Rentals vs owners

Hi all, I am a board member of a community of 200 townhomes. Our bylaws state that we cannot have more than 30% rentals. we are over that now. Any ideas on how to legally manage this??

Rental caps sound like a good idea, but as you've found out, enforcement is very difficult. There may be some owners who rent because they've already moved, perhaps to another town and are renting out the townhouse until it's sold so they can pay the upkeep (paying for two homes is really hard on the wallet).

Then you have the folks who want extra income and the investor/owners who really,ly make my skin crawl because they're only on it for the money and don't care about the effects of tge neighbors from hell they bought in (because their check clears). I live in a townhouse community and I think we're still over 50%. We tried to put a rental cap in our documents and it failed, even after the association attorney suggested a grandfather clause for the people who were already landlords. Unfortunately with your community over 30%, it may be too late.

You could try talking homeowners into approving an amendment to the CCRs requiring the buyer not rent the house for two years after purchase, but that won't stop the current bunch. You'd have to ask everyone when they began renting and then decide if the people who've rented for years and years have to stop to allow more recent landlords. Then, how will you keep track? What if everyone gets pissed and decides to sue? Or is the board prepared to sue everyone?

Some folks may claim they're not paying rent but house sitting for whatever reason - can you prove they're lying? What if they're relatives of the landlord - they don't pay rent, but pay all other house expenses like the light bill - is that a form of rent without a lease?

You'll need to talk to your association attorney about options, but I'm not optimistic. You could do an annual survey asking residents if they own or rent, but they 8ght ignore you or lie. The best thing you can do is make sure community are enforced fairly and consistently. Landlords usually don't want all their profits to go towards fines for parking violations and the like, so they might be more careful in who they rent to. In fact, they often pick communities like ours because the board isn't as consistent as it should have been in rules enforcement. You should be able to walk around and not tell who's renting or is owner-occupied because everyone keeps up their home.

If you do try to amend the CCRs, you might put in rules about landlords paying some type of surcharge whenever the house is rented to help defray tbe expense of the added wear and tear to the common area from the wear and tear. One of the better owner-landlords in our community suggested that- sadly, it also failed. Educating homeowners of the financial risk of having too many rentals might also help.

(This is where I hope Cathy chimes in with some of her observations about the risk of too many rentals).

Are you sure this restriction is in your bylaws? Usually it'd be in the declaration (CC&Rs; covenants; deed restrictions) or Rules. Either way. I entirely agree with Shelia that you need the advice of an HOA attorney. While some of Elle's ideas are sensible they might not be legal in Texas or may not be permitted by your governing docs.

Melissa's suggestion does not keep our renters and similar language often is embedded in the CC&Rs or rules.