Unit Owner Dialog Regarding Leasing Bylaw Amendment

In 2010, I proposed a short, simple amendment to our leasing bylaw.  I provided the wording of the proposed amendment--and provided my rationale for it--in my post at http://msa-towncenter.blogspot.com/2010_05_30_archive.html

At about the time I made the post cited above, I explained my proposed leasing bylaw amendment to the Board of Directors, including the reasons why I thought my proposal was the right way to go.  Since then, I have talked with some unit owners about it, and occasionally left a copy in the Internet Center or the Fitness Center.  By posting my proposal, and making copies of it available to other unit owners, I hoped to generate dialog among us unit owners that would eventually lead to consensus among us regarding what--if any--change should be made to our current leasing bylaw.  In the post at the above link, you will find the link to view the current leasing bylaw.

To the extent I received feedback about that proposal, it has been positive.  I haven't yet been pushing for unit owners to sign it, since my main purpose so far has been simply to generate dialog.  But owners of two different units signed it anyway, and gave the signed document to me to hold.  And another unit owner told me he had signed it and turned it in to the concierge, without knowing who was pushing it.  Several unit owners have told me they like it, and think it is the way to go.

I had thought (mistakenly, it turns out) that our Board of Directors would welcome a grassroots effort to generate a unit-owner consensus on this important leasing issue.  But somewhat the opposite appears to be the case, based on a recent encounter I had with the Director who was chosen by our current Board of Directors to be the President of our Unit Owners Association.  For more information regarding that recent encounter I had with our current Association President, please see my post at  http://mstc-uoa.blogspot.com/2012/01/communication-among-unit-owners.html

If you wish to comment on this or any matter concerning our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association, I encourage you to join my forum at the below link and post your comments there.  Or/and email me at rasmussen305@gmail.com

http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/

47% of Units Leased or For Lease

At the 11 August 2011 Board of Directors meeting, Property Manager Sue Carr stated that 53% of the 333 Residential Units in our Market Street at Town Center Condominium are owner occupied.  Included in this 53% considered owner occupied are all Residential Units not leased or for lease.  The remaining 47% are either leased or for lease.

It appears that the need for a leasing bylaw amendment as discussed in previous posts is again increasing.

Number of Units Leased Now Down to 38%

At the 28 October 2010 Board of Directors meeting, our Association president announced that only 38% of our 333 residential units are leased, according to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) criteria. That is good news!

The current percentage of units leased was looked at carefully as part of an effort to get our Market Street at Town Center Condominium approved for FHA loans. This approval will also be a good thing, because buyers of units in our Condominium will have another financing option available, which should have the effect of making our units more valuable.

I still think it would be good if two thirds of our unit owners would approve the amendment of our bylaws discussed in my post on this blog Sunday, May 30, 2010 (the second post before this one). I say this because economic conditions in the future could again become such that the percentage of units leased could again be pushed high enough that there could again be difficulty for buyers to obtain financing, thereby again tending to push the value of our units downward. Approval of the proposed bylaw amendment would prevent that problem from recurring.

Leasing and Lease Addendum Requirements

At its 29 April 2010 meeting, our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners Association Board of Directors passed Policy Resolution 06-10, which sets out leasing and lease addendum requirements for all leases renewed or entered into on or after 30 April 2010. You can view the required lease addendum and the enacting resolution, respectively, at these two links:

http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/LeaseAddendum.pdf

http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/LeaseAddendumResolution_06-10.pdf


In a post on this blog in 2007, I had urged Board adoption of some of the elements included in this resolution, and I do support this resolution. (That early post is at http://msa-towncenter.blogspot.com/2007/09/leased-unit.html)


But this action by the Board does NOT, in my opinion, lessen the need to amend our bylaws as discussed in the preceding post on this blog, at http://msa-towncenter.blogspot.com/2010/05/back-to-future.html. This Board resolution will lead to better Association control of rentals, but probably won't do much to reduce the number of units rented. We need to amend the bylaws as that post discusses if we are to significantly reduce the number of units leased or rented. If you wish to comment regarding this or any unit owner association issue, please see the information at the end of the post at the link above in this paragraph.

Back to the Future

I agree to amending Bylaw Article XI, Section 1, Subparagraph (f) by inserting the following sentence before the sentence that begins with the words "The foregoing provisions of this subparagraph": "Any Residential Unit purchased after 31 December 2012 may not be rented or leased unless the Board of Directors grants a hardship or other reasonable exception."
Unit Owner signature: _______________
Unit Number: ____ Date signed: ________


The above paragraph is the wording of the petition I propose be used to gather signatures of our Market Street at Town Center Condominium Unit Owners. It contains the one sentence (in red) that would be added to the current leasing bylaw (that has so far remained unchanged since our Condominium was formed in October 2004). You can view that current leasing bylaw at http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/BylawsV4.PDF on page 52.


This amendment incorporates the approach I recommended in my early posts on this blog, but have now simplified to that one sentence you see in red near the beginning of this post. I am reverting to that approach I originally advocated because it appears to me that our Board of Directors is concerned about the uncertainty of what future Boards of Directors might do with the freedom to lower or raise a limit (on the number of Residential Units rented or leased) as frequently as once every 12 months. I think the one-sentence amendment I am proposing here removes most of that uncertainty.


