Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2224794) Thank you. This is the first time someone has pointed out that the Villa restrictions are different than the other restrictions.

It's great to see a Poster take his own advice, do some research and change his tune.

Or, they might be Puerto Ricans. Which would make them US Citizens and not in need of a green card or work visa to be here at all. Did the OP check their IDs, or did he just assume they must of COURSE be undocumented immigrants because they had brown skin and didn't speak English?

Also - if it's a 3-bedroom home, then you can absolutely have 6 people staying in it short term. I don't recall reading anywhere in this entire thread how many bedrooms are in the home in question.

That would require a change in deed restrictions. People buy properties here intentionally as rental investments. A deed restriction would need to grandfather them in, otherwise they'd be looking at a LOT of lawsuits. They were ALLOWED to do this, because there was no restriction forbidding it, when they purchased the properties.

They could make no-rental restrictions on future development but - then they'd also have to eliminate their own Lifestyle visits because those are short-term rentals for up to 7 days each, in those new development areas.

Perhaps the POA (property owner's association) members might be interested, we've been here many years now and they have taken up many causes. We never thought we'd see such a spread of this "in and out", one to three night kind of motel/hotel renting in our neighborhood of larger designer homes, but little by little our block of only 10 homes, are dealing with 4 of them constant in and out renting activity. Surprised the owners are not concerned about how this type of rental is much harder on a property than say, a 6 month lease to "snowbird" type seniors ! ?

Where? What did I miss?

My position is exactly the same: Most deed restrictions do not prohibit rentals. Today I learned many Villa restrictions do. (and no, I am not going to count to determine if "most" is correct).

Someone provided the villa restriction language but I noticed that it wasn't you. You also don't seem to have looked at Florida law or provided a case where a rental in the Villages was found to be in violation of the restrictions.

If they're -renting- the properties, then they need to pay tourism tax. You need to get in touch with the county the property is in, to make sure the tourism tax is being paid. If it's not being paid, then the landlord will have a moment with the authorities about it.

Right.... and the way they are not enforced and/or are "unevenly" enforced, I think most of us here had some reasonable expectation as to what a 55 plus community actually means. What ever the actual laws/rules are, most of us (?) can see things are changing rapidly and certainly the plan and process for enforcement should all be very well developed before any rules, laws, or deed restrictions are drafted. Seems to me we are very reactionary here. Is it legal to rent in this manner (no lease or long term agreement) and NOT have to charge local sales taxes like hotels and motels ? I honestly don't know, but would seem the owners would be responsible to charge and turn over, such taxes ?

My belief is that most of the properties being rented are through a service like AirBnB, ****, The Villages Hometown Properties, or something like that. I would have thought that these services would help the homeowner/landlord to stay legal. It's certainly possible that I am wrong and rentals aren't through a service or that the service doesn't help the homeowners in this way.

Not sure why you would consider it "hypocrisy" ? In these troubled times, and yes, even in The (perfect) senior community, it is wise to let the police settle such issues rather than approach a neighbor you already know is not exactly an ideal senior citizen for "America's Friendliest home town" ? By now haven't most people realized the Villages security personnel are mostly our own neighbors, working part time to fill some retirement hours or pay for an upgrade improvement to their home, and have no authority (or desire to risk their lives) to get involved in anything more serious than calling someone to tell them they need to shut their garage door. No, not hypocrisy at all, but very good advice. In a community like ours, a few minutes to find the owner of the car blocking your drive, can mean the difference in life and death in a medical emergency, or, even if not that serious, it is a police matter... do not take a chance on handling such things yourself !

OH NO!!!! Lock your children up!!!!

The only ones I recall over the last 18 years were a couple huge "raids" in the middle of the night by local and state officers on "meth lab" houses... and NOT in the villages on what they call the "historic side", which seems to be targeted as the cause of all things undesirable, and once the police shut down, also in what the real estate agents advertise as a "desirable village", where a "chop shop" for stolen golf carts was operating and sending parts all over the country. One block over there was a guy, very good at wood working, who was making small pieces of custom wood cabinets, shelves, etc. The neighbors on that block got a petition up and he was shut down....not sure by who, doubt our Sumter Co. sheriff's deputies take care of deed restriction violations ??? Do they ? ? I'd think not. Only other ones I know of, are neighbors who were forced to remove the small crosses given out at their churches. Again, doubt police were involved, probably no human involved, just fine them daily perhaps until the die or the home is sold, and they try to collect all the fines ? All told, we just have a TERRIBLE and ineffective process for all of these types of things.

Honestly I don't think the things you mentioned have If that is the standard for enforcement of deed restrictions, law, and enforcement, than it is as far afield as "solving" a retail theft problem by deciding NOT to enforce the law against theft, and thereby "solve" the problem of high rates of theft. ! Rape ? Murder ? Broken into cars ? Not even loosely related to what was being discussed (enforcement of deed restrictions) . Don't think language spoken has anything to do with it either of these. The fact that someone has not killed or raped (is that what we really should use as the standard for deed restriction enforcement ?) is so illogical it defies the ability of the human brain to do an analysis and draw a logical/probably conclusion.

Thank you. This is a very helpful community bulletin board most of the time, but sometimes.... really frightening to think people would read certain things and think, well, if it's posted on TOTV's it has to be true...LOL !

Easy to fix for future sales. Retroactively? I don't know...

Did you just ASSume that he assumed "they must of COURSE be undocumented immigrants"? And where did he say they had "brown skin"?

Are you ASSuming they did? Why would you ASSume such a thing?