AirBNB in Restricted HOA

So I think after 9 years of being a board member you think you have seen it all. Then a new thing pops up and this is the perfect place to run it by others who have probably seen or will soon see it.

Our HOA has nearly 1500 Single family homes and we are a suburb of Austin Tx. We have a resident who has in the last year noticed many people visiting a next door neighbor. She has complained about very loud parties and late night events with more than a normal amount of cars on the streets. She has brought this to the boards and the PMs attention in the last few months. Our CC&Rs clearly state that no rentals of less than 1 year are allowed in our HOA. Airbnb is a weekly type arrangement so they are clearly violating our HOA rules. We are in the process of doing what we can do to stop these rentals. The homeowner is going on our Private community Facebook page trashing the board for not doing our jobs. She will then say that Airbnb is not responding to any requests to cease and desist this rental. I know that I would be just as frustrated as she is will this situation if I was in her situation. We are having a board meeting tomorrow and I am sure we will get thrown under the proverbial bus. I want to tell her that it is in the boards Legal department and is out of our hands.

Has anyone else had recent issues with this type of short term rentals? I would love to hear your comments and suggestions.

I dealt with this a few months ago with an HOA in Rosemead, CA. That city has banned short term rentals in the city and the three we had in the community were turned into their code enforcement department.

At the very least, they can be turned into the city to pay a hotel tax and any regulation that city has in running a hotel/motel in respective cities.

Mark, we had the same issue and followed the Association's documented compliance violation process, which is the basically the same as Tim described.

Our situation involved a condominium client and was disturbing to not just the residents next door but to the entire complex. Some of the residents took cell phone videos of large numbers of persons gathered on the premises, and the arrival of a 'party bus' one weekend.

We were able to determine the amount the owner was charging per night. The Board revised the out of compliance fine structure so the fine for each violation day was $100 more than the amount he was charging per night through Airbnb. The revised fine structure, the compliance violation notices, including copies of the cell phone videos, and the threat of legal action were sufficient to compel the owner to find a long term tenant.

The one I manage was built in 1981. You're giving away your age.

We have a NFL stadium in town that hosted a play-off game. At that time there was an article in our local paper about a prohibited AIRBNB in a condo near the stadium. In NC fines are limited to $100 a day. He may to this day still be renting through AIRBNB and just paying the fines. Perhaps in your state you can fine more that in NC. If you fined $500 a day he might stop.

Are your fine amounts listed in your CCR's or your Rules & Regulations?

Pat,
I was just checking our DADs Deed and Declarations which is similar to CC&Rs and no fines are listed. I then looked at our Design Guidelines and it has fines listed and it lists Violation of Rules, Restrictions and Guidelines at $50.00 a day. I find it odd and maybe debatable if this document covers the DADs document. I would think the DAD document is higher up in the food chain.

The $50.00 fine would sting but if they are getting $500 or $600 a night may not deter him from stopping.

sooooooooooooooooooooo......

Improper Parking on 01/01/2017, $25.00 fine

Improper Parking on 01/15/2018, $50.00 fine

Improper Parking on 02/02/2018, $100.00 fine

Improper Parking on 02/18/2019, $200.00 fine

?????????????????????????????????????????????

You did state "..... no matter the time between offenses, the fine doubles. ....."

IMO: will never 'fly' in a court of law

Words must be chosen CAREFULLY as they have plain and simple meanings.

Richard,
Once again you hit it right on the head. This is not going away anytime soon. What frustrates me is our HOs are going on Social Media and complaining about it so that they can be heard. They think they are helping when in my opinion all they are doing is giving other HOs the idea hey look we can make more money by turning their place into a Airbnb. With nearly 1500 homes in our community you know more will follow.

I just heard back from our Attorney and they have sent a cease and desist letter to the Owner and are going to take them to court. I see no reason why we should lose since our governing docs are clear but you never know in this crazy world we live in what a Judge might do. In the meantime will pay the fees to lawyers.

There is a recent court case in Oxnard, CA, a seaside community that lost. I have to look up the specifics.

Richard,
I would love to see what you find. Our Rental language clearly states that a minimum of 12 month lease

See below

3.08 Rentals. Nothing in this Declaration shall prevent the rental of any Lot and the Improvements thereon by the Owner thereof for residential purposes; provided that all rentals must be for terms of at least twelve (12) months. All leases shall be in writing. The Owner must provide to its lessee copies of the Master Restrictions. Notice of any lease, together with such additional information as may be required by the Board, will be remitted to the Association by the Owner on or before the expiration of ten (10) days after the effective date of the lease. The Owner must provide to its lessee copies of the Master Restrictions.
3

We also have another line section regarding Rental signs saying they are expressly prohibited..

Fred,
This homeowner first noticed the PM in late August 2018. The PM said she would send notice to the HO in violation. This may or may not have happened. Several other incidents happened and the Pm was contacted each time. This PM has left the PMC and we were working with a interim PM for a few months that was supposedly working on this issue. Now we have our permanent PM and she is trying to get this thing resolved. I was just informed about Legal getting involved and I asked our New PM what about the existing fines? She said they have not received any YTD. What a Joke IMO. She said they are going to recommend suing ASAP.

Our Management Company needs to be in a different business because they really are not good at managing an HOA. They are the Builders Management Company. We need to get bids for an Owners MC that is more responsive to Homeowners Boards needs.

Richard and The group. I work private security and I can tell you that AirbnB has really turned HOA's on its ear. Both condos and single family homes face huge challenges. Condo's with full-time security can control it better because they're on the spot. Recently we had a problem with renters and constant partiers that were just making life miserable for the homeowners on the street. Try using the health and welfare clause in your CC&R's to force the cease and desist.

Like an attorney?