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SB 392: uh, where's my ballot?

4/16/2024

 
Section 4041 of the Davis-Stirling Act requires homeowners to annually disclose their current mailing address and their HOA to annually solicit the same. These important disclosure and solicitation requirements help ensure associations can effectively communicate with their constituent members, a necessary aspect of good governance.

Senate Bill 392 amended Section 4041 to instead provide that owners must disclose their “preferred delivery method,” which must include the options of receiving notices at a mailing address, an email address, or both. The bill also amended Section 4040 to provide that HOAs must deliver all individual notices by each member’s preferred method.

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AB 3182: taking the common out of common interest developments

2/12/2024

 
According Assembymember Phil Ting, Assemby Bill 3182 was necessary in order to "marshal all available resources to address the housing and homelessness crisis." While this intention is good, and while California is certainly facing a housing crisis, voiding all but short-term rental and lease restrictions for California's 50,000-plus CIDs is the wrong solution.

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SB 323: a disaster for California's HOAs

12/4/2023

 
Senate Bill 323 dramatically changed association election law, including the laws controlling election challenges, candidate and director qualifications, election rules, election timelines, pre-election notices, inspectors, association recordkeeping, and more.

Sponsored by an anti-HOA lobbying organization, SB 323’s purported goal was to increase the “regularity, fairness, formality, and transparency” of HOA elections. Unfortunately, SB 323 in practice imposed a costly, complex, and harmful set of new election requirements for little gain.

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SBs 323 and 754: the certain death of acclamation

10/16/2023

 
Election by acclamation is the process of declaring a slate of director-candidates elected when the number of candidates at the deadline for nomination is equal to or less than the number of board positions to be filled, and thus the results a foregone conclusion.

Prior to Senate Bills 323 and 754, the HOA legal community was split on the advisability of acclamation. Some attorneys took the position that requiring zero-budget nonprofits to incur the expense and effort of a mailed secret ballot vote in the face of a known conclusion was little better than digging a hole in the yard, filling it with money, and lighting it on fire. Others read Civil Code section 5100(a)’s “shall” as requiring such folly.

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SB 323: dispute resolution for non-disputes

9/11/2023

 
Senate Bill 323 added Civil Code section 5105(e), which provides that “[a]n association shall not disqualify a person from nomination if the person has not been provided the opportunity to engage in internal dispute resolution.”

Read literally, Section 5105(e) appears to provide that an offer of internal dispute resolution (IDR) by an association is required in order to enforce
any candidate qualification, even those which are generally not subject to "resolution," such as membership status, duration of membership, or disqualification based on co-ownership. SB 323 also fails to reconcile the conflicting requirements that associations shall disqualify non-members but also shall offer IDR before doing so.


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    2025 HOA Law Blog

    A thrilling blog that isn't legal advice about California HOA law but might be a vehicle to vent. Reposts and reprints with attribution.

    Topics:
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    All
    Assembly Bill 3182
    Assembly Bill 502
    Assembly Bill 670
    Senate Bill 222
    Senate Bill 234
    Senate Bill 323
    Senate Bill 392
    Senate Bill 432
    Senate Bill 754

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