Selective enforcement, and the 2025 limits
Selective enforcement is a standard tool for pressuring inconvenient members. California tightened the rules substantially in 2025.
The $100 cap (AB 130)
AB 130, effective June 30, 2025, amended Civil Code §§ 5850 and 5855. The core changes:
- Monetary penalties are capped at $100 per violation.
- No late charges or interest may be applied to a monetary penalty.
- A fine above $100 is permitted only where the violation has an adverse health or safety impact on the common area or another member’s property — and the board must first adopt a written finding in an open meeting identifying the specific health or safety risk.
The opportunity to cure
This is the provision most likely to matter day to day. Under AB 130 you must be given a chance to correct the violation before the disciplinary hearing. Fix it before the hearing — or demonstrate a commitment to fixing it, such as by producing a signed contract or a paid deposit — and no fine or other discipline may be imposed.
Our board was briefed on this. From the July 17, 2025 minutes:
“The Board was updated on the AB 130 change that affects fines for violations. Moving forward a unit can only be fined a maximum of $100 per issue, if the violation is remedied prior to the hearing date with proof of resolution the HOA cannot assess fines.”
The board’s own fine policy update, discussed at the May 22, 2025 meeting, contemplated “a $1,000.00 fine for dumping in the common areas” and raising hearing notice fines from $50 to $100. That $1,000 figure would now require the board to make and document a specific health-or-safety finding in open session.
The procedural requirements
Civil Code § 5855 sets out what a board must do before imposing discipline:
- At least 10 days’ written notice of the hearing, stating its date, time and place, the nature of the alleged violation, and your right to attend and address the board.
- The hearing is held in executive session if you ask for it.
- Written notice of the decision within 14 days of the board’s action (shortened and clarified by AB 130).
A board that misses these steps has not validly imposed discipline. Procedural defects are the most common reason fines fail when challenged.
The Association’s own schedule, and which one
Civil Code § 5850(a) requires a board that fines to “adopt and distribute to each member, in the annual policy statement prepared pursuant to Section 5310, a schedule of the monetary penalties that may be assessed.” The Association has two.
| Fine Policy adopted November 21, 2002 | Fine Policy in the Rules, adopted January 2011 | |
|---|---|---|
| First infraction | $50 | $50 |
| Second, same violation | $100 | $100 |
| Third | $200 | $150 — “increased by fifty dollar ($50.00) increments” |
| Fourth | $500 | $200, and so on |
| Notice of hearing | at least 10 days | at least 15 days |
| Time to cure | 10 days; 48 hours for health and safety | 10 days; 48 hours for health and safety |
| Stated authority | Bylaws Article VI, Section 5(e) | Bylaws Article VI, Section 5(e) |
Both are real, and it matters which one the Association distributes. The 2002 policy is the one attached to the annual policy statements for fiscal years 2021, 2024 and 2025, under the heading “Statement of Association’s Discipline Policy and Schedule of Penalties (Attached)”. The 2011 policy is the one printed in the Rules and Regulations. The FY2026 policy statement lists the same “(Attached)” item and attaches nothing.
Under § 5850(c) a penalty “shall not exceed the lesser of” the scheduled amount and $100 per violation, so from June 30, 2025 the difference between the two schedules above $100 no longer sets what may be imposed. What still turns on it is the notice: 15 days under the 2011 policy against 10 under the 2002 one and under § 5855(a), and a governing document may promise more than the statute. If you are noticed for a hearing, ask which policy the notice was issued under.
The board’s revision of May to July 2025, sent to counsel for a 28-day comment period, had not been distributed as of October 2025, and none of the minutes we hold since, through August 20, 2026, mentions the fine policy at all. Under § 5850(f) the Association “shall provide a copy of the most recently distributed schedule of monetary penalties, along with any applicable supplements to that schedule, to any member upon request” — and the most recently distributed one, as of the FY2025 statement of November 25, 2024, is the policy of 2002.
Sources: Fine Policy for Violations of the Rules and Regulations, "Adopted: November 21, 2002", as attached to the FY2021 Annual Budget Report and Policy Statement (November 24, 2020, p. 15), the FY2024 report (November 28, 2023, p. 14) and the FY2025 report (November 25, 2024, p. 15); Rules and Regulations, revised January 2011, Fine Policy at p. 14 of the original; FY2026 Annual Budget Report, table of contents item 7; Civil Code §§ 5850 and 5855, read on leginfo September 14, 2026; Regular Session Minutes, May 22, June 26 and July 17, 2025, and November 20, 2025 to August 20, 2026.
If you receive a fine you believe is invalid
The sequence that protects you:
- Request the hearing and attend it. Bring documentation.
- Cure the violation if you can, before the hearing date, and document that you did.
- If a fine is imposed anyway, pay it under protest under Civil Code § 5658 and say so in writing, which preserves your right to contest it. Worth knowing while you decide: a disciplinary fine is not an assessment, and cannot itself become a lien on your home. Civil Code § 5725(b) provides that a monetary penalty imposed for failing to comply with the governing documents, “except for the late payments, may not be characterized nor treated in the governing documents as an assessment that may become a lien against the member’s separate interest.” Unpaid assessments are a different matter entirely — see Dues, Special Assessments, and the 20% Ceiling.
- Request Internal Dispute Resolution under Civil Code § 5910. The association must take part and cannot charge you — template letter.
- If it is still unresolved, small claims court is available, and the association carries the burden of proving the charge was validly imposed.
One more: under Civil Code § 4765, a board denying an architectural application must give a written decision explaining the specific reason for the denial. A denial resting on an unwritten policy exceeds the board’s authority.
Last reviewed September 14, 2026