Seven bills moving through Sacramento touch cooling systems, board texts, management fees, ADU impact fees, AI-altered listing photos, common area utility failures and mobilehome termination notices. Two have cleared the Legislature. None of them are law yet.
If you sit on an HOA board or manage one in California, there are several bills moving through Sacramento right now that deserve your attention.
Some have already passed the Legislature and are awaiting final action. Others are still moving. That distinction matters, because these are not all law yet.
But waiting until a bill becomes law to figure out what it means is not much of a compliance strategy.
Here are seven I am watching and, more importantly, what they could mean in the real world.
AB 1684: Cooling systems and HOA restrictions
Status: passed the Legislature, being enrolled.
AB 1684 would significantly limit an HOA's ability to prohibit or restrict the installation, replacement, upgrade or use of code-compliant cooling systems within a separate interest.
The part that should get a board's attention is enforcement. A willful violation could expose an association to actual damages, a civil penalty of up to $2,000, plus attorney fees and court costs.
What to do: pull your CC&Rs and architectural guidelines. If they contain restrictions on air conditioning or cooling systems, identify them now and discuss the potential impact of AB 1684 with association counsel. The bill has not been chaptered yet, but this is not something I would wait until the last minute to review.
AB 1184: Be careful conducting board business by email or text
Status: still moving through the Legislature.
AB 1184 would tighten California's restrictions on serial communications among HOA directors. A majority of the board would generally be prohibited from using a series of communications outside an authorized meeting to deliberate or act on association business, subject to specified exceptions for informational and ministerial communications.
In plain English, that innocent-looking group text can become a governance problem if the board starts actually deliberating or making decisions in it. The bill also contains new provisions involving electronic recordings of open board sessions and association records.
What to do: if your board routinely works through issues in group texts or reply-all email chains, start separating information sharing from actual deliberation and decision-making. Move the decision to the meeting.
AB 739: Managing agent fees become more transparent
Status: still moving through the Legislature.
AB 739 would require HOA boards using a managing agent to conduct an annual review of a statement detailing management fees, including specified management charges, fee-schedule charges and reimbursable expenses. That statement would also become an association record available for inspection.
For management companies, this means homeowners may get a clearer look at exactly what their association is paying for management. For boards, it creates another financial oversight and recordkeeping responsibility.
What to do: managers should make sure their fee structures are organized, understandable and easy to explain. Boards should prepare to incorporate the annual review into their normal governance calendar.
SB 1117: ADU impact fees could get cheaper
Status: still moving through the Legislature.
Current California law already generally exempts ADUs of 750 square feet or less from impact fees. SB 1117 would change the proportional calculation for certain larger ADUs so that impact fees are calculated based on the square footage exceeding 750 square feet rather than the entire ADU.
For example, on a qualifying 1,100 square foot ADU, the proportional calculation would apply to the 350 square feet above the threshold. There are limitations, including provisions concerning the number of ADUs on a lot, so do not build a feasibility analysis around that simplified example alone.
What to do: if you are evaluating an ADU project, this is worth watching. Verify the final law and your local agency's implementation before putting the savings into your construction budget.
AB 2025: AI and digitally altered rental photos get disclosure rules
Status: still moving through the Legislature.
This one is particularly interesting given how quickly AI-generated and AI-edited real estate marketing has become mainstream. AB 2025 would require disclosure when certain digitally altered images are used to advertise rental property. The original image would also need to be provided or made accessible, including through methods such as a publicly accessible link, URL or QR code.
Ordinary photographic corrections such as cropping, lighting, exposure, sharpening and similar adjustments that do not materially change the representation of the property are treated differently. The real target is imagery that changes what the property appears to contain or look like. Think virtual staging and more substantial digital alterations, not simply correcting an underexposed photograph.
What to do: preserve your originals. If you use AI or virtual staging for rental advertising, build disclosure and original-image retention into the workflow now.
AB 1892: Common area utility failures and HOA responsibility
Status: passed the Legislature, enrolled.
This is an important one, and the details matter. Under AB 1892, unless the declaration provides otherwise or the utility provider is responsible, the association would generally be responsible for repairs and replacements necessary to restore gas, heat, water or electrical service when the interruption begins in the common area, even when the problem extends into another area.
That is potentially significant for both maintenance responsibility and association budgeting. The bill also changes HOA election procedures, including nomination-notice timelines.
What to do: review your declaration and maintenance responsibilities. Boards and managers should understand where association responsibility begins before the next broken water, electrical or gas line turns into a dispute over who pays.
AB 1817: Mobilehome park termination notices get more specific
Status: passed the Legislature, enrolled.
AB 1817 would tighten notice requirements when a mobilehome park tenancy is being terminated based on failure to comply with a park rule or regulation. Notices would need to identify the specific rule involved, provide facts describing the alleged violation and identify required corrective action. A generic statement that someone violated park rules is not enough.
What to do: park owners and managers should review their violation and termination templates if the bill is enacted. Procedural mistakes in a termination notice can turn into expensive delays.
The bigger picture
What interests me about legislation like this is not simply whether a bill passed the Assembly or moved to third reading. It is what happens afterward.
A board continues discussing business through a group text. An old CC&R provision restricting air conditioning stays in the governing documents. A property manager virtually stages a rental and does not retain the original photograph. A utility line fails and suddenly the owner and association disagree about who writes the check.
That is where legislation stops being theoretical.
If you manage property, sit on an HOA board or own property in a common interest development, now is the time to identify which of these bills could affect you. Not all seven are law yet, and several could still change before enactment.
I will keep watching them as Sacramento finishes the 2025-2026 legislative session, because the gap between what a bill says and what it costs you is usually where things get interesting.
Too curious to retire, too stubborn to be put out to pasture.
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Courtney and Tony Self and the TownhomePros team have been navigating South Bay townhome and HOA communities for 15+ years. Reach out, free consultation, no pressure.
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