Reviewing Lease Agreements - What do you look for?

We do not have such a policy.
Rentals are between the owner and the renter.
The Association is not involved.

I'm actually in Pennsylvania now and have updated that in my profile.

In referencing the PA Uniform Planned Community Act, there is no mention (that I can find) of reviewing or not reviewing lease agreements. Therefore, I don't think there's a legal issue with the fact that my HOA has imposed a process.

Before my time on the Board, a CC&R resolution was passed that established a process for submitting a lease agreement to the Board and for the Board to render a decision on that lease agreement (approve/disapprove).

The resolution is rather long, explaining the process and providing an addendum to the lease agreement; however, it begins with the following:
"APPLICATION TO LEASE: Homes may not be leased without application to and receiving approval from the Board of Directors. No third party leases are permitted without the approval of the Board. No unit may be leased for an initial term of less than one year."

I can certainly see the argument for staying out of this altogether . . . it's an agreement between owner and renter, so there's no reason for the HOA to be involved. It's none of the Board's business.

However, I can also see how such a process could prevent frequent and excessive renting of a home like what is done through airbnb and other similar sites. While I can appreciate that business model, I don't think it has a place in HOAs. I wouldn't want the house next to me to be a revolving door of renters.

Right now, the process exists for me in my HOA. My initial intent was to see how others work within a similar process. However, you now have me questioning whether such a process should even exist in my HOA.

oops, ignore that last link.
It's part of a cut, paste and edit which I utilize to post links.
I simply failed to delete it before pressing submit.

ND,

It appears that your CC&R amendment has at least one objective standard, the one-year-minimum lease period. I assume there are other specific restrictions in the amendment. In that case, the board should examine the lease to determine whether it meets all the requirements of the amendment and then either approve or reject. Rejected leases should be accompanied by a statement for the reason otherwise your board will look capricious and arbitrary.

Correct. No PA legal requirements.

Local Rule: My township requires a new Certificate of Occupancy with every occupancy change, including leases.

I have a rental policy and it includes a background check. We use a service, the renters/homeowner pay for the background check. I review the entire rental application, google everyone's names, look them up on Facebook etc and in some cases I have called previous landlords if I am suspicious. When the background check comes back I can see if the person has been evicted before and the homeowner gets the credit check also and can deny based on that. I am looking for obvious or even subtle signs of drug dealing or other criminal behavior, commercial intentions such as wanting to use the house for a hair salon or tax office and our docs say you cannot rent rooms, so I look for signs of party house or renting rooms.

I would deny based on our criminal background criteria, commercial intent, renting rooms. If I could not find a legal way to deny and am sure these folks will not be good neighbors or are up to no good, I would try like heck to interview them and make them sign every waiver and agreement we have and explain that we have the right to evict tenants that break our rules, and we have done it before and will do it again quickly and try to be as scary as possible. Other than those scare tactics there is not much else we can do to prevent rentals, and even with all that hard work, anyone can commit a crime after they move in.

Interesting Allison.
1 How many rental applications have you denied?
2 How many potential renters have signed your waivers?
3 What exactly are your eviction rights?
4 Have you ever evicted anyone?

Does your board have the right to not approve prospective tenants, Jeff? Are prospective tenants required by your HOA to give applications to the Board?

I agree that everyone benefits if someone meets & talks with new tenants (& new owners), gives them a "welcome packet," etc. Our onsite mgr. assist. does that so I don't know what other HOAs might do to get newcomers off on the right foot.

Our CC&Rs do require that Landlords leave copies of our (120 pp!) CC&Rs and Rules & Regs in the Unit for the tenants.

ND

You say:

Let me also add that this Resolution was created while the neighborhood was under Developer control. I'm starting to believe there were ulterior motives behind its creation. It's written in such a way that if the Board chose to deny an application simply because they wanted to (whatever the reasons), then that would be allowable. The Board is essentially permitted to be capricious and arbitrary; however, that's certainly not how our current Board wants to act. This resolution seems to permit the type of overreaching that gets Boards in trouble and creates an unnecessary and inappropriate intrusion into homeowner's lives.

Typically renters create the most problems as there is no pride of ownership. I for one would like more controls on who can rent versus less control. I would advise you not give up that control.

I am curious if any of the HOA's that have these rental approval processes in place also screen new owners. Except for ownership rights, there are the same.

Legally and for liability purposes, I don't think any HOA wants to be considered landlords.

I believe HOA should have documents on hand showing if the unit is a rental with contact info on the renter(s). More importantly, there should be a addendum signed by both the owner and the tenant they acknowledge receipt of a copy of the Rules and Regulation, if the association has any. Many HOA's don't have rules and regulations. Renters should not have copies of CCRs, as that is a contract between the owner and the association.

There is case law in California, Francis T V. Village Green Owners Association that associations can be held to the same duty of care as an landlord. In a association, the role of landlords as it pertains to THEIR unit lies with the owners.The owners have a responsibility to the association to make sure that their tenants abide by the rules and that care is used in using any of the common areas.

Collecting car and license plate numbers can help with issues of parking (including vehicle storage), speeding, and commercial vehicles.

It is illegal to discriminate against families with children. On the other hand, you can check on the number of occupants, unrelated people sharing the household, etc.

It can be good to know who your neighbors are, and their phone numbers.

We have denied several, for criminal background. All renters sign the waivers, its part of the package. A few renters backed out of the deal based on our requirements to follow these various rules so I did not have to deny them but they wisely looked elsewhere. We have evicted renters for moving other people into the house and ignoring the rental rules of undergoing the background check and the homeowner was on board with evicting them. And in one horrible foreclosure house that the homeowners rented out rooms on a day to day basis while they lived elsewhere, we evicted everyone that was living in the house but that was because we foreclosed on our lien. I am particularly strict with renters because I lived year-round in a summer vacation town on Long Island for several years and know what it is like to have a party house next door. These rules are what my residents wanted and I am happy to enforce these rules.

We have three clauses that must be in any lease agreement. We check for the three clauses one of which is word for word from our documents. And our documents do give the Board authority to request additional clauses. Other than the three specified clauses and that the lease be for at least 90 days there is no other qualifications to be able to lease a unit.