default still places repair and replacement obligations on the HOA.
• Repair responsibility and insurance coverage are two separate questions. Civil Code 4775 decides who is responsible to repair a component. It does not decide which insurance policy ultimately pays for the loss. After a major loss, the HOA’s master policy and your individual HO-6 policy each cover different layers, and the policy that pays is not always the party the statute makes responsible to perform the repair. Homeowners constantly collapse these two questions into one and end up confused about why a repair the HOA “owns” still touches their own coverage. [I explain how master-policy and individual coverage interact after a major loss in my Fact Sheet, “Altadena & Palisades Fires: Why California FAIR Plan Insurance Isn’t Enough to Rebuild.”]
• HOA boards from Hell often “misread” 4775 to save money (i.e., they intentionally try to shift responsibility away from the HOA in the hope that homeowners won’t catch on). Bad HOAs sometimes claim homeowners are responsible for everything beyond the interior paint line. That’s wrong unless the CC&Rs specifically shift those responsibilities. A board demands that a homeowner pay for repairing balcony waterproofing because “it’s your patio.” If the CC&Rs don’t explicitly assign that duty to YOU, the HOA must cover the repair costs. The same wrongful cost-shifting shows up with window and slider replacement, water-intrusion repairs that cross the line between a unit and the common area, and balcony or deck structural work, all of which bad HOAs routinely try to shift to individual homeowners even though Civil Code 4775 leaves them with the HOA.
• Homeowners should challenge improper cost shifting. If your board tries to charge you for a common area or exclusive use common area repair or replacement, demand that they cite the specific CC&R section authorizing that cost. If none exists, Civil Code 4775 governs. [And remember this: Civil Code 4775 explicitly uses the word “declaration” (which means the CC&Rs), so don’t let your HOA cite a rule or any other of the governing documents to support the shift in maintenance responsibilities.]
• SB 900 rewrote Civil Code 4775 in 2025, and most boards haven’t read the new disaster exception. Effective January 1, 2025, SB 900 made two changes the old version of Civil Code 4775 did not contain. It made your HOA responsible for restoring interrupted gas, heat, water, or electrical service that begins in the common area, even when the fix extends into your unit, and it required your HOA to start those repairs within 14 days. It also added a disaster exception that can switch off the statute’s repair duties under narrow conditions. Both changes matter after a wildfire, earthquake, or flood, and a board that misreads either one can try to push costs onto you that the law never assigned to you.
  • The disaster exception suspends the whole statute, but only when a declared emergency materially impairs your HOA’s ability to perform. Civil Code 4775 now says that the entirety of 4775 does not apply when your HOA sits in a federally declared disaster area, a Governor-proclaimed state of emergency, or a local emergency, and that condition materially affects your HOA’s ability to do its job. The exception reaches the entire section, not just the 14-day utility deadline, so it’s conceivable that your HOA could argue even its basic common area repair duty pauses during a qualifying emergency. But a disaster declaration alone does not excuse your HOA. The emergency has to actually impair your HOA’s ability to perform, and the pause lasts only as long as that genuine impairment lasts.
  • The exception pauses a default, it does not hand you the bill. Even when Civil Code 4775 is suspended, your CC&Rs, your HOA’s contracts, and your HOA’s insurance duties all still apply. The exception removes the statute’s default repair allocation for the period of real impairment. It does not transfer that responsibility to you, and it does not let your HOA walk away from the common area once conditions stabilize. [The scope of this exception rests on the plain language SB 900 added, and no California appellate court has yet interpreted it, so its precise reach in a major disaster remains untested.]
• If your HOA is trying to force you to pay for repairs that aren’t your responsibility, call the HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman. Whether your board is misreading Civil Code 4775 to push common area or exclusive use repairs onto you, treating “exclusive use” as if it meant “exclusive cost,” or hiding behind the new SB 900 disaster exception to dodge its duties after a wildfire or other emergency, the result is that you end up paying for something the law assigns to your HOA. The HOA attorneys at MBK Chapman know exactly how Civil Code 4775 allocates repair responsibility, how bad HOAs twist it to save money, and how to force your HOA to cover what it actually owes.

Civil Code 4775 sets the default that controls whenever your CC&Rs are silent, vague, or contradictory, and that default puts the common area squarely on your HOA. Bad HOAs know this, which is why they lean on labels like “exclusive use” or “it’s your patio” to make you pay for repairs the statute assigns to the association. SB 900 added a new wrinkle for disaster scenarios, but even there the exception is narrow and temporary, not a blank check for an HOA to walk away from its legal obligations. When your HOA asks you to cover a common area or exclusive use repair, make it cite the exact CC&R provision that shifts the cost, and if it cannot, Civil Code 4775 governs and the bill belongs to your HOA.

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.

AND DON’T FORGET TO TUNE INTO MY PODCAST, HOA HELL

YOU CAN ALSO ORDER MY GROUNDBREAKING BOOK

HOA HELL | California Homeowners’ Definitive Guide to Beating Bad HOAs

Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble