The majority of our owners have voted several times in the past few years that we do not want renters in our building. One owner has decided that since it is not in the by-laws they will go ahead and rent anyway. So my question is what is the best way to proceed and have added to our by-laws that we have a no renters policy.

Our condo association consists of 3 units each approx 1,000 sf . Two of three are rented out.  The renters place "decorative" items all around the perimeter of the building. Large flower pots, bird bath, angel statues, a large ceramic pig, large frog, etc...Isn't the outside area of a building restricted for placement of all these personal decorations?  The property is small, and looks very cluttered! Help!  How do we handle this?

We have a 12 unit condo. Two years ago I spent several months getting FHA approval. Now we are trying to renew. The only changes we have are our updated budget report and two units for sale. The board member working on the renewal told us that we have to allow leasing/renting for up to 50% of the units to qualify. We have never allowed renting (except to immediate family members) unless approved by the board for hardship situations. Is this a new change or is someone misunderstanding something? Apparently, we cannot 'restrict' owners from leasing?

A renter attended our board meeting and some board members objected stating only homeowners could attend the meeting. My thoughts are it was a public meeting and should be open to all. Am I right.

I have a home in Amelia Island, FL that I purchased 10+ years ago. We had an investor purchase a home in our subdivision. He was renting it by the week since there were no restrictions on rentals. The neighbors in this upscale neighborhood did not like the renting of the house. They asked and the HOA just passed a new rule, by 80% of the voters in the HOA, that rentals will not be allowed for less than 3 months. Am I bound by this since there were no restrictions when I purchased the home and I did not vote for the change?

My husband and I own a unit in a two unit association. The other owner (who rents out his unit) has left the handling of the condo association entirely up to us, so I maintain the condo bank account and pay all the bills. Our current shared expenses are water/sewer and homeowners insurance so the monthly fee is only $100. The other unit owner has been delinquent in his payments for years and will only occasionally send a check for a partial payment, usually after I have e-mailed and called him several times. He otherwise never responds to my messages or communicates with us in anyway.

We finally consulted a lawyer about how best to deal with the situation and he recommended we write a letter to the other owner detailing his payment history (or lack thereof) with the current amount owed and a suggested payment schedule of a 3rd of the the total plus the current month's fee for the next 3 months in order to get caught up or enforce the provisions of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 183A and direct his tenants to pay rent to the association until his fees were payed in full. Shortly after we sent this letter (by Regular, Certified Mail and E-Mail) we discovered his tenants were moving out and it was too late to get rent from them.

While the other unit owner did send a check for the first installment o f the payment plan we'd provided about a month later, he's yet to pay a single cent since and is now in arrears almost as much as when we sent the letter. The other owner had apparently been trying to sell his unit for several months but it is now off the market and new renters just moved in. However, the renters appear to be buddies with the owner and we're wondering if they'll be reluctant to pay the rent to the association. I just received the invoice for our home owner's insurance and we are about $600 short of the amount in the condo account. Plus a water pipe in our basement looks in serious need of repair and we need to have some shingles replaced on the roof so we really need the money now.

So to sum up: my questions are basically: How do we go about collecting rent from the renters? Do we just show them a copy of the letter and condo docs? What if they don't take it seriously or think we're trying to scam them? Should we just go ahead and file a lien on the other unit? If we end up having to pay out-of-pocket to cover the Home Owner's Insurance and house repairs, is their anyway to guarantee that we'll be reimbursed?

Does anyone know condo law in California? We wanted to charge a fee to any owner who rents out his unit but someone has said this is illegal in California. Some of our units are rented to university students. This increases the water use, for one thing, because they have their friends over to take showers and do laundry. They also break the parking, noise and pool use rules which puts a burden on the board to enforce the rules. Any help would be appreciated. I can't find a citation regarding this law. I know several condos do charge fees. Does anyone have any experience with this?