What is a unit rental?

A unit rental happens when an owner leases their property to a tenant instead of living there, and it’s exactly the situation a lot of older bylaws never accounted for. A community where a large share of units are rentals or absentee-owned ends up governed by rules that were written with owner-occupants in mind.

Why does a unit rental matter?

Rental units do more than change who’s living next door, they can complicate a vote that needs broad participation to pass. Whether a non-responding absentee owner effectively works against a supermajority amendment depends on the specific voting rule and how the governing documents define quorum, ballots, and proxies, in some structures a non-vote simply doesn’t count either way, in others it functionally blocks a measure that needs a percentage of all owners rather than a percentage of votes cast. Either way, a community with a lot of rental or absentee-owned units usually has to work harder to reach quorum and round up enough proxies to get anything passed.

When You’ll Run Into This

This becomes relevant the moment an owner decides to rent out their unit and needs to confirm what the HOA allows. Our guide to amending HOA bylaws covers how communities update rental rules when they need to change.