Hager Park Homeowners Association Board
March 25, 2024
Approved April 22, 2024
Short-Term Rental of Property
During much of the fall and winter, the board has worked to address concerns regarding homeowners renting their property on a short-term basis as a VRBO. The board requested the association’s attorney review the association’s covenants and restrictions and the relevant rulings by the courts regarding the interpretation of key provisions in similar covenants elsewhere. The board made the results of that review available to homeowners in the association and invited comments from homeowners regarding how restrictive or permissive the board’s interpretation should be.
Less than a third of homeowners provided feedback. We suspect some of the nonresponse is attributable to the failure of the email system to properly identify the communication as coming from the homeowners association. We are working diligently to correct this; however, according to the association bylaws, no change in the covenants is possible without a 68% approval of all homeowners to do so. Far less than that provided any response at all.
Therefore, the Board will follow the guidance of our attorney, recent court rulings, our current covenants, and the sentiments of the majority of those homeowners who did respond to our request. That is, properties in the association must be for “residential use” of primarily single-families; commercial use is prohibited. Renting that does not involve the “residents” changing their voter registration, mailing address, billing for utilities, etc. to the address in the Hager Park West association is not residential use; they don’t reside in the property if they don’t move in to live there. Serially renting the property to others by the homeowner is considered commercial use rather than residential use and is prohibited.
Consequently, until a proper vote of the association on a proposal to do otherwise is obtained, the Board believes short-term rental of property in the Hager Park West neighborhood is prohibited. Please note, this is more restrictive than Georgetown Township permits. Georgetown Township permits renting but only if the rental period is more than 30 days, and prohibits short-term renting of less than 30 days; Hager Park West Homeowners Association prohibits any rental of the property that isn’t residential. Enforcement of the prohibition of rentals less than 30 days will include the office of Georgetown Township; enforcement of the prohibitions of rentals longer than 30 days will be the responsibility of the Association and may involve notifications, warnings, fines, or legal actions.
If one or more homeowners wish to change this restriction, they may draft a proposal that is less restrictive than our current covenants but cannot be less restrictive than that of Georgetown Township. To alter the association’s restrictions, such a proposal would have to receive an affirmative vote by 68% or more of the homeowners in the association.
Hager Park West 