8-17-12. Governor Brown signed into law the rewrite of the Davis-Stirling Act. The bill reorganizes and renumbers the Act to make it more user-friendly. In addition, it:

• Groups provisions by subject matter in a logical order;

• Divides longer sections into shorter, simpler section;

• Clarifies the meaning of provision;

• Standardizes terminology; and

• Replaces outdated references to the Corporations Code.

Current CC&R Restatements. Associations that are currently restating their CC&Rs and Bylaws do not need to wait for the rewrite to take effect. One of the provisions in the bill allows boards to update their governing documents by replacing old statutory references with new ones without the need for a membership vote:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law or provision of the governing documents, if the governing documents include a reference to a provision of the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act that was repealed and continued in a new provision by the act that added this section, the board may amend the governing documents, solely to correct the cross-reference, by adopting a board resolution that shows the correction. Member approval is not required in order to adopt a resolution pursuant to this section. (Civil Code §4235(a))

January 1, 2014. The rewrite goes into effect January 1, 2014. To view it, see Assembly Bill 805.