If you have never lived in a condominium community, or a single family home community with a strong Homeowners Association (HOA) then you may have not experienced getting fined for being bad! So, Why Do HOA’s Have Fines?

In the simplest of terms, not everyone gets that you are living in VERY close proximity to your neighbors. Say about 6-8 inches!!! All that seperates you from your neighbor in a condo building is….a WALL! And on one floor, you can have 12-16 neighbors! And when you do certain things (things that are wrong in many ways) there has to be a way to remind you and all your neighbors that you have been….well BAD!

But in reality, the purpose of Why HOA’s Have Fines is to protect not only the common property of all the residents, but the overall quality of life in the building. If a resident repeatedly does something against the HOA rules, there has to be a way for the HOA Board to fix the situation. It’s not like an apartment complex where management can terminate a lease and ask you to move out! You OWN the condo!

For example, think about smoking. Personally, I can’t stand it. (I tried it in High School, and thankfully it did not stick with me) And if you have ever been around smoking, you know that an ashtray full of butts is a nasty thing at best. So, in a condo building, when you are done, why not just toss your butt off your balcony? Yeah, that’s a pretty cool thing to do, right? W-R-O-N-G!!!! How would you like to wake up in the morning and find your balcony (you live below the guilty guy) covered with butts? Better yet, remember that butt still has flame on it…and what do you suppose happens when it lands on a piece of balcony furniture with a cushion on it, or better yet in the landscaping on the amenity deck below? Did you know that trees, mulch and cushions BURN AND CATCH FIRE???

That’s Why HOA’s Have Fines.

I know you’re thinking, ‘What idiot would do such a thing?’ Well, plenty of them, unfortunately.

You’ve been at work all day, and Fido needs to go! But Fido’s got to go down the hallway, wait for an elevator, ride to the lobby and get out the door to the dog walk. Suppose Fido has an accident along the way….do you clean it up? Ya think, right? Well just imagine smelling the carpet on your elevator floor foyer after Fido’s tinkle…..YUCK! And WHO pays to have the carpet cleaned? EVERYONE!

That’s Why HOA’s Have Fines.

Landscaping, carpet, pools, pool decks, club rooms and such are all common elements in a condominium building, s-h-a-r-e-d by ALL residents. So when a few are bad apples, there has to be a way to help the bad apples out of the barrel. We can’t throw them out, but we can get them “healthy” with a few fines.

So what are some other common Condo HOA Fines?

As you can see, being a “bad resident” can get pretty costly in this condo building.

Just remember, we all have to live together and so that’s Why HOA’s Have Fines.

You’ve heard the saying, “one man’s loss is another man’s gain.” That kind of applies to some real estate today. People have lost homes to foreclosure and investors have come in, purchased them, and then rented them back out. It’s helping get rid of the inventory, but such is not the case if you are thinking I’m Going to Buy The Condo and Then Rent It Out!

Many people, investors and owner’s alike, are often surprised when I tell them you can’t just rent your Midtown Atlanta condo out when you feel like it. As part of the Condominium Covenants and Restrictions (called CC&R’s) or the Condominium Declaration, only a certain percentage of homes may be leased out at any given time. Say WHAT?

Most CC&R’s or Condo docs limit the number of homes that can be rented at any given time from as low as 10 percent to as high as 25 percent. So, if you live in a building with 398 homes, at 25%,  99 of the homes in the building may be leased at any given time.  Why?

These rules are in place for a couple of reasons. First off, if a condominium building has to many rental homes, it will often be considered an “unstable community” by a lender, and as a result they will not finance any purchases in the building. This hurts both the Seller trying to sell and the Buyer trying to Buy. Secondly, and I’m certainly not bashing renters, but….owner occupied homes tend to be better cared for than by someone that does not have a financial interest in the property. Sorry….it’s a fact!

I recently took over management of a condo for an absentee owner. He’d been getting his checks for 3 years, what could be wrong? $5,000 later the condo was finally ready to rent again. But that’s another story.

When you purchase a condominium, I always tell my Buyers to place their name on the Rental WAIT List as soon as possible. Yes, you heard me right….Rental WAIT List. In the Atlanta condominium market, the length of time it can take you to get a leasing permit can range from THREE TO FIVE YEARS!  You may not be planning to move or rent your home, but things change. And in 4 years from now, you might be moving, or getting married and needing a bigger place, and it would be nice to know you have the option to turn this condo into an investment property while you purchase another home.

So, think twice before you say, “I’m Going to Buy The Condo and Then Rent It Out! NOT!