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January 17, 2007
May an Association Prohibit Home Businesses in HOAs?
I get a lot of questions from visitors to the website who want to know if an HOA Board can prohibit an owner from having a home business. Many people telecommute today and its that kind of society. Many work out of their homes with their own businesses. Many HOA documents prohibit commercial activity in an HOA. When I write documents for California HOAs (I should say here that I only write for mature associations or those that want to convert to Plain English documents) I write provisions that prohibit commercial activities or any business that has outward visible signs. Sometimes I define various examples, depending on how specific a Board wants to get. I do this because I do not believe it behooves an association to spend any energy in the form of money or physical energy on trying to determine if someone is working out of their home. If they are, and it is obvious, then there are "outward visible signs" and the violation can be addressed.
As for other attorneys and Boards - many attempt to enforce commercial prohibitions even when there are no outward visible signs and some are successful. Some fail miserably and end up in a "war". Sometimes, the claim or complaint about a home business or commercial activity comes from someone on the board or a neighbor who is "disgruntled" and upset wiith the person being charged or whose "secret" at home work has been revealed.
On the other hand, some residents "push the envelope" and expect their neighbors to accept activities that are associated with doing business, believing the Association has no power to control what they can do in their homes or about their property. That is not the case. When the goverrning documents prohibit commercial activities, take them seriously. But if you keep the activities within your home, and do not flaunt what you are doing, there should not be a problem.
Posted by Beth Grimm at January 17, 2007 9:31 PM