Our HOA Documents do not conform to the new Davis Stirling Act. Does our documents or the Davis Stirling Act control what we do?

Generally, if there is a conflict between statutory law and a provisions in an HOA document, the statutory provisions will control – that means the provisions in your documents which conflict with the statutory provisions are void. Effective January 1, 2014 the prior Davis Stirling Act was repealed and a new Davis Stirling Act was passed by the California legislature. To often, we hear that our Bylaws or Declaration of Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions allow us to do “X”, but you find out “x” violates the current law or you do not know that “X” violates the current law. The resulting risk is litigation and lack of knowledge or continuous and consistent action is not a defense to violation of a statute. We recommend that you have your existing Bylaws, Declaration of Conditions Covenants and Restrictions and other Operating Documents such as your Election Policy, Policies for Deliquent Assessment collection, Policies and Procedures for Enforcement of Governing Documents be reviewed for compliance with the new law.