BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 2697
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: H&CD COM
VERSION: 6/19/12
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 26, 2012
SUBJECT:
Housing omnibus bill
DESCRIPTION:
This bill makes non-controversial changes to sections of law
relating to housing.
ANALYSIS:
According to the Legislative Analyst, the cost of producing a
bill in 2001-02 was $17,890. By combining multiple matters into
one bill, the Legislature can make minor changes to law in the
most cost-effective manner.
This bill includes the following provisions:
1.Incorrect cross-reference in the Mobilehome Residency Law
�Section 1]. SB 11 (Correa, Chapter 558, Statutes of 2009)
reorganized and renumbered various sections in the Mobilehome
Residency Law. One of the affected sections was the old Civil
Code Section 798.42, which became Section 798.39.5. Another
section of the Civil Code contains a cross-reference to that
section that was not updated in SB 11. This bill updates the
cross-reference.
2.Heating standards �Section 2]. When SB 800 (Burton, Chapter
722, Statutes of 2002) relating to construction defects was
enacted, most standards specified in the bill constituting
"defects" were general in nature. The standard for heating
was specific, however, requiring 70 degrees and specific
measurements, consistent with the requirements of the 2004
California Building Code (in effect through 2007). Beginning
on January 1, 2008, the 2007 California Building Code lowered
the minimum temperature requirement to 68 degrees, and
thereafter, the measurement standards also changed. This bill
updates the SB 800 "defect" standard for heating to reference
AB 2697 (H&CD COM) Page 2
the old and new building code standards, depending on the date
of the building permit application.
3.Common interest development (CID) electronic emergency
meetings �Section 3]. SB 563 (Transportation and Housing
Committee, Chapter 257, Statutes of 2011) amended the open
meeting portion of the Davis-Stirling Common Interest
Development Act to prohibit generally CID boards from taking
action on items of business outside of an open meeting but
specifically allowed a CID board to conduct an electronic
(e.g., e-mail) meeting in an emergency situation if all the
members of the board consent in writing to actions taken in
the electronic emergency meeting. Practitioners have raised
a concern that the language of
SB 563 can be interpreted to require unanimous consent for a
CID board to hold any emergency meeting at all, electronic or
otherwise, which was not the intent of SB 563. This bill
corrects that drafting error by clarifying that the written
consent of all members of a common interest development board
is only required for the board to take actions in an
electronic emergency meeting, not to hold an emergency meeting
generally.
4.CID teleconference meetings �Section 3]. SB 563 of 2011
allowed common interest development boards to meet via
teleconference provided that there is at least one physical
location where members of the association may attend and
participate and at least one member of the board is present at
that location. In some associations, particularly vacation
communities, no board members may live on site making it
difficult for a board member to be present at the assigned
location where association members may participate in the
teleconference. This bill allows the board to designate
someone other than a board member to be present at the
assigned location.
5.Disclosure of CID rental restrictions �Section 4]. Current
law requires the owner of a separate interest in a CID to
provide prospective purchasers with a variety of information,
including if there is a provision in the governing documents
that prohibits the rental or leasing of any of the separate
interests and a statement describing the prohibition and its
applicability. The California Association of Community
Managers argues that requiring a description of the rental
restrictions is sufficient and that going further by requiring
associations to interpret or describe "its applicability"
AB 2697 (H&CD COM) Page 3
seems unnecessary and could create confusion. This bill
deletes the phrase "and its applicability."
6.Time limit on the display of manufactured home �Section 5].
Under current law, a manufactured home dealer can display a
model home at a fair or another similar location, such as a
shopping mall, but only for 30 days at a time. These sorts of
displays are valuable for dealers in educating the public
about manufactured housing, but the 30-day limit creates a
substantial obstacle given the cost and time involved in
setting up a model for display. Manufactured home dealers
believe that they can effectively negotiate time limits for
these displays with property owners and believe that a
statutory time limit is unnecessary. This bill deletes the
30-day limit.
7.Incorrect cross-reference in the Building Standards Code
�Section 6]. Health and Safety Code Section 18942(b) contains
a cross-reference to the California Building Code (Title 24,
Part 2, California Code of Regulations) that is no longer
applicable. During the 2010 Triennial Code Cycle, the
California Building Standards Commission adopted the
California Residential Code (Title 24, Part 2.5, California
Code of Regulations) as the building code applicable to the
construction of one- and two-family dwelling units effective
January 1, 2011. This bill references the correct building
code in Health and Safety Code Section 18942(b).
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . The Assembly Housing and Community
Development Committee is authoring this bill as a means of
combining multiple, non-controversial changes to statutes into
one bill, so that the Legislature can make minor amendments in
a cost-effective manner. There is no known opposition to any
item in the bill, and if concerns arise that cannot be
resolved, the provision of concern will be deleted from the
bill.
2.Technical amendment . The author proposes a technical
amendment to the SB 800 heating standard section of the bill
(item 2) to delete "if any." SB 800 generally provides for a
ten-year statute of limitations for construction defect
actions, and state building codes have required heating
systems in all new homes for much longer than ten years, so
the "if any" wording is inconsistent with building
AB 2697 (H&CD COM) Page 4
requirements.
3.Integrating this bill with AB 805 (Torres) . Reflecting the
work of the California Law Revision Commission, AB 805
(Torres) moves and reorganizes the Davis-Stirling Act. Two
items in this bill (items 4 and 5) alter that same act and are
not yet reflected in AB 805. The author will need to
incorporate her changes from this bill into the new statutory
scheme of AB 805, which is currently on the Senate Floor.
4.Chaptering conflict . Recent amendments create a chaptering
conflict with AB 1838 (Calderon), also on today's agenda. The
author will need to resolve this conflict.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 75-0
H&CD: 6-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 20,
2012)
SUPPORT: California Manufactured Housing Institute
OPPOSED: None received.