Your road group is probably not a Davis-Stirling association

In this state

Davis-Stirling governs common interest developments: four statutory forms created by a recorded declaration conveying common area. An unincorporated road group with no declaration and no common area is not one, and § 845 is its law.

Shared-way statuteCiv. Code §§ 4100 and 4200 (the CID boundary); § 845 (the road frame)

How owners are assessedInside a CID, the recorded declaration governs assessments; outside one, § 845 and your agreement do. Which side of the line you are on decides everything else.

If someone won't payA road group outside Davis-Stirling enforces through § 845's county-court action and its own agreement, not through CID assessment machinery.

Where the text liveshttps://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=4200

Questions about the boundary

What exactly is a common interest development?

One of four forms under § 4100, created per § 4200 by conveying a separate interest coupled with common area under a recorded declaration.

We collect dues and hold a meeting. Does that make us a CID?

No. The test is the recorded declaration and common-area conveyance, not whether you behave like an organized group.

Why does the boundary matter so much?

CIDs carry Davis-Stirling's assessment, disclosure and governance machinery; a § 845 road group carries none of it and should not pretend to.

Our subdivision has recorded restrictions. Are we a CID now?

Deed restrictions alone do not create a CID; the § 4200 elements decide, and reading your recorded documents with counsel settles it.

Can a road group choose to become a CID?

Forming one is a real conversion with real obligations; treat it as a counsel project, not a checkbox.

Which law do our dues collect under?

Outside a CID, dues collect under your agreement and § 845's contribution action; there is no statutory assessment lien like a CID's.

Does HOA software fit a § 845 road group?

It assumes the CID machinery you do not have; a road group needs the agreement, the ledger and the § 845 frame instead.

What should our recorded agreement do here?

Name the split, the annual process, interest and costs among signers, and the dispute path, since § 845 supplies no fee shift of its own.

Who can tell us definitively which side we are on?

Counsel, reading your recorded documents; the answer is in the county records, not in anyone's habits.

The RoadKeeper Team

Built by the people who make RoadKeeper. Last reviewed 2026-09-03.

This page is general information for road association volunteers, not legal advice. Laws change and every road's documents differ — for decisions about your association, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Reviewed against primary sources; see citations on each page.