Why would we change California Law for less than 2% of Community Associations with disgruntled homeowners?

Sun City Lincoln Hills Community Association (SCLH) has over 11,000 residents. We’re actively trying to improve digital communications to increase our community association’s communication efforts and digital delivery of association documents to save money. In order to do so, we need residents to provide their emails. We now have over 10,000 emails, but that only makes up half of the households in our community – and we need it to grow.

Current law allows homeowners association boards to remove convicted felons. Homeowners association members can also enact bylaws that prevent owners from running from their boards if they do not pay their assessments or follow the rules. But the proponents of S.B. 323 (Weickowski) think these provisions give homeowners too much power; they want state law to tell homeowners who can and cannot serve on their boards.

In 2017 and 2018, Community Association Institute’s California Legislative Action Committee (CAI-CLAC) worked hard to remove community associations from a bill designed to make apartment balconies and other raised structures safer. Recognizing that community associations are not like apartment buildings, the author of the bill agreed to delete provisions related to associations. As enacted, the bill, authored by Sen. Jerry Hill of San Mateo, requires apartment owners to inspect wooden balconies, landings, and other similar structures every six years, including invasive testing to visualize structural elements. It also requires apartment owners to make repairs.

Assembly Bill 670 (Friedman) would require community associations to allow accessory dwelling units.

A.B. 670 would render void any provision in a community association’s governing documents prohibiting an “accessory dwelling unit” or “junior accessory dwelling unit” on a single family lot. The bill would not apply to provisions already in place as of January 1, 2020, but would apply to new documents and to any amendment effective after that date.

CAI-CLAC continues to update our position on several bills being considered by the state legislature this year, all of which could significantly impact those living in common interest developments (CDIs). Here is what you need to know about Senate Bill 326 (Hill) and Senate Bill 754 (Moorlach) and why they have our full support.