republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-721.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Covenants and restrictions: affordable housing."
description: "Existing law permits a person who holds an ownership interest of record in property that the person believes is the subject of an unlawfully restrictive covenant based on, among other things, source of income, to record a Restrictive Covenant Modification, which is to include a copy of the original document with the illegal language stricken. Before recording the modification document, existing law requires the county recorder to submit the modification document and the original document to the county counsel who is required to determine whether the original document contains an unlawful restriction."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 721"
citation: "California AB 721 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Covenants and restrictions: affordable housing."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bloom"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 33
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2021-02-16"
last_action: "2021-09-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5e57f849-cfaa-4d09-9ed9-38b1b984bc6f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721"
source_hash: "8ab7d80034f61d51cacb8786b29dc98081b5dbed0523e2efb0dbc03fadb4d099"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 721 (20212022) — Covenants and restrictions: affordable housing.

Existing law permits a person who holds an ownership interest of record in property that the person believes is the subject of an unlawfully restrictive covenant based on, among other things, source of income, to record a Restrictive Covenant Modification, which is to include a copy of the original document with the illegal language stricken. Before recording the modification document, existing law requires the county recorder to submit the modification document and the original document to the county counsel who is required to determine whether the original document contains an unlawful restriction.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/16/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72199INT)
2. **04/20/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72198AMD)
3. **04/28/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72197AMD)
4. **05/24/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72196AMD)
5. **06/23/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72195AMD)
6. **07/05/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72194AMD)
7. **08/16/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72193AMD)
8. **09/28/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72191CHP)
9. **AB721** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721)
10. **09/07/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB721&version=20210AB72192ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB721 Bloom By Wiener — **29–9** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 721 Bloom Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **53–17** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **7–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **8–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 721 Bloom Assembly Third Reading — **52–18** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **12–4** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **5–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–3** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bloom — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-02-16** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Coms. on H. & C.D. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-19** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (April 15). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-20** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-21** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 3.) (April 27). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-28** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-29** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-19** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-20** Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended. (Page 1460.)
- **2021-05-20** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 12. Noes 4.) (May 20). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2021-05-24** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-25** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-06-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 52. Noes 18. Page 1845.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-06-03** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-16** Referred to Coms. on HOUSING and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HOUSING. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-01** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 7. Noes 2.) (July 1). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-05** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-14** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 2.) (July 13). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-08-16** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2021-08-16** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2021-08-23** In committee: Referred to APPR suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-08-26** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 26). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 29. Noes 9. Page 2309.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-01** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 3 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2021-09-02** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Ayes 57. Noes 14. Page 2703.)
- **2021-09-02** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 53. Noes 17. Page 2732.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2021-09-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-09-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 349, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5e57f849-cfaa-4d09-9ed9-38b1b984bc6f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).