Amend HOA/Condo Docs To Mitigate Against Rent Skimming By Unit Owners Facing Foreclosure

Buried in a recent column in the Naples Daily News (Southwest Florida) is the following suggestion for condominium and homeowners associations who are being stiffed on their maintenance fees by non-owner occupant unit owners who, in turn, are sticking tenants into their premises and pocketing the rent while awaiting being ousted by a foreclosure sale:

• One way to help an association minimize the costs associated with these flipper/renter problems is to amend your declaration of condominium or declaration of covenants to allow the association to collect the rent directly from the tenant if an owner is past due on assessments and a claim of lien has been filed on the unit.(1)

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• It is important to remember that an association can only collect the rent or evict the tenant if such power is contained in the governing documents. If your association does not have such powers in its documents, your board may wish to consider having its members vote on amending your documents to include such provisions at your next annual meeting.

For more, see Unit owner collecting rent but not paying association assessments.

(1) As part of any amendment, the association might consider tacking on a monthly manangement fee on any unit they are forced to collect rent on, if otherwise permissible under local law.