Can Our Condo Association Collect Rent From Absentee Landlord's Tenants?
Posted on Wed, Jul 01, 2009 @ 11:50 AM
If a unit owner is 25 days or more late in paying his or her share of common expenses, the condo association may collect rent due the unit owner from any tenant renting the unit and apply it against the amount owed by the unit owner. This right is subject to any existing rights of a first mortgage holder.
The procedures for a condo association collecting rent from a tenant in the unit are as follows:
(a) First, the condo association must send a written notice to the delinquent condo owner. The notice must be sent by any form of mail or delivery which provides a signed receipt. It must set forth the exact amount the condo association claims is due and state that the association intends to collect the amount from rent, along with any amounts which become due in the future in the current fiscal year and remain unpaid for 25 days after they become due.
(b) The unit owner has 10 days after receiving the notice to file a written response with the condo association signed under pains and penalties of perjury. For any dispute over a monthly installment, the response must include proof, in the form of a cancelled check, receipt, or other document showing that the installment was paid.
(c) If the unit owner fails to file a timely response which complies with these requirements, or if the unit owner admits that any amount is owed, the condo association may immediately notify each tenant renting the unit to pay rent and the condo fees to the association.
(d) If the unit owner filed a response which was timely and complied with these requirements, the tenant pays to the condo association no more than the amount the unit owner admitted was due in the response.
(e) The unit owner may bring suit seeking injunctive relief or a judicial determination of the amount owed. The association may also bring suit to enforce its lien, to establish the amount owed, or to obtain a court order requiring tenants in the same unit, or in other units in the condominium owned by the same owner, to pay rent to the condo association.
(f) A unit owner is prohibited from taking any retaliatory action against a tenant who pays rent to the association. The laws which protect tenants from reprisals by landlords apply to any reprisal taken by a unit owner against a tenant who paid the condo association or expressed an intention to do so. Any waiver of these provisions in any rental agreement is void as against public policy.