UNAUTHORIZED OCCUPANT

HELP!We have a seasonal owner who was on site for a few days and we noted a moving truck taking items from the home.Several months back, it was up for sale and then it was rented with all the proper papework as per the HOA Declarations.We assumed the home was going back on the market, but heard a "niece" was going to stay in the home.We have paperwork for "non-paying" occupants and certainly a relative could fall into that category.Upon leaving our complex, the owner said that her renter was coming and to give her the key.We have NO paperwork on record.The person comes to our gate, says she is the grandaughter and the key is given to her.Two days later, 2 movings vans pull up and because of the proximity of our gate to the busy road, they are permitted entry but asked to pull to the side while we get authorization.We have a STEADFAST rule that NO contractors(movers included)are permitted on Sunday.The trucks totally ignore the guard's request and unload and the occupant says she is moving in and could care less about our rules.She calls the owner, who by the way is 2 months in arrears on his dues, and he is po at us because this is a family friend who is paying nothing and he does not like the way we are treating her.He says he is not paying dues any more and is letting the house go into foreclosure. He owes more than it is worth. We check the rental listings and find out the agent that had their rental listing had "cancelled" it two days prior to the gal moving in. Our staff went into their daily log sheets to learn that this gal had been shown the unit about 2 weeks prior.The word "client" is written on the back of the occupant's business card. She too is a realtor.Our CC&R's are very clear about occupants obeying the rules etc. This occupant refuse to take a copy of the rules also. The owner now refuses to complete any paperwork and he is threatening to "test the HOA insurance." We have turned this over to our atty. but wonder if any of you know anything about eviction. Because the owner is delinquent, he has no write to rent and will not complete paperwork.

Inform him if he doesn't pay his dues you will proceed with collections through small claims court which will result in a court ordered payment which could include garnishment of wages, etc... That way, even if he is foreclosed, the court will force him to pay. You don't really have to go through with it, but you can inform him of what will happen.

Steven, Thanks for that idea.We also have another owner that has lost her property and owes us about 2K which does not warrant running up attorney fees and I actually wondered about small claims.We are currently attempting to garnish wages from another owner who owes us over $12K.This is certainly impacting our budget, not to mention legal fees. As I stated in an eariler post, be very careful when tangling with a member who is an attorney.

Hi Joanne,

The reason for that law is that property taxes on rentals are about double the owner occupied rate. Also, you might want to check with the City. In Glendale the property owner must get a City business license if he choose to rent his property. The HOA cannot do anything if a property owner chooses to ignore these laws except make his life miserable by turning him in to the Co and perhaps the City.

Mary, Thanks and I thought we did do something that involved Superior Court becasue it had more strength. Needless to say, we wish we had been advised about all the complications before we even sued the owner.If in fact they have nothing to get and are upside down on their home, this was all a waste.We have monitored the atty closely and have gotten some credits back because they did not pay attention to information that was given them and just ran up a bill. For example, we had a guard that tried to file a discrimination suit and the HOA atty started gathering all kinds of data when in fact, IF YOU DO NOT EMPLOYEE 15 employees, they cannot file a claim with the state. When it was given to the HOA insurance and their atty, one letter took care of the whole problem.I asked the atty why the first question to us wasn't how many employees do you have and they gave us a credit. In another case of an owner who we are trying to garnish wages, the atty said that they didn't know he was self employeed and Thank God I have the email to prove to them that they were given the information months before and then we got another credit, but who wants to have to babysit all this junk?

Mary, I am so disgusted with everything that is going on in the country, that having this go on in my own neighborhood makes me crazy and I am more than ready to make someone's life miserable for not being honest and forthright. I believe that the HOA might rewrite the rental rule to include proof of registration with the state, city and county. Whatever it takes! Now we have this occupant that we need to evict and that is going to be a mess too. She is a realtor and has lied about her relationship to the owner and I think the AZ Board of Realtors might find that interesting! Can you tell I have had it? I am encouraging the Board to do some kind of deposition with all parties so that all the other owners know we mean business on who is coming in our gate. We pay over $400 per month to be "secure" and this doesn't make the grade when you don't even know who lives here.