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I would like to know if anyone in the group who lives in a condominium has experienced this type of situation in their community...
My mom's condo association is initiating a process that would allow patients from a drug therapy rehabilitation hospital to live in the community.
The association is contacting owners of vacant units that are behind on their assessment fees to allow these patients to live there and pay their rent directly to the association. The strategy is to use these rental fees to pay for current and past due assessment amounts. The hospital adiminstrator has indicated that they want to establish a business partnership with the association to have at least thirty five patients at a time use vacant units in the communityy as part of their twelve step recovery program.
My questions and concerns...
resident/community safety
will the community need to increase fees to purchase special insurance or licensing based on state requirements?
will the association risk getting sued by the owners of these units in the event there is damage done to the unit?
will the association face potential lawsuits from onsite homeowners because this new partnership agreement has not been discussed (for a yea or nay vote) in a public community forum?
I sent these concerns and questions to the board (on behalf of my mom who is 82 years old) and they responsed by saying this will just be considered a normal landlord/tenant arrangement – which should not require any special insurance or license – and nor should it be a safety concern for the community.
I understand the association's need to generate income, however I don't feel comfortable having rehabiliting drug users living in my mother's community.
...that would allow patients from a drug therapy rehabilitation hospital to live in the community.
The association is contacting owners of vacant units that are behind on their assessment...
I understand the association's need to generate income...
This sounds like an inventive approach to coerce even more fees out of those condo owners
who are lucky enough to still own there. It might even work.
My state gives associations the right to secure a court order to evict owners who are delinquent with the intention of renting the unit to cover delinquencies and current assessments. Condos increasingly have to give serious consideration to this action to survive unless the remaining owners want to make up the shortfall. Having said this, I am not aware of any association that has attempted to rent out units as a quasi half way house. I would be very surprised if an association was attempting to get the delinquent owners to agree to allowing their units to be rented out without a court order to do so. Likely most of these units are in some stage of preforeclosure, too.
As an aside, it is said that 1/12 adults in the U.S. is addicted to prescription medication. It's an epidemic. Doctor shopping and stealing pills is common stuff. Reportedly, more than 20% of the population are alcoholics. If these numbers are remotely in the ball park, it's likely some of the current owners and renters have or had serious problems with substance abuse.
Associations don't know if their owners or renters have substance abuse issues no different than not knowing who is a convicted felon. Same goes for any neighborhood. I doubt that homeowners have the right to approve or decline renters.
I would be interested in knowing if the hospital is the tennant and agreeing to pay the rent and abide by the terms of the lease or if the hospital is just a conduit on behalf of patients in recovery. The former sounds like a half way house operation while the latter is business as usual. How many patients per unit are contemplated and is it within occupancy limits for the municipality.
Board probably should consider obtaining an opinion of counsel to determine if they have the right to decline qualified applicants on the basis of addiction. I suspect not. There is no doubt that some of the current owners and renters are also in recovery from something or another.
My state gives associations the right to secure a court order to evict owners who are delinquent with the intention of renting the unit to cover delinquencies and current assessments. Condos increasingly have to give serious consideration to this action to survive unless the remaining owners want to make up the shortfall. Having said this, I am not aware of any association that has attempted to rent out units as a quasi half way house. I would be very surprised if an association was attempting to get the delinquent owners to agree to allowing their units to be rented out without a court order to do so. Likely most of these units are in some stage of preforeclosure, too.
As an aside, it is said that 1/12 adults in the U.S. is addicted to prescription medication. It's an epidemic. Doctor shopping and stealing pills is common stuff. Reportedly, more than 20% of the population are alcoholics. If these numbers are remotely in the ball park, it's likely some of the current owners and renters have or had serious problems with substance abuse.
Associations don't know if their owners or renters have substance abuse issues no different than not knowing who is a convicted felon. Same goes for any neighborhood. I doubt that homeowners have the right to approve or decline renters.
I would be interested in knowing if the hospital is the tennant and agreeing to pay the rent and abide by the terms of the lease or if the hospital is just a conduit on behalf of patients in recovery. The former sounds like a half way house operation while the latter is business as usual. How many patients per unit are contemplated and is it within occupancy limits for the municipality.
Board probably should consider obtaining an opinion of counsel to determine if they have the right to decline qualified applicants on the basis of addiction. I suspect not. There is no doubt that some of the current owners and renters are also in recovery from something or another.
We are living in a most interesting time.
Thank you for taking the time to provide this well thought out response. The more I read it I realize you are probably right in saying that a lot of current residents probably do suffer from some form of addiction. This community is just trying to think out of the box to survive.
Yes, we are living in some very interesting times.
UPDATE: An association board member just contacted me and stated they are hoping to have about 35 patients move into the community. In regards to vacant units, these are units that have been paid off the owner (no mortgage), but has a delinquent assessment balance. Instead of spending the money to take these owners to court and foreclose, the association wants to offer them the option of letting their units be used for this renting recovery program.
Last edited by LynnHarris; 12-16-2011 at 07:25 AM..
