By David Swedelson, Esq. and Cyrus Koochek, Esq., SwedelsonGottlieb, Community Association Attorneys
At the end of April 2014, California Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order in an attempt to bolster the state’s ability to conserve, manage, and consume water in light of the major drought conditions currently affecting almost every area of California and its water resources. Although the executive order makes several directives to state agencies and civilians regarding water conservation and the implementation of water reduction programs, one of the directives specifically involves homeowners associations.
To summarize, the directive states that any provision of the governing documents, architectural or landscaping guidelines, or policies of an association will be void and unenforceable to the extent it has the effect of prohibiting compliance with the water saving measures contained in the directive, or any conservation measure adopted by an association’s local public agency or private water company. The directive also states that the reason for the directive is to prevent the reported practice of associations fining or threatening to fine homeowners who comply with water conservation measures adopted by a public agency or private water company.
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Often, we are asked by board members at community associations whether the board can use self help to resolve a problem where an owner is failing to maintain their unit or lot/home. Sometimes, we learn about it after the fact. In our experience, self-help is not usually the best or appropriate option. Fortunately, none of our clients have been sued for taking action, and there are no California court of appeal decisions or statutes that address this issue. But we can learn how not to approach this issue by considering what happened to a Texas association that took steps to deal with a problem that landed that association in some very deep you-know-what.
In recent years, California has been faced with drought conditions, reduced water supplies and a consistently growing population. One step the California legislature has taken to address these issues was the adoption of Assembly Bill 1881, the Water Conservation in Landscaping Act of 2006 (the “Act”), which establishes goals for the efficiency and reduction of water usage in California. The Act has been codified in the following California statutory provisions: Section 4735 of the Civil Code; Article 10.8 (commencing with Section 65591) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code; Section 25401.9 of the Public Resources Code; and Article 4.5 (commencing with Section 535) to Chapter 8 of Division 1 of the Water Code, relating to water conservation.
Friday, February 14, 2014 is Valentine’s Day. A holiday that originated in Italy, it’s all about love, and it has chocolate and champagne as staple foods, making it very seductive. And dangerous, because it’s easy to get carried away. That is where your attorney can help. Several Valentine contracts have been floating around the Internet. We would like to share our adaptation of one that another attorney disseminated to his “romantically proficient” clients. It’s a non-binding contractual agreement for affection, hereinafter the “Valentine Agreement.”
This was the title of a recent newspaper article. As Justin Bieber has been in the news too often lately and seems to be spiraling out of control, and as there is now a community association component to the story, I thought it only fitting that we address the community association issues raised by his recent activities.
I recently read a newspaper article about Justin Bieber and the problems he is allegedly creating for his homeowners association in Calabasas, California. Homeowners are apparently unhappy that he is racing his Ferrari around the association’s streets, and they threatened to withhold payment of their assessments unless and until their board did something about the situation. That would be a mistake for those owners or any owner who has a dispute with their association, because they simply do not have the right to withhold payment of their assessments as leverage to get their association to do what they want.
Does your community association have disabled parking spaces? Maybe I should ask if the association ever had these spaces. There is no police force that goes out and checks. But we know that over time, some boards have “converted” what were initially designated as handicap or disabled parking spaces into guest parking or assigned parking for management or other staff.