2013 Legislation: SB 125

This bill exempts a property owner of a structure that is both within a state responsibility area and within the boundaries of a local fire district that provides fire protection […]

2013 Legislation: AB 1205

This bill would create a mediation program for alleged violations of the Mobilehome Residency Law, and would impose financial assessments to maintain the program. ECHO sought an amendment that would […]

2013 Legislation: SB 752

This bill establishes a new body of law, separate from the Davis-Stirling Act, that governs exclusively commercial and industrial CIDs. Mixed commercial and residential associations are not affected. The Davis-Stirling […]

2013 Legislation: SB 745

This annual housing omnibus bill contains non-controversial provisions that clean up mistakes within the new Davis-Stirling Act, effective in January 2014.

2013 Legislation: SB 510

This bill provides that a local agency is required to consider the results of a survey in making its decision to approve or reject a map related to the conversion […]

2013 Legislation: SB 298

This region-specific bill authorizes the Orange County Board of Supervisors to contract for supplemental law enforcement services for homeowners’ associations to enforce Vehicle Code on the association’s owned and maintained […]

2013 Legislative Activity Overview

ECHO watches a wide variety of bills every legislative session. While some bills affect common interest developments (CIDs) explicitly, many bills have an “accidental” impact on our industry. We look […]

2014 Legislation: AB 968 – Exclusive Use Common Area

ECHO is Sponsoring AB 968 on behalf of California HOAs. Unless your governing documents are very clear, the Davis-Stirling Act exposes associations and their members to expensive legal battles, major […]

2013 Legislation: AB 746

This bill prohibits the smoking of cigarettes or other tobacco products in all areas of multifamily dwellings. It provides an exception for designated smoking areas. The bill defines multifamily dwelling […]

2013 Legislation: AB 126

This bill requires a time-share association to maintain a complete list of the names and postal addresses of all owners of time-share interests in the time-share plan and to update […]

Why Have Architectural Control?

Published in the ECHO Journal, May 2007 North Beverly Park, a common interest development governed by the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, is a luxury community located in Beverly Hills. […]

read more

Reserve Fund Fallacies

Published in the ECHO Journal, May 2007 Life is kind of divided up between beliefs that are real and those that are false, mistaken, fanciful, or fallacious. It would be […]

read more

Barking Dogs in HOAs: How to Handle Pet-Related Nuisances

How much barking is too much? What constitutes a noise nuisance? Boards of directors need a basis for determining valid noise complaints from unreasonable ones. Associations should adopt definitions in […]

read more

Transitions: New HOA Boards Have Their Problems

Published in the ECHO Journal, June 2007 With the large number of new condominium complexes that have been built in the last several years, we are seeing similar transitions over time. […]

read more

How to Effectively Use Methods of Communication in Your HOA

The Dilemma of Communication One of the biggest challenges for managers and boards of directors is to deal with both mundane and serious situations on a daily basis. If the […]

read more

20 Questions: Independent Contractor or Employee?

The rules that define contractor or employee relationships are confusing, involving common law, employment law, and tax law. These 20 questions will help you determine whether your HOA service provider […]

read more

How to Plan Your HOA’s Budget

Budgeting in condo associations and other HOAs takes planning: gathering the right disclosure documents, anticipating rate changes in utilities and insurance, and following the Davis-Stirling Act. Get started with all […]

read more

Presidential Buffet

Published in the ECHO Journal, August 2007 Many excellent and learned treatises are available on how to be a good board member and more specifically a good and effective president […]

read more

Legislative Alert

Published in the ECHO Journal, August 2007 To All Concerned with the Health of Common Interest Developments: The Executive Council of Homeowners (ECHO), on behalf of its more than 1,550 community […]

read more

HOA Records Security: Protecting Homeowners’ Personal Information

How prepared is your HOA or management company in today’s high technology world of information? Have you taken the time to evaluate if association data are in compliance with the […]

read more

HOA Transfer Fees

Published in the ECHO Journal, September 2007 A common question from purchasers of property in homeowner associations and the realtors who sell them is: “Why are the transfer fee and […]

read more

Neighbor Disputes

Published in the ECHO Journal, September 2007   There was a time when boards were advised to stay out of neighbor to neighbor disputes. Unfortunately, the legislature and the courts […]

read more