Enforcing Housing Rules

The owner is the member of the HOA. So you have to hold the owner/member's feet to the ground to the rules. Do you have existing rules in place preventing this and a punishment for doing so? If not, then not much you can do since there's no rules or punishment against it.

You have to consider "Tenant's rights". Which holds the owner's feet to the ground as well for eviction. Most landlords don't put a caveat in their lease agreements that their tenants must follow the HOA's rules or be subject to lease violation/eviction. So the HOA may lay some pressure on the owner to kick out their tenant, but the landlord can't because there is no terms defining HOA's violations are grounds for eviction.

Each HOA is different. So it's hard to tell what your HOA can or can do. Some HOA's can fine and others can't. If you can fine, it has to be defined in a fining schedule. Which that has to be distributed and understood by members. Meaning "Trash can left out on Friday is a $25 dollar a day fine till max fine of $500". It is defined and has a scheduled punishment. Each state varies so you can't go too crazy with fines.

Fines most likely can not be the basis of liens or foreclosures. So your HOA can't just randomly lien or foreclose for fines/violations. Typically liens/foreclosure for unpaid dues not fines. Although some "creative" accounting can be applied though I think it's wrong.

Hi Kerry,

That's correct at this point as we haven't ran into this situatin until now. Most of the owners are in agreement, just unsure how to proceed within our limits.

Thanks

Jason

There are NO 'incidences'.

The court system has held that anything NOT specifically and clearly restricted by the Covenant is ... wait for it ... NOT RESTRICTED.

The court system has also held that, as a contractual matter, any 'major' restrictions may NOT be added w/o 100% agreement.

This is to PREVENT tyrannical rule of the majority.

Of course, short/day rental may not be legal in your jurisdiction for ANYONE except a licensed hotel.

If I were on the board in the OP's place, I'd do the following:

* Find out what local laws say about short term rentals. Some municipalities are starting to prohibit Airbnb-style "rentals". Let local authorities do the heavy lifting if possible.

* Enforce the existing restrictions diligently and consistently. If a tenant does something that is a violation, then go after the landlord (owner of the unit). But no selective enforcement/picking on tenants only. If the board hasn't been diligent about enforcement in the past, you can expect blowback, so an education campaign and improved communications should come first.

* Start investigating what you need to do to amend the current CC&Rs. You'll need to get an attorney involved with this to make sure your revised CC&Rs comply with the law. You'll also need to get an idea of the percentage of owners that would vote to approve the amendments. Obviously with rental restrictions, the time to get them approved is when the percentage of owner-occupied units is high. If you have a significant number of units being rented (25% - 33%), then it's likely that any amendment restricting rentals will not be approved. This means you'll have to rely on the previous suggestions.

I will refrain from repeating my usual rant about Airbnb-style "rentals"... :-)

So if I bring a friend over to stay 1 night at my house is that a safety issue?
If I bring home a different date every night, am I putting everyone in the HOA at risk for safety?
If I charge them for using the room, does it suddenly become a safety issue?

Just trying to figure out what your "safety issue" is?

This comes from my association's attorney:

When you invite a steady stream of strangers into a community, crime rates tend to go up (and yes, people using Airbnb or similar service to rent your home are strangers - would you be willing to vouch for them?). In addition, an HOA community is insured as residential property. If there would be an incident resulting in an insurance claim (somebody gets injured, for instance), the insurer may look at this and say "wait a minute, this person is not a resident, it's a customer, and we don't cover commercial activity" and then the HOA is on the hook.

One of my major issues with so called Airbnb "rentals" is that they can change the risk profile for a community in ways that stable, signed-a-lease tenants do not. The increased risk should be borne by the person who benefits from it - in other words the owner of the unit that is being used as a hotel room - but it's being shifted onto the community as whole. This is one reason I believe hotel-style "rentals" are not in the best interest of a community.

Nice post, CathyA3. I especially like the part about the insurance profile changing and this possibly being justification to nip HOA/condo short-term rentals in the bud, if at all possible.

And this is where it gets TRICKY... Is Airbnb a hotel motel service that falls under the innkeeper laws or does it fall under housing laws??? Innkeeper laws = instant eviction for overstaying accommodations. Housing laws, you're looking at 3 mos or much, much longer to evict.

My Alabama HOA President is a well known powerful business man whose has a personal vendetta against those who question his authority.

He has NO oversight when it comes to the money, not the treasurer or the secretary, and he has a huge conflict of interest, owning and operating a Shell station, car wash and wrap around of new commercial buildings.

So the story goes;
Without warning or notice I received a letter from an Attorney giving me 14 days to evict my two guys who live upstairs in my home and have for 1 year & 2 years, and pay the Attorneys fees of $750- for determining that I broke the rules as they relate to Single Family Residence and Residential use ( they say I'm running a business out of my home)

Both are graduates of a Drug Rehab program, one is covered head to toe in tats, both drive old cars, and neither have been accused or suspected of a crime. Just FYI

I recieved my response back from the attorney. He has filed a lien +200 and I have a few days left to respond.

This has happened within a 6 week period! I'm concerned about Due Process. I don't think that in Alabama a POA needs a judgement rendered by the courts to actually foreclose on someone's property. I've lived here 20 years, raised my kids as a single parent here in this home, and the thought that this guy can force me to throw out two members of my extended family or force me into foreclosure doesn't seem right to me.

I appreciate reading all of your posts and thank you for sharing your experience, it's help enlighten me. Please don't stop, I would appreciate any good advice.!

Hi Jason, I think that is a very good question and I agree I think this will come up more often in the future. If my neighbor was doing this, I would be furious! So I just looked at my CC&Rs and I think that it is worth talking to your Board and Mgnt. I would push to add it to the CC&Rs.

My CC&Rs talks about "Residential Use" only. If someone is doing short term rental would that be considered a business since its short term occupancy? My CC&Rs specifically spells out occupancy is more than 60 days.

I would hope as a board they would want to come together to protect your safety, well being and property value.

Talk with the HOA, find out what the issue was. It could be your tennants did something really bad, and now the HOA wants them out. Maybe they are selling drugs? Or some other type of business. Maybe not. You wont know unless you communicate with them.

As a landlord you should be ready for legal expenses. At this point your not knowledgeable enough to deal with this and need a lawyer. Now.

I understand from reading some posts here that some cities in California have banned short term rentals (less than 30 days) I would stay on top of your city in the event they change or add that restriction.