Board wants final say on all tenant leases

I own numerous townhomes in a small community in Texas. This community is about 25% investor owned. Recently the HOA board changed the rules where they now must review and approve all leases. The process they have set is that the completed lease needs to be sent to the Management company with a criminal background check attached, the forwarded to the board for final approval. This whole process could take up to 2 weeks to complete. In my opinion, an unreasonable amount of time to give someone who is waiting to see if they will be renting from you.

The HOA board has no experience at reviewing leases, or property management. My question is, Are they not opening themselves up to possible discrimination suits by deciding who can and can't rent from them? Why would they want this exposure....Could t0 be outsourced to a 3rd party screening company?

Hi Jeff:

My questions would be is this set in the declaration of CCR or just a rule from the board? Potentially if in CCR it may stand up in a court of law as all owners voted and agreed to said rule and which is attached to and running with the properties. If it is just a rule made by the board … then a court could rule more regarding “reasonableness” because it was a few board members who agreed to implement.

There have been court cases in which the HOA in the CCR’s have regulations to not allow certain ‘criminals” within the community and which have stood up in court. Most of these cases have been with regards to potentially not allowing sexual predators.

I would guess the question potentially comes down to would you want someone with a potential violent criminal history living next door?