Renting out part of my single family unit in TX

I am in the lucky situation of living in a 3 storey townhome with a pretty much self contained ground floor (separate entrance, bedsit, kitchen and bathroom). My HOA has Declarations which state that rentals must all be for at least 3 months, and I am fine with that, but the HOA Directors have told me that I cannot rent out because our units are "single family dwellings" and this would necessitate a change in zoning. Having spoken with the city planning department and health and safety departments, I was told that the City would not have any objection.

So does anyone know if renting out of a part of a townhome would contravene any TX HOA statute, and if so, can you direct me to this?

As an aside, my HOA also has in its Declarations a clause which states that the HOA Secretary must receive any tenancy agreement 2 weeks before the tenancy is to begin in order to approve the tenancy. If I were to just go ahead and rental my bedsit unit out, I would have to also get the tenancy agreement approved by the Board. Under the new 2015 changes to the HOA laws in Texas, is this clause now null and void or does it still have relevance?

Patrick, different jurisdictions will interpret what you wish to do differently. In my experience, the local zoning and health departments are concerned with total occupancy of the premises and who "begat" who--often the regulations state something along the lines of no more than X number of unrelated adults may occupy the premises in a single family zoned area. I believe there are often limits on total occupants as well.

The documents of at least one of our clients stipulate the premises cannot be 'virtually subdivided' or partially rented. That has been interpreted by the association attorney to mean all occupants have access to and may make use of the entire premises, certain bedrooms used by one occupant (roommate for example)or the other excepted. What is absolutely forbidden is 'renting-out' an unused bedroom on a short term basis such as Airbnb.

I suggest you read your association documents closely. From my perspective, I don't see what you are proposing to do as being much different than entering into a roommate agreement. Which would, certainly if Sheldon were advising you, be an excellent idea.

In my area, houses are not zoned, land is. The land zoning determines what can be built (i.e. single family home), it does not determine whether people have to be related to live in a house. Code enforcement would not get involved.
Business zoning is a different matter.

Well, words mean nothing.

Changing a single family to a multi family unit does need paperwork. You would need to change it with the town for tax reasons, likely the code inspector would need to sign off. And yes, zoning would likely come up during this process. If its single family zoning, a multi family paperwork request would be denied.

On top of that if your HOA documents state single family, the HOA will lawyer up against you, and its unlikely you will win and have legal bills on top of that.

Changing to multi-family in an HOA...... success is very low.