Breaking CCRs, Rules, Declarations

I'm the president of a 10 unit condo complex and am having problems with an owner who lives off site. She's our bookkeeper and the owner of one of the units that she rents to her son. This complex is 29 years old and past Board Members have not always followed the Rules and Declarations. I've been there for 4 years now and have been the president for the last 2 years. I'm trying real hard to slowly make people abide by the rules. Granted, we don't have that many and we are a laid back community, but the rules we do have were for a reason. One of them is that you can not rent a room out. You either have to rent the entire unit out or just live there yourself (spouse or partner is fine). We had 2 units sell at the same time and the bookkeeper got involved because the two new buyers happened to be friends of her kids. She told the one buyer that "we're so laid back, if you want to rent out your rooms, no one is going to care". Well, that's the one rule we DO care about. I don't mean to say we don't care about the other ones, but in the past Board members let too many things slide. All those people are gone now and we have all new owners there except the bookkeeper (who doesn't live there) and one other person. I can't do anything about what the past Board Members did, but I'm trying hard to make these rules stick. I don't want to make the guy move now that he has bought the place and moved in and I know he can't afford it by himself. I think everyone will be ok for this time only if he keeps his roommate(would have to be voted on), but I'd almost rather call it his friend living there temporarily instead of a roommate. He's supposed to get married within the year and then his roommate will move out. This way I don't have to say "this is a one time only problem - YOU guys can't do it". It just isn't fair. My biggest problem, is the bookkeeper is mad at me (before I've even done anything, mind you) and wants to change all the rules and Articles to state what she wants. Since there's only 10 votes and she has 3 on her side already, it's possible that she can get all these good rules changed. I'm still pretty new at this. Is there a way to protect your Declarations from being changed? I know you have to vote on them and then register it with the County (or something), but that won't stop her. The people living there are pretty laid back (sorry for keep saying that) and usually vote with the flow. I hate that, but not sure what to do. This place had some major problems with renters in the past (several different ones) and I really want this rule to stick. Can all I do is try to make my point with the rest of the owners? I wish there was a way to make the Declarations stand as they are. What would you do in my place? Thanks. I'm really distressed about this.

JudieA: You are a Board member and you state that one owner rents out rooms which is in violation. However, is it a violation of your official CC&Rs which are legally recorded documents? If so, what do they state regarding rentals?

If your docs state no rentals of rooms as opposed to renting out the entire unit, then you presently have two owners in violation. The fact that the Board/s in past and present authority have not enforced the restrictions in the docs does not make what is stated in the docs any less valid.

You need to decide if you want to govern according to what the documents state or change the verbiage with an amendment to the docs. The change is made by a vote of the membership (stated in docs with a percentage of members voting yes to pass) with recording of same. Obviously, the owners who are renting out rooms presently will want things to remain as they are, continuing to be in
violation but without being fined or forced to comply. What does the rest of the Board think?

If the person is paying for the space, he's a renter. Doesn't matter the reason. Your rules are pretty clear that no renting out of rooms, etc..

I can see about six ways to get around that rule, but as it stands, if this person is paying the other person to rent a room in the unit, they are in violation, and the owner needs to be told/worked with/etc..

Don't allow the little white lie to start, as you cannot stop them once they do. What will you say to the next two people, who are only "staying there until the one gets married, and the other gets a job"? Or the next one, or the next one.