California HOA laws are set primarily by the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, codified at Civil Code sections 4000 through 6150. The Act governs condominiums, planned developments, stock cooperatives, and community apartment projects, and it controls how your association collects money, runs meetings, imposes fines, holds elections, and resolves disputes with you. It also overrides HOA restrictions in several specific areas where state policy wins, including solar panels, EV charging, accessory dwelling units, and drought-tolerant landscaping.
What follows is a working map of the rules a California homeowner is most likely to run into, with the statutory limits that constrain what your board can do.
Which Rule Controls When Documents Conflict
Every community has a stack of governing documents, and the higher one always beats the lower one. California and federal statutes sit at the top. No HOA rule can override state law. Below statutes is the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs), the master document recorded with the county that binds every owner. The Articles of Incorporation come next, then the Bylaws, and at the bottom are the operating rules the board adopts for day-to-day management.
The practical result: if an operating rule the board just passed conflicts with your CC&Rs, the CC&Rs win. If the CC&Rs conflict with the Davis-Stirling Act, the Act wins. Changing the CC&Rs themselves takes a membership vote at whatever percentage the Declaration specifies, or a majority of all members if the Declaration is silent, and the amendment must be certified and recorded with the county before it takes effect.1California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 4270 – Declaration
Assessments, Increases, and Foreclosure
The board can raise your regular assessment by up to 20 percent over the prior year’s amount without a membership vote. Special assessments that exceed 5 percent of the association’s budgeted gross expenses for the year require member approval.2California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 5605 – Annual Increases in Regular Assessments The board gets at least that 20 percent and 5 percent authority even if the governing documents try to impose a stricter cap.
You should receive an annual budget report between 30 and 90 days before the end of the fiscal year.3California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 5300 – Annual Budget Report On the same timeline, the board must send an annual policy statement that includes assessment collection policies, the discipline policy and fine schedule, and a summary of dispute resolution procedures.4California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5310 At least once every three years, the board must commission a reserve study of major components it maintains, identifying anything with a remaining useful life under 30 years and laying out a funding plan.5California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5550
When the HOA Can Lien and Foreclose
Falling behind on assessments is serious, but your home is not immediately on the line. An association cannot foreclose on an assessment lien until the delinquent amount reaches $1,800 or the debt is more than 12 months old.6California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 5720 – Assessment Collection That $1,800 threshold excludes late charges, collection fees, attorney fees, and interest, so only unpaid assessments themselves count toward it.
Before recording a lien, the association must send you a written notice by certified mail at least 30 days ahead. The notice must itemize the charges, describe the lien enforcement process, and warn that the property could be sold without court action if foreclosure proceeds.7California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5660 It must also inform you of your right to request a board meeting, use internal dispute resolution, and request third-party mediation. If you ask for dispute resolution, the association must offer to participate before recording the lien.6California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 5720 – Assessment Collection For smaller amounts under the foreclosure threshold, the association typically has to pursue collection through small claims court.
Fines and the Disciplinary Process
A board that wants to fine or discipline you has to follow a specific procedure. It must send written notice at least 10 days before the hearing, describing the alleged violation and your right to attend and speak.8California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 5855 You can insist the hearing take place in executive session rather than in front of other members.
You must have an opportunity to fix the problem first. If you cure the violation before the hearing, the board cannot impose discipline. If the fix takes longer than the notice period allows, you can offer a financial commitment to finish the work. When discipline is imposed, the board has 14 days to deliver a written decision, and you can then request internal dispute resolution if you still disagree.8California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 5855
Fines have to come off a published schedule. The association must adopt and distribute a schedule of monetary penalties with its annual policy statement, and actual fines cannot exceed what’s on the schedule.9California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5850 AB 130, which took effect in mid-2025, capped most violation fines at $100 per occurrence. Higher amounts are permitted only where the board makes a written finding in an open meeting that the violation poses a health or safety risk.
What Your HOA Cannot Restrict
Several categories of property use are protected by state statute regardless of what your CC&Rs say. Governing document provisions that effectively prohibit any of these are void.
