HAA Blog
Interview with Channel 2 on Community Rules
Posted by Government Affairs
on Friday, December 11, 2009
On Monday, August 3, HAA President Beth Van Winkle had an interview with KPRC Local 2’s Amy Davis regarding renters’ rights and owner responsibilities related to a new community rule at an apartment community on the north side. Here is a portion of the story:
HAA President Beth Van Winkle told Davis there is nothing illegal about imposing the new rules on renters.
“We can, as an owner, can actually go in and make a change to a community policy. So community policy changes are legal, even in the middle of a lease term,” said Van Winkle.
If you read the standard Texas lease closely, section 18 says, “We may make reasonable changes to written rules, effective immediately, if they are distributed and applicable to all units in the apartment community.” HAA President Beth Van Winkle told Davis there is nothing illegal about imposing the new rules on renters.
“We can, as an owner, can actually go in and make a change to a community policy. So community policy changes are legal, even in the middle of a lease term,” said Van Winkle.
If you read the standard Texas lease closely, section 18 says, “We may make reasonable changes to written rules, effective immediately, if they are distributed and applicable to all units in the apartment community.”
According to the TAA lease, when a change in community rules occurs the following conditions must exist:
- the owner must notify all residents of the rule change in writing
- the rule must apply to all residents
- the rule may not affect the amounts listed on page 1 of the lease
The topic of the story was a community rule affecting vehicles parked on property. In this case, the owner utilized Section 18 of the TAA lease to create new rules.
Owners also have another tool in the lease to use when dealing with parking issues, Section 21. This section outlines actions owners can take on vehicles that are inoperable or have other issues.