Number of people allowed in condo

AnnaD2: The answer would lie in your official documents. If they are 'silent', then it seems doubtful. Some single homes state for a single family--but then, what constitutes a family? It seems there is a lot of gray area here.

You could go to your local municipal office to learn if they have any regulations on how many persons can occupy a condo of your sq. footage in Florida; they can also help with whether the developer officially filed any restrictions on occupancy ith them.

I recommend you go online to your county website, and look under Code Enforcement. County Code ordinances calculate the number of occupants allowed, which is a square foot calculation, one person per so many square feet.

Donna and Anna,
I hate to say this but I think it is true in a lot of cases about a lot of things. Many States expect HOAS and condos to police their associations, and will not enter into the fray. It is wrong but in our instance unless the fire department decrees a limit there is not much to inforce.

Now if the unit, as I said before causes trouble you can, if your documents say so, call the cops and report them. Also, as I said before, rental unit or not, it is the owners responsibility to insure his property and his gueats or what have you do not distrub the neighborhood. In an association if a unit or home is the center of trouble that is a police matter. There may be some statement stuck away somewhere that says no more than blank people, but unless it is at the state level, forget it, and even then it is next to impossible to enforce.

This is all wrong and I'll tell you how to fix some of it,and that is to regulate the Rental agencies. We have some Rental agencies that have limits in their lease, and they have authority to break the lease. Now if your board requires a signed lease from the owner and rental agency and you stipulate a limit, then they would be breaking a lease and you can evict them or more correctly you can force the owner to evict them.

That still leaves owners that let their kids graduating class use their p-lace. We have a no large groups in any units and the restriction here is with the relationship of the owner to his quests. As far as I know we have never had to go to the owner other than to inform them of what is going on and insist that they stop the action immediately.

Donna,
I don't doubt for a minute everything you say is true and the problems triples when some asenct buy up a bunchof units and put subsisted families in them. I have heard of this happening and it turns into a mess.

But that is a different kind of lease. This is a lease, usually short time between HO and tenant, and certain stipulations are spelled out it the lease. It is technically not residential lease any more that a motel agreement is and you start raising hell in a motel and the cops will see you stop. But try taking the thing to court and they don't want to fool with it. I don't know how some HOA's do it, but here on the island out security has enforcement and arrest authority and have been involved in long term renters and their problems. If they are creating a public offense they will arrest them and the county sheriff will pen them up.

Personally, I don't see how HOA's survive with the whole situation the way it is. Of course we read daily of this Hoa or that condo going bust and it is there the Documents prove their worth as long as we have folks that care what is going on. I think we tend to over solve some problems and by the time we get them figured out, the whole scenerio changes. So each case has to be handled by starting a process and if that don't get the desired results we back off and try something else. I think this applies to all things HOA, be it Board, homeowners, county, city, what have you.
We are never exactly right but the worse thing we can do is let the problem roll along until action is forced on the HOA. That is why I am so against members of the Board not living in the complex full time. But again you have to live with what we got. I have seen folks go to jail for misdeeds in an association but I have never seen the Government say, now this is what you all did wrong and this is how to avoid it. In fact, the procsecutors only interest is what they did, not how it concerns the well being of the association.

And you are as right as you can be, that is not the problem. The problem remains what do we do about it and how.

Our CC&R's limit the number of occupants per unit; in addition local health codes limit the number of residents. Leases must be for a minimum of six months and we make it clear that Homeowners are responsible for their renters and urge them to put something in their leases to allow them to pass the charges on. In addition Ohio changed the law to allow condo boards to initiate eviction procedures as an agent of the owner and pass the charges on to them.

A.Purpose of Property. No unit shall be used for any purpose other than as a residence site as follows:

(1)For a single family, meaning a group of one or more persons each of whom is related to the other by blood, marriage or adoption who are living together and maintaining a common household, but excluding more than one married couple and excluding two or more parents (not married to each other and not themselves parent and child) who have their children or stepchildren living with them.

(2)In the alternative, as a residence site for persons who do not constitute such a “family” but subject to the following restrictions on the total number of persons (including children)occupying any unit: Any two bedroom unit may be used or occupied by no more than four persons; and any three bedroom unit by no more than six persons, until and unless the Association adopts rules or regulations altering this requirement and no such rule or regulation may be adopted except by the members of the Association at a meeting duly called for that purpose.

(3)In accordance with the frequent approach in zoning codes of protecting values in residence districts by prohibiting the use of single family residences for roomers and boarders,and in order to provide similar protection for the owners of units., it is hereby provided that no roomers or boarders shall be permitted.

M. Rental of Units. The owners of the respective Units (including the Declarant) shall have the right to lease or rent any Unit. In no event shall said lease or rental period be less than six(6)months.

To initiate eviction proceedings, pursuant to Chapters 5321 and 1923 of the Revised Code, to evict a tenant. The action shall be brought by the Association, as the Unit Owner’s Agent, in the name of the Unit Owner. In addition to any procedures required by Chapters 5321 and 1923 of the Revised Code, the Association shall give the Unit Owner at least ten days written notice of the intended eviction action. The costs of any eviction action, including reasonable attorney’s fees, shall be charged to the Unit Owner and shall be the subject of a special assessment against the offending Unit and made a lien against that Unit.

Dana, could you please tell me where to find this information?!? I went to my county (Pinellas) website and looked at code enforcements and couldn't find anything about what you describe. Thank you.

New to the group here as newly elected HOA President of a heretofore lame duck association!

Since Equal Housing individuals and officials can be critical on number allowances or occupancy for a unit I have found it best to consult your local Health Department office or website. They generally dictate an amount of "usable" sq. ft per individual and not necessarily the number of beds or rooms in the unit. Here where I'm at (Mexico City, Utah) we have/had hoards of people in 650 sq ft condos packing in 7 to the unit (2br-1ba!). I've taken this to heart and task on behalf of our HOA and got things shaking. The tenants didn't like my imposing but I got it/them taken care of/removed for overoccupancy. Also when you have a unit designed for a max of 3 people and overcrowd it just imagine the add'l utility of water and sewage generated. It trickles down in an immense financial matter to other HOA members. I/we shouldn't have to pay for extra utilities because some legals/& more especially illegals want to pack 'em in like catsuped sardines. Take a stand and rid yourselves of overoccupancy & you'll have enough for a cup o'joe in savings. The Health Depts. will assist in this.

Anna, I just searched your Pinellas County website also, very complicated site, not like our county's. But I did locate a county phone number that might have the answer. 727-464-4761. I have lived in Pinellas, and know it is somewhere.

Dana, thank you for trying to disect the Pinellas website. I've been digging a bit further and may have found something. It's under Pinellas County Codes Buildings and Buildings Regulastions; Chapter 22; Section 22-300, Dwelling Space. It reads something like this: 1. Required space in dwelling unit. Every unit shall contain at least 150 square feet of floor space for the first occupant and at least 100 additional square feet of floor space for each additional occupant.

It goes on about how to calculate square feet. The second part (2) defines sleeping space per person. It seems to apply to all buildings. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful, informative replies!

Case solved.... great, how many people can you put in a 3 bedrrom, 3 1/2 bath condo with 1900 square feet.

I have tried to see if SC has something similar, so far, can't find but I got close so sent an e-mail inquiry.