Sacramento Watch: The Final Tally, What Actually Became Law

The signing deadline has passed and Sacramento is done for the year. Seven new HOA laws, four for landlords and owners, and two vetoes worth knowing about. Most of it starts January 1, 2027.

The Governor's signing deadline was September 30. It has passed, and Sacramento is done for the year. Three weeks ago I wrote about five bills sitting on his desk and said I would publish what he signed. This is that list, plus the HOA bills that came through at the same time.

Hundreds of bills went in this session. Most of them died quietly in committee. The ones below made it, and if you sit on an HOA board, own a rental, or own a condo you rent out, they land on your desk. Unless I say otherwise, each one takes effect January 1, 2027.

If you run an HOA, this is your list

Seven of these are Davis-Stirling bills. None of them is dramatic on its own. Together they are a year of homework for any board that has not opened its governing documents since they were recorded.

Cooling systems, AB 1684. A provision in your governing documents that prohibits or limits installing, replacing, or using a cooling system that meets state and local building code is void, subject to a few exceptions written into the bill. Window units, portable units, evaporative coolers and heat pumps all count. An association that willfully violates it is exposed to actual damages, a civil penalty of up to $2,000, and attorney fees.

Heat pumps, SB 222. Same idea, aimed at heat pump water heaters and heat pump HVAC systems. The association cannot prohibit or restrict them except as the bill specifies. Most of SB 222 is actually about city permitting, with inspection changes starting July 1, 2027 and online permitting by July 1, 2028.

Windows, SB 908. If your governing documents have no reasonable restrictions on window replacement, the board cannot send a replacement through design review at all. For the projects the bill covers, the association has to approve when the owner agrees in writing to the conditions. A restriction that effectively bars replacement is void.

EV chargers, SB 1267. This one helps the board. Damage that results from using an owner's charging station follows that owner and every owner after them, and the installer has to reimburse the association for damage from the installation. A complying association is protected from liability for a station it does not own.

Management fees, AB 739. Once a year the board has to review a statement of every fee the managing agent charges, and that statement becomes an association record. I manage HOAs, so this one lands on me too, and I think it is overdue. If your board has never seen the full fee schedule from its management company, it will now.

Elections and utilities, AB 1892. The association's duty to restore an interrupted utility is now limited to interruptions that begin in the common area. Election timing changed as well. The notice for electronic ballots goes out 30 days before the election, and the notice periods for an election by acclamation got shorter. Your election rules probably need a pass.

Reserves, AB 2050. This is the big one, and it has the longest runway. Starting January 1, 2032, the reserve study has to include a minimum reserve contribution level, and the association has to fund at least that level every year. If reserves are projected to go negative, the bill requires a transfer of 15 percent of the gross annual budget, and a special assessment if the association cannot make it.

2032 sounds far away. It is not, for an association that has kept dues low by skipping the reserve line. Every year you wait makes the catch-up number bigger, and the owners who vote on that number are the same ones who voted for low dues.

Landlords, you got some too

Pet policy, SB 1296, April 1, 2027. Every landlord needs a written pet policy, even when the policy is no pets. A link to it goes on your website and in digital ads you control, and a copy goes out with every rental application, with a line where the applicant acknowledges getting it. Charge an application fee without disclosing the policy first, and an applicant who drops out over it can ask for the fee back in writing. You have seven business days to refund it. Service and assistance animals are a separate question, and the bill leaves them alone.

Edited listing photos, AB 2025. If you digitally alter a photo in a rental ad, you have to say so and include the unaltered original. Renderings that never started as a photograph are carved out. Keep the original photos of every unit on file before anyone edits them. It takes thirty seconds and it is the whole compliance plan.

ADU impact fees, SB 1117. ADUs of 750 square feet or less were already exempt from impact fees. What changed is the bigger unit. For qualifying ADUs, fees are now calculated only on the area above 750 square feet, not the whole unit. If a fee estimate on a 1,000 square foot ADU killed your numbers last year, run them again.

Insurance nonrenewals, SB 1301, January 1, 2028. The nonrenewal notice goes from 75 days to 90. The insurer has to explain the grounds in plain language and hand over the ground-level photos it relied on. Ask for the inspection findings and it has 15 days to produce them. When the problem is curable, you get notice 120 days out and at least 90 days to fix it. It is the slowest bill on this list to help you, and the one I would least want to meet unprepared.

What did not make it

The Governor vetoed AB 2439, a Davis-Stirling bill that would have stopped governing documents from restricting how members use public streets, required notice when the association changes who collects assessments, and put a $1,000 penalty on a board that botched the pre-lien notice process for the third time in five years. He also vetoed SB 1238, which would have put a heightened duty of care on HOA managing agents. A few others simply ran out of time.

My take

Do not wait for January first. Read your CC&Rs and architectural guidelines against this list, update your rules and your pet policy, and call your manager. If you are the manager, call your counsel. Most of what goes wrong with bills like these happens to the association or the landlord whose documents nobody read until a demand letter showed up.

Sacramento passes it. You live with it.