Who's responsible? Is the landlord responsible for making sure their tennants don't destroy the neighbors property? Do I have any rights or expectations when it comes to living next door to a rental property?
Re: Rental Property owner not taking responsibility for Tenant.
Yes, the owner is responsible.
UNIFORM COMMON INTEREST OWNERSHIP ACT (1994)
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF COMMISSIONERS ON UNIFORM STATE LAWS
676 North St. Clair Street, Suite 1700
Chicago, Illinois 60611
312/915-0195
The Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act ("UCIOA") was adopted at the 1982 Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (the "ULC"). It combined, in a single comprehensive law, prior uniform laws in this area (the Uniform Condominium Act (1980), the Uniform Planned Community Act (1980), and the Model Real Estate Cooperative Act (1981)). By 1994, UCIOA had become the law in at least five States, while the Uniform Condominium Act, or substantially similar laws, exist in 21 States. The Uniform Planned Community Act is the law in one State.
In 1994, the ULC adopted significant amendments to UCIOA. Following an intensive study of UCIOA by the Joint Editorial Board for Real Property Acts,
the ULC appointed a Drafting Committee to write the necessary amendments and additions. Changes to UCIOA should result in corresponding changes in these prior laws; consequently, practitioners in approximately half the American jurisdictions need to have a basic understanding of the changes.
1. The definition of "common elements" (Section 1-103(4)), which is a very basic concept, has been amended to clarify that (a) the common elements may include easements, including easements for the benefit of unit owners and (b) real estate may be owned or leased by the association and not be subject to the declaration.
2. A fundamental precept of UCIOA is that full and adequate disclosure to purchasers is a viable alternative to governmental registration and supervision. Declarants are bound by representations made in the declaration, by the models or samples they use, and by the public offering statements, and are held to statutory limitations and standards to protect consumers. Among the basic representations made by declarants are those which describe the scope of development rights and their duration.
Unruly and disruptive tenants have been a significant problem in association administration. Revised Section 3-102 gives rights to associations to enforce the declaration, bylaws, and rules and regulations not only against the unit owner but also the tenant. Associations may now levy fines against tenants and enforce the rights of the unit owner as landlord.
UCIOA and its predecessors distinguished between the standards of conduct applicable to executive board members appointed by the declarant and elected by the unit owners. Section 3-103(a). Experience under this Act demonstrates that the stated standards require further clarity. As amended, UCIOA sets out clearer (and more easily understood) standards: members of the executive board appointed by the declarant will be subject to the standard of care applicable to trustees, and members elected by the unit owners will be subject to the degree of care required of a director of a nonprofit corporation, subject to the business judgment rule.
Revised Section 3-111 clarifies that no period of limitation regarding an association's claims against the declarant will run against the association, including warranty claims, until the period of declarant control terminates.
However, because a declarant ought not to warrant the common elements for an inordinate period of time (which may be the result if the period of declarant control is substantial), Section 4-116(d) authorizes the declarant to cause an independent committee of the executive board, during the period of declarant control, to evaluate and enforce warrant claims involving the common elements.
This section has also been amended to require that a tort claim based on ownership of common elements be brought against the association, and not against individual unit owners
UCIOA permitted a condominium association or a planned community association to convey or encumber common elements under the restrictions of Section 3-112(a). Subsection (g) stated the general rule that a conveyance or encumbrance would not affect the priority or validity of pre-existing encumbrances. UCIOA (1994) better protects the rights of the holders of those interests
In order to ensure that association rights in bankruptcy are protected, Section 3-116 provides that the association's lien is a statutory lien and makes clear that the lien for unpaid assessments arises, as a matter of law, upon adoption of the statutory amendment for all existing associations and from the creation of the regime for all regimes created after adoption of the amendments.