Common interest developments: discipline.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide information on how existing fines and penalties will be affected.

Rules for Common Interest Developments: Discipline

AB-2579 updates rules for common interest developments by limiting fines and clarifying when a violation is considered fixed.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the exception that allowed higher fines if a violation could harm health or safety. Now, fines are limited to $100 per violation unless there's a fire or environmental hazard like storing flammable materials in common areas.
• Requires boards to give members at least 10 days' notice before meetings where discipline might be discussed or imposed.
• Specifies that habitual violations do not count as fixed if the issue is not resolved by the time of the meeting.

Who It Names or Affects

• Members of common interest developments
• Boards managing these developments

Terms To Know

Common Interest Development

A community where multiple homes or units share ownership of certain areas, like parks or roads.

Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act

California law that sets rules for how these communities are run and managed.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if a violation takes longer than 10 days to fix.
• It's unclear how this will affect existing fines or penalties already in place before the law changes.

Official Summary Text

AB 2579, as amended, Petrie-Norris.
Civil actions: compensatory relief.
Common interest developments: discipline.
Existing law, the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, governs the formation and operation of common interest developments. Existing law requires that a common interest development be managed by an association.
Existing law requires the board of an association, if the association adopts or has adopted a policy imposing any monetary penalty on any association member for a violation of the governing documents, to adopt and distribute to each member a schedule of the monetary penalties that may be assessed for those violations, as provided. Existing law prohibits a monetary penalty for a violation of the governing documents from exceeding the lesser of the amount stated in the schedule that is in effect at the time of the violation
or $100 per violation, except if the violation might result in an adverse health or safety impact on the common area or another association member’s property, as specified.
This bill would remove the exception if the violation might result in an adverse health or safety impact on the common area or another association member’s property, and would, instead, except if the violation might result in, among other things, certain fire or environmental hazards, including the storage of any flammable or combustible material in a common area.
Existing law requires the board to notify a member in writing at least 10 days before a meeting to consider or impose discipline or a monetary charge on a member, as specified. Existing law requires the board to give a member the opportunity to cure a violation prior to the meeting, and prohibits the board from imposing discipline if the member cures the violation prior to
the meeting or, if curing the violation would take longer than the time between the notice provided and the meeting, the member provides financial commitment to cure the violation.
This bill would specify that a member engaged in habitual, repeated, or continuing violations is not deemed to have cured a violation simply because the violation is not occurring at the time of the hearing.
Existing law gives a person the right of protection from bodily harm and the right to possess and use property. If a person suffers bodily harm or a loss of their property because of the unlawful act or omission of another, existing law authorizes them to recover compensation from the person at fault, which is known as damages.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF