Rules For Condo Board Members In Santa Clara
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FAQ
What are unenforceable HOA rules? Keep you out of court. Hush up litigation. Discriminate indiscriminately. Enter your home without cause or notice. String you out on the (clothes)line. Fine you for fun. Change rules on the fly. Demand you take down your dish.
An HOA has the authority to enforce the rules and regulations of the community using the community rules, or “bylaws and covenants.” These rules are considered “agreed upon” since homeowners approve them through board-elected representatives.
The Davis-Stirling Act in California spells out the rules for open meetings, which greatly affects when and how HOA boards can have closed meetings. Section 4900 of the Act says that all HOA board meetings must be open to all association members, with a few exceptions for private sessions.
In general, California's HOA laws protect volunteer board members from personal liability. (Civ. Code §5800; Corp. Code §5047.5(b).)
Laws always supersede governing documents IF they conflict and the law applies to your HOA. In California, the Davis-Stirling Act may take precedent over general corporation codes because it's specific to HOAs.
While you can propose rule changes through proper channels, there's no legal way to simply ignore or “get around” the HOA's covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) that you agreed to when purchasing in the community.
In 2024, the California legislature passed an amendment that allowed online elections to be held within HOAs. It recognized that this could open the door to digital vote manipulation within the HOA's management, though, so the state mandated that each HOA election needed to have an independent inspector of elections.
This can usually be done by a simple majority vote by members of the board. If however, the vote occurs in a special board meeting open to all HOA members, you may have difficulty removing the troublesome member if your association's bylaws include cumulative voting.
The new HOA law in California, passed in September 2024, includes amendments to the Davis-Stirling Act of 1985. These amendments make it possible for HOAs to conduct elections online rather than through costly and time-consuming paper balloting.
To put it simply, homeowners can sue HOA or condo board members and even name them personally in the lawsuit. But, there's no guarantee that they will win. Board members are afforded a certain level of protection from personal liability through state laws and the association's governing documents.
