CLTA Contends with a Flurry of Legislative Activity as the 2025 Session Draws to a Close

Housing Bill Amended to Include Notice of Foreclosure to State Agencies (AB 1529); Unsolicited Offer Bill Amended to Include Ventura County (AB 851); Recorder Notification Bill Amended to Require Board of Supervisors Authorization (SB 255); Reparations Bill Amended Removing Property Reclamation (SB 518); AI Regulation Bill Scuttled in Session’s Closing Days (AB 1018)

• Housing Bill Amended to Include Notice of Foreclosure to State Agencies
  
  Assembly Bill 1529 (Committee on Housing and Community Development) is a committee-sponsored omnibus housing bill containing several provisions relating to housing laws. 
  
  A previous version of the bill would have required trustees to mail notices of default to a number of public entities when certain assisted housing developments, including those without recorded affordability restrictions, go into foreclosure. The bill also would have required the trustee to provide a copy of the notice of default to the affected tenants. 
  
  CLTA, in working with the United Trustees Association, negotiated amendments to the bill that went into print on August 19th, which limit the provision of the notice of default to the Office of the Director of Housing and Community Development and the Office of the Executive Director of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, and further mandate that the notice is only required in where there is a use restriction recorded against the real property to which the notice of default applies.  The bill also provides that a failure to send the notice does not affect a sale in favor of a bona fide purchaser.   
  
  
• Unsolicited Offer Bill Amended to Include Ventura County
  
  Assembly Bill 851 (McKinnor), which would prohibit persons from making an unsolicited offer to purchase residential real property in certain ZIP Codes in Los Angeles County affected by the L.A. wildfires earlier this year, was amended on August 29th with several amendments negotiated by CLTA and other stakeholders. 
  
  Among those changes made to the bill was a requirement that the buyer record the signed attestation executed by the buyer and seller affirming that a purchase agreement was not entered into as a result of an unsolicited offer in violation of the bill’s provisions. Previously the bill was structured to require that the county recorder verify that the attestation was attached to a deed or other conveyance at the time of recording. The bill as amended specifies that a buyer’s failure to record the signed attestation shall not affect constructive notice imparted by the proper recordation of the deed or conveyance, and shall not affect the rights of any subsequent bona fide purchaser or encumbrancer. 
  
  The amendments also added a delayed operative provisions providing that the bill, which is an urgency measure, would not become operative until 30 days after it is signed into law. 
  
  
• Recorder Notification Bill Amended to Require Board of Supervisors Authorization
  
  Senate Bill 255 would require all California counties to enact a notification program for certain recorded documents on or before January 1, 2027. The bill was amended on August 27 to require the board of supervisors of each county to adopt an authorizing resolution for the program. 
  
  
• Reparations Bill Amended Removing Property Reclamation
  
  Senate Bill 518 (Weber Pierson) would establish the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to help carry out the recommendations of a Reparations Task Force established pursuant to a bill signed into law in 2020. On September 2 the bill was amended to delete a Property Reclamation Division from the various divisions that would be established by the bill. 
  
  The division removed from the legislation via the amendments would have been charged with researching and documenting California state properties acquired as a result of racially motivated eminent domain, reviewing and responding to applications purporting racially motivated eminent domain, and certifying whether such applicants were entitled to just compensation as a result of racially motived eminent domain. 
  
  
• AI Regulation Bill Scuttled in Session’s Closing Days
  
  Assembly Bill 1018 (Bauer-Kahan) would require businesses and state agencies to notify individuals when automated decision systems (ADSs) are used to make certain important decisions involving those individuals, in areas ranging from insurance, to health care, financial services, education, and many more. Amid a concerted push from a wide assortment of opponents, including the California Land Title Association, the bill was designated a two-year bill in the closing days of the legislative session. As a two-year measure the bill is eligible for consideration when the Legislature returns from Interim Recess in January 2026.
  
  In addition to CLTA, AB 1018 was opposed by a diverse coalition of industry groups and individual corporations, including the California Chamber of Commerce, big tech companies, and the Judicial Council of California, among many others. Opponents sought to halt the bill’s advance on the grounds that it was overly broad, and impose significant costs on businesses and taxpayers, while stifling AI development progress.