Frequently Asked Questions
CondoWonk offers a unique perspective on condominium life in Southern California, with research and information you won’t find anywhere else on the web. You’ll find honest answers to frequently asked questions…plus a few more questions we wish you’d asked.
YOUR ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA CONDO Q&A
Condo Basics
The principle of condominium ownership is simple. A condominium subdivides ownership in a property into private space (units) and shared space (the common area) so that each unit owner can buy, sell and mortgage their unit.
Homeowners own their unit and can, with some restrictions, do what they want inside their unit. But they also own the rest of the building (common area), together with their neighbors, in undivided shares. That means they have a percentage interest in the building structure and everything else that can’t be separated from any other owner’s interest.
Everything that follows from that concept—legislation, recorded covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs), rules, budgets and assessments—is an attempt to allow random strangers to make decisions together concerning the property they share.
And that’s where things get complicated.
All condominium projects are common interest developments but not all common interest developments are condominiums.
Generally, a common interest development or common interest community is one that includes both private ownership of living space and shared use of common areas. In addition to condominiums, it includes planned communities with privately owned homes if they have a homeowners’ association.
The Davis-Stirling Act, as explained further below, applies to every Common Interest Development, which in Civil Code 4100 defines as including both condominiums and planned communities but also includes two less popular forms, a community apartment project (often known as “Tenancies in Common”) and a stock cooperative (commonly known as a “co-op”).
The condominium association, or condo association, is an organization that maintains and operates the building and other condominium property on behalf of unit owners and collects money from them to do so. Unit owners are automatically a member of the association.
The condominium association is usually registered with the state as a nonprofit corporation but it’s not a charitable organization and payments are not tax deductible.
Almost of all the condominium association’s decisions are made by the board of directors, elected by the homeowners. Very few decisions are made directly by the homeowners.
A homeowners’ association, or HOA, is a broader term that includes all associations that manage a common interest development. An HOA is usually registered with the state as a nonprofit corporation but it’s not a charitable organization and payments are not tax deductible.
Within the condominium context, the two terms are often used interchangeably, but HOAs can operate quite differently depending on the type of community.
In a condominium, owners own their unit outright, but they also own the rest of the building and other parts of the condominium project in undivided shares (see: What is a Condominium, above). A condominium’s HOA usually doesn’t own any real property. Instead, it maintains the common area on behalf of all the owners.
In a planned development with an HOA—the typical subdivision with individually owned lots—owners own and maintain their own homes and private yards. The HOA corporation, however, owns the common area, such as recreational facilities and landscaped areas (and streets, if not dedicated to the public). Owners are automatic members of the HOA and gain the right to use the common areas through that membership.
Condo HOAs have a tougher job than HOAs for planned developments because condo HOAs are responsible for maintaining the building in which their unit owners live. It’s a whole different responsibility and set of problems.
The Davis-Stirling Act, named for two legislators, is a suite of California laws occupying Sections 4000 to 6150 of the Civil Code. It governs all condominiums (and other Common Interest Developments) in the state, beginning with the recording of the Declaration and moving through all aspects of the HOA’s operation, including board meetings, elections, notifications, assessments and reserve planning.
When it was enacted in 1986, the Davis-Stirling Act replaced the 1963 California Condominium Act and enlarged its scope to encompass other types of Common Interest Developments. In 2014, the Davis-Stirling Act was reorganized and many sections renumbered. If looking at older documents, code references may not line up with the current Act.
The Davis-Stirling Act is extremely important—in California.
Condominium law is state specific. The Davis-Stirling Act and other California laws discussed in CondoWonk do not apply in other states.
About half of all states have adopted condominium laws based on model acts drafted by the Uniform Law Commission. Although these states’ laws are similar, each has customized the law and added new provisions over time.
Other states have their own condominium acts, which can vary greatly from the law in California. Florida and New York in particular have their own highly idiosyncratic laws.
The Davis-Stirling Act is always changing and expanding as new legislation is created.
Once approved and signed into law, new legislation concerning condominiums is codified—assigned a Civil Code number—within the Davis-Stirling Act. Even after codification, though, laws often continue to be known by their original Assembly Bill (AB) or Senate Bill (SB) number, especially if they were widely discussed during the adoption process.
Here are some significant legislative initiatives that have been made into law and codified as part of the Davis Stirling Act in recent years.
