San Jose HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

San Jose’s Soft Story Retrofit Ordinance took effect on April 1, 2025, and it is the local rule most likely to produce a large bill for an older association. It covers wood-frame buildings that were built or permitted before January 1, 1990, have two or more stories and three or more dwelling units, and have a weak lower story, such as homes over tuck-under parking.

Do not assume a condominium building is exempt. The city’s definition of a dwelling unit includes owner-occupied units, and the city’s program page lists no exemption for condominiums. A building that received the city’s notice stays in the program until the screening process finds it exempt. The key dates:

The city’s own estimate, in 2022 dollars and not counting relocation or other costs, is $35,000 to $70,000 for a three or four-unit building and $40,000 to $130,000 for a larger one. In a condominium the structure is usually common area, so the cost usually falls to the association. Whether that means reserves, a special assessment or a loan depends on your documents and your reserve study, so bring in your attorney and your reserve analyst early. The Soft Story Retrofit program can be reached at (408) 535-3598.

In San Jose, a tree in an HOA common area needs a city permit to remove no matter how small it is. This is the rule boards most often get wrong, because the rule for a single-family lot is looser.

Expect to replant. The city’s replacement ratios run from one new tree for a small tree up to five for a native tree of ordinance size, and trees removed without a permit are subject to double the ratio. For a dead or dying ordinance-size tree, the city asks for a signed report from a certified arborist. The city asks owners to call a planner at (408) 535-3555 before removing a tree of any size on these property types.

San Jose calls short-term rentals incidental transient occupancy and regulates them in Part 2.5 of Zoning Code Chapter 20.80. A stay of 30 consecutive days or less counts. The code allows them in houses, duplexes, apartments and condominiums, with limits that depend on whether the host is there overnight:

• Host present (on the premises from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.): allowed all year, with up to three guests in a single-family home and up to two in each unit of a duplex or multifamily building.
• Host not present: no more than 180 days in a calendar year. Occupancy is capped at two people in a studio and three in a one-bedroom, plus two for each added bedroom, and never more than 10.
• When the host is away, the host must give guests and the adjacent homes the name and phone number of a local contact who is reachable at all hours and responds to complaints within 60 minutes. In a condominium, adjacent includes the units beside, above and below.
• An accessory dwelling unit may not be used as a short-term rental (section 20.80.160).
• The host is responsible for the city’s transient occupancy tax under Chapters 4.72 and 4.74, unless a booking platform with a city collection agreement pays it. Hosts must keep records for three years.

Meeting the city’s standards does not override your CC&Rs. California Civil Code section 4741 limits how far an association can restrict rentals generally, but it does not stop an association from prohibiting rentals of 30 days or less.

San Jose has rent stabilization, and owners who rent out their units often ask the board whether it applies to them. For most HOA homes the answer is no. The Apartment Rent Ordinance covers apartments with three or more units that were built and occupied before September 7, 1979, and it limits rent increases to one 5% increase in a 12-month period. The city lists single-family homes, duplexes, condominiums, townhomes and accessory dwelling units as exempt.

The city also has a Tenant Protection Ordinance on notices to end a tenancy and an Ellis Act Ordinance for buildings with four or more apartments. The city’s summary pages do not say whether a rented condominium falls under the Tenant Protection Ordinance, so an owner who rents out a unit should ask the city’s Rent Stabilization Program at (408) 975-4470 rather than guess. State tenant law can apply as well. None of this is the association’s to enforce, but it helps to know where to send an owner who asks.

One overlap is worth knowing. For rent-stabilized rental buildings, the city requires a petition and a hearing officer’s approval before soft-story retrofit costs can be passed on to tenants. That process is for landlords of apartment buildings, not for associations.

San Jose encourages ADUs. The city runs a help desk it calls the ADU Ally, at (408) 793-5302, offers plans it has already approved, and publishes a checklist covering which lots qualify and the setback, height and fire requirements. An ADU must be rented for at least 30 days at a time, and the zoning code bars short-term rental of an ADU.

One San Jose detail matters to boards. The city allows an ADU to be sold separately from the main house, but the owner must first apply for a condominium conversion of the house and the ADU. That creates a new, very small condominium. If the lot is already inside your association, ask your attorney how your documents treat it before the owner files.

For boards, the state rule matters more than the city one. Civil Code section 4751 voids CC&R provisions that prohibit or unreasonably restrict an ADU or junior ADU on a lot zoned for single-family use. An association can still apply reasonable restrictions through its architectural review process.

The city’s street parking rules are in Title 11 of the Municipal Code. The ones boards hear about most:

These rules are written for public streets. If your association owns its streets, parking is governed mainly by your own rules and by state towing law, so ask the city what it will and will not enforce inside your gates. To ask for enforcement on a public street, call 311. Parking Compliance is at (408) 535-3850.

San Jose has three drinking water retailers: San Jose Water Company and Great Oaks Water Company, which are private, and the San Jose Municipal Water System, which the city owns. Your common-area water bill shows which one serves you. The city’s permanent water waste ordinance is in effect at all times, drought or not:

• Outdoor watering only before 10 a.m. and after 8 p.m., unless you use drip irrigation or a hand-held hose with a shut-off nozzle.
• Standard sprinklers may run no more than 15 minutes per station per day.
• Once you know about a leak, start fixing it within five working days.

Rebates here come from Valley Water, the county’s water wholesaler, not from the city. Valley Water says its commercial programs include HOAs, and its multifamily category includes condominium and townhome complexes:

Smaller sites, meaning single-family homes and multifamily properties of four or fewer units, have a default cap of $3,000. Valley Water must inspect the site and send a written Notice to Proceed before any lawn comes out or any materials are bought, and you then have 90 days to finish. Current funding runs until June 30, 2027, or until it is used up. The Water Conservation Hotline is (408) 630-2554.

The rebates matter because of a deadline. A state law passed in 2023 (AB 1572) will bar the use of drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas starting January 1, 2029. A board with decorative lawn can use the rebates to pay for part of a conversion it will have to make anyway.

On owners’ lots, Civil Code section 4735 prevents an association from banning low-water plants or artificial turf as a replacement for lawn.

San Jose’s weed abatement program is aimed at vacant parcels and is run with the Santa Clara County Weed Abatement Program. City Code Enforcement manages it, and county staff inspect the parcels that have been declared a public nuisance. For undeveloped parcels in San Jose, the county’s minimum fire safety standards must be met by March 1 and kept up through October 31 each year.

The county’s 2026 fees show why it pays to do the work yourself. A parcel that meets the standards is charged a $296 inspection fee. A parcel that does not is charged $953, plus the county contractor’s bill and an administrative fee, and it all goes on the property tax bill as a special assessment. Associations that own undeveloped lots or open space should check the city’s map of selected parcels and budget for mowing before March.

For wildfire, the State Fire Marshal maps fire hazard severity zones, and the city may add to those zones but may not shrink them. Look up your common-area addresses in the city’s fire hazard severity zone finder, and ask the Fire Department what applies in your zone.

Zoning Code section 20.100.450 bars construction within 500 feet of a home before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. on weekdays, and at any time on weekends, unless a city permit expressly allows other hours. The section applies to work that needs a development permit or other planning approval. Put those hours in your construction contracts, and check the conditions on any permit your project receives. Your own rules can set shorter hours.