Short Term renting in a HOA Community ( North Carolina )

[Mike Lynch]

Hi,

My wife and I bought a foreclosed waterfront property on a saltwater river, great for kayaking and fishing. It is the perfect weekly rental located 6 miles from Holden Beach and 10 miles from Ocean Isle Beach, NC, and tons of Golf Courses. We have been working on it since late 2015. It is in a HOA community. I realize that we must follow the HOA rules. Nobody in that neighborhood does weekly rentals, as far as I know, but we really don't want to sell the home right now.

Are there laws as to what goes on inside of my home or whom I can let stay there as long as they follow the HOA rules that I post for them?

Can the HOA prevent us or change their laws after we have purchased a home so that we can't rent it anymore on a weekly basis? Flipping or renting it was always my intentions when I purchased it and the by-laws says that I can rent or lease it. It does not specify weekly, monthly, or yearly.

I wanted to pass it by you guys before contacting them about it, so that I might know what to say and / or how to say it.

Any feedback will be great.

Below, is an article that I found on a NC Law Website tonight.

The Right to Rent

There is a common and widespread misconception about a property owner's ability to rent the owner's property. All too often, that ability is considered a mere "privilege," similar to the privilege of an owner to use the community pool or clubhouse, or to park a specific number of cars in a driveway. In fact, the ability of a property owner to use the owner's property as the owner sees fit, including renting its use to someone else, is one of our nation's most fundamental and legally protected rights, jealously guarded by the courts. This means that serious and demonstrable reasons for restricting the right must be proven by the party attempting to enforce restrictions on rentals, and that all ambiguities and questions of enforce-ability will be resolved by the courts in favor of the free use of the property.

Additionally, courts are very reluctant to enforce rental restrictions imposed on an owner after the owner has purchased property because such restrictions can strike at an owner's reasonable expectations for investing in the restricted property. Understanding these basic premises allows a homeowners' association and its members to accurately begin evaluating any proposed restriction on rentals.

http://www.wardandsmith.com/articles/nc-rental-restrictions-in-hoas