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PODCAST

HOA HELL

Michael Kushner

HOA Hell with Michael Kushner is your inside guide to surviving—and winning—against California’s most abusive and overreaching HOAs. Leveraging almost 30 years of experience fighting for HOA members, Michael Kushner gives California homeowners real tools to fight back against abusive boards, outrageous rules, and everyday HOA nonsense. If your HOA is making your life a living Hell, then this podcast is for you.

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All Episodes

2:34

KNX 1070: Why Do So Many Californians Hate Their HOAs?

HOA HELL ·

2026/10/05

KFI News reporter Steve Gregory goes behind the gate in this five-part series on California HOAs, and he brings in homeowner-side HOA attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most respected homeowner-side HOA attorneys, to explain how these communities work and why so many of them turn toxic. You've seen the videos on your feed, the shouting matches over mailbox colors and paint shades, the board meetings that dissolve into screaming. This video, Part 1 of the Behind the Gates series, traces wh...

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1:54

Can My California HOA Appoint a New Board Member When...

HOA HELL ·

2026/10/01

In this HOA Q&A, California’s most respected homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains what happens when a California HOA director sells their home and the board hands the empty seat to a hand-picked replacement instead of holding an election. Most homeowners assume the board can just fill the seat, and most boards assume the same thing. But whether that appointment holds up turns on a distinction between resigning and being disqualified, and on a few lines buried in your byl...

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33:12

Can My California HOA Ban Christmas Lights, Religious...

HOA HELL ·

2026/09/28

Every year before Halloween and Christmas, California homeowners ask whether their HOAs can restrict their holiday decorations, the religious items on their front doors, and the guests who come to trick-or-treat. In this episode, California’s #1 homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains how California law treats seasonal holiday decorations differently from religious items on entry doors, and how far HOAs can go in regulating each one. What You’ll Learn in This Episode:&nbs...

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1:34

Can My California HOA Track My License Plate With...

HOA HELL ·

2026/09/24

In this HOA Q&A, California’s foremost homeowner-side HOA attorney and expert, Michael Kushner, explains what happens when a California HOA installs Flock license plate cameras at the entrance to an HOA-governed community. Once your HOA mounts an automated license plate reader in your community, every trip you take, every guest who comes to see you, every vendor your hire, and every caregiver who visits you gets photographed and logged. Your HOA didn’t ask you before installing a Flock ca...

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37:16

California HOA Special Assessment Red Flags to Check...

HOA HELL ·

2026/09/21

A Torrance HOA hit its owners with a $49,000 special assessment, and a San Clemente HOA hit its members with one for $26,000, stories that both ABC7’s Leanne Suter and KFI AM 640’s Monks & Merrill brought to California’s foremost homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, for his opinion. In this episode, Kushner walks prospective buyers through how to look into an HOA’s financial health before buying into a community. Looking for these red flags won’t predict the future, but it will g...

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28:25

Fannie Mae’s New Condo Loan Rules: Can My California...

HOA HELL ·

2026/09/14

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac spent 2026 quietly rewriting the rules that decide whether anyone can get a loan to buy a condo in your community, and one more change hits in January 2027. In this episode, attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most experienced homeowner-side HOA attorney, breaks down what already changed, what’s coming, and why your HOA’s finances now decide whether you can sell your unit or refinance it. If you own a California condo, the financial health of your HOA is m...

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1:35

Can My California HOA Refuse to Give Me the SB 326...

HOA HELL ·

2026/09/08

In this HOA Q&A, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains the amendment to Civil Code § 5200, which took effect on January 1, 2026. 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ The new amendment to Civil Code § 5200 that put the SB 326 inspection report in every homeowner’s hands, and the tight deadline your HOA has to produce it. ✅ How far back you can reach for older inspection reports, and what comparing two of them can expose about y...

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31:53

Can My California HOA Make Me Pay for the Previous...

HOA HELL ·

2026/08/31

Weeks after you close on your new home, a letter shows up demanding you pay a fine, cover an unpaid assessment, or fix something the previous owner did. In this episode, attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most experienced homeowner-side HOA attorney, explains which of those charges you actually have to pay and which ones stay the seller’s problem. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: ✅ How Civil Code § 5725 leaves the previous owner’s fines their personal debt, not yours. ✅ The ...

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21:52

Can My California HOA Stop Me From Criticizing or...

HOA HELL ·

2026/08/24

Your HOA says you can’t trash the board online, and it wants a deposit and an insurance policy before you can even meet in the clubhouse to talk about a recall. Both demands are illegal, and a $1,000-an-hour attorney recently told homeowners the opposite, in print. In this episode, attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most experienced homeowner-side HOA attorney, breaks down both halves of Civil Code 4515, the statute that protects your right to criticize your HOA and to organize your neigh...

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1:45

What Qualifies as a Health and Safety Violation Under...

