For most of 2026, California boards had a reason to wait: a bill was moving that would have rewritten the exception to the $100 fine cap, and there seemed little point rebuilding a schedule that might be obsolete by January.
That reason is gone. The 2025–26 session ended on August 31, 2026 — the constitutional last day for each house to pass bills under Article IV, § 10(c) and Joint Rule 61(b)(17). The Governor's signing window closed September 30, 2026. AB 2579 never came off the Assembly Inactive File.
So the fine-cap rule California boards enforce in 2027 is the one they should already be enforcing today: a flat $100 per violation, one narrow exception, and a cure-and-hearing process most associations still run too fast.
What happened to AB 2579
AB 2579 (Petrie-Norris) was an act to amend Civil Code §§ 5850 and 5855 and add a new § 5851. Its last recorded action is May 21, 2026: "Ordered to inactive file at the request of Assembly Member Petrie-Norris." Nothing followed, and the Legislature went into final recess on August 31.
One wrinkle, because it trips up boards who look the bill up themselves: the state's status page still labels AB 2579 an "Active Bill — In Floor Process." That describes where it sat when it stopped moving, not whether it can still become law. It can't — the passage deadline has run.*
What it would have done shows where the pressure is:
- It would have replaced the health-and-safety exception with a list. Today § 5850 lets a board exceed $100 only for a violation that may result in an adverse health or safety impact, found in writing at an open meeting. AB 2579 would have limited above-cap fines to violations on a list developed by the Department of Real Estate, confined to violations "clearly defined and address[ing] significant risks to health, safety, or the integrity of the common interest development" — flammable material in a common area, architectural safety issues, animal control, maintenance creating health or safety risks, common-area damage, violence or threats of violence.
- New § 5851 would have put DRE on a clock — build the list with stakeholder input, publish a draft for comment, post a final list by January 1, 2028.
- It would have closed the cure loophole on repeat violators, adding language to § 5855 that a member engaged in habitual, repeated, or continuing violations may not claim a cure merely because the violation "is not occurring at the time of the hearing."
All of that is now a 2027-session question. There is no DRE list, and the health-and-safety determination remains a board-by-board judgment call made in writing at an open meeting. Boards treating AB 2579's examples as a safe harbor have no statutory basis for it — nothing in § 5850 adopts them.*
What the 2026 session actually changed
The session wasn't empty for common-interest developments. It just went nowhere near enforcement:
- SB 1267 (Allen) — Chapter 350, Statutes of 2026, approved September 20, 2026 — amends Civil Code § 4745, on electric-vehicle charging stations.
- AB 2050 (Caloza) — Chapter 796, Statutes of 2026, chaptered September 29, 2026 — amends, repeals, and adds § 5550 and adds § 5552, on reserve studies.
Nothing chaptered in 2026 amended § 5850, § 5855, § 4740, or § 4741. The fine cap, the hearing process, owner grandfathering, and the 25% rental floor stand exactly as they did on June 30, 2025.
The rule you're actually enforcing in 2027
None of this has moved since AB 130 took effect June 30, 2025 — not January 1, 2026, a date that still circulates and is wrong.
1. Fines are capped at $100 per violation. Civil Code § 5850, as amended by AB 130 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 22, Sec. 3), caps monetary penalties at $100 per violation unless the violation may result in an adverse health or safety impact and the board makes a written finding at an open meeting. There is no $200 continuing-violation tier in § 5850 — that figure circulates in secondary summaries and board newsletters, but it is not in the statute.
2. No late charges, no interest on fines. § 5850 bars both. A ledger that compounds a fine is producing a number the association can't collect.
3. The schedule has to be distributed, and produced on request. An association adopting a penalty policy must include its schedule of penalties in the annual policy statement, and give it to any member who asks.
4. The owner gets a real chance to cure — before the hearing. Under § 5855, notice goes out at least 10 days before the meeting, and the member "shall have the opportunity to cure the violation prior to the meeting." No discipline may be imposed if the member cures first — or, where curing would take longer than the gap between notice and meeting, if the member provides a financial commitment to cure. This is the step boards skip, and the one that voids the fine.
5. The decision notice is due within 14 days. § 5855(f) requires notice of the board's action within 14 days following the action — not 15, not "at the next meeting."
Both sections carry the same note under the codified text: Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 22 (AB 130). Effective June 30, 2025. A fine policy last revised before that date predates every rule above.
The restrictions side didn't move either — § 4741's 25% floor was last amended in 2021, § 4740's grandfathering in 2020. Which provisions fail on their face and which fail in the enforcing is covered in our unenforceable-rules checklist.
What to watch, and when
The 2027–28 Regular Session convenes at 12 noon on December 7, 2026 under Article IV, § 3(a), taking up regular business in the new year. A successor to AB 2579 would be a new bill; the old one does not carry over. Its author moved it to the inactive file rather than let it fail on the floor — usually an unresolved fiscal or stakeholder problem rather than abandonment, so expect the health-and-safety-list concept back. Meanwhile there is nothing to pre-comply with: no DRE list, no new tier to budget for.
The 2027 reconciliation checklist
- Date your fine policy. Adopted or last amended before June 30, 2025? Assume it is non-conforming and rebuild it.
- Set the cap at $100 per violation and delete any escalating tier that exceeds it without a health-and-safety finding.
- Strip late charges and interest from every fine line on the ledger, not just from the policy.
- Put the penalty schedule in the annual policy statement and keep proof of distribution.
- Add the cure step to your notice template — 10 days minimum, telling the owner that curing, or committing financially to cure, stops the fine.
- Set a 14-day timer on every decision notice, and keep the hearing record proving it was met.
- Keep a written health-and-safety finding for every above-cap fine, adopted at an open meeting, in the minutes.
- Verify the rental picture. Every § 4741 cap argument and § 4740 defense depends on knowing which homes are rented, by whom, since when — and the ones that decide disputes are the ones nobody registered.
For the statutory detail behind each item, see our California HOA rental compliance guide.
The bottom line
The most common California fine problem in 2026 was never the cap — boards understood the $100 number. They lost on the ten-day notice that went out in eight, the cure nobody recorded, and the decision letter sent at the next monthly meeting instead of inside fourteen days. AB 2579 would not have fixed any of that, and with the bill dead there is nothing left to wait for.
An association that can produce the notice, the cure record, the hearing file, and the dated decision letter for every fine it issued has a working enforcement program under the law as it stands. Getting the rental picture current and documented is where that file starts. That's what we do.
* Our reading of the statute, not a settled rule — validate with your association's HOA attorney before relying on it.
This article is general information for community associations, not legal advice. Fine schedules, enforcement policies, and hearing procedures under Civil Code §§ 5850 and 5855 (as amended by AB 130) and rental restrictions under Civil Code §§ 4740 and 4741 should be reviewed with your association's attorney.