Homeowners' associations: delinquencies.

The Davis‑Stirling Common Interest Development Act defines and regulates common interest developments and authorizes a homeowners' association that manages the development to levy assessments to fulfill its obligations. The act provides that a regular or special assessment of the association, fees, reasonable costs of collection, attorney's fees, late charges, and interest, as specified, are a debt of the owner of the separate interest at the time the assessment or other sums are levied. Existing law provides that payments made by a homeowner to reduce the debt shall first be applied to the assessments owed, and may only be applied to fees, reasonable costs of collection, attorney's fees, late charges, and interest only after the assessments owed are paid in full. This bill would clarify that the provisions that set forth the order in which payments are to be allocated apply to any agent of the homeowners' association and to any 3rd party assigned to collect payment for purposes of collection of the debt. This bill would provide that a homeowner may not waive the right to have payments allocated in the order specified. This bill would also require the homeowners' association and its agent to accept partial payments of the debt if the partial payments comply with the terms of a written agreement. Existing law requires a homeowners' association, if requested by a homeowner, to meet with the board in special session, within 45 days of the request, to discuss a payment plan. Existing law provides that if there is no special session scheduled within the 45-day period, that the board may designate a committee to meet with the homeowner to discuss a payment plan within that time period. This bill would only allow the board to designate a committee to meet with the homeowner if the homeowner authorizes the designation of that committee, and, if the homeowner does not authorize the designation of the committee, would require the meeting to discuss a payment plan to take place at the next regularly scheduled board meeting. This bill would authorize either an owner or the association to have counsel present at the meeting, subject to the requirement that the other party is notified of the counsel's presence at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled meeting. If there are minutes of an executive meeting concerning the payment plan, this bill would authorize the owner to request a copy of the portion of those minutes that relate to the payment plan. This bill would require all payment plans to be made in writing and would require that a copy of an executed contract for a payment plan be sent to the owner within 7 days following the execution of the contract. This bill would also provide that, if the association contracts with an agent to collect payments made by the owner, that agent would be subject to the provisions of the act.