The California HOA open meeting act, part of the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act at Civil Code sections 4900 through 4955, requires your homeowners association’s board to meet in the open, give advance notice with an agenda, let members attend and speak, and keep closed-door discussions to a short list of sensitive topics. If the board breaks these rules, you have one year to sue for up to $500 per violation plus your attorney’s fees.1California Legislative Information. California Civil Code CIV 4955
What Counts as a Board Meeting
Civil Code section 4090 defines a board meeting as any gathering of enough directors to form a quorum where they hear, discuss, or deliberate on association business.2Davis-Stirling.com. California Civil Code 4090 The setting does not matter. A living room, a clubhouse, a video call. If a quorum is present and association business comes up, the open meeting rules apply.
The definition also captures something boards often walk into by accident: serial meetings. Section 4910 prohibits the board from conducting business through a series of electronic transmissions, whether that is an email chain, a group text, or any similar back-and-forth.3FindHOALaw. California Civil Code 4910 – No Board Action Outside of Meeting A president who emails three directors one at a time to line up support for a landscaping contract has held a meeting in secret, and the resulting action can be challenged. The same statute prohibits action on any item of business outside a properly noticed meeting. Informal polls and hallway agreements do not count as decisions.
Notice and Agenda Requirements
The association must give members written notice of the time and place of every board meeting at least four days in advance.4California Legislative Information. California Civil Code CIV 4920 For a nonemergency meeting that will be held entirely in executive session, the minimum drops to two days. If your governing documents demand more notice than the statute, the longer period controls.
Every notice must include the agenda. This is not a formality. The agenda tells members what the board plans to discuss and limits what the board can act on. If a topic is not on the agenda, the board should not be voting on it. Boards that routinely slip items in under “new business” are undermining the notice requirement and inviting challenges to those decisions.
Your Right to Attend and Speak
Every member has the right to attend any board meeting that is not held in executive session.5FindHOALaw. California Civil Code 4925 – Rights to Attend Open Meetings The board must also let any member speak at any open meeting. The statute says “shall permit,” which leaves no room for a board to refuse public comment.
The board can set reasonable time limits, and those limits apply equally to everyone. A common approach is three to five minutes per speaker during a designated open forum, though the statute does not fix a number. What the board cannot do is eliminate the speaking period or selectively silence certain members.
You can also record open meetings, subject to reasonable rules the board adopts, such as a rule that recording devices cannot be disruptive. Recording of executive sessions is prohibited.
Getting the Minutes
Minutes, draft minutes, or a summary must be made available to members within 30 days of any open board meeting.6Davis-Stirling.com. California Civil Code 4950 The association can charge actual copying costs but cannot refuse to provide them. If you submit a formal written request to inspect minutes from the current fiscal year, the association has 10 business days to respond. For the prior two fiscal years, the deadline is 30 calendar days.7FindHOALaw. California Civil Code 5210 – Time Periods for Production of Association Records Meeting minutes are permanently subject to inspection, so the association must keep them indefinitely.
Virtual and Teleconference Meetings
Since January 1, 2024, Civil Code section 4926 has allowed boards to hold meetings entirely by teleconference or videoconference with no physical location, as long as they meet several conditions.8FindHOALaw. California Civil Code 4926 – Meetings Entirely by Teleconference Before this change, a teleconference meeting had to designate at least one physical location where members could show up.
To hold a fully virtual meeting, the association must do all of the following:
- Include clear technical instructions in the notice for joining by teleconference or videoconference.
- List a phone number and email address for someone who can help with technical problems before and during the meeting.
- Remind members in the notice that they can request individual delivery of meeting notices, and explain how.
- Give every director and member the same ability to participate as they would in person.
- Conduct all director votes by roll call.
- Offer anyone entitled to participate the option of joining by telephone.
Fully virtual meetings cannot be used for meetings where ballots are counted and tabulated, such as director elections or assessment votes. Those still require at least one physical location.
If the board is not using the fully virtual option under section 4926, its teleconference notice must still identify at least one physical location where members can attend in person, and at least one director or board designee must be present there.2Davis-Stirling.com. California Civil Code 4090
When the Board Can Close the Meeting
Civil Code section 4935 identifies the specific topics that can or must be handled in executive session, which is closed to the general membership.9California Legislative Information. California Civil Code CIV 4935 The board may adjourn to executive session to discuss:
- Pending or anticipated litigation involving the association.
- Formation of contracts with third parties, such as vendors or management companies.
- Member discipline for rule violations. If the member who is the subject of the discussion asks for a closed session, the board must move it there, and that member has the right to attend.
- Personnel matters, including hiring, firing, and performance reviews.
- Assessment payment plans with a delinquent member. These conversations must be held in executive session.
The board must also make foreclosure decisions in executive session. A decision to initiate foreclosure on a member’s property can only be made by a majority vote of the board in closed session.
The gap between “may” and “must” matters. The board has discretion to discuss litigation or contracts in open session if it wants. It has no discretion on payment plans, foreclosure decisions, or member discipline when the affected member requests privacy.
Emergency Meetings
When something comes up that could not have been reasonably foreseen and needs immediate attention, the board can call an emergency meeting. Civil Code section 4923 defines an emergency as circumstances where providing normal notice is impracticable. A burst pipe, a sudden structural failure, an insurance demand with a next-day deadline.
An emergency meeting can be called by the president or by any two directors other than the president. The four-day notice and agenda posting requirements do not apply.4California Legislative Information. California Civil Code CIV 4920 The meeting can take place in person, by teleconference, or by unanimous written consent through email. If the board uses email, every director must consent in writing, and those consents must be filed with the minutes.3FindHOALaw. California Civil Code 4910 – No Board Action Outside of Meeting Once the directors agree to proceed by email, votes on emergency items need only a simple majority.
Boards sometimes stretch the definition to bypass the open meeting process. A vendor price increase that has been pending for weeks is not an emergency. If a member later challenges the action and a court finds the situation was foreseeable, the board has violated the open meeting rules and the resulting decision is vulnerable.
What You Can Do About a Violation
If you believe the board has violated the open meeting laws, you can file a civil action for declaratory or equitable relief, including injunctive relief and restitution, within one year of the violation.1California Legislative Information. California Civil Code CIV 4955 That one-year deadline is firm, so if you spot a problem, do not sit on it.
A member who prevails is entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs. The court can also impose a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation. The attorney’s fees provision runs one direction: a winning member recovers fees, but a winning association cannot recover costs from you unless the court finds the lawsuit was frivolous.
Try Alternative Dispute Resolution First
Before you file in superior court, California law requires both sides to attempt alternative dispute resolution. Civil Code section 5930 says neither the association nor a member may file an enforcement action for declaratory, injunctive, or writ relief unless the parties have first tried ADR.10California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 5930 Small claims actions are exempt, as are assessment disputes. Skip ADR and go straight to superior court, and you risk having the case dismissed or delayed.
Many associations also offer an internal dispute resolution process, which can be faster and cheaper than formal mediation. Either way, the ADR step is not optional for most open meeting disputes headed to superior court.