RENTAL IS RUINING OUR HOA

Check with your civic authorities to see what is required for motels. If this person is doing nightly rentals I am certain they are not complying with the regulations. Report this owner. Don't your covenats state something to the effect that the properties are for residential purposes and not to have businesses conducted in the hoa? For starters a business must be licensed..look into it.

"nightly" rentals? With a high number of people at one time?

Yup, sounds like a business (motel? B&B?) and is probably not zoned for it.

Marsha,
You have some awful good advice here, primary is how much do you know about your documents, the state statutes and any applicable city of local laws.

The rest of your owners are not stepping up to the plate. The Board is not stepping up to the plate. If your by-laws read that no disturbance can be created that impacts on the community, there should be penalties. This should be a community involvement issue, and if the community don't like the conditions, change the conditions. As long as you are not disregarding state or federal law you can be very restrictive in your community. I say again, learn your documents, and if you are unwilling to do that hire a professional. I will cost you all and the wayward owner an equal share, maybe he will get to see the light if the association starts assessing him to look for ways to stop his uncooperative actions.

I would assume (always a danger) you have tried the friendly sit down and talk method. I would try it again and record and keep records of the meetings. The object being that if this goes to court, you want to show good faith in trying to solve the problem.
Donna says it is not the renters. she may know something I don't but I would not ignore it could be the renters and the owners. Also the renters have to live under the same covenants as the owners. You can cite the owner and the renter for breaching the rules and covenants.

Marsha,

What the board needs to do immediately is to adopt a rental policy. In the policy state that rentals must be for 6 mos or 1 year. FYI, below is the rental policy of my HOA.

RENTALRULES
Preamble: The Board of Directors sets high standards for the Association's
appearance in Arrowhead Ranch Phase Ill Community Association
("Association"). The goals for the appearance of the properties are wellmaintained homes and common areas and to implement regulations to
secure a crime free neighborhood for families and their guests. Residents in
the Association take pride in their community. Customarily, investment
properties are less attended to than owner occupied homes. Tenants do not
always share the communities high standards created to improve and protect
property values. In an effort to maintain these standards, the Board of
Directors has implemented the following rules for rental units. Owners and
their Tenants shall also comply with all the Association's rules and other
Community Documents. The Association shall impose monetary penalties
assessed against the Owner's unit for violations of the Rules and the
Community Documents. Compliance with these Rental Rules and Community
Documents is a vital part of the Association's success as a crime free
neighborhood. Each Owner who rents a unit within the Association must
comply with the Rental Rules and assist in our goal of a crime free
neighborhood. The Association seeks everyone's cooperation in making the
community a desirable place to live.
1. The Owner shall notify the Board of Directors ("Board") in writing within five (5)days of the effective date of executing or renewing a lease.
2. The Owner shall furnish the Board with a copy of the signed lease and any
renewals or revisions within fifteen (15) days of signing the lease, renewal or revision.
3. Written leases are required.
4. All leases must restrict occupancy to no more than three unrelated persons or a single family.
5. The Owner shall furnish the Board with a Rental Control Agreement Form
certifying that the Owner has furnished the tenant with copies of the Community
Documents; that the tenant has agreed to be bound by the Community
Documents; and that the Owner accepts responsibility for the tenants' violations of the Community Documents. A copy of the Residential Control Agreement Form is included in the Rental Packet available through the Associations Management Company. The Community Documents consist of the CC&Rs,
Rules and Architectural Guidelines. The Owner may contact the Associations
Management Company for a complete Rental Packet containing these
documents.
6. Owners are required to provide the Board with a Crime Free Lease Addendum,
signed by the Owner and the tenant. A copy of the Crime Free Addendum is
included in the Rental Packet available through the Associations Management
Company.
7. In Compliance with City of Glendale, Section 21, an Owner must have a City of Glendale sales tax license for Residential Rental Properties.
8. In Compliance with the State of Arizona, Notification of Arizona Residential
Rental Property - pursuant to A.R.S. 33-1901 and 33-1902, an owner of a
residential rental property shall maintain with the Assessor in the County where the property is located the following
a.If the property is owned by a corporation, limited liability company,
partnership, limited partnership, trust or real estate investment trust you
must advise the Assessor of the name, address and telephone number
of the business entity and the statutory agent, if applicable.
b. If you are an out-of-state owner of a residential property, you shall
designate and record with the County Assessor a statutory agent who
lives in this state and who will accept legal service on behalf of the
owner. Per the State of Arizona, a person who fails to comply with
any provision of this shall be assessed a civil penaltv of one
thousand dollars, plus an additional one hundred dollars for each
month after the date of the original violation until compliance
occurs.
c. The State Application for "Notification of Arizona Residential Rental
Property" is included in the Rental Packet available through the
Associations Management Company or via www.maricopa.gov

