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Hi, we have been living in a condo in Little River SC., we moved in the end of Feb. 2015. We are on the third floor.
On the bottom floor a 70yr old lady lives with her husband, this lady is on the HOA board, and has been a thorn in our ass since day one....
The day we were moving in, we had my husband's service dog, which he got earlier than expected. We are aware that dogs are supposedly not allowed in the complex, however we had the proper documentation on the way, and a digital copy was in my email inbox, however I had to wait to get online because internet was not free as we were led to believe.
We were coming up to our front door ready to start moving in, only our second time back before we looked at the place, and we just barely got to the front door and an HOA board member was literally on us saying there are no dogs allowed! Obviously we were dealing with the move(no help), and had the paper work for our service dog Abby(my husband is a disabled veteran). We didn't appreciate this lady being "on top" of us on move in day. She then called the rental office, and the HOA, and added to our move in day stress. The lady has two dogs and a cat, her dogs are not nice(one tried to bite me), and not well behaved. They make our dog(a Boxer) cower. We had the paperwork, and like I said we were dealing with a move, and no help, and being swooped upon by this lady right off the get, was bs. TONS of people in this complex have dogs, and I have seen several cats too.
Now, most recently, she knocked on our door at 10am(yesterday) telling us we can't have a slimline fan in the window! The fan is white, made for windows, not broke, or dirty. We have had it in the window many times before this. Frankly this lady is really pissing us off at this point. Our electric has been 100+ a month, and we hardly use anything, having the fan in the window at night helps pull in cool air. When she came to the door, she was insulting our intelligence stating "don't you have a ceiling fan"? Last I checked, ceiling fan's were just that, attached to your ceiling, they don't pull in air to help cool a room when your trying to sleep. She further went on about how there are no window ac's, etc. etc. allowed in the window, well no **** Sherlock. It's not like we had a box fan in the window!
This lady busy bodies around all the time, we are quite and keep to ourselves and do not appreciate this.
We looked over our lease, and it has nothing about the HOA, abiding by HOA rules, etc.
I did a Google search, and some sites are saying renters do not have to abide by HOA rules. I understand communities need some rules, but this is ridiculous, a fan? Micro-managing people under your thumb is not cool anywhere you live, this lady acts like the condo "police". She even bought a bag of treats she said was specifically for our dog, and was trying to give her one every time she saw her! I had to say something, because our dog, a service dog, was becoming expectant of these from her, I was even nice about it. She also said she wanted to give our dog a toy, because it was given to her dogs for Christmas, and it was too big. When she saw us she would talk to our dog, like we weren't even there, and like our dog could answer her. Our dog Abby has 10+ toys, and does not even play with them all, so I politely told her that, and that Abby didn't need it, I suggested she give it to a dog with less toys. Now, she does not talk to me at all, until the fan thing yesterday.
I am afraid to contact the HOA because of them just siding with her. I called our rental office, and they said they would see if it's a rule. Do we have to abide by these HOA rules as renters? Even if there is nothing stated on our lease about a HOA, or any HOA rules? If we had been presented this list of rules in the begging-like no window fan, we would have never even moved in.
Is this lady crazy, spiteful? All the above? Some advice please? Our lease does not end until March of next year. We don't understand why the lady is being like this.
However, regarding the HOA rules, the condo owners are responsible for providing renters the HOA rules because renters are required to follow the rules. Sorry to be the bearer of what you will view as bad news. My advice is to get a copy of the HOA rules as quickly as you can from either the owner or the rental office and read them thoroughly so that you know your responsibilities AND so that you're knowledgeable about what the rules actually are and not taking the word of someone who, obviously, has an agenda. When you know the rules, no one can "buffalo" you into something that's not a requirement.
In general a lease is between landlord and tenant. In general the HOA docs are between the HOA board/office/management company and the owner.
And the owner should -- or may be required by the HOA documents -- let any guests or tenants know the rules.
So, in general, the idea is if there is a problem, the HOA office contacts the person the owner designates to manage the property. They would then contact the owner in accord with the owner's wishes for what to be contacted about. (Say the owner is out of the country and only wants to be bothered after the tenant has missed so many payments.) I'd like to know about any problems. The owner would then contact you about it.
The owner can designate an entity to act in his/her behalf...perhaps a rental management company. In fact, SC law requires an owner to let you know who is the manager whether landlord/owner or management company or whoever.
"Landlord must disclose to the tenant in writing at or before the commencement of the tenancy the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises, and an owner of the premises or a person authorized to act for and on behalf of the owner for the purpose of service of process and for the purpose of receiving notices and demands. (S.C. Code Ann. §27-40-420)"
Condos in that area (NMB) are very strict with their HOAs. If you choose to ignore your downstairs neighbor, she'll take it out on your landlord who will then bug you about it.
As far as the fan, most HOAs for condos insist that all windows be exactly alike which also limits your window treatments so yes, I can see the fan being an issue.
if you rent in a condo you should call managing agent and get rules and expect to follow them.
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