Sacramento Legislation Aims to Curb Owners’ & Directors’ Free Speech Online – Center for California Homeowner Association Law

Yes, it’s true.

A Santa Clara County association levied a $12,500 special assessment on a homeowner, who posted comments on the Next Door platform describing discussions held at board meetings. The HOA president moderates the Next Door platform and says the $12,500 is the bill charged by the association’s law firm to advise the board on the homeowner’s postings. The board still refuses to itemize the bill or supply supporting evidence of the charges. The board summoned the homeowner to a second disciplinary June 2 for refusing to pay this bill and has now suspended all his membership rights including voting rights and has levied an additional $500 fine.
A Marin County homeowner – a lawyer and former board member – created a website that discussed association elections and the rules that the board adopted to execute them. Her website asserted her opinion that the rules were invalid. The HOA’s law firm has demanded that she take down the website; she has refused, and her case is now in litigation.

AB1410/Rodriguez – to be voted on next week in Senate Judiciary — would legalize the board behavior described above and legalize the board’s power to punish. AB1410 would give California HOA boards the legal power to stop homeowners from posting online any comments the board doesn’t like.

Here’s what the bill says:

“If an online resource is created, administered, edited, moderated, owned or controlled by the association, then the association may moderate the content by prohibiting, rejecting, redacting, or removing content posted by members to that online resource…”

This is what happened to the Santa Clara homeowner: the board president moderated the Next Door platform, didn’t like what the homeowner wrote, removed it, and then the board mobilized its law firm and its police powers to punish the owner with a $12,500 special assessment and other penalties.
Despite the second disciplinary hearing on June 2 the homeowner still refuses to pay.

Is this kind of censorship going on in your own HOA?

Existing law Civil Code §4515 say that “The Legislature intends that members and residents of common interest developments have the ability to exercise their rights under law to peacefully assemble and freely communicate with one another and with others with respect to common interest development living or for social, political, or educational purposes.”

In other words, state law affirms that homeowners don’t check their First Amendment right of freedom of speech at the door when they buy an association home. Nor do HOA boards have the right to take away this constitutional right. The Center for HOA Law sponsored the legislation that created this law: Civil Code Section 4515.

AB1410, however, would do just that: void this right.
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HOMEOWNERS NEED TO TAKE ACTION TO STOP THIS BILL.
WE URGE YOU TO

PHONE THE AUTHOR’S OFFICE IN SACRAMENTO – DON’T email; Rodriguez won’t get it — AND INSIST THAT HE WITHDRAW THE BILL; HIS NAME IS ASSEMBLYMEMBER FREDDIE RODRIGUEZ OF CHINO: 916.319.2052 and also
PHONE THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SENATOR TOM UMBERG IN SACRAMENTO TO INSIST THAT HE VOTE “NO!” ON AB1410. HIS PHONE IS 916.651.4034. HE IS FROM SANTA ANA (ORANGE COUNTY)

This NewsBrief gives you two recent examples of board censorship going on now. Email us ones you know about. Email them to [email protected]

Here’s the link to AB1410 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1410

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