Your Right to Organize

The common assumption is backwards

Owners often assume the association can shut down organizing. The opposite is true. Civil Code § 4515 exists to protect it, and was expanded after 2020 to cover organizing online.

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 meetings, when it 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 those same subjects, “even if the content is critical of the association.”

A website, a Facebook group, an email list about association elections and governance: all squarely inside what the Legislature chose to protect.

What the association cannot do

Under § 4515(c), it 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), it 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 superior court or small claims court. If the member prevails, the court may assess a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation, on top of 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 sets the order of authority: state law first, then the CC&Rs, then the Articles of Incorporation, then the Bylaws, then operating rules. A rule restricting posting, distributing information, or discussing association business online is void to the extent it conflicts with § 4515.

Our Rules and Regulations were revised in January 2011 and the Bylaws date from 1971 — both predate § 4515 entirely. Where they conflict, the statute wins.