Virginia HOA rental restrictions and fees

The fee cap is firm. Whatever the rules call it, a rental, application, or processing fee cannot exceed $50 for the term of a lease, and the HOA cannot stack a recurring monthly or annual rental charge on top. A $200 lease registration fee, a tenant security deposit paid to the association, or a required association lease addendum all run past the statute.

Approval power is limited too. Unless the declaration expressly says so, the HOA cannot require its blessing before a tenant moves in, and it cannot make the owner hand over a power of attorney to evict. What it can do is collect contact and occupant information and an acknowledgment that the tenant has the rules. So the real question is what the declaration itself authorizes.

If you plan to rent the home out, read these before you offer:

• Whether any rental restriction or cap appears in the recorded declaration, not just the rules.
• The rental, application, or processing fee schedule, and whether it tops $50 per lease.
• Any required association lease, tenant deposit, or power-of-attorney demand, which are limits the statute draws.
• Recent minutes for talk of new rental caps or a rental waitlist.

If your plan depends on renting, the difference between a restriction in the declaration and a board rule is the whole ballgame. A declaration cap binds you; a rule that overreaches does not. Either way, the fees the HOA can charge are small by law.

An HOA Notes brief reads the declaration and the rules together, flags a rental restriction or a fee that runs past the $50 cap, and cites the page behind each finding so you know what you can actually do with the home.

Virginia Code section 55.1-1806 (Rental registration fee cap). Unless the declaration expressly authorizes it, an association cannot condition or prohibit the rental of a lot or unit, charge any rental fee, application fee, or other processing fee exceeding $50 during the term of any lease, impose recurring annual or monthly rental fees, require use of association-prepared leases, collect deposits from owners or tenants, or require the owner to grant power of attorney for eviction purposes. The association may require the owner to provide tenant name, contact information, vehicle information, authorized occupant information, and acknowledgment of association rules; the declaration may expressly authorize some rental restrictions beyond the $50 fee cap.

When you read the disclosure packet, watch for owners must pay a $200 lease registration fee for each new tenant, the association must approve all tenants before move-in, owners must submit a security deposit to the association for each tenant, and owners must use the association's standard lease addendum. HOA Notes flags each of these against the statute and tells you which restrictions are actually enforceable.