Rental Rules & Regulations in MD

Christina,

To be honest, you may place those requirements in any document you think will work.

The issue will be if the requirements are challenged. If nobody challenges the regulations, then everything is fine. If anyone challenges the regulations or if the Board has to take legal action to enforce those requirements, then it becomes important on what document those regulations are in. If they are in the Bylaws vs. the CC&Rs and a judge rules that they conflict with the CC&Rs, then those requirements will become unenforceable and the Association will have legal expenses to pay for trying to enforce a requirement that was unenforceable.

This is why it's important for Associations to place rules and regs within the proper document.

As a layperson, unless the Association is actually involved in the rental process, I don't believe they can force any of those things you mentioned (but I could be wrong).

Instead, I would suggest the following:

1) Make sure that the rules and documents are publicized. Post rules for common amenities at the common amenities. Run articles within the Association newsletter about rules and enforcement policies. Have all the documents on a website or in a binder at the office where people can read them without having to ask for a copy.

2) Enforce the infractions on the members. Typically the governing documents (and sometimes actual statutes) require the member to be responsible for the actions of their tenants and guests. Therefore, use that section of the governing documents to hold the member accountable. Monetary penalties (if allowed) can go a long way to encourage nonresident owners to hold their tenants accountable.

In our HOA, Christine, our CC&Rs require owners to give our HOA certain info, but not the lease or rental applications themselves. We do have a form the tenant fills out for the owners who gives the completed form to our PM. It requires the tenants' contact information and emergency numbers. Because we have secured access underground parking (high rise HOA), we require the tenants' car makes, models, colors, years on this form. The property address is on this form.

The reason I'm going into detail here is that IMHO you're thinking about asking for more info than you need, on one hand. On the other, if your town requires a copy of the rental app, it doesn't seem unreasonable for you to have a copy too.

Our CC&Rs also make it clear that owners are completely responsible for their tenants' (guests' employees, etc.) conduct, are subject to hearings and fines if renters violate the rules, and that doc advises them to make sure tenants have a copy of the rules. It might be difficult to require owners to add a clause to their standard lease form. If, however, your board comes up with some nice wording, you might be able to require that it be added as an addendum to the lease.

We have about 37% rentals, so I completely understand your efforts to keep up with who's living where.

Tim's ideas of posting rules at some amenities makes sense.

Not being in the legal profession myself, and agreeing with John, it seems to me that your board may just add this to your Rules & Regs. It's not the type of thing to put in bylaws and I don't think you need to add it to your CC&Rs.

But you might want to double check with your HOA attorney.

I see that I pulled this quote from my notes. In the original, "Organizing docs" refers to articles of incorporation, declaration, and bylaws.

Say, NpS, if your covenants or state law give your HOA such authority, suspending common amenity privileges can work wonders. If, that is, you anything worth suspending.

We had one delinquent owner whose privileges we suspended. His tenants work out really vigorously in our gym every day. They gave the owner such flak for having their fobs disabled for our common amenities, that he paid/caught up.

The paper authority is an empty one. No individual amenities to withhold.

We have one renter with 5 vehicles on property. He flips them as a side business. We actually go out of our way to find parking spaces for him because we want all vehicles off the roads when we plow the streets. This despite our other empty rule that any home business is strictly prohibited - and our ability to fine $100 a pop for vehicles on street when plowing is imminent or going on.

Our bigger issue is that because we have only 5-10% rentals, renters here have typically been treated as second class citizens. This percentage has been slowly rising because in this economy, more have opted to rent rather than sell.

The OP's 50-60% rentals would pose a whole different set of challenges. Our issues are mild by comparison.