Renting allowed?

Started by ThomasC11 • 6 replies • 1368 views

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ThomasC11 (California)
Posts: 210

Posted:

Our condos are 2 story townhomes with separate upstairs and downstairs entrances. It has become quite common for owners occupy the upstairs while renting out the downstairs, adding to an already overcrowded community.

Is there a way to control/prohibit this based on our CCR's? They say the following:

"Each Unit shall be used and occupied for private, single-family dwelling purposes."

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

You might have a chance with the "single family dwelling", however, that runs into problems of defining a single family dwelling.. if you define it with the emphasis on "single family", you prevail. However, most jurisdictions really define those as a type of "dwelling", suitable for a single family (emphasis on dwelling, no real importance to the family part).

another place to look would be to see if your rules ban home based businesses. if they are renting, that MIGHT apply. there are ways around that rule, of course.

other than that, you may just have to have the covenants changed to reflect the no rental desires of the community.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Thomas,

IMO, unless your gov docs specificaly disallow renting then you cannot prohibit a property owner from doing this w/o amending the CCRs. However, the BOD can adopt rules regarding rentals. The rule could prohibit renting a portion of the dwelling.

Regarding the section of your CCRs that you posted, normally "single-family dwelling" means the type of dwelling as opposed to multi-family which would be an apartment. It does not mean that only a single family can occupy the dwelling. You can check with your co/city planning & zoning dept to verify this.

DanielH1 (California)
Posts: 482

Posted:

In some cases, you can limit the number of rentals or charge an extra fee to rentals.

The practice is legally debateable. Generally, the limit is based on FHA funding guidelines and the extra fee is traced to additional maintenance needed for renters.

If I were you, I'd also look for a way for the HOA to capitalize on the renters: maybe lease common parking spaces (instead of giving them for free).

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Thomas,
I would assume this is a serious problem and the continuing of the practice is only going to get worse. Surely your documents must refer to more than what you posted. There could be other sections that regulate this kind of stuff. This sounds crazy. How can you rent out an upstairs without breaking a single family covenant, if you can do that you can rent out each room individually. If the intent when this construction was planned, platted and approved for occupancy as a single family unit, then you would have to amend the covenants to allow this. Any doubt, pay a GOOD HOA lawyer to look at your documents and follow his advice, do it, get it over with and then you can plan how to address it.

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Thomas if you have any amenities how is that handled? I.e. if you have a pool can both the H/O and the renter use it?

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

ThomasC11 (California)
Posts: 210

Posted:

Yes,the amenities are available to owners and renters.

I have not been able to find anything else in our documents that refers to usage of units. I will take your advice and run it by the attorney.

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