HOA HELL

In this episode, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains the concept of fee shifting statutes in California HOA litigation (i.e., when a party is awarded their attorneys’ fees when they win the lawsuit). He also identifies each statute in the Davis-Stirling Act that award homeowners their attorneys’ fees when they prevail. Finally, Kushner explains who homeowner...

In this HOA Q&A, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, addresses whether directors, candidates, or their spouses can serve as delegates and how delegate systems impact recall elections.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ What the Davis-Stirling Act says about directors or candidates serving as delegates. ✅ How Corporations Code § 7152 governs delegate v...

In this HOA Q&A, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains what “delegate voting” means within the context of California HOAs and how it differs from the traditional one-member, one-vote system that most HOA members are used to.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ How delegate voting differs from direct member voting. ✅ Why some large HOAs divide me...

Thinking about dissolving your HOA?  In this episode, California’s foremost expert and homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains that while dissolving your HOA is certainly possible, the reality is far more complicated.   In this episode, attorney Michael Kushner breaks down what it actually takes to dissolve a California HOA, including the legal requirements and the multiple barriers...

In this HOA Q&A, pioneering homeowner-side HOA attorney Michael Kushner, a pioneer in homeowner-side HOA law in California, addresses a community-wide termite tenting project following years without inspections, and explains the legal issues tied to maintenance responsibility, board decision-making, and homeowner displacement and security.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ Why term...

In this HOA Q&A, HOA attorney Michael Kushner, widely regarded as California’s most experienced homeowner-side HOA lawyer, explains why an HOA board cannot avoid the Open Meeting Act by relabeling meetings as “planning sessions.”  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ When discussions regarding HOA business qualifies as a board meeting under Civil Code § 4090(a). ✅ What the Open Meetin...

In this HOA Q&A, pioneering homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains why a board cannot cut off a homeowner during open forum simply because the topic is not listed on the meeting agenda.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ That Civil Code § 4925 guarantees members the right to speak at board meetings. ✅ That Civil Code § 4930 allows homeowners to address any matter wi...

As the devastating fires that swept through Altadena, the Palisades, and Malibu in early 2025 showed us, California’s FAIR Plan is the only fire insurance coverage option available to many homeowners who live in high fire risk areas. And after those fires, more and more of those homeowners and their HOAs are learning that coverage under the FAIR Plan may not be enough to rebuild.   In this episode...

Is your HOA targeting you, imposing illegal fines, or abusing its power? Nationally syndicated radio host Bill Handel (KFI AM 640, “Handel on the Law”) has a direct message for California homeowners: YOU DON’T HAVE TO FIGHT ALONE.  In this unpaid personal endorsement, Radio Hall of Fame inductee Bill Handel endorses Michael Kushner, the pioneering homeowners-side HOA attorney he has trusted person...

California capped HOA fines at $100 under AB 130. But what’s actually happening now that the law has been in effect for nine months?  In this episode, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains what he predicted would happen after AB 130 took effect and how those predictions are now playing out in real HOA disputes, real consultations, and real enforcement cases th...

In this HOA Q&A, HOA attorney Michael Kushner, the pioneer in homeowner-side HOA law in California, addresses a situation where an HOA installs new repipe plumbing that now runs through a homeowner’s ceiling and then claims it will not be responsible for any future water damage.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ Why an HOA cannot simply declare in advance that it will not be respon...

HOA assessments are rising across California, and for many homeowners the financial pressure is getting worse. In this episode, California’s foremost expert and homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains why regular dues are steadily increasing across California HOAs, why special assessments are hitting harder than ever, and what California homeowners need to understand this phenomenon...

In this HOA Q&A, HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, the pioneer in homeowner-side HOA law in California, explains why an HOA’s use of facial recognition technology to identify and track residents and guests in common areas raises serious privacy concerns.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ How ordinary security cameras in common areas are generally allowed in HOA communities. ✅ How fac...

