California HOA slaps 198 condo owners with $26K in roof bills that they didn't even vote on. Is that even legal?

Anyone who doesn’t pay has been warned the association could slap a lien on their home.

But some owners aren’t having it at all. They’ve filed a claim accusing the board of breaking the law, they’re organizing to recall board members and they’re talking about suing.

The 5% rule and the emergency exception

Luckily for owners, California caps what a board can charge on its own. Under Civil Code Section 5605, special assessments can’t add up to more than 5% of the association’s budgeted gross expenses for the year without a vote of the members. The cap is a yearly total, so a board can’t get around it by splitting one big charge into smaller ones.

Section 5610 does let a board skip that vote in an emergency, but it recognizes only three: a court orders the association to pay for something, the board finds a danger to residents’ safety on the property or a major repair or maintenance cost turns up that nobody could have planned for at budget time.

According to MBK Chapman, a California law firm that represents homeowners in disputes with their associations, a board can’t call something an emergency just because it feels urgent — deferred maintenance and poor budgeting don’t count. And if a board skips the vote anyway, the firm warns, the assessment “may be unenforceable.”

The boards have paperwork to file, too. A board using that unforeseen-cost exception has to pass a resolution laying out in writing why the work is necessary and why it wasn’t predictable, then mail that document to owners along with the bill. Section 5615 buys owners some time, as well, since a new assessment can’t fall due less than 30 days or more than 60 days after the notice goes out.

Why residents say the ‘emergency’ was years in the making

The Villa Moura owners say none of that describes what happened at their complex. Residents told KABC their board has been aware for years that the roofs were due for work. What actually needs attention, they say, is the layer beneath the tiles — not the tiles themselves.

“Clearly, it was not an emergency; it’s a deferred maintenance,” homeowner Noah Martin said. “And so, then we as members should have a vote on how we want to take care of the roofs.”

Homeowner Adam Dubin questions how the board handled the contract.

“What we would like to do is have multiple bids competitively submitted and actually negotiate those bids in the best interest of the homeowners,” he said. “As the board should be doing with their fiduciary responsibilities to us.”

Money is a real worry, too. Residents told KABC they expect many of their neighbors to have a hard time paying, and owners have started a GoFundMe for those who can’t.

The board told KABC it could not comment because of ongoing legal matters. Moneywise reached the board through its management company, but the board did not yet respond by publication time.

What you can do if your HOA pulls the same move

If your own HOA ever tries something like this, ask to see the records. Civil Code 5200 gives every member the right to request budgets, reserve studies and board minutes — and if the minutes show the roofs coming up meeting after meeting, the board will have a hard time arguing it couldn’t have seen the expense coming.