The HOA bills that died on August 31 are gone for good — nothing carries over
The HOA bills that died on August 31 are gone for good — nothing carries over
2026-09-09 · California · Legislation
California homeowners association boards tracking legislation this year need one procedural fact, because almost everything else follows from it: the 2025–2026 session has adjourned, and nothing carries over.
California runs two-year sessions. A bill introduced in the first year can carry into the second. 2026 was the second year. Every measure that did not pass by the August 31 deadline is finished — not parked, not pending, not awaiting January.
Any successor must be introduced as a new bill, with a new number, in the 2027–2028 session convening in December 2026, and must start again at the first committee.
What died
AB 1903 — the Right to Repair Act overhaul, which would have authorised a builder to obtain a release in exchange for repair work. Passed the Assembly 70–0 and the Senate 40–0. Last action: “In Assembly. Held at Desk.”1
AB 1184 — the Homeowner Association Accountability and Transparency Act, which would have made meeting recordings inspectable records and barred serial email deliberation. Passed the Assembly 69–0 and the Senate 38–0. Last action: “In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.”2
AB 2579 — the fix to AB 130's $100 fine cap. Out of committee 15–0, then ordered to the inactive file at its own author's request on May 21 and never revived.
SB 1007 — which would have cut the assessment increase cap from 20 percent to 8 percent. Passed the Senate 24–13, was referred to three Assembly committees, and its first hearing was cancelled at the author's request.
Two of them never drew a single no vote
AB 1903 and AB 1184 died in the same 48 hours, in the same posture: a second-house amendment requiring a concurrence vote that the originating house never took before the midnight deadline.
Between them they carried four floor votes — 70–0, 40–0, 69–0 and 38–0 — and not one vote against.
What is still live
Ten common interest development measures were enrolled and presented to the Governor, who must sign or veto by September 30, 2026: AB 1684 (cooling systems), SB 222 (heat pumps), SB 1267 (EV charging), SB 908 (windows), SB 1238 (management, reserves, balconies), AB 2050 (reserve funding), AB 2035 (CC&R thresholds), AB 739 (management fee disclosure), AB 956 (ADUs) and AB 2439 (assessments and liens).
Two have already been signed: AB 1892 (Chapter 169) and AB 2692 (Chapter 124, an urgency statute effective on signing).
Why "nothing carries over" is the part boards get wrong
The two-year structure is genuinely confusing, and the confusion runs in a predictable direction.
A board that watched a bill stall in 2025 was right to assume it might return — SB 222 and AB 739 both did exactly that, introduced in 2025 and reaching the Governor in 2026. So “it can come back next year” is a lesson boards learned correctly, from real examples.
It is simply wrong now. The same stall in 2026 is terminal, because there is no second year left.
The practical consequence is that four questions are settled for at least a year. The $100 fine cap stands as enacted. The 20 percent assessment increase limit stands. The Right to Repair Act is unamended. Board meeting minutes, serial communications and litigation disclosure are governed by existing law.
A board that deferred a decision pending one of those bills has been waiting for something that will not arrive, and should decide.
How a unanimous bill dies
The mechanism is worth understanding because it will recur.
When the second house amends a bill, the originating house must vote to concur before the bill can be enrolled. That is a real vote with a real deadline. The Senate passed AB 1903 after 11:15 p.m. on August 31 — the constitutional last day for either house to pass bills — and the Assembly never took the concurrence vote before midnight.
Author Buffy Wicks said she was “incredibly disappointed and frustrated” that the bill “was ultimately held by the Senate.”
One sourcing caution for anyone researching AB 1184: the Legislature's record carries no express “died” entry for it. What it carries is a last action of August 27 — concurrence pending — and a deadline that passed without a vote. A summary reporting a failed floor vote on that bill is reporting something the record does not show.
The technical question nobody else is writing about
Two pairs of bills on the Governor's desk amend the same code sections, and if both members of a pair are signed, the chaptering order determines the final operative text.
Civil Code section 5550 is amended by both AB 2050 and SB 1238, and both set a January 1, 2032 operative date for identifying a minimum reserve contribution level over 30 years. The two bills do not describe the obligation in identical terms.
Civil Code section 5200 gains managing agent fee statements as an inspectable record from both AB 739 and SB 1238.
Until the signature decisions are made and chapter numbers assigned, the text of section 5550 as of 2032 is not fixed. An association building a 2027 budget toward a 2032 target should not finalise it from bill text alone.
What actually changed this year
Setting the desk aside, four things are already law and are what boards work from now:
AB 130 (Chapter 22, Statutes of 2025, effective June 30, 2025) — the $100 fine cap, the open-meeting written finding for anything above it, no late charges or interest on penalties, and a cure right that makes discipline ineffective if the member is not given the opportunity.
SB 625 (Chapter 548, effective January 1, 2026) — covenants blocking a substantially similar post-disaster rebuild are void, with a 110 percent envelope, a 30-day deemed-complete rule on architectural review, and mandatory fees to a prevailing owner.
SB 547 (Chapter 544, effective January 1, 2026) — association master policies brought inside the one-year post-wildfire non-renewal moratorium, with homeowners and condominium associations named in the statute.
SB 770 (Chapter 525, effective January 1, 2026) — the additional-insured requirement deleted from the EV charging statute.
And SB 410 (Chapter 516) made the exterior elevated element inspection report a resale disclosure document and an association record retained for two inspection cycles.
What to watch next
September 30, and then December. The Governor's decisions close this session; the introductions in the first weeks of the new one will show which of the four dead measures has a sponsor willing to start over.
AB 1903's backers have the strongest case for trying again — a bill that cleared both houses without a dissenting vote demonstrated something a failed vote would not. Whether a successor carries the same release-in-exchange-for-repair provision, which is what associations and consumer attorneys fought, is the open question.
Related California HOA Topics
- AB 1903, California Legislature — complete bill history, showing 'In Assembly. Held at Desk.' on 09/02/26 as the final action ↩
- AB 1184, California Legislature — complete bill history, last action 08/27/26 'Concurrence in Senate amendments pending' ↩
- 2026 Tentative Legislative Calendar, California State Senate — August 31 last day to pass bills; September 30 last day for the Governor to act ↩
- CalMatters, 'Why a bill to juice condo construction died even though California lawmakers voted for it' (September 2026) ↩
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