The Commercial CID Act discontinued the general statutory right of the prevailing party to recover attorney’s fees and costs in actions for the enforcement of governing documents provided in former Civil Code §1354(c). Part of the idea behind the Commercial CID Act is to cater to the generally more sophisticated membership of an association consisting of business people.

The legislature decided to afford prevailing commercial and industrial CIDs or their members the statutory right to recover reasonable attorney’s fees (and sometimes costs) only in a select few instances:

(i) Enforcement of an action against the association for injunctive relief to require the removal of a restrictive covenant in violation of Government Code §12955 (prohibiting discriminatory language on the basis of race, religion, gender, etc.) (Civ. Code, §6606(d));
  
(ii) Enforcement of an action to allow a member to display the American flag (Civ. Code §6702(c));

(iii) Enforcement of an action regarding installation or use of video or television antennas or satellite dishes, etc. of 36 inches or less (Civ. Code §6708(d));

(iv) Enforcement of an action regarding the installation or use of an electric charging station (Civ. Code §6713(k)); and

(v) Costs of collection and reasonable attorneys fees arising from collection of assessments (Civ. Code §6808 and §6812.