The health-or-safety exception to AB 130's $100 fine cap

Notice Cure team

Since June 30, 2025, a California HOA generally can't fine a homeowner more than $100 per violation, or the amount in its own published fine schedule, whichever is lower. The statute carves out one exception for violations that threaten health or safety. Boards that lean on it loosely are the ones most likely to have a fine challenged later.

What the $100 cap covers

Civil Code § 5850, as amended by AB 130, sets the default: a fine for a single violation can't exceed the lesser of your association's own fine schedule or $100. That's the baseline for the garden-variety violations most boards deal with — an unapproved paint color, a pet off leash, trash cans left out past pickup day.

What the exception actually requires

The statute allows a board to exceed that cap only when the violation may result in harm to the common area or to another owner's separate interest, and only after the board makes a written finding to that effect at an open board meeting. Two things matter here, and boards tend to skip one or both:

• The finding has to be in writing. A board member saying "that seems dangerous" during discussion isn't the finding. It has to be documented — typically in the meeting minutes or a board resolution — tied to the specific violation.
• The finding has to happen at an open meeting. Not in an email thread between board members, not in executive session for a fine decision, and not after the fact to justify a fine that already went out.

In practice, that means the sequence matters: identify the violation, bring it to an open board meeting, make and document the finding that it threatens health or safety, and only then issue a fine above the $100 default — following the same notice-and-cure process AB 130 requires for every violation.

What tends to qualify, and what tends not to

The statute doesn't hand boards a list, which is exactly why this gets misused. As general background, not legal advice: violations that block emergency access (a fire lane, a required exit path), disable life-safety equipment, or create a genuine hazard to people or property are the kind of thing this exception was written for. A cosmetic violation, a paperwork lapse, or something merely annoying to neighbors is a much harder case to document as a health-or-safety finding, however the board feels about it.

Why this is worth getting right

A fine issued above the statutory cap without a documented, open-meeting finding is a fine an owner can point to as non-compliant with § 5850 — which is a worse position for the association than simply capping it at $100 in the first place. Keeping the finding, the minutes, and the notice all tied to the same case record is what makes the fine defensible if it's ever questioned.