Your Right to Organize

Owners often assume that organizing with each other is something the association can shut down. In California, the opposite is true. Civil Code § 4515 was written specifically to protect this activity, and it was expanded after 2020 to cover online organizing.

What the law protects🔗

Section 4515(b) protects a member’s or resident’s right to do all of the following:

• Peacefully assemble or meet with members, residents, and their guests during reasonable hours, on matters relating to common interest development living or public elections.
• Invite public officials and candidates to speak on matters of public interest.
• Use the common area for these assemblies, when the facility is not otherwise in use.
• Canvass and petition members, the board, and residents at reasonable hours.
• Distribute or circulate information — without prior permission — about common interest development living, association elections, legislation, and issues of concern to members.
• Use social media or other online resources to discuss these same subjects, “even if the content is critical of the association.”

That last clause is the operative one for a group like ours. A website, a Facebook group, and an email list discussing association elections and governance are squarely inside the conduct the Legislature chose to protect.

What the association cannot do🔗

Under § 4515(c), the association may not require a member to pay a fee, make a deposit, obtain liability insurance, or pay the association’s own insurance premium as a condition of using the common area for these purposes.

Under § 4515(e), the association may not retaliate against a member for exercising these rights.

If the association interferes🔗

A member who is prevented from exercising these rights may bring an action in either superior court or small claims court. If the member prevails, the court may assess a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation, in addition to any other relief.

What this means at Jamacha Greens🔗

Nothing in our CC&Rs, Bylaws, or Rules and Regulations can override § 4515. Civil Code § 4205 establishes the governing hierarchy: state law controls over the CC&Rs, which control over the Bylaws, which control over operating rules. A rule that restricts posting, distributing information, or discussing association business online is void to the extent it conflicts with § 4515.

Our Rules and Regulations (revised January 2011) predate § 4515 entirely, as do the Bylaws (1971). Where they conflict, the statute wins.