Common interest developments: dispute resolution.

The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act defines a common interest development and requires it to be managed by an association. The act requires an association to provide a fair, reasonable, and expeditious procedure for resolving a dispute between an association and a member involving their rights, duties, or liabilities under the act, the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law, or the association's governing documents. The act authorizes an association to develop its own procedure for these purposes and requires this procedure to satisfy specified minimum standards, including, among others, that a resolution of a dispute, pursuant to the procedure, binds the association and is judicially enforceable, and that an agreement, pursuant to the procedure, binds the parties and is judicially enforceable, as specified. The act also requires that the procedure provide a means by which the member and the association may explain their positions. This bill would additionally require the resolution or agreement under an association's procedure for resolving these disputes between an association and a member to be in writing and signed by both parties. The bill would authorize a member and an association to be assisted by an attorney or another person in explaining their positions at their own cost. The act also establishes an alternative procedure applicable to an association that does not otherwise provide a fair, reasonable, and expeditious dispute resolution procedure as described above. Under these provisions a procedure that, among other things, authorizes either party to request, in writing, the other party to meet and confer, prohibits the association from refusing a request to meet and confer, and requires the parties to meet and confer in good faith in an effort to resolve the dispute, is deemed a fair, reasonable, and expeditious dispute resolution procedure. The act provides that an agreement reached under this procedure binds the parties and is judicially enforceable if specified conditions are satisfied. This bill would additionally require the alternative procedure to provide either party the right to have an attorney or another person participate when meeting and conferring provided at their own cost. The bill would require an agreement reached under the alternative procedure that binds the parties and is judicially enforceable to be in writing and signed by both parties, as specified.