Why not renters?

In order to preserve the character of the Residential Units as predominantly owner-occupied, and to comply with the eligibility requirements for financing in the secondary mortgage market, leasing of Residential Units is regulated in our governing documents. 

If a unit owner wishes to lease their unit they must first obtain either a lease permit or a hardship lease permit.  A unit owner that holds either of these  permits allows them the right to enter into a lease with a third party for the duration of the lease permit.

At Skypoint, the number of lease permits are hard wired into our declaration at 25% or 95 units.  Once a lease permit is obtained it is held by the unit until either of the following occur: the unit is sold, the unit owner moves back into the unit, the unit has not been rented for a consecutive 180 period, or if the unit failed to maintain a consecutive tenant for at least 180 days. 

A unit that holds a lease permit may enter into a lease with a third party ONLY if their dues are current and according to the rules that were passed on 02.23.2011 no leased units shall be permitted to keep a pet without board approval. 

Also written into the declaration is a provision for a hardship lease permit.  The number of these permits is set by the Board of Directors and can be any number from 0-75%.  As of November 24, 2012 the hardship lease permit percentage is set at 14% or 53 units.  The resulting total leased percentage rate of Skypoint is now at 39% or 148 total units.

When I was appointed to the Board of Directors in May our hardship lease permit percentage was at 19% and climbing.  This resulted in 167 units being leased (44%).  This was the highest rental percentage since Skypoint opened in 2007.  At this rate, and factoring in lease turnover of around 50% and new sales Skypoint was moving 100 units per year.  When put in terms of wear and tear of the building each move required a move out AND a move in which brings the number closer to 200 moves per year or nearly 17 per month. 

Instead of a peaceful place to live Skypoint created an apartment like feel where competition for the service elevator became fierce.  Those of you with pets that follow the rules and try and use the service elevator just simply gave up and started using the residential elevators, because the freight elevators were always locked out for moves.  If you were a unit owner and wanted to schedule a furniture delivery often times it was nearly impossible without working a deal with the unit that was moving to allow for the delivery.  This is our home and we have allowed it to become an apartment building. 

Each new unit occupancy in the building requires a huge amount of manpower to process paperwork and to facilitate access control activation/deactivation.  I believe that our management team should not have to spend all their time on the processing of expiring and new leases.  Their time should be spent servicing the current residents - unit owners and renters alike. 

Time spent processing move in and move out of renters is time that management does not have to process unit alteration requests, to help with resident issues, or to provide a better living experience for all unit owners and renters. 

Then there is the pride in ownership argument.  Many of our summertime pool complaints were about renters.  I'm not making this up, these are the facts.  I am sure that I am not unlike most other unit owners when I say that when I am in the common areas I try and take care of those areas because ultimately the unit owners will share in the cost to replace or fix any common item.  Renters often (and the numbers back me up) do not feel the same way. 

Skypoint,  unlike Element was never built to be an apartment high rise.  I purchased in Skypoint to live with my wife and daughter.  I wanted to be surrounded by other unit owners that had a vested interest in keeping the building like the day it opened. 

Please do not get me wrong we have many fine renters in the building, some of whom aspire to be unit owners some day, those are not who I am talking about.  My argument simply rests on the sheer volume of renters and not any one renter in particular.  I believe that by reducing this volume will lead to a better quality of life for those that want to call Skypoint home.