HOA Rental Restriction in Louisiana

Does anyone know if Louisiana has a rental restriction policy for HOAs?
75 town homes and we are at 25% rentals now, hoping we can amend Covenants to cap at 25%.
Thank you

Expecting that you are not a condominium project, per RS 9:1141.6 you will need 2/3 of the membership to agree to this (hence it has to be within the CC&Rs).

Gwen reality check here. As a former landlord in a HOA, it's best to protect yourself by having the renters obey the HOA rules. Why? Because the HOA is going to hold you the owner to the rules your renters violate. Considering there is a thing called "Tenant's rights". A owner can't kick a tenant out of their home for violating the lease IF that condition is NOT written in said lease.

Example: The renter leaves the trash can out after garbage pick up days. This is a HOA violation. The HOA has to go to the owner and fine them for leaving the Trash can out. Well if the lease agreement does not have this written into the lease to obey the HOA rules, then how can the owner pass on the punishment to the tenant? The HOA can't fine the tenant. The owner can't make the tenant pay it. The owner can't evict the tenant if condition not a reason for eviction.

Which is why so many HOAs have trouble with tenants and are talking about rental caps in the first place, if not trying to ban them altogether!

We have A LOT of rentals in our townhouse community and when I was on the board, we tried to get a rental cap for that reason. WE were also concerned that owner occupants (like me) might have trouble selling if the community was full of rentals, thus hurting property values. As you know, many people try to avoid areas with a lot of rental properties in the neighborhood because of the problems tenants cause and they're never addressed by the owner-landlords who don't care what happens as long as the rent check clears.

In many HOA documents, there's language that says the owners are ultimately responsible for the conduct of their visitors and household members anyway, so having a clause in the lease stating the tenant must abide by the rules protects the owner too. Who wants to rent to someone who makes the neighbors crazy, trashes the place and then leaves without paying? That's the downside of renting and if you're in a HOA, you're responsible for any damage to the common areas caused by negligence or abuse committed by you, your household members or visitors. Or tenants.

Of course, the HOA can't kick out the tenant unless the documents contain that language and even then I would think a court would expect it to hammer the owner because if he/she didn't rent the place to the tenant, there wouldn't be any problems. So, the HOA has to do what's in the best interests of the entire community, not just those who bought the place so they could rent it out. If they didn't want to comply with HOA rules, why in the hell did they buy in that community in the first place? I don't give two damns if a landlord has to add a page or two or three to his/her lease requiring a tenant to behave - if that cuts into his/her profits, oh well. Maybe that'll encourage the landlord to take more time in doing some sort of due diligence to get a better idea of what's about to come.

As you can see, this is an issue that really gets me riled up. Owner-occupants who can't/refuse to play well with others are bad enough, but the ones who bring in the riffraff are even more annoying, so whatever can be done to keep EVERYONE in check is ok with me.

Even going beyond rental restrictions, I think people need to understand that very few neighborhoods (HOA or not) remain the same decade after decade. Too many people buy homes and expect nothing to change, ever. I know I've been frustrated with this in my HOA.

Keep in mind if there is NO CURRENT CAP on rentals in your governing documents or restrictions on leasing units, it will be extremely difficult to "amend" what is a new restriction on rentals. Even if passed, such a restriction will likely not apply to those existing owners who do not agree. It's casually called "grandfathering" but it essentially exempts those owners who do not agree to an additional restriction on their property. Associations should get competent attorney advice to make sure that such a restriction is permitted by the Declaration.

There is case history on this and it could be an expensive lesson to associations.

"Please note, however, that the ability of Condominium HOAs to restrict rental activity may be curtailed. Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) §33-1227 states:

Except to the extent expressly permitted or required by other provisions of this chapter, an amendment shall not create or increase special declarant rights, increase the number of units or change the boundaries of any unit, the allocated interests of a unit or the uses to which any unit is restricted , in the absence of unanimous consent of the unit owners. Therefore, if a Condominium's CC&Rs currently allow a unit to be rented, then included in the allowed “uses” of the unit is rental activity. As such, any change to that “use” may be subject to the restrictions of A.R.S. 33-1227(D) requiring the approval of 100% of the unit owners to amend the CC&Rs to remove the ability to rent a unit (please note that this applies to Condominium Association subject to the Condominium Act meaning, the Condominium was established after January 1, 1986). "

Most states have "similar" case rulings; indeed, other states' caselaw is accessed routinely for use in making arguments (which may or may not be supportive to a point of argument). This one came up closest to the search terms.

OP can take it or leave an AZ case as an example of what other courts have ruled on the question.

Find another association in Louisiana that has rental restrictions. Find an attorney who has done this before.

A rental cap will not affect current rentals.

It will help to convince current owner-landlords that new restrictions will help prevent decline and maintain the value and rental-income of their town-homes. You need to win over these owners.

Google hoa lease addendum (or condo lease addendum) for examples of having tenants follow the rules in the lease. You also have to convince owner-landlords that this will help them avoid problems and fines.

I'm not buying Gwen's idea that more restrictions will not hold up in court. Just find an knowledgeable attorney.

My CCRs are schizo on the subject. They say an owner shall have "the unrestricted right to rent his home", and then goes on to spell out some very significant restrictions.

Yes, Janet is looking at the problem "broadly" and not knee-jerking a drastic "solution" and creating more problems down the road.

This situation needs a title search to determine if the member indexed the parcels to the faux Covenants. If the title search cannot find anything attached to a parcel, it doesn't exist. End of story.

If it IS attached and discoverable on a title search, the titles need to be "quieted". The member would then be guilty of a crime against every title in the subdivision and should be hauled into court and pay the damages.

This should be easy to find out by simply looking at a purchaser's title search anytime after 2013 or paying $300 for a title search. This will have to be done anyway if a title suggests that it has been slandered by invalid Covenants and a lawsuit is brought.

This could be a teaching moment to Members; there are legal consequences and harm to people at the hands of neighbors who don't know what they are doing. When this impacts property title, it is very serious and potentially costly to the individual and the HOA.

Someone woke up grumpy.