Waiting periods

What a waiting period does

A waiting period bars a new owner from renting out a unit until a set stretch of ownership has passed. Community associations commonly set this window at 12 to 24 months, and often pair it with an exemption for units that were already rented before the rule existed.

Boards use waiting periods to discourage owners who buy purely to rent out immediately, which pushes a community toward higher rental and investor concentration. That concentration matters beyond the community itself: mortgage investors track how much of a project is owner-occupied versus rented, and high concentration can make it harder for future buyers to get financing. A waiting period is one of the tools boards use to keep that ratio in a healthy range.

How a waiting period gets adopted

A waiting period is a restriction on leasing, and leasing is treated as a property right in most states. That generally means a board cannot create one on its own through a simple resolution; the restriction has to go into the declaration through the association's amendment process, which typically requires an owner vote at whatever threshold the declaration sets.

"Boards may impose restraints on leasing by resolution, but these policies must be reasonable, uniformly applied and based on objective criteria... most jurisdictions require that any rules or regulations that prohibit rentals exist by amendment to the declaration, not merely documents that may be amended or adopted by the governing board."

Source: Rental restrictions: Communities fighting corporate investors, Community Associations Institute

Does it bind owners who already hold title?

This is the question with the most state-by-state variation in the whole topic. California's Davis-Stirling Act protects an owner who acquired title before a new rental restriction's effective date, regardless of whether that owner voted for the change.

"This section does not change the right of an owner of a separate interest who acquired title to their separate interest before the effective date of this section to rent or lease their property."

Source: California Civil Code Section 4740, California Legislative Information

Florida's condominium statute takes a related but different approach: a new leasing restriction applies only to owners who consent to it or who buy after it takes effect. Nevada ties the same idea to the purchase date: an association generally cannot impose a new leasing approval requirement on an owner whose declaration did not already require one when that owner bought. Texas has no equivalent statute; instead, its courts have enforced retroactive leasing amendments against non-consenting owners in some cases, based on whether the original declaration's amendment process was followed and owners had notice it could be amended.

Whether a new waiting period binds owners who already held title, and what "notice" or "consent" requires, depends on your state and the exact text of your own declaration. Confirm the current rule with your association's attorney before telling any owner it does or does not apply to them.

Hardship exceptions are not automatic

An owner facing a job relocation or a family emergency may ask the board for an exception to a waiting period already in place. The board can grant one only if the governing documents expressly give it that authority. Granting a waiver without that authority does not just risk overstepping; it invites a fairness challenge, because an owner who is later denied the same accommodation can point to the earlier waiver as inconsistent enforcement.

Boards that do have hardship exception authority in their documents should record the specific, objective grounds for every waiver granted, so each decision can be defended later as consistent rather than selective.