FEATURE
Important Legislative Updates for 2020 By Tim Flanagan, Esq.
THE BALCONY BILL
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SB 326: the addition of Civil Code Section 5551
his new law establishes criteria for inspection and investigation of exterior load-bearing components of buildings in common interest developments (“CIDs”) to probe for possible structural safety-related issues. Although inspections are not required until January 1, 2025, this new section of the Civil Code will immediately affect how CIDs approach inspections of components and will increase exposure to liability to CIDs if they fail to act with due care. As you may recall, a balcony inspection bill was passed last year for all buildings with three or more multifamily dwelling units—condos and apartments. Condos were ultimately “carved out” of the bill before passage. SB 326 is the new version of this bill written specifically to address condos. The goal of these balcony inspection bills is the same, they both require that balconies and other exterior elevated load bearing components be inspected by professionals regularly. However, the inspection requirements are different. The details of this new “balcony bill” are discussed below. SB 326 (now Civil Code Section 5551), requires that a statistically significant number of balconies and other exterior elevated components that the Association has repair and maintenance responsibility for must be visually inspected by a licensed civil or structural engineer or architect. This new law applies to CIDs with three or more units. For buildings now in existence, the first inspections must be completed by January 1, 2025. To have a better understanding of this, the bolded phrases are discussed in more detail below: Balconies and other exterior components Balconies and other exterior components are defined as load bearing components that extend beyond the exterior walls of the building, are over six feet above ground level,
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Quorum November, 2019
are designed for human occupancy/use, and include: decks, balconies, stairways, walkways, and railings. Visual inspection The visual inspection performed by a licensed structural engineer or architect requires much more than just having one professional walk around the building(s) and look to see if the balconies or other exterior components appear to be structurally unsound. Under this law, a visual inspection means that the load bearing component itself needs to be inspected. Often, a load bearing component may be covered by a soffit, stucco or other building materials and inspection of these components may require techniques or equipment that allow for a “visual inspection” underneath the covering. This inspection may be accomplished through the use of moisture meters, borescopes, or infrared technology. And depending on the outcome of these inspections, even more intrusive inspections including destructive testing may be necessary to determine the safety of a component. Thus, the “visual inspection” in this new law is nothing like the visual inspection performed by a reserve specialist. Statistically significant number Technically, a statistically significant number is “a sufficient number of units inspected to provide 95 percent confidence that the results from the sample are reflective of the whole, with a margin of error of no greater than plus or minus 5 percent.” Unfortunately, and unlike last year’s bill, this is not an objective standard, and it leaves the determination of the number of components that need to be inspected up to the person performing the inspections, whose professional reputation and license may be affected if they inspect too few.