In addition to switching to a different entry system, why not simply turn off the keyless entry so it is non-functional, pass a resolution that no one owner may have more than say one remote per vehicle owned. This would need the cooperation of the residents of course but woudl maybe limit this person's ability to provide access to multiple people on a nightly basis.

and can you clarify what you mean by a nightly rental? Meaning one night at a time?

There are a lot of questions and I thank everyone for their response, so I will try to give a little more info. Our CC&R's were not restrictive enough, (very poorly written by the delarant's lawyer),so the wording is vague and Oregon has a case wherein the owners (in a gated community) won and were able to rent out their home as nightly lodging (since technically it is being used as a residence ie:people are residing there), so the state (and lawyers) now site that case. The county zoned us as residential, not business, but renting out your home is not considered a business here. The county won't stand up for us and take a stand on their own rules and zoning (they make the rules but don't enforce them!)because the state ruling on rentals will supercede the county. The owner now has remotes to hand out instead of the gate code, so this should stop any more gate damage. It is an expensive upscale home and he gets $500 per nite rental for it - so he has plenty of money and a very good lawyer to fight anything we might try to do. It's not being used as a drug house or brothel - just a destination resort ! We can clarify our CC&R's but not without the declarants help - because he has a majority of the votes since he still owns the most lots (poor economy). Even if we changed the CC&R's, to not allow short term rentals, the rental house would be grandfathered in. Also, we did hire a lawyer who advised us there is nothing we can do without spending alot of money (that we don't have). Our hands are tied ! I will look into him paying his transient/motel taxes and we do have a fine schedule in place but you have to prove the renters did damage! It is very frustrating to have an HOA and not be able to do anything to secure our properties and run our community as the majority of us wishes it to be run. Therefore tensions are very high. I suggested we dissolve the HOA since it is not affective at all. I think HOA's can work, but only if they have plenty of money to hire legal counsel for every issue or as long as everyone in the community agrees to abide by the same set of rules.....good luck on either one of those. Thank you all for your input.

Oh good grief.

You had me (my sympathies) until you got to the nuclear option: dissolve the HOA.

My teenage daughter used to cut her nose off to spite her face on numerous occasions, too, when she didn't get her way.

It seems that since it's hopeless, as in, nobody wants to do the really hard work to fix it or put forth the $$ to have someone else fix it, then my advice to the members of your community is: adjust your attitude and expectations. Because "wishing" won't work here.

But I do know that were it me, I would be working very hard to ensure that the governing documents were tightly enforced, against all owners, including the B&B guy, and start putting some energy into finding a good lawyer in the area who isn't chicken of the B&B guy's lawyer or the developer's lawyer.

Michele,

Your suggestions are very sound, IF it's a member board. But this assn is still under the control of the declarant. Even if Marsha has a group of h/o's with the same goals as she, it will be a tough road to hoe; almost an impossibility if she tries to do it alone. Finding a good attorney means Eva and her group, or Marsha alone, will be footing the bill. That, in itself, may be an impossibility.

I missed it: where did we determine this HOA was still under declarant control?

secondly, you don't need a lawyer for everything. You do need to read your rules, and the statutes cited by everyone, so you understand them, perhaps better than the other party. Once you have read them twice, and understand them fully, THEN, you can go find a lawyer to do what you need. If you don't understand your own rules better than the enemy, spending money on a lawyer is a waste of money. You should pay a lawyer to do what YOU direct, not pay them to tell YOU what to do.

