SB 326 California: Deadlines, Inspectors, and Repairs

California Senate Bill 326, codified at Civil Code Section 5551, requires every condominium HOA to hire a licensed structural engineer, civil engineer, or architect to inspect balconies, decks, stairways, elevated walkways, and their waterproofing on a recurring nine-year cycle. The first inspection was due by January 1, 2025, and no extension was granted. The SB 326 balcony inspection requirements apply to common interest developments with three or more units and reach any wood-framed or steel-framed exterior element more than six feet above the ground that the association is responsible for maintaining.¹

Which Structures Have To Be Inspected

SB 326 covers what the statute calls exterior elevated elements, or EEEs. An element falls under the law when all four of these are true:

The HOA’s governing documents assign maintenance or repair responsibility for it.
The walking surface sits more than six feet above the ground below.
It is framed with wood, wood-based products, or steel. Concrete-framed elements are excluded.
It extends beyond the building’s exterior walls and is designed for people to walk on or occupy.

Covered elements include balconies, decks, elevated walkways, stairways, landings, railings, and the waterproofing systems attached to them.² The steel-framing point is easy to miss. If your complex has metal-framed balconies more than six feet up, they need inspection along with the wood ones.

Who Can Perform the Inspection

Only a licensed structural engineer, civil engineer, or architect may perform an SB 326 inspection.¹ General contractors are not qualified under this statute, even those holding a Class B license. (SB 721, the parallel law for rental properties, does allow certain licensed contractors, which is one source of common confusion.)

Nothing in the statute stops the inspecting firm from also doing the repair work. That arrangement creates a financial incentive to expand the scope, and some companies market low inspection fees paired with large repair proposals. Asking any prospective inspector for a written conflict-of-interest disclosure before signing is a simple safeguard.

Professional fees generally run between $400 and $800 per unit, depending on the size of the complex, the number of EEEs, and how difficult access is. For a 50-unit condominium, the inspection alone can reach $20,000 or more before repair work begins.

What the Inspection Must Produce

The law does not require examining every balcony. It requires a random sample large enough to produce 95 percent confidence in the results, with a margin of error of no more than plus or minus 5 percent.³ For a larger complex, that still means dozens of individual inspections. Inspectors should use the least invasive methods that give reliable results, which can include moisture meters, borescopes, or infrared imaging.

When the work is complete, the professional delivers a stamped and signed report to the board that identifies:

The current physical condition of the load-bearing components and waterproofing.
Whether any element poses an immediate safety threat.
The expected remaining useful life of each inspected element.
Specific repair or replacement recommendations.

The association must keep the report on file for at least two inspection cycles, which is 18 years.¹

Inspection Deadlines

The first inspection for existing covered condominiums was due by January 1, 2025. Subsequent inspections must occur at least once every nine years.¹

Newer buildings follow a different clock. If the building permit application was submitted on or after January 1, 2020, the first inspection must happen within six years of the certificate of occupancy being issued.¹ The trigger is when the permit was applied for, not when residents moved in.

What Happens When Repairs Are Needed

If the inspection identifies an element that poses an immediate safety threat, the association must act right away. Access to the affected balcony, deck, or walkway must be restricted until repairs are completed and approved by the local building authority. The inspector must also send a copy of the report to the local code enforcement agency within 15 days.⁴

For non-emergency repairs, the association has 120 days from receiving the report to apply for a building permit, and then 120 days from permit approval to complete the work. If those deadlines slip, the HOA must notify the local enforcement agency, which can then step in and recover its enforcement costs from the association.¹

Reserve Study and Homeowner Disclosure

SB 326 does not treat the inspection as a standalone task. The findings must be folded into the association’s reserve study, the long-term financial plan every HOA uses to budget for major maintenance.¹ The nine-year inspection cycle was designed to align with the triennial reserve study update schedule so that projected repair and replacement costs flow into the association’s numbers.

The board must also share a summary of the report with all homeowners. That summary needs to identify any repairs that must happen immediately and explain how the association plans to pay for them. When reserves cannot cover the cost, boards typically fund the work through special assessments, dues increases, or association loans, and Civil Code Section 5551 contemplates emergency special assessments that can bypass the usual membership approval process.

SB 326 Versus SB 721

SB 326 applies to condominium HOAs. It does not apply to apartment buildings or other rental properties, which are covered by a separate law, SB 721.³ The two laws differ in who may inspect, how the sample is calculated (SB 721 uses a flat 15 percent of each element type), and how often inspections repeat (six years under SB 721 rather than nine). Both shared the same first-inspection deadline of January 1, 2025. If your building is an HOA-governed condominium, SB 326 is the law that applies.

Consequences of Missing the Deadline

The statute lets local enforcement agencies recover their costs from any HOA that fails to meet inspection or repair deadlines.¹ On top of that baseline, individual cities and counties set their own penalty structures, and some impose daily fines that can reach several hundred dollars per day for ongoing violations.

Fines are only part of the exposure. An HOA that missed the January 2025 deadline carries heightened legal risk. If someone is injured on a deteriorating balcony and the association never completed the required inspection, a court could treat that violation as negligence per se, meaning the statutory breach itself proves negligence and the plaintiff no longer has to show the HOA acted unreasonably.

Individual directors face their own risk. Failing to comply with a clear statutory mandate can constitute a breach of fiduciary duty and expose board members to personal liability. Directors and officers insurance may respond, but many policies exclude knowing violations of law.

Insurance carriers have also caught up with SB 326. Many now ask for proof of compliance when writing or renewing an HOA master policy. An association that cannot produce a completed inspection and evidence of timely repairs may face premium increases, reduced limits, or non-renewal, and in the worst case an insurer may deny a structural-failure claim based on policy exclusions for code violations or neglected maintenance. Boards that submit the inspection report, repair invoices, and permit history alongside their renewal application usually get better terms.

Any HOA that has not yet completed its first inspection should move it to the top of the board’s agenda.

1
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 5551
2
City of South San Francisco. California Balcony Laws – SB 326 and SB 721 – FAQ
3
City of Gilroy. Exterior Elevated Elements Inspections
4
City of Redondo Beach Community Development Department. What to Know About the HOA Balcony Law SB-326