California is experiencing the worst drought in over a century. As a result, the California Legislature has enacted a number of laws aimed at water conservation. Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board to take appropriate actions to prevent unreasonable water use. …
AB 1978 creates the Property Services Workers Protection Act. Adding Part 4.2 (commencing with Section 1420) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, it requires every janitorial business within the State of California to register yearly with the Commissioner of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) and pay a…
The California Air Resources Board (“ARB”) passed a regulation (“Regulation”) that requires diesel trucks and buses that operate in California to be upgraded to reduce emissions. The Regulation has a direct impact on HOAs and requires them to take steps to verify that certain vehicles they hire are properly certified…
On August 27, 2015, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) published its decision in the Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. case (“BFI Case”). In that case, Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. (“BFI”) retained the services of Leadpoint Business Services (“LBS”) to provide staff to one of BFI’s recycling facilities. The…
In April of last year Governor Brown ordered mandatory water use reductions for the first time in California’s history in order to address the prolonged California drought crisis. That order directed the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to impose a twenty-five percent (25%) reduction on the state’s 400+ local…
One of the primary purposes of any homeowners association (HOA) is to manage, maintain and repair the common areas throughout the HOA’s development. This naturally requires the HOA to contract with third-party vendors to furnish goods or services to the HOA (e.g., landscaping, construction, remediation, painting, plumbing, etc.). We are…
*New Legislation Existing law requires a landlord to repair certain “dilapidations” that render a unit untenantable. SB 655 (Mitchell) was proposed earlier this year in order to specify a landlord’s responsibilities in connection with repairs to a building that are necessitated by the presence of mold. SB 655 was approved on…
*New Legislation We have blogged about legislation enacted in 2014 that made several changes to Civil Code Section 4735 in response to California’s continuing, record-breaking drought. One of those changes served to prohibit HOAs from fining homeowners for failing to adequately water vegetation or lawns during government-declared drought periods. Earlier…
New Legislation* In recent years the California legislature has proposed bills that would require homeowners associations (HOAs) to permit the installation of artificial turf (grass) in their communities. Those bills never made it into law, and were vetoed by the California Governor due to the Governor’s belief that “[t]he decision…
The requirements for operating and maintaining “public pools” have been subject to various regulatory changes in recent years. Those changes have impacted pools within private homeowners associations (HOAs), as the California Legislature and Department of Health have defined the term “public pools” to include pools located within private HOAs and residential…