Lessee does not live in home

We are blessed with only a small handful of our homes under lease in our HOA . A few days ago I received a large number of calls and texts messages at 7AM regarding a police raid on one of the properties in the HOA. From what I understand a large number of police or sheriffs accompanied by FBI and ATF agents surrounded a home. They were dressed out in tactical gear. They used a bullhorn to summon the occupants out of the home, taking a man into custody. Federal documents we have obtained shows that he was charged under a federal warrant with alleged crimes in California. We are in GA.

I am trying to get a better understanding of what had happened to better answer questions from HOA members. Since I was aware that the property was lease I asked our mgmt. company to send me a copy of the lease, which they did the following day. It appears that the lessee that signed the 20+page lease DOES NOT LIVE in the home. To our knowledge the occupant(s) living there are not related in any way to the person leasing the property.

In reading the lease a couple provisions jumped out at me. One said that the property may not be subleased. Another was a page long provision dealing with conducting any illegal or criminal activities, which was grounds for immediate revocation of the lease.

Here's my question. Does the HOA have a case against the Leasing Company, based in TX, for getting the current occupants evicted or taking action against the person who signed the lease, but does not live there? Or should we try and find the person that signed the lease. FYI the property is owned by an LLC in Chicago.

The bottom line is that the person arrested has 3 prior convictions, several being felonies. We just want them out and I'm trying to figure out if we can make a case for eviction.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Dennisg7

It is none the HOA business. The HOA does not hold the lease. They can contact the owner or who is handling the lease to know the situation. Otherwise the HOA can just eag tongues not war.

Another thought - it's good you don't have a lot of rentals in your community now, but that can change. There are tons of older conversations on this website about the ins and outs of rentals, so if this situation has people riled up, this may be a good time to start a discussion on establishing policies that compel landlords to keep better track of what their tenants are doing. Some people might suggest rental caps, but that's a whole nother conversation. I've found it's better to hold the owners' feet to the fire because they don't want fines and lawsuits cutting into profits.

I agree with the other posters that the HOA probably has no grounds to pursue this, but take a very hard look at your lease restriction in your CC&Rs. All of the things that the previous commenters have said are true in my community - and our lawyer even told us that the association must limit its interactions to the landlord/owner. But in our lease restriction, just as bold as brass, it states that the association has the authority to evict a tenant. Other posters have said that their associations can also evict.

So ... talk to the association attorney about this. The situation is murky. Tenants are protected by landlord-tenant laws. People living homes without any lease agreement also have rights, you can't just kick 'em out. You're probably safe limiting your actions to fining the landlord, but the association needs to be very sure it's complying with all relevant laws - and figuring this out is probably above the pay grade for boards and community managers. For instance, does the association have any kind of liability if they were not monitoring leases in the community? I don't know the answer to that, but it's a question to be asked.

Problem 1: You do not know if the home was sub-leased. The recent or current occupants might be "guests" of the lessee.Problem 2: Unless Georgia is uniquely capably of offering a speedy trial, as of this writing the guy hauled out of the house has not been convicted of any crime in the house. Georgia is a lovely state AFAIC but I believe it battles with backed-up courts and overworked DAs and public defenders (if applicable here) as much as the rest of the state.
Does the lease require the lessee to live there, especially if guests are using the home?
Your HOA should feel free to go ahead and try to throw out people with prior convictions and who have served their time. I expect HUD will come knocking on your door soon wanting to hear why it should not sue the HOA and you for a Fair Housing Act violation.

You say you want to be able to respond to gossi... um... questions from neighbors. You need to respond the way Janet Reno would respond: "We are investigating and evaluating all options. Next question." In other words, like a professional.

Do not offer opinions. If a question has an obvious factual answer to it, give the facts. Do not speculate or egg on people's emotions. Do not pretend to know what is going on. Refer people early and often to what the governing documents say about the lease and the HOA's control of lessees. Repeatedly state we are investigating all options.

Good job, FBI and police. If I lived in this HOA, I would be relieved they are watching the neighborhood.