HOA CCR verbiage and Roommate

Started by MattH8 • 4 replies • 1836 views

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MattH8 (Ohio)
Posts: 2

Posted:

I am looking to buy and occupy a home within a community with an HOA. There is verbiage in the CCR that states that I cannot "...lease less than an entire Dwelling Unit..." Dwelling Unit is defined as "any building or PORTION of a building situated upon the Property designed and intended for use and occupancy as a residence by a SINGLE PERSON, a family or a family-sized group of persons" (capitalized words added for emphasis). Trimming down the definition to the parts I'm interested in, a Dwelling Unit is a portion of a building intended for occupancy by a single person. This would be a room in my home, because a room is a portion of a building (my home) and it can be occupied by a single person (a roommate). Am I reading this correctly? Can I lease a room to a roommate?

To further confuse things, under the Land Use section, it states "... any Dwelling Unit...shall be used only as a residence for a single family." If this contradicts my understanding above, then I technically can't live there as a single person. I would have to have a family with a wife and kids, which doesn't make any sense. Am I thinking about this correctly?

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MattH8 on 04/11/2017 7:34 PM
I am looking to buy and occupy a home within a community with an HOA. There is verbiage in the CCR that states that I cannot "...lease less than an entire Dwelling Unit..." Dwelling Unit is defined as "any building or PORTION of a building situated upon the Property designed and intended for use and occupancy as a residence by a SINGLE PERSON, a family or a family-sized group of persons" (capitalized words added for emphasis). Trimming down the definition to the parts I'm interested in, a Dwelling Unit is a portion of a building intended for occupancy by a single person. This would be a room in my home, because a room is a portion of a building (my home) and it can be occupied by a single person (a roommate). Am I reading this correctly? Can I lease a room to a roommate?

To further confuse things, under the Land Use section, it states "... any Dwelling Unit...shall be used only as a residence for a single family." If this contradicts my understanding above, then I technically can't live there as a single person. I would have to have a family with a wife and kids, which doesn't make any sense. Am I thinking about this correctly?

Hi Matt ... Welcome to the Forum

First and foremost I want to commend you for reading the CCR's and asking questions BEFORE you purchase. LOL ... Most often we get questions from individuals who did not do their proper "homework" and then questioning their documents.

I would contend you are reading incorrectly ... the first portion which I have in bold above states "CCR that states that I cannot ... lease less than an entire Dwelling Unit" ... In essence means that nobody can lease a room to a roommate. You are supposed to lease the entire Dwellling Unit, not just one room.

The Dwelling Unit is in essence the Condo Unit or Single Family Home depending on type of HOA you are looking to purchase within. When it states "residence for a single family" technically it is a single person or "family" unit.

However, while none of us are attorneys I would find this hard to enforce. How am I to know if your roommate is your brother, sister, cousin, etc. Also, in today's society you have same sex partners. Therefore, the question would be what do they consider to be a family-sized group of persons? You might look at your State Laws before purchasing to also see what they state. The State Law will supersede the CCR's unless the State Law defers to the CCR's. Essentially if the State Law says something to affect "... unless the CCR's state a different percentage to vote", the CCR's might supersede, but if the law does not give preference to the documents the State Law will rule.

GuyS (Arizona)
Posts: 19

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By MattH8 on 04/11/2017 7:34 PM
To further confuse things, under the Land Use section, it states "... any Dwelling Unit...shall be used only as a residence for a single family." If this contradicts my understanding above, then I technically can't live there as a single person. I would have to have a family with a wife and kids, which doesn't make any sense. Am I thinking about this correctly?

There may be a formal definition of "family" applicable to your jurisdiction. For example, here in Pima County, AZ, the definition of "family" starts out as "Any number of individuals related by blood or marriage, or not more than five unrelated persons customarily living together as a single housekeeping unit ....". I recently became aware of this definition as we were asking questions about restrictions.

Clearly 1 is a number so a single person can live in a single-family residence here. And that is certainly common.

You should ask the HOA if their language means single occupancy is not allowed.

MattH8 (Ohio)
Posts: 2

Posted:

Thanks for the responses!

I did end up talking talking to a lawyer. I only spoke to him only during a 15 minute consultation so he couldn't dive deep into the document and wouldn't give me a legal answer, which was understandable. He did say that the wording seemed vague and potentially unclear and he would err on the side of not allowing rooms to be rented out, and that's about as much as I could get out of him, once again, understandably.

So the next step was to ask the HOA and they confirmed that I was allowed to rent out rooms to roommates. So problem solved there! I'm still not sure how the wording of the document allows for this, but I do have it in writing from them.

This was a relief because not being able to rent a room out to a roommate would have been a no-go. I would have responded to the seller and said that I disagreed with the terms of the HOA and walked away from the house.

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

If you have it in writing prior to purchase is good. I would agree with your attorney in that potentially not allowed; however, if in writing from the HOA you at least could be potentially OK for yourself. Be sure to file and protect that document and keep in mind that approval for yourself may not transfer to future buyer.

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