Solar Panels
The Solar Rights Act makes any HOA restriction that effectively prohibits a solar energy system void and unenforceable. The association can impose reasonable aesthetic requirements, but “reasonable” means the restriction cannot add more than $1,000 to the system cost or reduce its efficiency by more than 10 percent. The $1,000 ceiling applies to both solar water heating and photovoltaic systems.10California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 714
EV Charging Stations
You have the right to install an EV charging station in your designated parking space, including deeded spaces and exclusive-use common areas. The association cannot flatly deny the request. If approval is required, the association must process it like any other architectural modification, and if it doesn’t deny the application within 60 days, approval is automatic. You carry a liability policy covering the station and give the association a certificate of insurance within 14 days of approval, then annually. An association that willfully violates this section can be hit with up to $1,000 in civil penalties plus actual damages.11California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 4745 – Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
Accessory Dwelling Units
Any governing document provision that effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts building an ADU or junior ADU on a lot zoned for single-family residential use is void. The association can still impose reasonable restrictions, meaning rules that don’t unreasonably increase construction costs or make the project effectively impossible.12California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 4751
Low-Water Landscaping, Flags, and Signs
Associations cannot prohibit low-water-using plants or artificial turf that resembles grass.13California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 4735 You can display the United States flag from a staff, pole, or window, as long as the flag is made of fabric, cloth, or paper.14California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 4705 – Display of Flag of the United States Noncommercial signs and posters are protected too, though the association can ban signs larger than nine square feet and flags or banners larger than 15 square feet.15California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 4710 – Noncommercial Signs, Posters, Flags, or Banners
Short-Term Rentals
Associations can completely prohibit short-term rentals of 30 days or less. The Davis-Stirling Act explicitly authorizes governing document provisions that ban or restrict these rentals.16California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 4741 A rental of 31 days or longer is treated as a long-term tenancy and falls outside these restrictions.
Two exceptions matter. If you already owned your home when the association adopted a new short-term rental restriction, you are grandfathered in. And properties within California Coastal Act zones may be subject to coastal access requirements that override HOA rental bans. If an association wrongfully blocks a rental you were entitled to make, you can recover actual damages, up to $1,000 in statutory penalties, and attorney fees.
Meetings, Notice, and Records
The board must give at least four days’ notice before any board meeting, with a specific agenda, and you have the right to attend and to speak during a reasonable comment period.17California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 4900-4955 – Common Interest Development Open Meeting Act Executive session is limited to pending or anticipated litigation, contract negotiations, member discipline, personnel matters, payment plans with individual owners, and foreclosure decisions, and the general topic has to be noted in the next open meeting’s minutes.18California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 4935 – Executive Session
You can request a wide range of association records, including financial statements, the general ledger, and membership lists.19California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5200 – Definitions Current fiscal year records have to be produced within 10 business days; records from the two previous fiscal years, within 30 calendar days. The association can redact Social Security and bank account numbers, attorney-client communications, and identity-theft-sensitive information, but it has to give you a written explanation citing the legal basis for any redaction. It cannot redact compensation paid to employees, vendors, or contractors.20California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5215
Board Elections
California requires secret ballot procedures for assessment votes that need member approval, election and removal of directors, amendments to governing documents, and grants of exclusive use of common area.21California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 5100 – Elections Board seats go to election at least once every four years. An independent inspector of elections, who cannot be a board member, candidate, or candidate’s relative, handles ballot collection, signature verification, and vote counting. Election rules and the candidate list go out with the ballots at least 30 days before the election.
Balcony Inspections in Condo Communities
Condominium associations have to retain a licensed structural engineer, civil engineer, or architect to inspect exterior elevated elements — balconies, decks, stairways, and walkways with walking surfaces more than six feet above ground and supported by wood framing. The inspection runs at least once every nine years on a statistically significant random sample at a 95 percent confidence level, and findings get incorporated into the reserve study.22California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 5551 Lenders increasingly ask for balcony safety documentation before approving mortgages in condominium developments, so this paperwork matters when units change hands.
Resolving a Dispute With Your HOA
Internal dispute resolution, often called “meet and confer,” is the first step. Either side can request it in writing. You can turn down a board’s request, but the association cannot refuse yours.23California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 5915 – Internal Dispute Resolution A designated director attends, both sides state their case, any agreement is written down and signed, and you cannot be charged a fee for participating.
If meet-and-confer doesn’t resolve things, most governing-document enforcement disputes have to go through alternative dispute resolution — mediation or arbitration — before anyone can file in superior court.24California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 5930 That requirement covers actions for declaratory or injunctive relief, or money damages within small claims limits. It doesn’t apply to small claims actions themselves or to assessment disputes. A party who refuses to try ADR before suing can lose the ability to recover attorney fees later.
In any lawsuit to enforce governing documents, the prevailing party recovers reasonable attorney fees and costs.25California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 5975 – Enforcement of Governing Documents That cuts both ways, but it gives individual owners real leverage, because the association has to weigh paying your legal bills if it loses. For smaller disputes, small claims court handles claims up to $12,500, and no lawyers are allowed in those proceedings, which puts you on equal footing with a professionally managed association.