Judiciary omnibus

The law changes what car buyers must be told about optional cancellation agreements, sets the amount of home equity protected from many creditor judgments for 2026, and eliminates duplicative financial disclosures after a property division in a legal-separation judgment.

What the law does ​

• Removes vehicle contract cancellation option agreements from the auto-sale cash-price definition and related contract and precontract disclosure requirements, effective October 1, 2026.
• Sets the 2026 homestead exemption at the greater of $746,350 or $373,175, with annual California CPI-based adjustments beginning in 2027.
• Ends required financial-disclosure exchanges in a marriage or registered-domestic-partnership dissolution when an enforceable legal-separation judgment already divided the parties’ property.
• Updates probate accounting requirements for a conservatee’s or ward’s known foreign real property and makes technical corrections to receivership, labor-enforcement, partnership, and trust-accounting statutes.

Who it affects ​

• Consumers and dealers entering motor-vehicle installment sale contracts.
• Homeowners and other judgment debtors claiming a homestead exemption.
• Divorcing or separating spouses and registered domestic partners with an existing property-division judgment.
• Estate fiduciaries, guardians, conservators, trustees, employees, and employers subject to the updated statutes.

Breakdown ​

Vehicle Contract Cancellation Options ​

This part removes vehicle contract cancellation option agreements from certain rules for auto sale financing contracts. Their cost will no longer be included in the contract’s cash price, and sellers will no longer have to disclose the agreement’s charge in the contract or provide its description and price before the buyer signs.

Key takeaways

• A vehicle contract cancellation option agreement will no longer be part of the vehicle’s defined cash price.
• Conditional sale contracts will no longer have to state the amount charged for a vehicle contract cancellation option agreement.
• Before the contract is signed, sellers will no longer have to give buyers a description and price for a vehicle contract cancellation option agreement.

Homestead Exemption Amounts ​

The bill sets new minimum and maximum homestead exemption amounts for 2026. It also changes how those amounts will be adjusted for inflation each year starting in 2027, using California’s consumer price index and rounding the results to the nearest $25.

Key takeaways

• For 2026, the homestead exemption will be the greater of $746,350 or $373,175, depending on the applicable calculation.
• The homestead exemption helps protect a person’s principal home from being sold to satisfy a money judgment, subject to specified exceptions and court procedures.
• Beginning January 1, 2027, the bill requires the exemption’s ceiling and floor amounts to be adjusted annually for inflation.
• The annual inflation adjustment will use the change in California’s Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers during the prior fiscal year.
• The inflation multiplier will compare the CPI for June at the end of the prior fiscal year with the CPI for the preceding June.
• Adjusted ceiling and floor amounts must be rounded to the nearest $25.

Disclosure Waiver After Legal Separation ​

The bill removes the requirement for spouses or registered domestic partners to exchange financial disclosure forms when they later dissolve their marriage or partnership, if they already have an enforceable legal-separation judgment that divided their property. This applies only when that prior judgment has adjudicated the property division.

Key takeaways

• The bill creates an exception to the usual financial-disclosure requirements in dissolution cases.
• Neither party must exchange disclosure declarations if an enforceable legal-separation judgment already divided the property.
• The exception applies to dissolutions of marriages and registered domestic partnerships.
• A prior legal-separation judgment qualifies only if it adjudicated the division of property.

Technical Corrections ​

This part of the bill fixes incorrect statutory cross-references and makes other technical corrections. It does not describe a substantive policy change.

Key takeaways

• The bill corrects various cross-references in California law.
• The bill makes additional technical changes.
• This part is intended to improve the accuracy and consistency of statutory text.