Civ. Code, § 5235 · Article 5. Record Inspection
Civ. Code, § 5235
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A member may bring an action to enforce that member’s right to inspect and copy the association records. If a court finds that the association unreasonably withheld access to the association records, the court shall award the member reasonable costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees, and may assess a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars ($500) for the denial of each separate written request.
(b) A cause of action under this section may be brought in small claims court if the amount of the demand does not exceed the jurisdiction of that court.
(c) A prevailing association may recover any costs if the court finds the action to be frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2012, Ch. 180, Sec. 2. (AB 805) Effective January 1, 2013. Operative January 1, 2014, by Sec. 3 of Ch. 180.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=5235.
- Text hash
- sha256 d38f245c63419845dd2f0cd95cddfc578ded6808e75a0006a67d824e460a0da1
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Civ. Code, § 5235. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Civil Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.