I believe there are a dozen ways to skin this cat, and many have been suggested: zoning, for one... despite some hear-say, I truly believe that no county or state will state, for the record, that a HOTEL is the same as a RESIDENTIAL HOME, and so, you do have some room to push the zoning boards to do their jobs. You should look into the suggestions about business licenses, taxes, perhaps the county health board (he provides a kitchen? cookware? cutting boards? Food? then perhaps the county should take an inspection look, eh?). How about the IRS? do they know he is running a business? Make a call to them, and perhaps an audit of his taxes will make him regret his undeclared (Potentially) income.

And those are just the LEGAL things you can do...

To clarify a couple of points made:
The declarant has turned over possession to the HOA since he had sold 51% of the lots in the first phase but he has not sold the lots in the second phase, he still has voting rights but doesn't pay assessments on those lots (a little dittie his lawyer put in the docs).

Here is our exact wording of our CC&R's as far as rentals:
"No lot shall be used except for residential purposes. No commercial uses except home occupations approved by the county planning department are allowed."

Pretty vague huh ? Residential purposes ? Yes, people are residing there even when renting.

Reading and understanding this legalese - pure interpretation. Two lawyers can read the same thing and interpret it differently. Like I said, all of us read the above to mean we couldn't rent out our homes, except for 1 person!

And no, when I read the CC&R's, I thought I understood them, but obviously didn't. Guess I should have hired a lawyer to interpret it for me !

Mary, I have certain issues at my condo that took place from previous boards, I'll have to investigate a few things based on your answer. I had come to the conclusion that these items would just have to be grandfathered.

Thanks.

One thing everyone has misseed. Just because there was a court ruling on a matter does not mean there can not be a different ruling in another case or that the original ruling can't be overturned. the parading out of past court rulings in favor of a particular activity is a scare tactic the lawyers and others use to good effect. At the risk of offending someone keep in mind at one time it was legal to own another person as personal property. Unless this case that has been touted as the authority has been through the US Supreme Court I doubt it is full proof against challenge. If one attorney says it is too expensive then he really does not want the case, find another one. Attorneys like to see their name in the paper defending the little guy and winning against the city/county/developer/ etc. and it wins them more clients.

Just random thoughts

Michele,

That's because, just like it's so much easier for your Grandson to say I can't see my shoes from where I'm sitting; it much easier for Marsha to say "let's just dissolve the HOA". This is NOT going to happen as long as the developer holds the majority of votes. So, I agree with you, if they want change it's up to them to come up with a plan that will result in change. I was not previously aware that the HOA has been turned over to the members. So, even though they may not have the majority vote, they do have a certain amount of control of the assn. I would be contacting an attorney to see what can be done even though the developer holds the majority of votes. Most assn docs state that after turnover occurs the developers Class B membership reverts to Class A. I wonder how Marsha's CCRs read. Also is section 2 a part of sectin 1 or will there be a separate HOA for that second section. Perhaps the developer's majority vote for section 2 has no bearing on section 1. These are questions that we do not know the answer to and if Marsha doesn't either then I would recommend she get answers now.

Brian,

I love your suggestions. Go to elected officials with their concerns to see what they can do....go to the local news, whatever it takes. Let the city or county officials know you are mad as hell and will not take it anymore. Let them know there is an owner running a business and even better find out if the owner is paying taxes on the revenue by renting out a home as a motel.

Everett,

If there is no rental policy now and the gov docs do not address daily rentals, there is no grandfathering with the newly adopted policy. Grandfathering only occurs when a rule is changed and results in some h/o's automatically being in violation. These h/o's are grandfathered because when they made whatever change there was no rule against it.

Marsha,

Sorry to say but dissolving your hoa will cost big bucks too.

MaryA,

This is getting confusing. You say the declarant has the majority of the votes but has sold 51 lots which would mean he has 49 votes...right?

We created Rules and Regulations, that clarified our covenants. Our covenants are so out dated, vague and typically cookie cutter that they needed updating and more defined explanation. In the Rules it was spelled out that no business can be conducted in the community. Without a doubt we would have denied use of the property for over night use. We also limit the rental lease for 6 months initially. If the renters create a nuisance we do not allow the lease to renewed or the homeowner is fined. I doubt they would be able to get homeowners insurance if the insuring company knew how the home was being used.