California condo owners face massive $19M HOA assessments for repairs

California condo owners are fighting back after their homeowners association approved a multimillion-dollar emergency assessment that they say could financially cripple them.The uproar comes from a Torrance condominium complex, where residents were hit with assessments of more than $49,000 each to help pay for sweeping repairs, ABC7 reports.The 499-unit property is facing at least $19 million in work, including a $13 million overhaul of the building’s podium, along with re-piping and elevator repairs.It follows a similar battle in San Clemente, where owners at the 198-unit Villa Moura complex were ordered to pay more than $26,000 apiece for an assessment — totaling more than $5 million.Stephen Wang, who lives in the Torrance complex, said: “I was shocked, as most of the residents here are.”He continued: “The HOA decided to redo the whole podium, the entire podium, and that became a $13 million project, and plus the re-piping and the elevators, so it came up to $19 million.”He added the massive bill came after the HOA decided to tackle several major projects at once, leaving residents scrambling to figure out how they could possibly afford their share.In San Clemente residents have argued the work should not have been classified as an emergency and the association should have given homeowners a greater say in how the repairs were handled. Noah Martin, who lives there, said the roof project did not qualify as an emergency under California regulations.He added: “It didn’t fit under the California Code of Regulations, 5610.Clearly, it was not an emergency; it’s a deferred maintenance.

And so, then we as members should have a vote on how we want to take care of the roofs.”Residents also say the HOA has threatened to place liens on properties belonging to owners who fail to pay the assessment.“They have pushed back, arguing the roofs were not leaking and that replacing the underlying material could be sufficient instead of tearing out all the tiles...