All Forum Posts by: Mergim Kacija

Hello BP Community,

I've been accused of short-term renting my unit (which I have not) and was fined $12,000. Furthermore, the building's bylaws have a 25% rental cap, and my unit is NOT approved, yet I informed them that as an absentee owner, I shared my space (using a roommate agreement) to manage costs and that concurrent occupancy is permitted by the bylaws.  However, there seemed to be a misunderstanding around the term "concurrent occupancy," with them giving an example of a married couple. I questioned the relevance, asking why a married pair would have a lease amongst themselves. They remained unyielding in their stance.

After their decision, in goodwill, I offered to show them my roommate agreements for 12 months terms (which I did), terminated my roommate's agreement as they requested (which I did) and even proposed selling my condo (currently for sale). However, the HOA's attorney said their decision stands, leaving me with a hefty $12,000 fee.

I have done everything within my power to be amicable and respect the HOA's authority in the matter. At this point, I would be content with mediation and having the HOA just wave the fine to prevent me from selling the unit. The HOA board, however, doesn't seem to be vested in resolving the matter and the $12,000 balance remains in my account and the only form of communication they will have with me is via their attorney. 

Although I didn't actually stay at my unit during the lease term (my primary home is in Florida), I genuinely thought that I was within my rights to share my space based on the rules and regulations. 

So my question is, should I just pay the fine, sell the condo and chalk this up as a lesson learned? Or do I have any recourse in this situation? 

Thank you, 

Mergim

Thanks for your advice James, I appreciate your candor. I was more than willing to concede that I broke the leasing restriction as they understood it and pay a reasonable penalty for doing so (legal fees as defined by the HOA docs), but that's not the violation for which I've been fined for. Hope that makes sense.

Update on the HOA situation:

After going back and forth with their attorneys, the end result was they weren't willing to budge on anything even after offing evidence via bank statement, leases, etc that the unit was never short-term rented (the violation for which I was fined). Fines + attorney fees were $20,000 which I've paid to prevent any roadblocks for the eventual sale of the property (I'm currently living in the unit and its for sale). 

The are now insisting that I sign a settlement agreement and release of claims. I asked why this is necessary when I've paid all of their fines and remedied their violations. They said that the issue is technically open ended and they can still sue me and the release of claims 100% prevents that. 

Part of me wants to sign the agreement and just put this all behind me. But another part of me says there is nothing left to sue me for and not signing it leaves the potential to reclaim some of fines back in small claims  (after the sale) down the road in hopes that a judge deems the fines were unreasonable. 

I'm hoping the BP community's insights can help me on my decision. 

Thanks in advance, 

Mergim

For any violation of the Declaration prohibition on short-term leasing, defined as any term less than six (6) months of occupancy for hotel or transient purposes, a fine of $1,000.00 per day will be assessed against the unit for first and subsequent violations.

In conjunction with the below clause in a rental cap amendment, the board somehow conflated the two to come up with a $12,000 fine. 

The leasing of renting of any Dwelling Unit of other occupancy of Dwelling Unit without concurrent occupancy by the Owner of such Dwelling Unit is limited to Twenty-Five Percent (25%) of the total Dwelling Units at any given time; 

So in short, the fine seems to reflect a short-term violation (which they cannot prove and I can disprove with my lease contracts) because they didn't have any fines specifically defined for rental cap lease violations in the rules and regulations.