Civil Code 4741 (also known as AB 3182, enacted 2020) prohibits HOAs from banning rentals. Owners of at least 25% of units must be allowed to rent out their units and if there is a minimum lease length requirement, the minimum cannot be more than 30 days.
Civil Code 4745 states that HOA boards can’t prohibit or unreasonably restrict homeowners from installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. It was created in 2011 and has been amended several times. For discussion of this law, see the CondoWonk article, Figuring Out EV Charging for Condos.
Civil Code 5551 (SB 326, known as the Balcony Bill, enacted 2019) requires condo associations to inspect certain wood-supported exterior elevated elements, which may include walkways and stairways as well as balconies.
Civil Code 5850 (AB 130, enacted 2025), restricts HOAs ability to fine members, with a cap in most cases of no more than $100 per violation.
CC&Rs
CC&Rs is an abbreviation for Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions and is the popular term for the document that creates the condominium project. The Davis-Stirling Act refers to that document as the declaration, which is its proper legal term. In non-legal settings the two are often used interchangeably.
The declaration includes the name of the community and the legal description of the property and defines the units. It determines how assessments will be allocated (whether equally per unit, by square footage or some other formula) and may sets up various restrictions on the use of the property—parking, pets and everything else.
Once the declaration is registered in the local public records, any person who buys a unit is required to follow its provisions.
Each has its own purposes. Usually, they don’t get in each other’s way, but when they do, the Davis-Stirling Act will often say which has priority. Language like, “Unless the declaration states otherwise…” means the CC&RS control. A statute that says “Notwithstanding the provisions of the declaration…” means the Davis-Stirling Act takes precedence.
Occasionally new legislation will require the HOA to amend their CC&Rs, or their rules, but usually any change in the Davis-Stirling Act will take effect without any action required by the HOA.
Please note this information is specific to California but similar law may apply in other jurisdictions.
The CC&Rs themselves usually state the procedure for amendment. CC&Rs may contain supermajority requirements (sometimes as high as 75% or even 90% of the membership) that can make amendment very difficult.
The following applies in California under the Davis-Stirling Act:
Documents that lack provisions for amendment or don’t state a percentage can be amended by a majority of members.
If CC&Rs require a supermajority and an HOA is unable to reach that percentage, the board or any member may petition the court under Civil Code 4275 to reduce the percentage if the amendment was approved by a majority of the owners and is reasonable and proper.
Most CC&Rs give boards the ability to make rules concerning various aspects of condominium life: the use of the common areas, pets and other potential nuisances, architectural standards, rentals and move-in requirements, late payment and a variety of other purposes. Depending on the condo, the rules can be sensible guides to shared space, or oppressive examples of overreach.
Rules and Regulations supplement the CC&Rs but can’t contradict them. For instance, if the CC&Rs say that dogs up to 25 pounds are permitted, rules can regulate where to walk dogs and require owners to keep them on a leash but it can’t prohibit all dogs or change the weight limitation.
Unlike the CC&Rs, rules generally originate with the board and are usually relatively easy to amend.
In California, rules must go through a homeowner notice and review period. See Civil Code 4360. Most other states or CC&Rs have similar provisions.
HOA Finances
Assessments are the amount that condominium owners must pay to help maintain their condominium. Assessments can only be used for proper purposes, such as common area maintenance and repair, reserves and insurance.
Assessments come in two varieties: regular and special. Regular assessments are commonly known as “dues.”
Regular assessments are generally calculated each year by taking the annual proposed budget, dividing by the number of units and then dividing again into monthly payments. Some condominiums’ CC&Rs allocate assessments on square footage of the unit or some other formula, in which case the amounts will be divided accordingly.
Unlike regular assessments (dues), special assessments can come at any time and can be in any amount.
In California, special assessments are governed by Civil Code 5605 of the Davis-Stirling Act. It doesn’t matter what it says in your CC&Rs. This is one of those times where the Davis-Stirling Act takes over.
Under Civil Code 5605, most special assessments need to be approved by a secret ballot vote of the membership. After following detailed provisions for notice and other requirements, a quorum of the membership (more than 50%) must cast ballots, and of those ballots, a majority (more than 50% of all who submitted ballots) must vote in favor for the assessment to be passed.
This is a tremendous hurdle for some associations trying to make needed repairs without adequate reserves.
California’s law is an extreme outlier. By requiring an affirmative vote of the membership for special assessments, California law differs from the law in every other state but one, Hawaii, which appears to have copied California law.
