HOA members...has your HOA banned renters?

[Poohnatic]

I'm in a new development of 50 houses. We were the last to occupy our home. The management company *finally* transferred the board over to us last month. We're about to have our first official meeting in a week.

The biggest problem I have in the neighborhood (and I'm not the only one) is the lack of respect for other's property. The kids run rampant over our back yards, front yard, etc. That said, nearly every one of these kids is from the six rental homes in the neighborhood. We've tried being kind, we've had to resort to yelling and nothing gets through to these kids.

Most of the other homeowners were told that rental properties would not be permitted when they signed their contracts, along with a stipulation that they would not be allowed to sell their home for two years.

Several of us want to propose and bring to vote that rental properties will not be permitted, and that when the current leases are up, the house must either be occupied by the homeowner or sold. The HOA president has successfully done this in another community.

So, anyone else have this guideline in their HOA covenants/deed restrictions? Did you add it after all the plots were occupied? How enforceable was it in your community?

I'll probably ask my lawyer the next time I have a conversation with him, but wondered if there was any anecdotal info from the good people of the DIS.

Suzanne

 

[ashjohnson80]

I don't beleive we can have renters in our neighborhood. We have a very strict HOA though.

 

[pearlieq]

They're talking about doing it in my neighborhood. We'll be voting on it soon, so at least in our neck of the woods it's not only legal but not uncommon.

I'm really conflicted about it. I can see the argument that renters and landlords each may have less of a motivation to keep up and beautify the home. I can see the argument that being perceived as a "rental" community could negatively affect property values. But I'm also profoundly uncomfortable with dictating what someone can do with their home, and making judgments about and excluding a group of people based solely on how they pay for their home. It targets lower income and minorities for exclusion from the neighborhood. It just doesn't sit right with me.

I can't quite see how kids' bad behavior can be tied to how their parents pay for their home. I don't think you can guarantee that the next occupants will be any better solely because they pay a mortgage and not rent.

I hope things work out for you and the neighborhood!

 

[va32h]

Many of the HOAs in our area forbid renters. Which we learned the hard way, as we are renters ourselves!

Fortunately we found a nice house in an older (pre-HOA) neighborhood.

We rent because dh is in the military, and we move too often to make buying a home a financially wise choice. When we lived very near an active base, we had no problem finding houses to rent, as the community was used to a large pool of renters, and knew we'd treat the properties well.

In our current location, there is no active post, just a contract station that most people don't even know about, and it is obvious from the way we were treated by Realtors that people who rent are considered low-class out here.

There is less incentive for a renter to maintain the property; however, if the property manager or landlord is diligent about researching his propspective tenants, and performs the occasional inspection, many of these problems can be avoided. Unfortunately though, landlords are often just as much to blame as tenants, if not more.

Our city recently enacted stricter code compliance rules for rental properties - the previous ordnance only required landlords to self-inspect their properties and file a form with the city. Now we will have city inspectors checking the rental houses, to make sure they meet minimum housing standards.

 

[CherCrazy]

Around here, it's not common for HOA's to ban renters. However, our mayor decided that he would put up roadblocks for the people that want to rent in our town. He now has made it law that landlords have to run a criminal background check on anyone that they rent to. Nice isn't it, that he thinks that only the renters are the bad people in this town. I wonder if next, the new homeowners in our town will be subject to the same scrutiny, so that we live in a perfect little utopia.

 

[bicker]

We just banned renters in our association. It makes it a bit harder to deal with things when you sell (one less option) but not a big deal.

 

[tkd lisa]

Our HOA requires a fee to rent. I think it's a one-time "application" fee. I actually bought the house as a "second" home due to some title issues with a pending divorce. So my mailing address is a PO Box, and the HOA sent me a letter with a rental application saying that I needed to fill out the renters' information and submit the $50 fee. Since I actually live in the house, I just wrote them a letter saying that, and that was that.

 

[golfgal]

I can see the attraction of banning renters in a development. While most renters are good, it only takes one family to ruin things for everyone.

