Article Courtesy of The Sun Sentinel

By Joe Kollin

Published July 23, 2008

When Bess Weiner died in March at 87, her two grown children inherited her apartment in the Holiday Springs condo in Margate.

The siblings, both with homes of their own, would like to sell it so they can stop paying the $228 monthly maintenance and taxes. But they can't find a buyer and they can't rent because 16 years ago the association banned rentals, say Ellen Rieback, 56, of Plantation, and her brother, David Rieback, 60, of Coral Springs.

"People are so afraid of who is going to live there that they discriminate against those who want to rent," Ellen Rieback said. "I have no problem submitting renters for approval to make sure they get nice people, but the association would rather us keep it empty. We're paying all the expenses and we're not even allowed to have visitors from up north stay there unless one of us, as owners, is in residence with them."

About 20 years ago, several communities where renting was allowed began changing the rules after learning of problems in communities such as the 600-unit Versailles Gardens condo complex in Tamarac. Half the units there were owned by investors who did not screen their tenants. Almost everything that could go wrong did, including the roof nearly collapsing from lack of maintenance. Permanent owners were helpless because investors owned enough units to control the board.

 
Banning rentals, however, created a legal problem. Those who bought when renting was legal challenged the associations' ability to rewrite the documents. In 2002 the Florida Supreme Court upheld the ban. Two years later, the Legislature reacted by changing the law. Now, if you buy a unit when rentals are permitted and the association later bans them, you can continue renting.

All associations decide for themselves whether to allow or restrict renting. Consult your documents to determine your association's rules and how you could try to change them.

At Whitehall Condominiums at Camino Real in Boca Raton, the association had no ban on renting. But owners saw what was happening to the housing market and feared they might have a problem. In May, they voted to limit rentals to 15 percent of the 408 units at any one time.

"We were having too many renters, we worried about property values, we didn't want to become a rental community and wanted to prevent investors from coming in," said Glorida DeFeo, the association's treasurer.

Aleida Patino, 66, and her husband Freddy, 70, owned a second-floor apartment in Environ Towers in Lauderhill. They fell in love with a first-floor apartment in another Environ building and bought it.

"We moved before we put the old apartment up for sale and the real estate situation then got worse every day," Aleida Patino said.

So they were stuck paying expenses, including $400-a-month maintenance, on both apartments.

Their story has a twist. Although the buildings are in the same community, they are run by different associations. Their first building banned rentals several years ago. Their new building allows rentals.

They could move back into their original apartment and rent the new one, but they preferred not to.

"We asked them to temporarily let us rent," she said. They were told no.

In January, when golfers begin coming down, they'll rent the new place and move back into the old one, she said.

Q "We have all heard the stories of condo commandos, but here we have an 'owner commando,'" writes a director. "She is driving us nuts! She has written 14 certified, return-receipt letters since March 2007, each one requiring us to answer" and each time, "she has asked for the same information."

"Is there some legal way of getting her off our backs?" the director asks.

A There isn't much the board can do, said Robert Kaye, of the Robert Kaye & Associates law firm in Fort Lauderdale. The state favors owners exercising their rights under the condo law.

"Condominium associations do have a few tools available," he said. "The best advice is for the association to strictly follow the letter of the law" by responding properly to requests for information.

When a question is asked properly by certified mail, the law requires answers within 30 days. If the letter asks for access to a document, it must be provided in five business days. But the law also says associations can adopt rules limiting unit owners to one request every 30 days and limit each inquiry to a single issue, Kaye said.

Also, owners can't make associations do their research for them. Owners can ask to inspect records "to find what they are looking for" and when they find it, ask for copies.