vacation renatals

Parsegh,

First of all, when you say "you run" a board, do you mean you are the only board member?

Secondly, if the CCRs are silent regarding rentals, what you need to do is amend the CCRs to state no rentals. The majority of members required to amend the CCRs should be stated therein. If 4 of the 5 owners want no rentals it should be a very easy process. However, I hope you all think long and hard on this because any, or all, of you could be in a situation one day that would require you to rent your unit. It may be better to adopt a "rental policy" that would put certain controls on rentals, i.e. must be at least 6 mos or 1 yr, etc.

I'm sorry let me clarify. when I say I run an HOA I mean I am the President of a very small HOA (5 Units) there is also a treasurer and secratary but I tend to do most of the work. Its not the best of situations but with everyones schedual if I dont grab the bull by the horns not much gets done. I also want to add that this is my first experiance of this sort and am learing as I go. thats why this site is a great find for myself and our community.

typically, the process to amend your rules is in your by-laws. those should state the methodology, voting needs, notices, procedures, etc. to amend.

you will also want to read up on the Stirling-Davis act, a california law that governs HOA's, to see which parts may apply to your condo (if any). this will also help you understand the best way to amend your CC&R's.

Wasn't there a discussion about something similar here not too long ago? If I remember correctly, there was some thought that short-term rentals like this might be considered a business. If you have anything about "Conducting Business on Properties" in your CCRs, you might be able to restrict it using that clause.

Might I give an opinion on the "other side of the story"? I own a home in SC that I rent as a vacation rental when I'm not staying in it. The only way to have access to my community is to be an owner or a "guest of owner" i.e. a vacation rental guests.

Now that the bottom has fallen out of the real estate, how will properties be sold in my community if folks can't get through the gate? If we limited rentals we will be diluting our pool of prospective future buyers/owners.

I agree with a previous poster, be very careful on how limiting you are. You never know when your situation will change. In the past year or two there has been an increase in VR's. Many property owners are choosing to go this route to offset the higher cost of ownership...the other option-bankruptcy or foreclosure-never a good thing in a POA.

As for the "running of a business", many states do NOT recognize short term rentals of single family homes as "commercial business". My hunch is a long term rental (usually more than 30 days) would be considered commercial.

My advice is it is better to work with the owner of the rental. Come up with rental rules and regs for rentals. Meet the rentals. They might be your neighbors some day:-)

JMO