In other states, a board may pass a special assessment for building repairs without a vote of homeowners or can approve a special assessment subject to a veto process in which it is automatically ratified unless, after appropriate notice, a majority of all owners show up at a meeting to vote against it.
In California, there are two special circumstances under Civil Code 5605 in which the Board may approve a special assessment without requiring a membership vote:
Five Percent. The Board may annually approve a special assessment equal to not more than 5% of the HOA’s current budgeted expenses. Per unit, this is equivalent to 60% of one month’s dues. Alternatively, the Board may impose several smaller special assessments, so long as they do not add up to more than 5% in any single year. The special assessment does not need to be for any specific purpose and can be used to cover budgetary shortfalls.
Emergency. The Board can approve a special assessment of any amount in an emergency situation, as defined in Civil Code 5610.
Under that statute, only four types of emergencies qualify.
- An extraordinary expense required by a court order,
- a threat to personal health or safety or other hazardous conditions,
- certain utility repairs, or
- An extraordinary expense to repair or maintain the condominium, but only if the expense “could not have been reasonably foreseen by the board in preparing and distributing the annual budget…”
The issue of foreseeability is a critical limitation. For instance, if a leaky roof needs replacement due to deferred maintenance, it probably can’t be paid by an emergency special assessment. Consult your attorney in specific circumstances.
Lawyers have opined that emergency special assessments can be used to pay for insurance premiums in a year in which they suddenly skyrocket after the budget is approved. However, it’s generally understood that the following year, the increase must be included in the budget and not paid by an emergency special assessment because the increased cost is foreseeable.
Again, please note that California law differs significantly from that in other jurisdictions.
Under Civil Code § 5550, the board must obtain a reserve study every three years for accessible areas of all “major components” that the association is responsible for repairing, restoring, replacing or maintaining. The statute doesn’t define a major component, although a 2024 amendment does specify that it should include components of gas, water and electrical service for which the HOA is responsible.
National organizations such as Community Associations Institute and the Association of Professional Reserve Analysts offer credentialing for reserve specialists or reserve analysts but credentialing is voluntary. Many companies, credentialed or otherwise, hold themselves as ready and willing to perform these inspections. The statute does not specify what type of professional is qualified to make this inspection and one law firm opines that a “reasonably competent” inspection does not require any particular professional license.
CondoWonk explored the weaknesses of the current system in its article, Anatomy of a Reserve Study, and related article, A Rational Approach to Reserve Funding.
For readers outside California, note that the reserve study in the Davis-Stirling Act is different from inspections in other states. For a discussion of Florida’s law, please see CondoWonk’s article, The Real Lesson of Champlain Towers.
The reserve study is different from the inspection under Civil Code 5551 (the “Balcony Bill”). The Balcony Bill, enacted in 2019, requires condo associations to inspect certain wood-supported exterior elevated elements, which may include walkways and stairways as well as balconies. That inspection must be performed every nine years by a licensed structural engineer, architect or civil engineer.
Condo Living
Particularly in a state like California, where housing prices are extremely high, a condominium may be the most affordable housing option, especially if you care more about interior space than having a yard. Condominiums may be in more walkable neighborhoods, closer to transit and local retail, than living in a single-family home. Some condominiums may give you amenities such as a pool or a gym. And you may like the security of having people around and not having to do a lot of maintenance.
On the negative side, condominium living comes with a certain loss of personal autonomy. Don’t move into a condominium if you are going to be annoyed by your neighbor’s noise, their cooking odors or other habits.
And the board will be calling the shots on how well the place is maintained, what projects to prioritize and how much you will be required to pay. In your own house, you can decide if it’s time to replace the roof or to let it go another year. In a condominium, the board makes that decision and collects the money from the owners to pay for it.
No matter how much research you do, there is no way of knowing exactly what you will end up paying.
You will know what the monthly assessments, commonly called HOA dues, are when you buy your unit. That does not, however, guarantee what dues will be in the future.
Some buildings keep dues artificially low by neglecting repairs, and then special assessing for everything when things fall apart. Or, worse, NOT special assessing and letting things continue to decay.
The amount of dues depends a great deal on the type of building, its age, its amenities and what’s included in dues. For instance, if the HOA is providing hot and cold running water, that could easily be $150 per unit that’s included in the HOA dues—but saves you money out of your own pocket.