 

[mom2boys]

I see a couple of problems with a "no rentals" clause. In my area, many people come into or out of the area for long term temporary job assignments - be they military, government or contractors. It is not uncommon for a family own a home here, take a 3-5 year detail to another part of the country (or world) and return. Many of those people love their homes/neighborhoods & rent while they are on assignment. A boy just returned to my son's elementary school - he's in 5th grade, his family moved when he was in 2nd. There is at least one family per year in our school of 425 students.
BTW - the families who come to this area for the same type of assignments are either military or high paid government/contractor workers. The military families take pride in their homes and keep them neater than most civilians I know. The contract workers make 6 figures.
Renter does not equal down in out around here.

 

[bicker]

I'm not sure the issue is a matter of "equating" renters with "down and out" but rather playing the odds. Resident owners, on average, take better care of the property than non-resident owners even without renters, and much better care, on average, as compared to non-resident owners with renters.

 

[ducklite]

SOmetimes the master plan documents will include rental clauses. I've seen them complete forbid renting, allow only a certain percentage of homes be rented at any given time, and allow it but place restrictions on the length of the lease period.

My HOA allows renters, but under strict terms. Homes can't be rented for less than one year at a time, and there can't be more than two leases in a calendar year. Our master HOA is pretty strict, and they definitely keep an eye on things.

Have you actually gone and talked to teh parents of these kids? Sometimes that's what you'll need to do--or ask the property management company to send them a letter. If worse comes to worse your local police department could send a community affairs or juvenile officer to the home to have a talk with them.

If all the other home owners are in agreement, once the association is turned over to you, have the master plan bylaws (as opposed to teh less enforceable rules and regulations) changed to not allow renters.

I want to point out though, that you can get rotten eggs with owners as well. My next door neighbors in NJ were owners and rotten neighbors. They would park blocking my driveway, their porch furniture was old, upholstered living room furniture, their place always looked unkempt, and their kid should have been tarred and feathered.

Anne

 

[PaulaSue]

Good luck with that!

Our HOA "forbids" a ton of things but most don't listen. They do send nasty letters and almost still nothing is done. (Renting is fine in our HOA)

 

[Pin Wizard]

In the past year, our HOA sent out a vote to limit the number of rentals at any given time to not exceed a certain number. That passed.

 

[bicker]

Good luck with that! Our HOA "forbids" a ton of things but most don't listen. They do send nasty letters and almost still nothing is done. (Renting is fine in our HOA)

We found that charging violators $15 per day, as per our Master Deed, does the trick. We've only had two people violate the rules, and after they met with their lawyers, they quickly complied.

 

[olena]

They keep trying. It's becoming more of an issue, since my neighborhood is 12+ years old.

 

[Poohnatic]

I think our biggest issue is that the sales person sold 8 houses to a group of women as investment properties. They charge an exorbitant sum, so multiple families live in the rentals.

Then, the parents don't give a flip about what the kids are doing and are never outside. Several of my neighbors have approached parents about issues as they arose, and got the 'so what?' response to their complaints (broken screens, damaged trees and bushes). If the parents cared, I think the kids would be more careful.

And I agree, sometimes you have lousy owners, and many times there are excellent renters. So far, it appears the lousy renters have been the norm.


Suzanne

 

[diznygirl]

Our HOA allows renters, and the min. lease is 6 months. I don't think we'd ever ban renters since several highly respected members of the community have been renting here since the place was built.

If the problem people in your neighborhood are renting, there's a good chance they could be gone in a couple of months anyway.

 

[clutter]

I think our biggest issue is that the sales person sold 8 houses to a group of women as investment properties. They charge an exorbitant sum, so multiple families live in the rentals.

Actually, that's probably a housing code violation. Check with your county or city and if it's a violation the landlords will have to comply as well as the tenants. As for renters, I'd gladly trade with the folks that own across the street from me. Best I can figure, it's a mom and dad and 4 kids and some grandparents, and another child. There may be aunts and uncles there too. As well as a chow that gets out, and whatever family member is available gets cussed out when the dog gets out. And oh yeah, some years back there was a hostage situation there.

 

[Feralpeg]

Renters are allowed in my neighborhood, but only single families. I've not noticed any problems.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I'm wondering how an HOA can forbade the sale of a home though for any period of time.

It is your property--what if their is a death, you have to sell your home for financial reasons (unforeseen or due to just plain overextending yourself), due to job, due to military transfer.

anything can happen in 2 years.