THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412220439
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Common Ground
SOURCE: BY G. ROBERT KIRKLAND AND MICHAEL A. INMAN
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
I own a unit in a condominium near the beach where there is a mix of permanent year-round residents, unit owners who visit occasionally and tenants. The board is considering some new rules where the year-round residents could pay for exclusive use of additional parking spaces.
These spaces would not be available to rented units or occasional-user unit owners.
Also, they discussed changing the pet rule to disallow any tenants to have dogs because the observation is that tenants are less careful about their pets than are unit owners.
Both these rule changes would seem to be discriminatory to me. Are either of these legal?
Your instinct is correct, but these are two very distinct legal issues.
Unit owners' rights in the common areas must remain uniform, regardless of the manner in which they make use of their unit.
The fact that a unit owner chooses to rent out his unit makes no difference in the rules that can apply to that unit. Furthermore, such rules would jeopardize the ability of the unit owner to finance a unit with a typical mortgage.
We hasten to add that had this scheme of availability of parking been set forth in the original documents and the public offering statement, it would be acceptable because all parties would be purchasing with knowledge of the consequences and on an equal footing.
With regard to the pet regulation, the board, acting alone, cannot deprive the unit owner of the opportunity to rent the unit with the same freedoms to use the unit and the common areas as those available to a resident owner.
It is possible to amend the bylaws to add such a provision concerning pets upon a votes of the required number of unit owners. Nevertheless, the policing of this regulation would seemingly detract from harmonious living in the community.
There seems to be no good solution for the problems attendant to pets in condos and townhouses. MEMO: G. Robert Kirkland, president of a Virginia Beach property management
consulting firm, and attorney Michael A. Inman specialize in Virginia
community association issues and are affiliated with the Southeastern
Virginia chapter of the Community Associations Institute. Send comments
and questions to them at Real Estate Weekly, 150 W. Brambleton Ave.,
Norfolk, Va. 23510. To submit questions by phone, call 446-2033; fax:
446-2531. by CNB