I personally think that this is a bad idea. Communities are generally involved when an agency wants to install a half-way house. I also think that the hospital would have to have some sort of state run facility for recovery housing, and license to use a facility. I would contact the state, not even sure which office it would fall under in your state but, you might try the Drug Addiction, Counseling accreditation department at your state level, and/or your City Counsel and ask questions. It is not the "norm" where I live in N.D. My understanding is that these patients are "in" recovery, not having completed recovery. Here we have facilities, run by agencies, some are locked, w/ rules about visitors, etc. that the recovering person has to comply with, all are managed on site re: recovery programs. There are so many variables involved in recovery. I do not blame you for being concerned for your elderly Mother. Is it time for Mom to sell, and perhaps look at an independent/supportive living situation elsewhere?
Also, if the HOA wants to put a lien on the homes, that is one thing, and involves the judicial system, civil judgements etc. . But, to just take them over...There would certainly have to be more than a letter. There would have to be court orders?? my opinions
I personally think that this is a bad idea. Communities are generally involved when an agency wants to install a half-way house. I also think that the hospital would have to have some sort of state run facility for recovery housing, and license to use a facility. I would contact the state, not even sure which office it would fall under in your state but, you might try the Drug Addiction, Counseling accreditation department at your state level, and/or your City Counsel and ask questions. It is not the "norm" where I live in N.D. My understanding is that these patients are "in" recovery, not having completed recovery. Here we have facilities, run by agencies, some are locked, w/ rules about visitors, etc. that the recovering person has to comply with, all are managed on site re: recovery programs. There are so many variables involved in recovery. I do not blame you for being concerned for your elderly Mother. Is it time for Mom to sell, and perhaps look at an independent/supportive living situation elsewhere?
Also, if the HOA wants to put a lien on the homes, that is one thing, and involves the judicial system, civil judgements etc. . But, to just take them over...There would certainly have to be more than a letter. There would have to be court orders?? my opinions
Hi Jan,
I pretty much agree with you on all counts.
While I definitely understand that condo communities across the country are struggling to survive, I still do not think that this is the best alternative or option.
While I also understand that there may be existing drug users, etc. already living in the community, I still believe that it is another thing to bring them there “intentionally”. I also believe that there should be some sort of state certification or special insurance to allow vacant community units to be used for this purpose.
UPDATE: An association board member just contacted me and stated they are hoping to have about 35 patients move into the community. In regards to vacant units, these are units that have been paid off the owner (no mortgage), but has a delinquent assessment balance. Instead of spending the money to take these owners to court and foreclose, the association wants to offer them the option of letting their units be used for this rentingrecovery program.
The association expects these owners to voluntarily vacate their units or forego rental income so that the association can rent them out? Sounds a tad bizzare to me. Usually a court order is necessary to do so.
Really consider going for which parties are executing leases , the hospital or the recovering ? If the former, it really sounds like a half way house is moving into the neighborhood. I am aware of several situations like this in single family homes. Homes for abused women and children pop up overnight. Halfway houses for felons or those in recovery, too. This is the first time I had heard of this in a condo associaton.
As it relates to those in recovery, the 12 step thing assumes once an addict, always an addict. No one ever fully recovers and remains one lousy decision away from relapse. ( I have family members in 12 steps). I am not sure I agree but respect the process.
I would like to know if anyone in the group who lives in a condominium has experienced this type of situation in their community...
My mom's condo association is initiating a process that would allow patients from a drug therapy rehabilitation hospital to live in the community.
The association is contacting owners of vacant units that are behind on their assessment fees to allow these patients to live there and pay their rent directly to the association. The strategy is to use these rental fees to pay for current and past due assessment amounts. The hospital adiminstrator has indicated that they want to establish a business partnership with the association to have at least thirty five patients at a time use vacant units in the communityy as part of their twelve step recovery program.
My questions and concerns...
resident/community safety
will the community need to increase fees to purchase special insurance or licensing based on state requirements?
will the association risk getting sued by the owners of these units in the event there is damage done to the unit?
will the association face potential lawsuits from onsite homeowners because this new partnership agreement has not been discussed (for a yea or nay vote) in a public community forum?
I sent these concerns and questions to the board (on behalf of my mom who is 82 years old) and they responsed by saying this will just be considered a normal landlord/tenant arrangement – which should not require any special insurance or license – and nor should it be a safety concern for the community.
I understand the association's need to generate income, however I don't feel comfortable having rehabiliting drug users living in my mother's community.
What state is this happening in?
I would not want this going on where my 82-year old mother lives either if I were you.
Next time you talk to anyone at the condo association, ask if they've run this money making scheme by their liability insurance company and/or advised the owners of the units they are planning to use to seek both advice from their homeowner's insurance and legal advice (as the "behind in fee payment" owners are the ones who are actually going to be the landlords). Because this could be a lawsuit waiting to happen, especially if most of the residents are frail elderly. Just too irresistable as victims if addicts "slip" as they call it. They're already talking about filling 35 units with (supposedly) non-using addicts? How big is this place? Tell them to visit a drug area and see if that's what they really want to bring into their community.
Having lived in/under several HOA's and generally defend such, this idea/plan does not pass my "sniff" test. It sounds like win the battle but lose the war.
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