I bought a condo in a brand new 30 unit building in October 2007. I was under the impression that all of the other residents would be buyers as well, but when the real estate market crashed the builder decided to rent out the other units (without permission or notification). Now I am stuck in a building where I pay homeowners fees and the common hallways, garage and other areas are being destroyed because over half of the building are renters (actually only four units are owned) who simply don't care about maintaining the building because they will only be here temporarily (for example today someone's dog used the elevator as a bathroom and their owner did not clean it up) not to mention my property value has now dropped, and it is hard to believe they are doing background checks on most of these people renting. Is there anything I can do legally? In a dream situation the builder would buy back the unit- can I get them to do that? Thanks for any and all advice it is greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by MLO2325

I bought a condo in a brand new 30 unit building in October 2007. I was under the impression that all of the other residents would be buyers as well, but when the real estate market crashed the builder decided to rent out the other units (without permission or notification). Now I am stuck in a building where I pay homeowners fees and the common hallways, garage and other areas are being destroyed because over half of the building are renters (actually only four units are owned) who simply don't care about maintaining the building because they will only be here temporarily (for example today someone's dog used the elevator as a bathroom and their owner did not clean it up) not to mention my property value has now dropped, and it is hard to believe they are doing background checks on most of these people renting. is there anything I can do legally? In a dream situation the builder would buy back the unit- can I get them to do that? Thanks for any and all advice it is greatly appreciated.

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Do you have anything in writing, in the homeowners agreement, that it would be an "all buyer, no renter" building? I owned a condo and there was a specific clause that no more than 10% (I believe it was) of the units could be other than owner occupied at any one time. Units stood vacant after owners were transferred because there were too many renters in the building already.

Same with the clean up.

What does the HOA say about all of this - if there is one?

Unless you relied on something in writing or can make a terribly good argument based on an "understanding" I don't think you can prove your case. You can always sue and see how it turns out but it would be quite expensive and I don't think you can win - unless you have the appropriate documentation.