Insurance is usually one of the biggest line items in any HOA’s budget. In today’s market, that number could suddenly double, or more, without warning.
In short, buildings cost what they cost. Being proactive with maintenance saves money in the long run. And buying a house also comes with all kinds of expensive repair surprises.
You can talk to board members, and people who live in the building.
You should also review the previous year’s board meeting minutes during the escrow period. (If they don’t have minutes, that’s a red flag right there.)
Reading the minutes can clue you into the building’s culture. You can tell what big repair items are on the horizon, and the board’s attitude toward taking care of the property.
The manager answers to the board, carrying out the board’s decisions. Condominium managers are not licensed in California, although they can be certified by a voluntary certification process. Finding a good one is hard.
At the most basic, managers collect dues, pay bills and keep the financial records straight. They keep track of insurance and contracts and other HOA records. They also help with HOA administration, noticing meetings and overseeing voting.
Some are good at helping with building maintenance and repair: giving advice, recommending vendors, overseeing repairs and providing after-hours emergency service.
A manager may or may not be helpful with individual homeowners’ requests. For many, it’s not high in their job description.
Some boards try to save money by self-managing. It may work for the smallest HOAs but often it doesn’t go well.
It’s a tough job. Making decisions about how to spend your neighbors’ money is fraught. While some board members are irrational or overbearing, most are doing the best they can with a very difficult responsibility.
Board members are unpaid volunteers, usually with little experience in building management. They are required to make reasonable decisions, not perfect ones. Sometimes projects take longer than anticipated, cause a mess and go over budget. That’s life.
Insurance
The HOA’s master policy insures against various risks to the building, such as fire, or a sudden event leading to water damage. It has deductibles—often large ones—and, as discussed below, it probably doesn’t cover the inside of the unit.
An HO-6 policy is a policy that an owner can purchase for themselves to cover some of the risks that the master policy doesn’t. (Some HOAs and some lenders require unit owners to carry HO-6 coverage.)
To get proper coverage, you need to know where your master policy stops and your personal risk begins.
Some states have laws that regulate what an HOA’s master policy must cover. California doesn’t, so HOA master insurance coverage can vary significantly from one building to another.
In California, most HOAs insure only the part that the HOA maintains. Known as a “bare walls” policy, it covers the structure of the building and the rest of the common area but it doesn’t include the unit inside the “bare walls” drywall.
In that case, a unit owner’s HO-6 would need to cover cabinetry and appliances and light fixtures and flooring—all the things that come with the unit when you buy or sell it.
However, some HOAs have more extensive coverage, called “walls-in” coverage, that insures the units as well as the common area. (Most buildings with “walls-in” coverage are older buildings required by their CC&Rs to provide such coverage.) If your building has walls-in coverage, you can save money on your HO-6 because, other than the deductible on the HOA master policy, you already have coverage for the unit improvements for insurable events.
Your HOA’s certificate of insurance for its master policy will specify the type of coverage and deductibles. With that in hand, your insurance agent will be able to structure your HO-6 policy.
This information is intended as a brief introduction to the issues involved with condominium insurance. Please consult with an insurance agent or attorney or both for further information.
An HO-6 includes various protections. Some are included in the policy and others are options that cost extra.
In addition to damage to your unit, the HO-6 offers the types of coverage you may be familiar with in a renter’s policy, such as furnishings and other personal belongings, liability for injuries to others and temporary housing.
“Loss assessment” coverage on an HO-6 helps pay for special assessments the HOA may impose to raise money for repairs that are less than the deductible or that exceed the policy’s limits.
This information is intended as a brief introduction to the issues involved with condominium insurance. Please consult with an insurance agent or attorney or both for further information.
In California, earthquake risk is always excluded from the HOA master policy.
Most HOAs do not carry separate earthquake coverage, and even if they do, there is no coverage until the damage reaches 15% or 20% of the building value, depending on the deductible. That means that with or without an HOA earthquake policy, the HOA will need to assess unit owners for damage up to 20% of the unit.
California requires that coverage for earthquake damage be available for purchase via a special rider on your HO-6 policy, which can provide loss assessment coverage as well as temporary housing and other expenses. Please see the CondoWonk article on earthquake insurance for further information.
About CondoWonk
CondoWonk is about the reality of condominium life. We do the research and talk to people in the field to find information that you won’t find anywhere else on the web.