HOA HELL ·

2026/08/20

In this HOA Q&A, California’s #1 homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains what qualifies as a health and safety violation under California’s $100 HOA fine cap. Bad HOAs figured out fast that AB 130’s cap has one exception, and they’ve been stretching the words "health and safety" over ordinary violations to reach fines well above $100. That label isn’t the test. Civil Code § 5850 sets the standard, it’s narrower than most boards realize, and it forces an HOA through two step...

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1:38

Does my Condo Insurance Cover my California HOA’s...

HOA HELL ·

2026/08/17

In this HOA Q&A, California’s most respected homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains loss assessment coverage and how it pays a condo owner’s share of a California HOA special assessment. Such coverage could only be found in your own HO-6 condo policy, but most California condo owners either don’t carry it or carry a token amount that doesn’t help much at all. There’s a specific way to ask your agent for it, and a specific amount to carry, and you can only buy it before the...

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32:18

Can My California HOA Spray Pesticides Near My Home?

HOA HELL ·

2026/08/10

A rare childhood cancer cluster in Ladera Ranch has parents pointing at the pesticides their HOA sprays across the common areas. In this episode, HOA attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most experienced homeowner-side HOA attorney, uses that crisis to dig into the questions every California homeowner should be asking. How much power does your HOA have to decide what chemicals get sprayed where your kids play, and what information should homeowners be entitled to regarding the nature...

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34:48

Who Do I Report My California HOA To? (Nobody. Here’s...

HOA HELL ·

2026/08/03

Many homeowners think that there’s a state agency that they can report their HOAs to when their HOAs break the law. There isn’t. In this episode, HOA attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most respected homeowner-side HOA attorney, explains what homeowners have to do to protect their rights when it comes to their HOAs, and the handful of narrow exceptions where a state agency does exist to help homeowners. What You’ll Learn in this Episode: ✅ Who holds the power to make your HOA...

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1:58

Is There a State Agency That Regulates HOAs in...

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/30

In this HOA Q&A, California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains whether any state agency regulates California HOAs and where homeowners can turn when their HOA breaks the law. 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ The handful of HOA complaints that do have somewhere to go, and the agencies that take them. ✅ The Davis-Stirling Act statute that lets a homeowner enforce the CC&Rs against the HOA directly. ✅ The specific code sections that hom...

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2:12

Can My California HOA Ban E-Bikes and E-Scooters?

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/23

In this HOA Q&A, California’s pioneering homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains how far California HOAs can go when they move to regulate e-bikes and e-scooters. Suppose your teenager depends on an e-bike or e-scooter to get to school or work, and then your HOA proposes a rule to ban e-bikes and e-scooters from the common areas. Can the board really pass such a rule? And does the HOA’s authority extend onto city-owned streets? 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A...

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38:08

Can My California HOA Track My License Plate With...

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/20

Your HOA installed Flock cameras (or some other form of ALPR camera) in your HOA that photograph every car going in and out, log the plate, the date, and the time, and feed it all into a searchable database. Most homeowners assume it’s harmless security. In this episode, HOA attorney Michael Kushner, considered by many in the industry to be the #1 homeowner-side HOA attorney in California, breaks down what California law demands of any HOA running these Flock cameras, and how few of the...

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1:43

How Much Can My California HOA Charge Me for Transfer...

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/16

In this HOA Q&A, California’s top homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, breaks down the fees California HOAs are permitted to charge sellers for HOA-related resale disclosure documents under the Davis-Stirling Act, including itemized document fees, prohibited bundling, electronic delivery charges, and what a seller must pay for when selling a home located within an HOA. 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ How California law limits what an HOA can charge a seller for t...

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31:57

Can My California HOA Stop Me From Raising My Fence...

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/13

While many questions we receive about HOAs have clean answers, the ones that end up in court rarely do. In this episode, HOA attorney Michael Kushner, California’s most experienced homeowner-side HOA attorney, and co-host Sam Khil, take opposite sides of a real jaw-dropping case out of the Nellie Gail HOA in Orange County. Coyotes cleared a family’s fence again and again, at all hours of the day and night, killing their goats one by one. When attempts to stop the attacks failed, the homeowner...

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2:03

Can My California HOA Ban My Kids From Playing in the...

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/10

In this HOA Q&A, California’s #1 homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains whether HOAs in California can ban kids from playing in the community’s common areas. One family got hit with a proposed rule that pushes their kids off every grass area in the neighborhood, leaving nothing but the private streets. So is an HOA allowed to do that, and what happens when the only place left to play is the one place that’s actually more dangerous? 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This ...

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1:42

Can My California HOA Make My Kid Wear a Helmet?

HOA HELL ·

2026/07/08

In this HOA Q&A, California’s most respected homeowner-side HOA attorney, Michael Kushner, explains whether a California HOA can require your child to wear a helmet on a bike or skateboard in the neighborhood. The answer hinges on a state law most parents have no idea is already on the books, and on exactly where your child rides. Kushner also addresses whether HOAs can require adults to wear helmets while in the common areas. 🎯 What You’ll Learn in This HOA Q&A: ✅ The Cal...

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176 results

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