1. Why we are looking at High Country Estates
High Country Estates is a planned community in Tunkhannock Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Like most Poconos lake and resort communities, it has a property owners’ association that collects assessments and adopts rules—and, in many communities, rules about renting. Those rules are only as strong as the authority behind them in the recorded governing documents.
A real-estate brokerage’s community guide (PoconoVacationHomeSales, retrieved October 1, 2026) describes short-term rentals in High Country Estates as not permitted. We have not verified this with the association, and limits on renting can come from the association, the township, or both.
2. Does High Country Estates charge short-term rental fees?
We have not yet verified High Country Estates’s current STR fee schedule. If you own there and are being charged an Airbnb, VRBO, vacation-rental, guest-registration, or rental fee, we will review the charge and governing documents for free.
If High Country Estates is charging you to operate an Airbnb, VRBO, or other short-term rental, send us the information. We are happy to review the declaration and evaluate the fee FOR FREE. You don’t need to know whether the charge is legal—that is what the evaluation is for.
Have the High Country Estates Declaration or Covenants?
Send us the HOA name and tell us about the fee. We are happy to review the governing documents and evaluate the STR charge FOR FREE.
Don’t have them? Submit the HOA name anyway. Declarations are usually recorded with the county recorder of deeds, and the association’s resale packet or member portal often includes them.
3. Why the recorded declaration matters
A planned community declaration is treated as a contract between the association and its members. Rules and bylaws adopted later do not override it: under Pennsylvania’s Uniform Planned Community Act, if the declaration and the bylaws conflict, the declaration prevails (68 Pa.C.S. § 5203(c)).
In Chan, the Commonwealth Court held that a bylaw amendment regulating short-term rentals—including enrollment and annual fees—was void and unenforceable because “authorization for such regulation is not provided in the Declaration.” Whether the same is true at High Country Estates depends on what High Country Estates’s own declaration and amendments say. Some declarations do give associations authority over rentals; courts look at the specific language.
4. Short-term rentals and residential use
Associations sometimes argue that renting is a “commercial” use. In Ruffed Grouse Ridge, the Commonwealth Court held that renting a home to private parties—short-term or long-term—did not violate a covenant limiting use to “private residential purposes only,” so long as the renters used it for residential purposes. The court focused on how renters actually use the home, not on how long they stay. The result for any community still turns on its own covenant language.
5. What types of charges should High Country Estates owners send us?
- Annual STR permit fees — A yearly charge to be allowed to rent short-term.
- Annual rental assessments — An extra assessment billed only to owners who rent.
- Per-rental or per-stay charges — A charge every time a guest checks in.
- Renter-registration fees — Fees to register a tenant or rental with the association.
- Guest-registration charges — Charges tied to registering renters as guests.
- Mandatory STR amenity charges — Amenity, beach, or facility fees imposed because the home is rented.
- Rental inspection fees — Inspections required only of rented homes.
- Special security charges — Security fees billed to renting owners.
- Rental-processing fees — Administrative or “processing” charges for rentals.
- Badges, wristbands, or passes — Passes required only because a property is rented.
- Other rental-triggered fees — Anything you are charged because you rent short-term.
Listing a charge here is not a claim that High Country Estates imposes it, or that it is unlawful. The declaration controls the analysis.
Sources for this page
- Short-term Rental Friendly Pocono Communities — PoconoVacationHomeSales (retrieved October 1, 2026). Secondary source.