Can My HOA Charge Its Legal Fees to My Account?
Overview When a California homeowner opens an HOA account statement and finds that the HOA has charged its legal fees to that account, the threshold question is whether the HOA had any authority to put them there. After all, it should go without saying that an HOA...
Why So Many California Homeowners Hate Their HOA
Overview Based on the volume of comments I’ve received from our Reddit account and listeners to my podcast, HOA HELL, who bluntly write things like “Fuck HOAs,” “You’re stupid to buy into an HOA,” “Who would ever live in an HOA community,” and “HOAs should be banned,”...
Can My California HOA Refuse to Give Me the SB 326 Balcony Inspection Report?
Overview Effective January 1, 2026, the Legislature made it clear that California HOA members were entitled to receive a copy of the inspection reports mandated by SB 326, California’s “Balcony Law.” That entitlement reached a category of documents many bad HOAs would...
Why Do My California HOA Fees Keep Going Up?
Overview HOA fees (i.e., dues) move in two directions, and both can signal trouble. Some HOAs raise dues year after year, and homeowners want to know why and whether the increases are even legal. Other HOAs do the opposite, freezing dues for years to look like heroes,...
Can My California HOA Stop My Kids from Playing in the Common Areas?
Overview Bad HOA boards across California routinely tell parents that their kids can't play on the common area grass, can’t ride their bicycles anywhere in the common area, or tell residents that they can't gather a group for recreation in the community park. Many...
Can My California HOA Ban or Regulate E-Bikes and E-Scooters?
Overview E-bikes and e-scooters have exploded in popularity across California’s HOA communities. And with that explosion, the Legislature has passed a variety of laws, many of which are scattered across California’s Vehicle Code, governing how these devices, and the...
Can My California HOA Ban a Flag I’m Flying on My Property?
Overview A flag is one of the most personal statements a homeowner can make from their own property, and it’s also one of the displays HOAs frequently try to police. Maybe you’re flying a political flag, a pride flag, a sports team flag, a flag honoring a cause, or...
Can My California HOA Restrict or Block a Junior ADU?
Overview A Junior ADU, or JADU, is not a backyard cottage. It is a small living space, no larger than 500 square feet, carved out of the walls of your existing single-family home, with its own entrance and an efficiency kitchen. Because a JADU lives inside the...
Who Pays for Water Damage in My California HOA After a Wildfire or Disaster?
Overview After a wildfire or other declared disaster, water damage rarely arrives in a single, tidy form, and the answer to who pays depends on what caused the water and where it went. The firefighters who saved the building may have soaked units that never burned. A...
California HOA Balcony Inspection Law: What SB 326 Requires
Overview California’s Balcony Law exists because of a tragedy. In 2015, a wood balcony in Berkeley collapsed and killed six young people and injured several more, and investigators traced the failure to dry rot and failed waterproofing, the exact conditions a proper...
What Qualifies as a Health and Safety Violation Under California’s $100 HOA Fine Cap?
Overview California's HOA fine rules cap most penalties at $100 per violation, but Civil Code 5850 carves out one exception that lets an HOA board impose a higher fine: a violation that may cause an adverse health or safety impact. That exception has quickly become...
Can My California HOA Use Drones to Surveil My Property?
Overview Drones have become cheap, capable, and widely available, and HOA boards have noticed. What started as an occasional curiosity has become a growing enforcement trend. Some California HOA boards have begun deploying drones, or hiring vendors who operate them,...
Can Outsiders Trespass Through My California HOA?
Overview Most California HOA disputes involve conflicts between homeowners and their boards. This one is different. It involves people who have no relationship with the HOA at all, no ownership interest, no membership rights, and no legal basis for being there, yet...
Can My California HOA Fine Me for a Violation I Fixed Before the Hearing?
Overview People familiar with my prior publications know where I stand on AB 130 and the chaos that it has caused under the guise of helping homeowners deal with abusive HOA fines. And those same people know that I’ve also written about AB 130’s positive attributes,...
Can an HOA Block Access to a Public Park? Fake Video, Real Problem
Overview An AI-generated video of an HOA meeting over a public trail went viral this month. The meeting never happened. The problem it described, however, has been happening for decades. The video depicted Mulholland Estates, a private gated community in the hills...
Is Your California HOA Inspector of Elections Truly Independent?
Overview Without exception, every California HOA election must have an independent inspector of elections. The inspector receives the ballots, verifies member eligibility, tabulates the votes, and announces the results. When that person lacks genuine independence, the...
Can My California HOA Switch to Electronic Voting?
Overview More and more California HOAs are moving toward electronic voting, and if yours hasn’t already raised the issue, it probably will soon. The concept is straightforward: instead of the familiar paper ballot stuffed inside two envelopes and mailed to an...
The Davis-Stirling Act Explained: California HOA Rules, Board Powers, and Homeowner Rights
Overview The Davis-Stirling Act is the foundation of California HOA law. Found primarily in Civil Code 4000–6150, it governs nearly every major aspect of life in a California HOA, including elections, board meetings, fines, records requests, architectural approvals,...
Does Your California HOA Have to Investigate Nuisance Complaints?
Overview One of the most common frustrations inside California HOA communities occurs when homeowners repeatedly report serious nuisance-related conduct to the HOA, only to receive silence, delay, excuses, or an outright refusal to act. Homeowners often assume that...
Toxic Neighbors in California HOAs: Harassment, Threats, and Nuisance Conduct
Overview Some of the worst disputes inside California HOA communities do not involve noise, smoke, parking, or landscaping. They involve neighbors who deliberately target other residents through intimidation, harassment, threats, surveillance, hostile confrontations,...
CONTACT US
MBK Chapman PC can help
OFFICE
120 VANTIS DRIVE, SUITE 500
ALISO VIEJO, CA 92656