HOA Questions

Alex,

Welcome to the world of Boards who just do't have a clue on how to manage their HOA with a degree of flexability.

I went thru this twice and my Wisconsin friends had to do the same. All in South Florida as well.

There is NO reason for them to operate this way. I completely agree that they must cover all of the aspects of accepting a new renter but your case is different because you both have been in the assocation previously and hopefully without any problems with the Board.

If you have tried to reason with them and they refuse, there is nothing much else you can do except if you have a regular attorney, he could try one last call. Sometimes this type of Board needs to be talked with and made to understand that there has to be a small degree of flexability to get these interviews done.

And for the sake of explaining this interview process, the courts have found that HOAs may NOT refuse to allow a renter to come into the association unless the renter is restricted by Federal, State or local laws (aka sex offender, arsonist and maybe mass murderer) They may not deny anyone else per Fair Housing Act laws. So the purpose of these intervies must be solely for the purpose of explaining HOA rules and living within that community.

Someone is going to post here that it might be the governing documents requiring this part of the rental policy. Mine all were in Rules and regulations which we all know is adopted by Boards, therefore Boards have the rights to amend and make this a much more compatable process with prospective renters.

Certainly, don't go unless they first send you what they want you to sign and you agree on terms.

It's possible they want to put you to some expense in order to put you in a position where you feel committed before you see the agreement. It could also be that the HOA people (Directors or Mgmt Co?) are just clueless or obtuse. They could also have good reasons; although this looks very strange, and I cannot imagine why they would not explain their reasons to you.

Even after you agree on terms, it may be cheaper (and wiser) in the long run to insist on having an attorney go with authority to execute the agreement. An attorney may be better able to handle people who are not trying to be reasonable.

Ellen,

I'll bet that you know or have heard of an association having these antique requirements for new owners and renters. Having been a member of 5 associations at once, I can tell you that there are many of these associations still using this outdated system of prefacing entry into the association. And you are right, many of these are just some Boards with power hungry motives. Some honestly think that an interview can protect the HOA from having undesirables move into the community but IT DOESN'T WORK! Thinkk about it. Some wack job wants to rent or buy, they go to the interview on best behavior, answer politely and before you know it, they are members of the community just waiting to explode.

So the interviews are just not foolproof to protct the association. I fought hard with 1 Board because they did not want to approve us because we were a "limited corporation" They could not understand the concept of husband and wife being incorporated to protect our personal business from our rental holdings. Finally they called counsil to get an understanding of who we were and then got approval. They also charge fees for these interviews which is also out of a normal range. I have paid $100.00 up to $250.00 for an interview fee.