Senior Condo rentals (vacation/long term)
I have recently become concerned that our HOA board is not conducting oversight fairly in our community where we have many part time as well full time rentals according to our by laws. First, this community in Peoria not sun city is a 55+ codominium which has a high population of snowbird owners. I myself own 2 condo in this development which I rent as vacation rentals/temporary stays of 30 day min to people that need a place a month or more year round and I attend the meetings and have served on a committee before. I have to legally take the board to task twice now so I am know by the board. To answer the question on how management operates, they play along with and support what ever the board does including not telling the truth. So heres’ my current concern some of which I have know for sometime but now as grown into a bigger problem.
There was a community newsletter come out where the board address the community regarding insuring they notify the property management of the names and ages of any guests they have. They then elaberated basically telling the community that owners are letting their “Friends and Family” stay in their condos so they needed be concerned about people they see coming and going from a neighboring condo (I assume there have been calls to property management regarding people coming and going from units). I know I actually ran across an ad for a condo on one of the vacation rental sites that I recongized was in our community and no where in their ad did they state it had to be for a min of 30 nights per our HOA regulations and I was able to enter a short term rental date and get a quote. I reported it to our HOA and forwared them the ad so they could address it. Don’† know what happened, bu† I do know we have a board member acting as a rental manager for I’m sure compensation (We had a RE agent used to make this community his little private enterprise and passed it onto now what is the VP of the board) and not inforcing the rules as he should on registering all rental business. There is no way I beleive given we are a magnet for winter visitors that owners are choosing not to occupy their properties and just give out free vacations and probably short term tell residents not to mind it they are to consider them friends and family visiting not renters. I get they don’t want their vacation rental cash cow disrupted, but probably realized that they were also risking the 55+ designation by not making sure they at least follow the age limitations. BUT their not asking them to register them as renters I’m sure to avoid having to change their property use to rental, get licensed and collect taxes and file tax reports and last but not least report the income not to mention †heir paying fees to the board member who is not probably reporting the income or properly being licensed. This is a major point as the senior communities are the biggest vacation rental business on the planet!
I the end I think it’s unfair to me, having to register on paper (we have a form) every tenant I rent to, dates, unit# and provide their driver license and pay a 25.00 administration fee, but this elete group has cover from the laws.
How do you deal with this?
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Dee,
If you are a 55+ community then your CC&R’s are specific about that requirement. That limitation applies to anyone living in your community whether they are full time residents or rentals or even guest. In this case the specific language of the CC&R’s is very important as there are no state laws addressing this restriction. This is a fundamental aspect of your community covenants, and the board is absolutely required to enforce that restriction as specified in your declaration. The board needs to understand that they and the association can be sued by any homeowner if they do not enforce this fundamental restriction. The same applies to the rental restrictions in the declaration they need to either enforce the restriction as written or modify the declaration to remove or modify the restriction. These restrictions that limit the uses of your private property are not subject to discretional enforcement. The association and board have a duty to treat all homeowners fairly and to enforce the CC&R’s fairly and equally across the board for the entire community. Selective or lax enforcement hurts everyone and is unfair to everyone. Especially if any board member has a conflict of interest relative to either of these issues. Any board member not enforcing the CC&R’s because he wants to violate it as well could be personally sued for that conflict of interest and breach of duty to the association and the community. This is not a game any director guilty of a direct and intentional breach of duty to the association is not protect by the general indemnification from liability for all board members and most D & O insurance policies will not provide coverage for an act that constitutes a breach of duty by the board member.
I understand your position, you are doing the right thing and following the rules put down by the community for rentals. keep doing what you are doing and hold the association accountable to their own rules and restrictions on both these issues. The board has no option in either of these cases to not enforce the restrictions as written.
Dennis
I appreciate your thorough review and complete grasp of the situation and recommendations? Very reassuring my objections are well founded before I purse them with the board. I just can’t see how the board/property management can hand out these exclusions when they have no way to validate what is rental vs personal use if the owner is not going to be present too. Thank you!