Dear owner, A few years ago the condominium documents were amended to add a 12-month restriction on leasing out newly purchased units and further amended to extend this period to 15 months.

This clearly reflected the membership’s desire to keep Byron Gardens a mostly owner-occupied building by discouraging investors from purchasing units which couldn’t immediately produce a return on their investment.

There are several reasons why we still believe this is a good idea: owners occupying their unit have an inherent vested interest in the well being of their place of residence, more so than investors who do not have to deal with day-to-day issues at the building. Similarly, while we are fortunate to currently have responsible and rule abiding tenant-residents, it is understandable and fair to say and that their interest in the long term well being of the building may not be as high as owner-residents.

Unfortunately this restriction is nearly impossible to enforce: there has been successful attempts to circumvent this rule by current and prospective owners. Some absentee owners have purchased units and allowed “friends”, “relatives” or “guests” to occupy the unit. It is very likely that in fact there is a rental agreement not disclosed to the association.

This not only circumvents the leasing restriction but also creates a safety issue as the individuals occupying the unit have not been vetted nor approved by the association.

 

In order to address these shortcomings, the board feels a few additional changes to our condominium documents are needed. These are listed below.

In order to amend the condominium governing documents, 75% of owners have to be in favor of the proposed changes. In our case, it means 51 owners have to be in favor.

The vote will not involve ballots but instead will be taken during a special association meeting. Due to the current pandemic situation we will attempt to hold a virtual meeting through Zoom or similar application allowing anyone to attend from the comfort of their own home.

Limited proxies will be provided for those who will not attend but yet want to vote, although this should be less of an issue with a virtual meeting. We will provide more details on this virtual meeting before it takes place.

 

The proposed changes are the following and will be discussed and explained during the meeting:

​

-Extending the rental restriction from 15 months to 24 months. -Imposing a hard limit to the number of unit rented at any given time. (Percentage to be determined).

As an example, a ratio of 20% of the number of units to be rental units is 13 units and is the current state. A waiting list would be established for owners desiring to rent out their unit while the limit has been reached and new rental opportunities would be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

​

-Defining Guests as persons visiting at the property for 30 days or less. Anyone staying at the property longer than the 30-day period would no longer qualify as a guest.

​

-Requiring that any person occupying a unit longer than 30 days in a one-year period has to be approved by the association, as only new owners and tenants currently are. This process would also require the acknowledgment of the association’s Rules and Regulations and would apply to any roommate or sub-lease arrangements. Direct family members would be exempted from this requirement.

 

-Barring corporations from purchasing units, with a few exceptions. Since corporations can not physically occupy a unit, units purchased by corporations are in effect investments, and most likely intended for lease.

 

-Removing the clause waiving approval process by the association for current owners. (Declaration of Condominium Article XI, Section 1, Paragraph A.)

 

A proposed amendment to make the building smoke-free has been requested by an owner and will be voted on.

 

Two administrative changes to our Rules and Regulations will also be subjected to a vote:

-Increasing the move-in, move-out deposit from $250 to $500 to cover for any potential damage incurred during such moves. The increase may have a preventive effect as a larger amount is at stake.

-Disallowing any supermarkets shopping carts on the property, as such items are in effect stolen property and also are very unsightly.