Can board enforce CCR and bylaws and not adhere themselves

Condo complex is 90% used as rental apartments. The tenants are predominantly section 8 ( at risk residents). The challenges are 8-10 homeowners still live in their mortgage paid and HOA dues paying units. Management board (same as investors), cannot maintain property well because multiple independent investors own 90% of units. No central management office. Each owner find tenants, repair and service their rental properties. My question, how can HOA hold individual homeowners to high level CCR and bylaw compliance, and not enforce same on other condo owners within same condominium? If they enforce on one, and not others, do I need to comply? Can I ignore violations since external complex picture show years of non compliance by HOA and board?

Good idea. Although I place all major HOA rules in lease. I probably wasn't as clear in initial communication. HOA board is not enforcing the condo's bylaws for tenants. They seem to pick and choose which owners they want to demand bylaw enforcement. Does this selective choosing water down violated bylaws by one homeowner in the court? My thinking, if the boas are permitted to be parked than why should an homeowner comply with all leases be turned into the HOA office?

Bylaws are internal documents to the HOA. The CC&Rs are the deed restrictions. You can change the bylaws relatively easy but the others take more effort. They require filing and majority signatures for changes.

Suing your HOA is suing yourself and your neighbors. It is not a good idea to run your HOA by court but by its own rules. Keep in mind your HOA is ONLY made up of your fellow neighbors. It has to be selective in nature as not everyone has the same interpretation of violation or application.

Are you willing to go to a neighbors house or writing them a letter staing their violation? Then your board material and can understand the process. If not, then why expect it of others?

Actually, a better answer would be that they may lose in court. When selective enforcement is identified, the court could rule one of the following ways:

A) Selective Enforcement is occurring but you are still in violation and must bring the issue into compliance. Additionally, the Board is to cease using selective enforcement - a ruling that the Association would like.

B) Selective Enforcement is occurring, you are in violation but the Association may not enforce the covenant unless they also enforce it on all others who are also in violation (list of other violators was provided by you as proof of the selective enforcement) - a ruling that would likely upset those who are in violation but may benefit you if the Board chooses not to enforce.

C) Selective Enforcement is occurring and because of selective enforcement, the covenant itself is unenforceable - a ruling that the you would like.

Great answers. Very much what I needed. I lived in SC and was an active HOA member. The board had expert advisors visit our meeting. Emmah, they pretty much echoed your feedback. It may be state ruled. I too am dumb because adding local laws to CCRs are too smart for me to comprehend. Thanks for clarification on Bylaws vs CCR. It seems my bylaws of thr 70s contain both. It may be one staple to two docs. As I start my mission to create a more equitable relationship between the owners and business,this website will be an asset. Hopefully,I will eventually become a contrbutor and a requester.

(Ignore all spell and grammatical errors. Using itsy bitsy device and fingers are larger than screen or qwerty board.

Thank you experienced and knowledgeable people.

This is the main problem with offsite owners - there are lots of good ones, but too many are only concerned about the rent check and don't care what the tenants are doing to the property. Since the majority of your HOA members are off-site owners renting out their unit, they dominate the board and that may explain why there's little enforcement (if you enforce against one, they may come back and enforce on YOU).

Eventually, someone will need to convince the investor-owners it really is a good idea for them to enforce CCRs. If the community is well kept with nice people living there, more nice people may want to live there. The landlord could then charge more rent because the community's attractive to potential tenants, and everyone's happy. Otherwise, you get mini-slumlords who don't give a rat's ass that the community's going to hell because 70% of the section 8 money is directly deposited into their account (the tenants only pay 30%, so in most cases, they don't have a lot of money at risk and don't care if the place goes to pot either). This isn't just a Section 8 issue - just like homeowners, there are good and bad tenants everywhere, regardless of how they pay their rent.

The key, as others have said, is to enforce the rules against the HOMEOWNERS. Unfortunately, if there are 8-10 owner-occupants left, they don't have a lot of power because everyone else is off-site (and couldn't care less because they don't live with whatever their tenants are doing). You could try taking several photos of the mess and sending it to every homeowner with a blistering letter on why the rules should be enforced and see what happens. Otherwise, you may need to decide if you need to sell your home and move on.

I wish I had better information for you - we have a lot of off-site owners in my community as well, and for a long time, we've had issues, but lately, it seems we're finally getting the bad ones out, either because they weren't paying assessments, so the HOA had to sue or they weren't making enough money because assessments went up (partly because of the people who weren't paying fees) and so they find it easier to go elsewhere where they don't have to worry about HOAs. Whatever - as long as the community is quieter and it can start looking decent!

I may not win the battle but sometime the fight help get people thinking differently, thank you as I at least try. HOA board members come from all walks of life so do legislators. NC recently made adjustments to HOA regulations and perhaps its time for more. If you believe its hopeless than it is. Forward march....

Good advice from Glen.