Has anyone fought an HOA's ruling against AirBNB

[Frank Manning]

Hey I have a condo in Milwaukee that I have been using as an airbnb investment property. I recently received a letter from the HOA stating that AirBNB is now not allowed and will face a $500/ day fine.

I was wondering if anyone else has come across this issue. The property was a cash cow for us but does not make sense as a traditional rental. Is there any legal action we can take to argue this? I see the loss of income as damages.

Also, what legal grounds would an HOA have to enforce a penalty?

Thanks for your responses. Hope none of you are going through this.

[Garry C.]

You can't 'fight' an HOA. They will win. Every time. In fact, you are part of the HOA, so you're fighting against yourself. Think about that.

What you can do is talk to the board. In most cases, that's all they want. They are community members just like you, who have volunteered time to help run the business of the community. Many times there is resentment there for community members that do not volunteer, or seem to even care, about the community rules and/or property values.

Take the time to go to a board meeting and explain your situation. Mea culpa, you didn't read the rules well enough, ask for extra time to figure out your exit strategy (which you really should have had figured out prior to buying the property). Get clarification on what is the minimum number of consecutive days approved for rental. If it's 30-90, you may very well be able to keep going as a corporate rental like Myka stated above. However, I wouldn't volunteer this information and I would keep the leases handy in case they again accuse you of violation of the rules. If they are not on board with STR or even Corporate/Nursing rentals, this is likely to considered a 'loophole' and they may attempt to close it by extending that out to minimum 6 or 12 month leases.

Don't let things get contentious when you meet with them. Again, this will not work. If anything, try to be friendly enough that they'll want to invite you to become a board member when a seat opens up. It will help if you start attending the monthly meetings. You'll likely be the only resident that does, except for the occasional person that shows up with a complaint. This will require about 1 hour of time per month, and the payback can be great.
Once you're on the board, you can convince them why this is good for the community, or at least why it's not a bad thing, and help to shape the rules to allow for STRs. In fact, if you're attending regularly, you may not even need to become a board member to get to that point. As long as you're attempting to work with them, not against them, you may get what you want.

After that, you'll just need to worry about the next step up in local government, and if your city/county/etc. plans to restrict STRs in any way in the future.