Picture a well-kept condo in the Bon Air pocket of Greenbrae, one of the attached units tucked behind the shopping center off Barry Way. It gets four offers in the first weekend, goes into escrow ten percent over asking, and then sits there for three extra weeks while everyone waits on a document nobody thought to ask for at the open house: a structural inspection report on the building's decks and walkways. The buyer's lender wants it. The HOA has to produce it. And if the association never did the inspection in the first place, the file stops moving no matter how much both sides want to close.
That scenario is not hypothetical anymore. As of January 1, 2026, a new state law changed what a Greenbrae condo or HOA seller has to hand a buyer before the deal can proceed, and it lands on this town in a way that most sellers, and more than a few agents, have not fully clocked.
What Changed On January 1
California has required condominium associations to inspect their exterior elevated elements, meaning balconies, decks, stairways, and walkways, since a 2019 law known as SB 326 took effect. The rule, now Civil Code section 5551, grew out of a balcony collapse in Berkeley and applies to any common interest development with three or more units where those structures are wood-framed and more than six feet above the ground. Associations had until January 1, 2025 to complete the first round of inspections, with another cycle required every nine years after that.
What's new is SB 410, sponsored by the California Association of Realtors and signed into law in October 2025. Effective January 1, 2026, it folds the most recent section 5551 inspection report directly into the standard disclosure packet a seller must hand a buyer under Civil Code section 4525, the same packet that already includes HOA financials, meeting minutes, and pending litigation notices. In plain terms, a condo seller in a Greenbrae HOA can no longer treat the balcony report as a separate, optional document. It is now baked into the same paperwork due before the buyer removes contingencies, and if the association never did the inspection, that absence itself has to be disclosed.
Why This Lands Differently Here Than On The Hillside
Most of what people picture when they hear "Greenbrae" is the hillside stock north of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, custom homes with bay views, private decks, and no association governing the property. Those owners maintain their own decks and answer to no HOA disclosure package. SB 410 has nothing to say to them.
The exposure comes down to a specific ownership structure, not just a specific street, and that test cuts through Bon Air in an easy-to-miss way. Bon Air's attached housing and condos sit on the Barry Way side of the neighborhood, the portion developed first around the shopping center, which has anchored the area since 1952 and includes at least one apartment community built in 1960. That older, association-governed stock is exactly what SB 326 was written for. Meanwhile the detached single-family homes that went up along Drakes View Circle, Laderman Lane, and Elizabeth Circle during the 1990s sit in the same Bon Air pocket but typically carry individual lot ownership rather than a condominium structure, which means SB 326 does not reach them even if they pay HOA dues for shared landscaping or private roads. The same split applies to the condominium buildings along Corte Madera Creek, which fit the condominium test the law was built around.
Here's the split in practical terms:
| Housing type | Where in Greenbrae | Covered by SB 326/410? | What a seller needs before listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hillside single-family, private deck | North of Sir Francis Drake Blvd | No, no HOA involved | Standard TDS disclosure only |
| Bon Air detached homes, 1990s construction | Drakes View Circle, Laderman Lane, Elizabeth Circle | No, typically a planned development, not a condominium | Standard TDS disclosure only |
| Bon Air attached homes and condos | Via Barry Way, the neighborhood's oldest developed pocket | Yes, if 3+ units and wood-framed elevated elements | Most recent §5551 inspection report as part of the §4525 packet |
| Creekside condos | Along Corte Madera Creek | Yes, same condominium test applies | Same packet requirement, plus reserve study cross-check |
A Hot Market Doesn't Buy You Out Of This
The timing makes this trickier, not easier. Greenbrae's market has been running hot through the first half of 2026. The average sale price climbed to $2,525,000 in the first half of the year, up from $2.2 million in the second half of 2025, while price per square foot rose to $1,153 from $942 over the same stretch. Sales volume increased from 18 homes to 25, nearly half of all homes sold above asking, and the average premium paid over list price reached 11.4 percent. More than half of sellers fielded multiple offers.
That pace is exactly what turns a missing inspection report into a real problem instead of a paperwork footnote. In a market where buyers are waiving contingencies and moving fast, a lender pulling the file for a closer look at HOA warrantability is the one thing that can slow everyone down regardless of how strong the offer was. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both review HOA documentation before backing a loan, and an incomplete or missing SB 326 report is now a flag they can act on. A buyer who was ready to close in three weeks can suddenly be waiting on the HOA to produce a report that does not exist yet, and there is no way to rush a structural engineer's schedule to match an escrow calendar.
What To Actually Order Before You List
If you own a condo or townhome in one of Greenbrae's HOA communities and you're thinking about selling, the fix here is sequencing, not scrambling. A few things worth doing before you put a sign in the yard:
- Call your HOA management company and ask directly whether the section 5551 inspection has been completed, and get the date in writing.
- Request the full section 4525 disclosure packet the same week you sign a listing agreement, not after you accept an offer. Associations can charge a fee for this, but the packet has to reflect actual cost.
- If the inspection turned up recommended repairs, ask whether those are already reflected in the HOA's reserve study, since a lender reviewing the file will look for that alignment.
- If your association has not done the inspection at all, find out now rather than during escrow. That gives you time to push the board, rather than discovering it the day a buyer's loan officer asks for the report.
If The Report Doesn't Exist Yet
An owner is not personally responsible for an HOA's failure to inspect, but the consequences still land on whoever is trying to sell. If no report exists, that absence is itself a disclosable fact under the current law, and a buyer's agent doing their job will flag it. The practical result tends to be a stalled loan approval rather than a collapsed sale outright, but stalled is still expensive in a market moving as fast as Greenbrae's is right now. The sellers who avoid this are the ones who treat the HOA document request as step one of listing prep, not a formality to handle once an offer is in hand.
A Few Questions Worth Answering Directly
Does this apply to the Boardwalk community of floating homes along Corte Madera Creek? The law applies specifically to common interest developments with three or more attached units governed by an association under the Davis-Stirling Act. Whether a specific waterfront community falls under that structure depends on its legal formation, so this is worth confirming with the association directly rather than assuming either way.
What if my HOA completed its inspection back in 2024, before any of this took effect? That still counts. The requirement is that the most recent report gets included in the disclosure packet, and the nine-year cycle runs from whenever the first inspection was completed.
Does a hillside home with its own private deck need any of this paperwork? No. SB 326 and SB 410 apply to condominium associations with shared maintenance responsibility for elevated structures. A single-family home with no HOA governing the property isn't part of this disclosure requirement, though normal transfer disclosure obligations still apply to any known material defects.
Selling a home in Greenbrae right now means selling into real demand, but the HOA paperwork side of that equation moves on its own clock, one that doesn't speed up just because buyers are motivated. If you're weighing a sale in one of Greenbrae's condo or townhome communities and want a clear-eyed read on what your specific HOA's documentation looks like before you list, Erin's Home Connections can help you sort through it. Let's connect and get the timeline right from the start.