The reason for the 31 December 2012 date is to alleviate fear that the amendment would remove investors from the pool of potential buyers of Residential Units. That relatively late 31 December 2012 effective date of the rental prohibition theoretically would actually increase the buyer pool for Residential Unit Owners who sell by that date. It would keep the current pool of resident and investor buyers, but might bring in some additional investor buyers wanting to buy a Residential Unit here soon enough that the rental prohibition would never apply to the Residential Unit they would be buying.


For any Residential Unit Owner concerned because they expect to sell after 31 December 2012, I offer these two arguments. First, potential buyers who plan to live in their Residential Unit and lean toward communities that are headed toward a low percentage of renters would theoretically be added to the buyer pool. Second, potential buyers who can get adequate financing to enable their purchase here because of the amendment would be added to the buyer pool. So I don't think it is clear that the buyer pool would be hurt even after 31 December 2012.


With regard to renting or leasing your Residential Unit, for all Residential Unit Owners who currently own, or complete the purchase by 31 December 2012, the amendment adds no renting or leasing limits or restrictions at all. In fact, in the long run, as the percentage of Residential Units rented or leased decreases, the prospects for leasing or renting out your Residential Unit should actually improve as the commodity you are offering for rent or lease becomes scarcer (due to post-31-December-2012 purchasers not allowed to rent or lease their Residential Units).


If someone asks you to sign the petition described in the first paragraph, I hope you will do so. I find it hard to see a reason not to sign it, and I see benefits from signing.


You may want to add your ideas in a post on this blog. (Some of the earliest posts on this blog provide information regarding how to post on this blog.) And/or, you can register on my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/ and then post comments there. If you post a comment, maybe other of our unit owners will join in the dialog. Also, I welcome email comments at rasmussen305@gmail.com. If you want to sign the petition now, email me and I will get one to you to sign.

New Leasing Bylaw Amendment Proposal

Our Board of Directors will consider a new leasing bylaw amendment proposal at its meeting 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 27 May 2010.

The current leasing bylaw, which has remained unchanged since establishment of our Market Street at Town Center Condominium in October 2004, is subparagraph (f) on page 52 of our Bylaws (http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/BylawsV4.PDF). The proposal is to insert some sentences before the sentence that begins with the words "The foregoing provisions of this subparagraph".

The substance (but not the exact wording) of the proposal handed out at the 29 April Board of Directors meeting was to insert, in essence, the following sentences: The Board of Directors may, from time to time, establish a limit on the total number of Residential Units that may be rented or leased. Once the Board of Directors votes to implement such a limit, the Board of Directors may not change that limit more than once in 12 months. The Board of Directors may grant hardship or other reasonable exceptions to such a limit in accordance with a policy governing such exceptions. Any such limit as the Board of Directors may establish applies only to Residential Units purchased after recordation of this amendment.

I strongly support an amendment like this. It remedies all of the "defects" that I identified in previous posts on this blog as problems with the old (now dead) leasing bylaw amendment proposal at http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/BylawsLeasing.pdf.

You may want to add your ideas in a post on this blog. (Some of the earliest posts on this blog provide information regarding how to post on this blog.) And/or, you can register on my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/index.cgi? and post your comments there. Also, I welcome email at rasmussen305@gmail.com.

Leasing Amendment Agenda Item for Annual Meeting

During its 24 September 2009 meeting, the Board of Directors of the Unit Owners Association of our Market Street at Town Center Condominium discussed a leasing amendment agenda item for our upcoming 12 November 2009 annual unit owners meeting. This post is my response to that Board discussion.

I’m unenthusiastic about hearing a loan officer or realty agent explain to us unit owners the problems associated with roughly half of our unit owners renting out their units. Being familiar with posts on this blog, I already understand that having so many units rented is a problem; I would rather hear discussion among our unit owners about the issue.

You can view the official Association leasing amendment proposal at http://www.marketstreetattowncenter.com/docs/BylawsLeasing.pdf. I believe that proposal is dead, but a revised leasing amendment--without the defects addressed in posts on this blog--might garner the support of the requisite 2/3 of our unit owners.

Please note two respects in which that (now dead?) Association amendment proposal would have placed new restrictions on current unit owners. First, it would have changed the minimum lease term from 6 months to 12 months. Second, it would have imposed a new requirement that current unit owners obtain permission from the Board before leasing their unit to a new tenant. Thus, it is somewhat incorrect to say that current unit owners would have been grandfathered-in.

If our Board believes amending the leasing bylaw serves the best interests of our current and future unit owners, the Board should first oversee the crafting of a new leasing bylaw amendment--an amendment without the defects explained in posts on this blog. During this amendment-crafting process, the Board should be receptive to inputs from us unit owners, and should incorporate those inputs into the new amendment as much as possible.

When the Board believes it has the best amendment it can get, the Board should unanimously pass a resolution of support for the amendment--a resolution that requests that all unit owners support the amendment. After the Board passes that resolution, the Board should mount a major effort to motivate unit owners to sign the amendment.

Finally, getting enough unit owner signatures on the amendment can continue for as long as it reasonably takes--probably several months, as discussed in the preceding post on this blog. The Board should take an active role in seeking the necessary unit owner signatures during those several months.

You may want to add your ideas in a post on this blog. (Some of the earliest posts on this blog provide information regarding how to post on this blog.) And/or, you can register on my forum at http://mstcuoa.proboards.com/ and then post comments there. If you post a comment, maybe other of our unit owners will join in the dialog. Also, I welcome email comments at rasmussen305@gmail.com.