What Is the Business Judgment Rule in California HOAs?
Overview The Business Judgment Rule (sometimes referred to as the “BJR”) is one of the most frequently cited legal doctrines in California HOAs, and one of the most commonly misunderstood. HOA boards frequently invoke the BJR as a blanket defense whenever homeowners...
California HOA Manager Misconduct: What Homeowners Need to Know
Overview In many California HOAs, the most serious problems homeowners face do not come from hostile neighbors or rogue boards. They come from HOA managers who quietly, but perniciously, overstep their role inside weak or disengaged HOAs. When weak HOA boards fail to...
California HOA Crime and Security Duties: What HOAs Are Required to Do
Overview When crimes occur in HOA-governed communities, homeowners are often told that the HOA has no responsibility for crime or safety. That statement is wrong. While California HOAs are not required to act as private police forces or guarantee that crime will never...
California HOA Special Assessments: What They Are, When They’re Legal, and How Homeowners Can Challenge Them
Overview Few financial events hit California homeowners harder than a special assessment from their HOA. These assessments can cost YOU tens of thousands of dollars, often arrive with tight payment deadlines creating immediate financial pressure, and apply even when...
Can My California HOA Stop Me From Renting Out My Home or ADU?
Overview California homeowners frequently ask whether their HOA can prevent them from renting out their home, their ADU, or both. And before just a few years ago, the answer to that question was yes. But amendments to the Davis-Stirling Act changed that, and now the...
How to Handle California HOA Disputes Before Hiring a Lawyer
Overview When a dispute begins with your HOA, how you handle the early stages can determine everything that comes after. Most homeowners understandably feel angry, anxious, or overwhelmed when a board acts unfairly, ignores concerns, or issues questionable violations....
California HOAs: Can a Homeowner Demand Proof of Contractor Licensing and Insurance?
Overview Some California HOAs try to save money by hiring outside contractors to perform maintenance, repair, and replacement work on common area components (e.g., roofs, landscaping, plumbing, etc.). Those contractors may enter, cross, or work near individual homes,...
Which CC&R Provisions California Homeowners Must Read
Overview For many California homeowners, the CC&Rs feel overwhelming. That’s perfectly normal because they aren’t written for laypeople. They are long, almost always filled with outdated, legal jargon-filled language, and packed with technical provisions that seem...
California HOAs: How to Identify and Prove Conflicts of Interest on Your HOA Board
Overview Conflicts of interest often operate out of view until the damage has already been done. These are situations where an HOA director uses their position to benefit themselves, a friend, or a favored vendor. Homeowners usually discover the problem only after a...
HOA Architectural Review Committees in California: Civil Code 4765 and Owner Rights
Overview Understanding the role that an Architectural Review Committee (ARC) plays in a California HOA can be very confusing. For one thing, such committees are not always called ARCs. Sometimes you’ll see the term Architectural Control Committee (ACC), and sometimes...
How to Prepare for IDR With Your California HOA and What to Expect When You Get There
Overview California’s Internal Dispute Resolution process, known as IDR, is governed by Civil Code 5910-5915 and is part of California’s Davis-Stirling Act. HOAs are required to provide a “fair, reasonable and expeditious” process to resolve disputes between the HOA...
Denied by Your California HOA? How to Challenge or Appeal Architectural Decisions
Overview When your HOA denies your architectural application, whether for a remodel, addition, or even a simple exterior change, it can feel personal. But California law does not allow HOAs to act on personal preference. Under Civil Code 4765 of the Davis-Stirling...
What to Do When Your HOA Violates California’s Open Meeting Act
Overview California’s Open Meeting Act, found within California’s Davis-Stirling Act, is the primary law that governs how HOA boards in California must conduct their board business. It requires that meetings be open to all members, that notices and agendas be provided...
California HOA Open Meeting Act: Homeowner Rights and Board Obligations
Overview The Davis-Stirling Act includes within it a set of Civil Code sections euphemistically called the Open Meeting Act (Civil Code 4900–4955). These laws are designed to keep HOA boards transparent and accountable the association’s members by ensuring that HOA...
California Condo Declared “Unavailable” by Fannie Mae and How HOAs Can Fix the Problem
Overview If your condo loan just collapsed because the condo project that you’re looking to buy into is flagged as “Unavailable” in Fannie Mae’s system, you already know what that means: no conventional loan, no conforming financing, and a deal that’s suddenly dead....
New California Laws for 2026: What Employers, HOA Members, and Landlords Need to Know
Overview UPDATED ON 12/23/25 Here we are again. Another year, another round of new laws from our industrious hive in Sacramento. Every January, business owners, landlords, and HOA members brace for the latest batch of mandates, prohibitions, and procedural...
How to Appeal a California HOA Judgment: What Homeowners Need to Know
Overview Losing an HOA lawsuit can be frustrating and expensive. But if you think that the trial court got it wrong, and if the issue is important enough to you, then you’ll be glad to hear that just because a trial court issues a final judgment against a homeowner,...
When Can a California HOA Raise Assessments Without a Vote?
Overview Assessments are the lifeblood of every HOA in California. They fund critical things like insurance, reserves, and management, to common area maintenance, repairs, and replacements. Your HOA’s assessments come in two forms: regular (annual or monthly dues) and...
California Neighbor Tree Disputes: Damages, Attorney’s Fees, and HOA Involvement
Overview This Fact Sheet picks up where “California Neighbor Tree Disputes: Your Rights on Encroaching Branches and Roots” left off. That earlier Fact Sheet explained how to handle a neighbor’s encroaching trees and your rights to use “self-help” to cut back or...
Who Pays for California HOA Common Area Repairs? Understanding Civil Code 4775
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 board claims. Under Civil...
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