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MichaelB23 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 1
Posted:
I am the new president of our HOA, just turned over to us at the start of April. My building was in the process of finishing the last four buildings in our townhome condo development of 106 units and suddenly he changed them from For Sale to Rentals. The current HOA rules allow for rentals, and it was written prior to the 2009 Fannie Mae changes, so there are no limits on how many rentals there can be.

My problem is that he suddenly added 18 rentals, which is obviously way above the 10% line for Fannie Mae. As an aside, does Fannie Mae round up or down? Is it 11 units or 10 units in my 106 unit development?

Is there anything I can do to force him to change them back to for sale units? I have already started discussions with the builder, but so far the builder is blowing me off. We have recently started having a lot of problems with the builder, so this does not surprise me. I am also talking to some realtors and mortgage companies who were just blindsided by this (they were in the process of approving loans when the change happened and now Fannie Mae is denying them) and I let the towship representative for my ward know about it as well. Without Fannie Mae, we basically cannot sell any homes.

Any help would be appreciated. We are in PA, if that info is needed.

If no legal action is possible, we were looking at amending the HOA rules to allow no more than 10 rentals at any time. Could this be then applied to the builder, forcing him to sell the rentals or does it have to grandfather him in? We were also looking to apply a yearly special assessment on all rental units, but not sure if we can do such a thing legally. Maybe even setting up a higher tiered HOA due for rentals, we currently have two tiers, one for garage units and one for non-garage units.

Thanks for any help, this has just become a big problem for me.
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
This just means that it's going to be harder for some people to get loans, paying higher refi rates, or just have to get another type loan package. There is more than just Fannie Mae/Freddie mac or FHA. The options are just limited and can drive away some buyers. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Look at the failure rate of typical loans versus those with tighter requirements, they are lesser. People with better credit ratings and payment histories are less likely to turn the property over to rental.

I don't believe HOa's can truly enforce rental restrictions. Unless done in a proper approval/review/enforcement. Otherwise it is up to the mortgage companies to limit use/rental of property.

Former HOA President

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