Issue with tenant approval

I wanted to get some opinions on a situation we have with a tenant in one of our condos. The condo community is a sub-association to the master association. In order to lease a unit, both sub and master have to approve the lease. Each one does different things - for example sub runs credit check but master runs background check through a program and also checks to make sure owner's account is up to date.

We found out this week that a tenant had moved into a condo without master association approval. The unit is owned by an investor who uses a local realtor as the leasing agent. This unit has been leased on a regular basis for many years. The agent has been the leasing agent for several years. She should know the rules.

The lease got approval by the condo association, but they never sent any of the information to the master, so the background check did not get done. Also, the unit owner is chronically behind in their association dues and has a balance due on their account. The leasing agent calls several times a year to try and get the late fees removed because she claims we send the monthly bills to the wrong address. We send it to the address on file. We have waived several fees for her but told her recently that we will no longer waive fees for the unit.

The lease would never have gotten approval by the master because of the account balance. But right now we have a tenant already living in the unit with no background check. The condo association called and told him to come in and apply for the background check, but we have no idea if he will or not.

All of these things are required by our governing documents - so the tenant, the leasing agent (who told him he could move in) and the unit owner are all in violation of our documents. The tenant also was given access to the transponders and key cards for the gate system and amenities without the knowledge of the master association.

What would you do? I've contacted our attorney, but wondering what you might do in this situation. We could turn off gate access. We most likely we will start the fining process for the unit owner for violating the governing documents - usually we wouldn't bother but this is just such a flagrant violation that I feel we need to do something. Any other ideas or thoughts?

I'd review this with the association attorney.

But if this tenant isn't causing issues that the association or the landlord can act on, then I think you're stuck with them. The association clearly dropped the ball.

I don't think you can push responsibility onto the realtor or the unit owner. If they're not the ones responsible for doing credit checks or background checks, then they probably don't have a way of knowing that the tenant isn't qualified. The only thing that should have clued them in is missing paperwork, assuming the association forwards copies of the results of the verifications to these people. If you do, then they do have some responsibility. If not, it appears everyone has acted in good faith.

Bottom line, though: pointing fingers won't fix this.

I assume the tenant has rights under the state's landlord-tenant laws, and until they make some kind of misstep that allows either the association or the unit owner to take legal action, you're stuck unless the attorney has some ideas.