Amended  IN  Senate  August 28, 2020
Amended  IN  Assembly  February 25, 2020

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1885

Introduced by Committee on Budget (Assembly Members Ting (Chair), Arambula, Bloom, Chiu, Cooper, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Jones-Sawyer, Limón, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, O’Donnell, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Blanca Rubio, Mark Stone, Weber, Wicks, and Wood)

January 07, 2020

An act relating to the Budget Act of 2020. An act to amend Section 704.730 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relating to enforcement of judgments.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1885, as amended, Committee on Budget. Budget Act of 2020. Debtor exemptions: homestead exemption.
Existing law provides that a specified portion of equity in a homestead, as defined, is exempt from execution to satisfy a judgment debt and prescribes that the amount of the homestead exemption is either $75,000, $100,000, or $175,000, depending on certain characteristics of the homestead’s residents.
This bill would instead make the homestead exemption the greater of $300,000 or the countywide median sale price of a single-family home in the calendar year prior to the calendar year in which the judgment debtor claims the exemption, not to exceed $600,000. These amounts would adjust annually for inflation.

This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact statutory changes, relating to the Budget Act of 2020.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 704.730 of the Code of Civil Procedure is amended to read:

704.730.
 (a) The amount of the homestead exemption is one the greater of the following:

(1)Seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) unless the judgment debtor or spouse of the judgment debtor who resides in the homestead is a person described in paragraph (2) or (3).

(2)One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) if the judgment debtor or spouse of the judgment debtor who resides in the homestead is at the time of the attempted sale of the homestead a member of a family unit, and there is at least one member of the family unit who owns no interest in the homestead or whose only interest in the homestead is a community property interest with the judgment debtor.

(3)One hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($175,000) if the judgment debtor or spouse of the judgment debtor who resides in the homestead is at the time of the attempted sale of the homestead any one of the following:

(A)A person 65 years of age or older.

(B)A person physically or mentally disabled who as a result of that disability is unable to engage in substantial gainful employment. There is a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of proof that a person receiving disability insurance benefit payments under Title II or supplemental security income payments under Title XVI of the federal Social Security Act satisfies the requirements of this paragraph as to his or her inability to engage in substantial gainful employment.

(C)A person 55 years of age or older with a gross annual income of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) or, if the judgment debtor is married, a gross annual income, including the gross annual income of the judgment debtor’s spouse, of not more than thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000) and the sale is an involuntary sale.

(b)Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the combined homestead exemptions of spouses on the same judgment shall not exceed the amount specified in paragraph (2) or (3), whichever is applicable, of subdivision (a), regardless of whether the spouses are jointly obligated on the judgment and regardless of whether the homestead consists of community or separate property or both. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, if both spouses are entitled to a homestead exemption, the exemption of proceeds of the homestead shall be apportioned between the spouses on the basis of their proportionate interests in the homestead.

(1) The countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the calendar year prior to the calendar year in which the judgment debtor claims the exemption, not to exceed six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000).
(2) Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000).
(b) The amounts specified in this section shall adjust annually for inflation, beginning on January 1, 2022, based on the change in the annual California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the prior fiscal year, published by the Department of Industrial Relations.

SECTION 1.

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact statutory changes, relating to the Budget Act of 2020.