short-term rentals
Final Judgment in Briarcliff Property Owners Assoc. v. Hays -- Short Term Rental Ban Invalidated
25/03/13 15:16
On February 26, 2013, following a December 2012 jury trial, the Travis County District Court entered judgment in favor of my client, Marvin William Hays, as against Briarcliff Property Owners Association, invalidating the HOA's short-term rental ban and awarding $40,000 in attorney's fees plus costs of suit to Hays. The final judgment is here. The final judgment incorporates the summary judgment orders earlier in the case that invalidated the rental ban.
The trial itself, which was over issues the HOA asserted after its rental ban got invalidated as a matter of law, focused on whether Hays had ever rented to "non single families" -- for any term, short or long. Hays had conceded at trial that he had not tried to determine whether and how his renters were related (for example, by blood, marriage, adoption, etc.) since the HOA had never bothered to regulate rentals of any kind prior to March 2011, when it issued its ban on all short-term rentals. Thus, the HOA won $2,400 in fines at trial, reflecting a jury finding of 12 days of non-single-family rentals in 2009 and 2010.
The HOA spent around $150,000 to obtain $2400 in fines, even though its short-term rental ban went by the wayside entirely. The central purpose of its lawsuit against homeowner Hays failed.
What does "single family" mean? No one knows, really -- the jury wasn't asked to decide that, and the judge didn't impose a definition for the jury to use. I address that issue in a separate blog entry.
In March 2013, the Village of Briarcliff enacted short term rental regulations addressing the kinds of concerns residents had about STR's. The HOA is a subset of the Village, and the city ordinances apply to everyone. STR's are allowed but restricted, as in many communities. Read More...
The trial itself, which was over issues the HOA asserted after its rental ban got invalidated as a matter of law, focused on whether Hays had ever rented to "non single families" -- for any term, short or long. Hays had conceded at trial that he had not tried to determine whether and how his renters were related (for example, by blood, marriage, adoption, etc.) since the HOA had never bothered to regulate rentals of any kind prior to March 2011, when it issued its ban on all short-term rentals. Thus, the HOA won $2,400 in fines at trial, reflecting a jury finding of 12 days of non-single-family rentals in 2009 and 2010.
The HOA spent around $150,000 to obtain $2400 in fines, even though its short-term rental ban went by the wayside entirely. The central purpose of its lawsuit against homeowner Hays failed.
What does "single family" mean? No one knows, really -- the jury wasn't asked to decide that, and the judge didn't impose a definition for the jury to use. I address that issue in a separate blog entry.
In March 2013, the Village of Briarcliff enacted short term rental regulations addressing the kinds of concerns residents had about STR's. The HOA is a subset of the Village, and the city ordinances apply to everyone. STR's are allowed but restricted, as in many communities. Read More...
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Another JPS win on short-term rentals
17/06/12 15:59
On June 14, 2012, a judge in Travis County, Texas clarified a prior grant of summary judgment in favor of my client on the issue of short-term rentals. Under a basic grant of the leasing right under a subdivision declaration, the trial court ruled that whole-house rentals to one family at a time are a residential use, not a business use. The clarification of the prior order completely guts an HOA's attempt to take away both short term and long-term rental rights from owners of the subdivision. Read More...
Court decisions hold that short-term rentals are not a "business or commercial use" under typical, basic HOA declaration wording
29/04/12 15:43
Two very recent cases bolster the other extant cases in holding, uniformly, that a homeowner's engaging in short-term rentals with a residential dwelling house is not a "business or commercial use" under typical, basic HOA wording that grants express leasing rights but does not otherwise regulate leasing. Typically, the only restriction found in declarations -- especially older ones that HOA's haven't amended -- is for "business or commercial uses." That's a common municipal ordinance restriction too. With the rise of HomeAway, VRBO, and other rental and home-sharing sites, short-term renting is a contentious issue. The problem in the HOA context is that many declarations are simply silent as to any leasing restrictions, leading the average homeowner to believe he or she has an untrammeled right to lease out a home for whatever term, short or long, so long as the renters aren't causing problems. If an HOA declaration is silent, an HOA needs to amend its declarations to address the issue. A silent declaration does not allow an HOA to take away rental rights. Read More...