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1. 

   Dennis Legere

   February 19, 2023 at 9:40 am

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   Mike,

   This is a significant issue in many communities especially condominiums. Bylaw changes cannot in any way affect this issue. If your CC&R’s allow renting of units, to limit renting would require an amendment to the CC&R’s but more importantly such a change may require 100% of all units to approve that change. The required approval would depend on the exact language in the original CC&R’s and the proposed change where some my require only the super majority specified in the CC&R’s and other would require 100% under a recent Supreme Court ruling.
   The is federal law that allows all FHA backed mortgages to be denied in greater than 50% of the condominium units are not “owner occupied”. That law defines what “owner Occupied” means. What that says is if 50% of the condo units are not owner occupied the remaining 50% cannot sell their units to a buyer that requires a mortgage, and can only sell their units to cash buyers. This is a significant impact to the property value of all units in the condominium.
   National Common law for condominiums recognizes this issue and established the right of board to limit the use of non-owner-occupied units to below the threshold established by the lending institutions like Famie May, by rule alone to protect the value of the property. This is not statutory law anywhere but is common law as established in the Restatement of Law Property Servitudes. Long answer but basically the board can create a rule without owner input limiting the ability of any owner after a specific threshold less than the 50% mark to rent their units and not satisfy the owner occupant requirement of federal law.
   Dennis