Real Estate & Property Law

Posting of Minutes, Is It Required in California?

The following is a simple question that was sent to me recently.

"Do Hoa's in Bakersfield, California have to post in public the minutes from regular monthly meetings, including Executive sessions minute so that the homeowners can view them?"

The answer is that HOAs in California are not required to post minutes of meetings so that the owners can view them. Some do post the open meeting minutes for the courtesy and convenience of owner review. Some mail them out to owners as a courtesy. What is required is that the HOA provide copies of minutes of open meetings to members that request them in writing, and that they tell the owners each year in an annual disclosure how owners can obtain copies of these minutes. The HOA is entitled to charge an owner for the cost of reproducing and mailing the minutes of a meeting. There is no requirement to post or distribute minutes of executive sessions. Those meetings are limited to certain subjects (described in prior blogs) and are confidential and not for distribution to the membership.

As for timing, upon a proper written request, the Board must make minutes available to the requesting owner within 30 days of a meeting, even though in most cases the minutes will not yet be approved. In such a case they should clearly be marked "draft" status.

These provisions, along with others related to meetings, are found in the Common Interest Development Open Meetings Act which begins at Civil Code Section 1363.05, and is availble by direct link through my website at http://www,californiacondoguru.com on the Resources Page.

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).