Fiscal Duties of the Board of Directors

CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE

SECTION 1365.5. (a)

Unless the governing documents impose more stringent standards, the board of directors of the association shall do all of the following: (1) Review a current reconciliation of the association’s operating accounts on at least a quarterly basis. (2) Review a current reconciliation of the association’s reserve accounts on at least a quarterly basis. (3) Review, on at least a quarterly basis, the current year’s actual reserve revenues and expenses compared to the current year’s budget. (4) Review the latest account statements prepared by the financial institutions where the association has its operating and reserve accounts. (5) Review an income and expense statement for the association’s operating and reserve accounts on at least a quarterly basis. (b) The signatures of at least two persons, who shall be members of the association’s board of directors, or one officer who is not a member of the board of directors and a member of the board of directors, shall be required for the withdrawal of moneys from the association’s reserve accounts. (c) (1) The board of directors shall not expend funds designated as reserve funds for any purpose other than the repair, restoration, replacement, or maintenance of, or litigation involving the repair, restoration, replacement, or maintenance of, major components which the association is obligated to repair, restore, replace, or maintain and for which the reserve fund was established. (2) However, the board may authorize the temporary transfer of money from a reserve fund to the association’s general operating fund to meet short-term cash-flow requirements or other expenses, provided the board has made a written finding, recorded in the board’ s minutes, explaining the reasons that the transfer is needed, and describing when and how the money will be repaid to the reserve fund. The transferred funds shall be restored to the reserve fund within one year of the date of the initial transfer, except that the board may, upon making a finding supported by documentation that a temporary delay would be in the best interests of the common interest development, temporarily delay the restoration. The board shall exercise prudent fiscal management in maintaining the integrity of the reserve account, and shall, if necessary, levy a special assessment to recover the full amount of the expended funds within the time limits required by this section. This special assessment is subject to the limitation imposed by Section 1366. The board may, at its discretion, extend the date the payment on the special assessment is due. Any extension shall not prevent the board from pursuing any legal remedy to enforce the collection of an unpaid special assessment. (d) When the decision is made to use reserve funds or to temporarily transfer money from the reserve fund to pay for litigation, the association shall notify the members of the association of that decision in the next available mailing to all members pursuant to Section 5016 of the Corporations Code, and of the availability of an accounting of those expenses. Unless the governing documents impose more stringent standards, the association shall make an accounting of expenses related to the litigation on at least a quarterly basis. The accounting shall be made available for inspection by members of the association at the association’s office.

(e) At least once every three years the board of directors shall cause to be conducted a reasonably competent and diligent visual inspection of the accessible areas of the major components which the association is obligated to repair, replace, restore, or maintain as part of a study of the reserve account requirements of the common interest development if the current replacement value of the major components is equal to or greater than one-half of the gross budget of the association which excludes the association’s reserve account for that period. The board shall review this study annually and shall consider and implement necessary adjustments to the board’s analysis of the reserve account requirements as a result of that review. The study required by this subdivision shall at a minimum include:

(1) Identification of the major components which the association is obligated to repair, replace, restore, or maintain which, as of the date of the study, have a remaining useful life of less than 30 years. (2) Identification of the probable remaining useful life of the components identified in paragraph (1) as of the date of the study. (3) An estimate of the cost of repair, replacement, restoration, or maintenance of the components identified in paragraph (1) during and at the end of their useful life. (4) An estimate of the total annual contribution necessary to defray the cost to repair, replace, restore, or maintain the components identified in paragraph (1) during and at the end of their useful life, after subtracting total reserve funds as of the date of the study. (f) As used in this section, “reserve accounts” means both of the following: (1) Moneys that the association’s board of directors has identified for use to defray the future repair or replacement of, or additions to, those major components which the association is obligated to maintain. (2) The funds received and not yet expended or disposed from either a compensatory damage award or settlement to an association from any person or entity for injuries to property, real or personal, arising from any construction or design defects. These funds shall be separately itemized from funds described in paragraph (1). (g) As used in this section, “reserve account requirements” means the estimated funds which the association’s board of directors has determined are required to be available at a specified point in time to repair, replace, or restore those major components which the association is obligated to maintain. (h) This section does not apply to an association that does not have a “common area” as defined in Section 1351.