ABA Family Legal Guide

Home Ownership

Shared Ownership: Condos and Condominiums

Handling Problems

What can you do if the community has too many rental tenants?

Owner-occupants often object to renters, who are perceived as not caring about the property enough to maintain it properly. Likewise, absentee owners generally want to keep up the rental value but don't want to pay for extras. And although restrictions apply to tenants as well as to owner-occupants, they are more difficult to enforce.

But if the board slaps a lien on a unit owner because of the tenant's behavior, the owner may well terminate the tenant. If a majority of the unit owners believe the number of renters is a problem, they may be able to band together and convince the board to call for a vote on a change to the bylaws that would restrict leases.