Responsibilities and House Rules for Non-Resident Owners

This list of responsibilities and rules does not imply that the Association and its Board of Directors has consented in the past, now consents, or will consent in the future to any owner leasing his apartment. Section 16 of the Declarations does not explicitly grant Apartment owners use rights to lease an apartment.

The Board of Directors reserves the right to establish and impose fines ex post facto and retroactively back to April 2010 for any violations of the rules listed below.

Delinquency

Per section 12.3 of the Declarations, if you become delinquent in the payment of assessments, fines, monthly HOA dues, etc., the Board of Directors may, at its discretion, require that all rent paid by your tenant instead be paid directly to the Association to satisfy any delinquent payments. Payment of rent to the Association shall satisfy the tenants’ lease obligations to the Apartment owner.

Non-resident Owner Liabilities

Per section 15.3 of the Declarations, non-resident owners are financially and legally responsible for all damage caused by tenants, their guests and pets, to common areas and facilities or to an Apartment or Apartments owned by others. This includes repairs, replacements or improvements that would otherwise be a common expense, but which are required because of the actions of tenant(s) (e.g. a closed-circuit security system, handicap access, etc.).

Any requirements imposed upon landlords by the City of Seattle, King County, the State of Washington, the United States of America, or any other legal or regulatory agency with power over the Association, are the sole responsibility of non-resident owners who lease their units. This includes any legal liabilities, financial liabilities, and any and all activities and/or labor required to meet these requirements. If any legal judgments, regulatory fines, etc. related to tenants or leasing are imposed upon the Association, all landlord Apartment owners will jointly pay as a special assessment 100% of said costs or remedies, along with a surcharge fine of 25% of the costs or remedy imposed.

Tenant Conduct

Per section 16.1 of the Declarations, Apartments may only be used as a residence for a single family, not as a place of business. All residents are prohibited from using an Apartment to breed any kind of animal.

Per section 16.3 of the Declarations, tenants are bound by the House Rules, Bylaws and Declarations. Owners must provide their tenants with current copies of the House Rules and other relevant paperwork which governs behavior in the Gayle.

Non-resident owners who lease their apartment are required to enforce all rules governing the Association with respect to their tenants, and will be held responsible for the behavior of their tenants.

Per section 16.1(b) of the Declarations, the Board of Directors has the right to regulate your tenants' pet(s), included revoking the right for existing tenants to keep a pet that the Board of Directors deems a nuisance to others.

Per section 16.1(d) of the Declarations, tenants are prohibited from displaying, hanging, storing or using any signs, clothing, sheets, blankets, laundry, or other articles outside their Apartment, or which may be visible through windows from the outside (other than draperies, curtains or shades of a customary nature and appearance, subject to the rules and regulations of the Board of Directors), or paint or decorate or adorn the outside of their Apartment, or install outside their Apartment any canopy or awning, or outside radio or television antenna, or other equipment, fixtures or items of any kind.

Per section 16.1(c) of the Declarations your tenants may not carry out any unlawful, noxious or offensive activities in your Apartment or elsewhere on the Property, nor shall anything be done which shall constitute a nuisance or, in the judgment of the Board of Directors, cause unreasonable noise or disturbance to others. The Board has the right to require any tenant to correct or cease any such practices, and may fine the Apartment owner if the disturbance is not immediately corrected.

Per Article V Section 4 of the Bylaws, the violation of the Declarations, Bylaws or any rule or regulation adopted by the Board of Directors shall give the Board of Directors the right to enter the Apartment in which the violation or breach exists and to summarily abate and remove, at the expense of the defaulting Apartment owner, any structure, thing or condition causing the violation or breach.

Per Article VI Section 6 of the Bylaws, the Board of Directors has the power to request a tenant to vacate an apartment if the tenant refuses to abate conduct that is prejudicial to the security, peace, welfare, comfort, and good order of the other residents of the Condominium, the operation of the Condominium and value of the Property. The Board of Directors may enforce that action by recourse to a court of law, and upon obtaining favorable judgment, the Apartment owner concerned shall, in each case, pay the Association reasonable costs and attorneys' fees.

Communication

Non-resident owners of tenant-occupied or unoccupied apartments must remain reachable by the Board. Non-resident owners are strongly urged to agree to receive eletronic notice by submitting a signed electronic notice form to the Secretary.

If a non-resident owner will be traveling for more than three weeks consecutively, the owner is required to provide both an email address as well as hotel or similar contact information to the Board so that the Board may contact the owner in an emergency. Failure to meet this obligation may result in a hearing and the imposition of a $50 fine for the first offense, $100 for the second offense, and $250 for each subsequent offense.

If the need arises, non-resident owners are expected to respond to, or to hire a management firm to respond to, requests from the Board for attention to their unit. The Board reserves the right to require that a non-resident owner hire a management firm if the non-resident owner is consistently non-responsive.

Per Article VI, section 5 of the Bylaws, non-resident owners are required to provide the Secretary with contact information for every person living in a leased unit. Within five business days of signing a lease, the Apartment owner must provide the name and, if different from the leased apartment, address of the tenant. Within ten business days, the non-resident owner must provide a telephone number, email address, and mailing address (if different than the address of the leased apartment) for every person living in their rental unit. The Board of Directors may, at any time, request said contact information, and the Apartment owner must provide it within five business days of receipt of said notice. All apartment owners with tenants are required to provide this information at least once per year, within 30 days of the Annual Meeting. Failure to meet these obligations may result in a hearing and the imposition of a $50 fine for the first offense, $100 for the second offense, and $250 for each subsequent offense.

Owners will be the emergency contacts for their tenants.

The Board of Directors exists to deal with owner issues; tenant issues are the responsibility and concern of their landlords (the non-resident owners). Tenants should only interact with the Board in cases of emergency. The Board of Directors may, at their discretion, without the consent or knowledge of the non-resident owner, interact with tenants as the Board deems appropriate. Non-resident owners do not have the power to forbid the Board of Directors or any resident owner from communicating with a tenant.

Non-resident owners will forward to their tenants those emails and other communications from the Board which affect, or apply to, their tenants. The Board will send these communications to owners, who are required to pass them on. The Board may, at its discretion and without the consent or knowledge of the non-resident owner, send emails and other communications directly to tenants as the Board deems appropriate. If the Board chooses to contact tenants directly, this action does not exempt non-resident owners from the requirement of forwarding relevant communications to tenants.

Inspection and Insurance

Non-resident owners are required to perform an annual inspection of a leased or unoccupied apartment, whether the inspection is in person or via a management firm hired by the non-resident owner. This inspection is required based on the advice of the Association's insurance agent because it will protect all owners from problems in a leased unit that might go undetected by tenants.

Non-resident owners that lease their units are required to purchase a condo owners’ liability policy which specifically allows for tenant occupancy to protect the HOA and individual owners in case of damage to the building that originated inside a unit and was not covered by the Gayle’s insurance. All non-resident owners who do not have such a liability policy must obtain one prior to 31 December 2010.

Per section 8.2 of the Declarations, the Board of Directors or Manager may enter any leased apartment and any limited common areas assigned to a non-resident owner from time to time during reasonable hours as may be necessary to verify that the apartment owner's tenant(s) is/are complying with the provisions of this Declaration, the Bylaws and House Rules, and for making emergency repairs where necessary to prevent damage to the common areas and facilities or to another Apartment or Apartments. Requests for such entry shall be scheduled for a time convenient to the tenant(s) and/or non-resident owner. However, in the case of any emergency, such right of entry shall be immediate whether the tenant or non-resident owner is present at the time or not.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License