TERM LIMITS FOR HOA BOARDS (March 2024)

As we all remember, in 2019 with SB 323 (effective 2020), the Legislature took it upon itself to limit the permitted qualifications of candidates for a community association’s Board of Directors.  The list of permitted qualifications, found in Civil Code section 5105, did not include term limits.  It was debatable whether term limits were a candidate qualification or an inherent characteristic of the Board position, creating doubt as to whether term limits were enforceable.  The consensus of the legal community was that SB 323 rendered term limits unenforceable.  

Interestingly, in 2021 with SB 432 (effective 2022), the Legislature added term limits to the list of permitted qualification, but only in Civil Code section 5100, which governs elections by affirmation, and not section 5105 governing Board elections in general.  Ironically, term limits were technically enforceable only in elections by affirmation and not elections by ballot.  The Legislature has remedied this irony by amending section 5105 in 2023 (effective 2024) to add term limits to the list of permitted qualifications in Board elections generally.  Consequently, term limits are now clearly enforceable.