Short-Term Rentals and HOAs

Short-term rentals are stays under the minimum the documents allow, often under 30 days, booked through a platform or not. The association cares about the covenant. The city cares about zoning, licensing, and tax. You can be legal with one and illegal with the other.

Read the lease-term sentence first

A declaration that says leases must be at least six months, or that bans transient occupancy, is the rule. A board letter that announces a ban, with no amendment and no declaration language, is weaker. Ask them to cite the section. If they are amending the declaration now, the vote requirement and any grandfather clause are the whole fight. Some amendments exempt current owners. Some do not. The recorded amendment is the document, not the meeting slide.

Platforms will list a home the covenant forbids. The listing is not a defense. Neighbors who also list are useful evidence only if you are making a selective-enforcement argument, and only if you document them. They are not permission.

Fines for rental violations are sometimes written as a daily amount. Daily fines are where statutory caps matter. Read dealing with fines and your state page before you pay a four-figure “per night” bill that the statute may not allow.