SB 1267 would shield California HOAs from liability for member-owned EV chargers
SB 1267 would shield California HOAs from liability for member-owned EV chargers
2026-09-09 · California · Legislation · Pending — not yet law
A bill that would limit a California homeowners association's liability for electric vehicle charging stations it does not own is awaiting the Governor's signature. SB 1267 is not law. It was enrolled and presented to Governor Gavin Newsom on August 30, 2026 at 6 p.m., after the Senate concurred in the Assembly's amendments 40–0 on August 25.1
Authored by Senator Ben Allen and introduced on February 19, 2026, the bill amends Civil Code section 4745 — the statute that has required California associations to permit owner-installed charging stations since 2012.
It is one of the few common interest development bills this session that reduces association exposure rather than expanding association duties, and it drew no opposition on the floor of either house.
The liability shield
The central provision grants associations civil liability protection for charging stations they do not own, except for gross negligence.2 An association that permits an owner to install equipment in a parking stall would not be answerable for that equipment on an ordinary negligence theory.
The word that does the work: "use"
Section 4745 already makes the installing owner responsible for costs associated with a charging station. The existing list reaches installation, maintenance, repair, removal and replacement. It does not reach use.
SB 1267 adds it. Owner responsibility would extend to damage resulting from the use of the station, covering damage to the charging station itself, the common area, the exclusive use common area, or separate interests. That single addition closes the gap between a properly installed charger and a fire or electrical event arising while it is operating.
The obligation would also run to successive owners, not only the owner who installed the equipment, and the installing owner must indemnify or reimburse the association or its members for loss or damage caused by the installation.
Insurance and the 60-day clock
An owner would have to maintain a liability coverage policy and deliver a certificate of insurance within 14 days of approval and annually thereafter. The bill mandates no specific dollar amount of coverage.
Owners who charge using an existing NEMA standard AC plug are exempt from the coverage requirement entirely — the exemption is aimed at ordinary outlet charging rather than installed equipment.
Applications would be deemed approved if not denied in writing within 60 days of receipt.
What it would change for boards and managers
Annual certificate tracking becomes a compliance calendar item. The 14-day certificate is a one-time event an association can handle at approval. The annual renewal is not: it is a recurring obligation across every charging station in the community, indefinitely. An association with forty installed chargers would be tracking forty annual renewal dates. Nothing in the bill creates a mechanism for the association to compel a certificate, which makes the tracking system the association's own problem to design.
Successive owners inherit an obligation they may not know exists. Because responsibility runs to successive owners, the charging station becomes a disclosure matter at resale. An association's resale disclosure package would need to identify the equipment, the obligation, and the insurance requirement — or the new owner arrives uninformed and uninsured, and the certificate cycle silently breaks at the transfer.
The 60-day denial clock requires a written disposition. As with the deemed-approval provisions elsewhere in Davis-Stirling, silence approves. A board that defers an application pending an electrical capacity study without issuing a written denial would face automatic approval at day 61.
Gross negligence is the exception that defines the shield. The protection is for stations the association does not own, and it does not reach gross negligence. An association that receives notice of a defective installation, or of an overloaded panel serving member equipment, and does nothing, is operating in the territory the exception describes. The shield rewards associations that act on what they are told.
Association-owned equipment is outside the shield entirely. The protection is expressly for stations the association does not own. A community that has installed its own chargers in the common area — an increasingly common amenity decision — gets nothing from this provision for that equipment, and should not read the bill as covering its whole EV program.
How it fits with the 2026 insurance changes
SB 1267 sits on top of changes to section 4745 that took effect January 1, 2026 under SB 770, which addressed EV charging insurance requirements. The result if SB 1267 is signed is a section amended in two consecutive years on adjacent subject matter.
Boards and managers working from a policy template drafted before 2026 should assume it is out of date in at least two respects, and should check the operative text of section 4745 rather than a summary. The interaction with the association's own master policy and insurance obligations is the part most likely to have been missed.
What to watch next
The Governor must act by September 30, 2026.3 A veto ends the bill: the two-year session has closed and nothing carries into 2027.
If signed, the ordinary operative date is January 1, 2027. The practical preparation is not legal drafting but administration — a register of installed stations, the owner of record for each, the certificate on file, and its renewal date. Associations that have permitted installations for a decade without keeping that register would be building it retroactively.
Related California HOA Topics
- SB 1267, California Legislature — bill status and complete history (enrolled and presented to the Governor August 30, 2026) ↩
- SB 1267, California Legislature — bill text and Legislative Counsel's Digest (amending Civil Code § 4745) ↩
- 2026 Tentative Legislative Calendar, California State Senate (September 30 last day for the Governor to act) ↩
- CAI-CLAC, Legislative Session Hot Bills — California Legislative Action Committee bill positions (support) ↩
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