The Latest Development...

... in homeowners' continuing efforts to monetize their properties:

Backyard Event Rentals: Problems Posed for Homeowner Associations

Summary:

These efforts cause the same sorts of issues posed by short-term rentals or other businesses that bring customers into a community. These issues include nuisance violations, damage to the common areas, increased (and possibly uninsured) liability for the association, and an increase in crime as a result of inviting strangers onto the property. The possibility of port-a-potties in back yards gives this a little extra dose of ick.

At least until the noise and ensuing trash blow over into your yard, or a blackout drunk guest ( or two or three) toss their cookies all over your lawn and somebody else pees in your flowerbed.

"I could care less" doesn't always work, so be careful what you speak into the universe.....

That is very short sighted.

It's even worse if a board member takes that attitude. Clueless homeowners, sure. But a board member has a duty to understand this stuff. Wait 'til some rando wanders into the property, gets hurt, and sues the association - and then the association's insurer looks at it and goes "nah....". The torches and pitchforks will be out, and homeowners will show up on this very website ranting about their crappy board who ignored their fiduciary duty and now everybody is on the hook for an uninsured loss and should they file a lawsuit on top of it.

Why do you think so? In my mind they're both commercial use of residential property. The one difference I can see is that there is some form of legal agreement for home rentals, including the STRs, that may be absent for the backyard rental (which I think may come back to bite the owner of the property if true). The presence of a signed agreement argues *for* commercial use IMHO.

FWIW, our rental restriction prohibits the renting of a portion of the property - you have to rent the entire thing. So renting the backyard or pool would be prohibited in communities with similar language.

Insurers may actually be more effective in quashing this stuff - if insurers say they're not going to cover the HOA for incidents like this, that's a compelling argument for boards to take action.

OK, makes sense. I think that case law is still pretty inconsistent - that may also have something to do with how individual states view "property rights" (some are more restrictive than others).

My takeaway from all of it is that communities that wish to keep STRs out shouldn't rely on the "commercial" argument and should instead have a robust rental restriction that forbids hotel-style or corporate housing, requires a formal lease lasting a minimum of six months or other time period, and requires that the entire unit be rented. My community's restriction says all three of these things, and STRs would fail on two of them (hotel-style and no formal lease).

As far as the commercial restriction in HOAs goes, I view anything involving an agreement between adults to exchange compensation for goods or services as "commercial". I also believe that the nature of the goods or services being exchanged is immaterial - ie. just because it involves people living in someone else's property doesn't make it non-commercial. When people start "renting out" their property to strangers without compensation is when I may reconsider this. I think this is the IRS's, lenders', and economists' view as well, and who am I to argue with them? My county also requires owners of STRs to pay lodging taxes, and I believe other jurisdictions may do the same - ie, STRs are hotels.

Of course, if HOAs or anyone else insists on specialized definitions of words - ie, arguing that rentals aren't commercial because they're residential and thus OK, rather than saying they're an acceptable form of commercial activity - it introduces inconsistencies, case law being an example. People can be using the same words to mean different things, and this does not add clarity. I want clarity, dang it!

They're very simple until people, of their own free will, enter into contracts with terms that limit these. "Limits", though. Now there's a word that a lot of folks do seem to have a problem with - namely, they don't want 'em. There are whole tribes of lawyers ready and willing to help out folks who sign contracts and then feel hard done by when the other party expects them to live up their agreement.

That's probably 95% of the discussions we have here.

awesome free cookies and pee fertilizer.

googled and couldn't find any pool renters leaving free cookies or even blowing trash, you sure do have a good imagination though and also probably no clue how pool rentals work.

knock knock
Door opens.
Excuse me sir, It sounds like you might have people using your backyard pool?
YEAH, SO HOW CAN I HELP YOU.
Well you can't rent your pool out?
SAYS WHO?
The hoa does not allow commercial pool rentals.
WHO SAYS I'M RENTING IT OUT? THEY ARE JUST FRIENDS.
Oh ok, have a good day.

Is there even a single case of a pool rental causing an actual HOA problem?

We are going through a similar situation right now with our regular problem child. The tenant parks more than one car in the street and in the driveway, jacks them up and works on them, The covenants state, work on your car inside the garage with
the door closed. Now we're reasonable people, it gets hotter than hades and nobody wants to work on their car with the door closed when it is 115 degrees outside. We also understand cars break down, batteries die and tires go flat.
I certainly do not want to impose on someone to tow their car out of the community just to change a tire or replace a car battery. C'mon pulling rotors and calipers, CV joints etc getting oil all over the asphalt is
beyond reason.

What does your post have to do with backyard rentals?

LOL your website links have nothing to do with renting out pools. False analogy. Someone renting out an entire house and then having a big party is not the same as a home owner renting out their pool only, WHILE THEY ARE AT THE PREMISE, for a few hours

get real. you think any homeowner with a pool would want their place trashed or to have more than a dozen people over much less hundreds to their pool Why the heck do you think the pool rentals typically include an increased fee for more people?