From angry homeowners to electric vehicle charging and organics recycling, CondoWonk tells human stories about creative problem-solving and covers the “how to” details — hence the “Wonk” part of the name—to make your condo run better.
CondoWonk also takes on the existential challenge of shared decision making inherent in the condominium concept (see the first FAQ), and ill-conceived governmental regulation that sometimes makes the job even harder.
HOA presidents and board members, residents, managers, policymakers and anyone else who wants insight into the real issues condominiums confront.
I’m Doris S. Goldstein, a writer and Harvard Law School grad who practiced real estate law for many years in Florida before moving to Los Angeles.
As an attorney, I developed a practice representing Seaside, the iconic “new town” in the Florida Panhandle, and aiding developers of other New Urban communities—walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods and villages—and co-authored a book, A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development for Planners, Developers and Architects (Wiley, 2008). Further information is available on my professional website (walkablemixeduse.com) and on my LinkedIn page.
In Los Angeles, I became president of my condo association. While my experience as an attorney inevitably shapes my thinking, I’m not licensed as an attorney in California and Condowonk does not give legal advice. Instead, the website returns to my early career as a newspaper reporter before law school and shares hard-earned information based on my own fact-finding.
I created CondoWonk.com originally as a blog to share helpful information that I discovered in trying to solve problems my condo was facing and could not find anywhere on the internet. As CondoWonk grows, it will expand into policy areas while retaining its original goal of supporting condo boards and unit owners.
Writing CondoWonk is based on original research and talking to multiple sources. Content is never generated by AI.
Most articles are inspired by a problem I’ve encountered as condo president or that has been suggested by a reader. I research the web but I get my best information by talking to real people—asking questions and digging to learn what I need to know.
For instance, in the process of figuring out how to safely charge electric vehicles in an older building, I talked to five electricians plus the executive director and board chair of Plug-In America. I also spoke to commercial providers of third-party charging systems for multifamily buildings to understand their business model and whether it would work in our building, and I talked to the manufacturer of the load management device that we ended up using. After that, I observed the electrician install and trouble shoot three chargers in our building, and watched the city’s electrical inspector inspect the installation. Then, when the electrical inspector slapped on a gratuitous requirement for a bollard, I talked to his supervisor and got it reversed.
CondoWonk is updated frequently. I research and update articles based on reader feedback, new legislation and my own ongoing experience as HOA president. If there is sufficient new information, I write a new article and link to an archived version of the original piece.
No matter where you are, you may find useful information here. Please be aware, though, that condominium laws vary greatly by state and some information may not apply to your region.
Some advice is specific to Los Angeles, while other information applies more generally to California. Overcoming the unique bureaucracy of LA and the Golden State is likely to be a recurring theme.
Note that California’s terminology is a bit different than in other states. In most states, the word “condominium” refers to the entire property, and the individual owner’s interest is a “condominium unit.” In California, under the Davis-Stirling Act, the entire property is called the “Condominium Project” while the word “condominium” refers to the unit owner’s interest in the Condominium Project.
Visit the contact page to ask questions or describe your own experiences and solutions. I love getting input!
CondoWonk Policies
No. CondoWonk is not intended as legal advice, ever.
I am not licensed to practice law in California. CondoWonk is for informational and educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.
All written material in CondoWonk is original. AI is not used to write any of the articles or photo-realistic images. The CondoWonk logo was created by artist Renee Berg, a real person.
CondoWonk uses AI to generate some cartoons and other artwork, based on original prompts that reinforce an article’s theme.
CondoWonk t-shirts might be cool, but no, CondoWonk is not selling your personal information or anything else.
There is no advertising, commission or product placement. If products are mentioned by name, it’s based on personal experience.
No. All references are based on personal experience. There is no advertising, referrals, commission or product placement.
CondoWonk is an advocate for policies that support condominium living, particularly in California.
Conversely, CondoWonk will call out policies that disadvantage condominium owners, particularly when compared to single family home ownership.
CondoWonk views the proper maintenance of aging condominium buildings as an affordable housing issue requiring public policy solutions. Most condominiums in California predate 1990 and are now 30, 40 or 50 years old. CondoWonk suggests and supports legislative changes to give HOAs the tools they need to evaluate their buildings’ needs and to fund needed repairs.
CondoWonk invites input from organizations and individuals with similar goals.
Have a question that wasn’t answered here? Or perhaps a topic you’d love to see us cover in a future article?