Renting in a HOA community

My husband and I have been renting in a HOA community for the past 4 years.the first 2 years no issues. The third year we had an issue with an owner next door where we have a common pipe in kitchen and it got backed up into her sink. She called plumber to come to my place, my landlord didn't approve, yelling started from owner and my landlord wanted her out, ended up us not talking anymore. After that there were complaints to my landlord about us not using the right color trash bags, we only use black ones. Us having company and sitting on the grass (in which she does as well) having visitors park in non parking spots(her friends do it too). And most recent having lights on our patio pole (white solar ones that dont stay on during the day only at night).other homes 6 to be exact have lights on their patio and/or balcony/fence. We are now really feeling harrassed. Is there anything we can do? My landlord's gets emails from the management office and she then sends me an email inregards to this. We inform her that we are following the guidelines/rules and we comply if need to. But since others are putting out white trash bags, sitting on the grass having their visitors park in their spot and have lights on their property we are definitely feeling harrassed. What can we do? Mind you I have documented everything with pictures as well.

Do you have a copy of the HOA rules? And follow them?

Not sure why a HOA would require a certain color trash bag. Sounds crazy. But did you look this up in the rules?

Thanks everyone for your comments. We didnt have a copy of the rules and regulations but the landlord informs us when there is an issue. Like I said after 2 years of having no issues and following the rules my neighbor/owner got all worked up about a backed up common pipe then all these other little things were coming up and people tried to point the finger at us. Like I stated we follow the rules. I have taken pictures sent them to my landlord. Pictures are of the white trash bags that others use we dont. Parking in the designated areas we do others dont. We still remain polite residents but with this other issue coming up we feel that we are being harrassed for no reason. We love living in this area, we are safe, its quiet, we work nights so we are sleeping during the day. Is it harrassment?

I agree this doesn't fall into the legal definition of "harassments". Someone is pointing out your violations to your landlord. It's annoying no doubt but it's not a legal action. Your landlord can decide if they had enough of the constant complaints to do something. Which may be going to the board to defend you or evict you. Your renters in a HOA. It's part of it because many HOA members don't like rentals.

It sounds like the pipe situation could have been handled better by all involved. That's history though, so figuring out how to live peacefully in a home/area that you enjoy is most important now.

A few suggestions:

- See if you can mend the relationship with the neighbor. That might go a long way to making everyone's life better.
- Get a copy of the rules (declaration, bylaws, rules & regulations, other HOA-related documents) and read them thoroughly. Your landlord should have them and should have already given them to you. If not, ask. If he doesn't have them, he should be able to request them from the Management Company and then provide them to you.
- Focus on following the rules regardless of what others do (as DeidreB suggested). If you've not broken a rule, then there is nothing for anyone to complain about.
- If you are still the recipient of petty complaints or it's claimed that you are violating rules that you know you're complying with, then that's a discussion your landlord needs to have with management. Management and the HOA Board should be screening complaints and claimed rules violations before accusing someone of committing a violation. If a neighbor is just complaining (without a rule being broken), then the Board/Management needs to put the complainer in check.

We have a lot of rentals in my townhouse community and when I was on the board, I always said I’d prefer that the community consist mostly of owner-occupants like me, but since we had what we had, consistency in rule enforcement was key. You shouldn’t be able to tell the renters from the owner-occupants because EVERYONE should be complying with the rules. It may be the board of directors in this community needs to be reminded of that.

In the meantime, it’s time for your landlord to cut the emails, come out to the community and TALK to her neighbor (that’s what she is because she’s an owner and it doesn’t matter that she lives off-site). If you need a copy of community rules, it’s HER responsibility to get them for you. If she’d done that when you first moved in, perhaps some (most?) of this could have been avoided.

On the other hand, some people are just buttholes (the complaint about the trash bag color is just silly in my opinion). The best you can do is comply with the rules and if this person continues to scream, simply refer her to your landlord and let her do her job. If she doesn’t have the guts to intervene so she can keep decent tenants (Lord knows there are lots of bad ones out there), maybe you’ll be better off living elsewhere.

AND, if the Tenant Lease Agreement doesn't mention a HOA or rules to abide by, then?

I think MarkW was just stirring the pot, Cathy. Sometimes it's best to ignore him.

Once the HOA makes it known you are breaking the rules, you can ask that same person for a copy of the rules. Or the landlord, etc, etc.

Communication isn't rocket science.

Just one way:
the governing documents should be amended to require all leases to have wording or a lease addendum that requires the tenant to follow the governing documents...
and also give the association to right to levy fines on the tenant, enforce the lease, be a party to the lease, and evict the tenant.

Umm...... no. You need to fine owners. Not tenants.

What happens if a tenant doesn't pay? Are you going to foreclose on the owner? Tenant wont care. He will simply rent another place.