Excessive Restrictions Limit Homeowners’ Options During Economic Difficulties and Family Tragedies

Housing market crashes, recessions, illness, death. We are never immune from unexpected challenge and tragedy. Times may be good now, but it wasn’t that long ago that they weren’t. When tragedy strikes, homeowners need to be able to respond quickly to protect their most valuable possession. They may need to temporarily lease their home while in a rehabilitation center. Or they may want to rent a room to assuage a temporary cash-flow challenge WITH the protection of a lease in place (the Board has said these restrictions permit roommates – yet, we MAY NOT have roommate leases). Homeowners who fall victim to illness or an unexpected layoff or required relocation may be limited in their options for a quick sale to investors if the proposed deed restrictions are in place.

The current Board says that while the definition of Leasing can be interpreted differently, they do not intend to interpret it to bar live-in caregivers, roommates, and other exchanges of space for “service, fee, gratuity, or emolument” Section 1-A (1). But the question is, will all future boards for eternity also choose to follow the interpretation of the current Board’s attorney? Where a provision is open to interpretation, it is ripe for abuse. Maybe a neighbor doesn’t like the person you chose as a nanny or caregiver. A future board could apply the Leasing restriction to force you to terminate the employment arrangement, subjecting you to a breach of contract suit. We ask you to consider not whether you think this Board would do that, but whether any board should have that power.

Also note, it is not only the HOA Board that has the power to enforce these restrictions. Homeowners can also sue other homeowners to enforce the restrictions. So even if this Board keeps its assurances that the prohibition on leasing individual rooms will not be applied so as to prevent homeowners from having live-in caregivers or roommates, they cannot assure you that other homeowners will not attempt to do so, whatever their reasons may be. The simplest solution is to write restrictions that are clear and unambiguous and are not subject to multiple interpretations.