Pennsylvania · Poconos HOA & POA owners
Airbnb and VRBO owners may be paying HOA fees that their recorded declarations never authorized.
No fee unless you win(see note)
Free Short-Term Rental Fee Review
If your HOA charges you extra because you rent your property, that charge may be unlawful. It doesn’t matter much whether the HOA calls it a rental permit, a registration fee, a guest fee, or an amenity, inspection, security, or administrative charge. What matters is whether your recorded declaration actually allows it.
Not every rental fee is illegal. Some declarations give an association real authority over rentals, and some fees are lawful. Either way, the answer is written down in a specific document, and it is worth reading before you keep paying.
Most Pennsylvania planned communities were created by a recorded document filed with the county recorder of deeds. It usually goes by the name declaration, declaration of covenants, or deed restrictions. Pennsylvania courts treat a planned community declaration as the equivalent of a contract between the association and its members.
Bylaws, rules, policies, and fee schedules come later and sit below the declaration. Pennsylvania’s Uniform Planned Community Act provides that if the declaration and the bylaws conflict, the declaration prevails. A rule the declaration doesn’t support can be vulnerable to challenge.
Pennsylvania law disfavors restrictions on the use of property. Courts read restrictive covenants strictly, and a restriction on use must be plainly stated rather than implied. A clause about what can be built on a lot is not automatically a clause about how a home can be used.
If you pay any of these because you rent, send us the HOA name. These are examples, not a claim that each one is unlawful. Your declaration is what decides that.
When an association imposes the same charge on every owner who rents, the legal question is usually the same for all of them. Did the declaration authorize it? A class action lets one case answer that question for the whole group, so one owner’s challenge may benefit other owners who paid the same fee.
We pursue appropriate cases on behalf of groups of owners who were charged the same fee. Whether a court certifies a class, and whether any recovery results, is never guaranteed.
No fee unless you win
No attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery in a contingency matter the firm accepts. Costs and expenses are governed by the written engagement agreement.