In this episode of HOA HELL, attorney Michael Kushner explains how California’s new SB 625, which into effect on January 1, 2026, dramatically shifts the balance of power in favor of homeowners whose homes were destroyed in a declared disaster.  After the devastating Eaton, Palisades, and Malibu firestorm in Los Angeles in 2025, the California Legislature passed SB 625 to prevent cities and HOAs f...

When homeowners start talking about recalling their HOA board, someone from the HOA’s “side” always predicts chaos. Sometimes they claim that management will quit ands leave the HOA in chaos, while others go even further and predict the HOA’s collapse. Those fears never prove accurate.   🎯 What You’ll Learn in This 1-Minute Tip: ✅ Recalls usually happen because something has already gone terribl...

Architectural committees are common in California HOAs, but not every HOA has one. When an HOA does use an Architectural Review Committee, Architectural Control Committee, or Design Review Committee (these are all different names for the same committee), homeowners often misunderstand what that committee can do, where its authority comes from, and what rights the homeowner has after a denial.  In...

In this HOA Q&A, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains your statutory right to have your attorney present during an Internal Dispute Resolution meeting with your HOA and why giving advance notice, although not required, is still a good idea.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ That the Davis-Stirling Act grants you the right to have an attorney r...

HOA boards often throw around the Business Judgment Rule to shut conversations down and scare homeowners away from pushing back. In this Tip, California’s leading HOA lawyer, Michael Kushner, explains how Bad HOAs use that tactic and what the Business Judgment Rule has to say about it.   🎯 What You’ll Learn in This 1-Minute Tip: ✅ How bad HOAs use the Business Judgment Rule as an intimidation to...

Bill Handel does not need an introduction in Southern California. In this episode of HOA HELL, attorney Michael Kushner sits down with Bill Handel, the voice behind Handel on the Law and the most listened to morning talk show in the country hosted by Bill Handel on KFI’s AM 640.  If you follow talk radio in Southern California, you know Bill’s style. Humor, speed, and a career built on answering l...

In this Q&A, HOA attorney Michael Kushner addresses whether a neighbor was legally justified in pepper spraying a dog that was behind a wall on its owner’s property in a California HOA community.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ When Penal Code § 597 makes intentionally injuring an animal a crime. ✅ What “imminent threat” actually means under California law. ✅ How misidentificat...

Most California HOAs still have not rolled out electronic voting, even though the law has allowed it since January 1, 2025. That is because the law is not automatic, and HOAs have to do real homework before electronic voting is legal in their specific community.  In this episode, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA lawyer, Michael Kushner, explains California’s electronic voting law and what h...

When an HOA board votes to “censure” one of its own directors, it often sounds like discipline. It sounds serious. It sounds like removal. But in California HOAs, censure is something much narrower, and it is frequently misunderstood or misused.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This 1-Minute Tip: ✅ Why censure is not removal from the board. ✅ Why a censured director keeps full voting and participation r...

While HOA boards do not have to keep every homeowner complaint confidential just because someone asks, there are situations where an HOA must keep member communications confidential. This episode covers two scenarios that come up constantly in HOAs. One involves a neighbor complaint and a disturbing pet-related incident, so trigger warning for animal lovers. The other involves a homeowner reportin...

Bad HOA boards in California love to cite the Business Judgment Rule as if it ends the conversation. It doesn’t. In California, the Business Judgment Rule does not protect boards that act in bad faith, ignore their duties, or refuse to act at all.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This 1-Minute Tip: ✅ When directors in California HOAs lose the protections afforded by the Business Judgment Rule. ✅ The typ...

 If your HOA lets sitting board members use the newsletter, email list, website, or clubhouse during an election, it cannot pick favorites. The Davis-Stirling Act requires equal access once HOA resources enter the campaign arena. When incumbents get the microphone, challengers get it too. If the board tips the scale, homeowners can challenge the election.  🎯 What You’ll Learn in This 1-Minute Tip...