Mike Camunas

Jim Hammond was surprised.

All he did was his job as the president of the Plantation Palms Homeowners Association and then make a post about it on the social media platform, Nextdoor.

“The rest, the way it snowballed, that was surprising to me,” Hammond said.

The post detailed how Plantation Palms, through its HOA, amended its community charter to add language addressing renters and rental companies.

It was an issue affecting the community, however, it never dawned on Hammond that so many communities either wanted to do something, or were already doing the same.

But within 48 hours of his post, there were around 7,000 views and Hammond was hearing from other communities, their HOA members and presidents.

“Now, I’ve had more than 40 communities reach out to me,” he said.

When Hammond and Plantation’s HOA addressed the issue, they were looking to add language — not to prevent renters and rental companies in the community, but to hold them more accountable.

For starters, the HOA added to the charter language that would require two-year ownership before rental, grandfather existing rentals, provision for property transfers for divorce, wills/estate plans/trusts, as well as tighten up rules on short-term rentals, forbidding owners to rent via Airbnb, VRBO and others.

Hammond, the HOA and the community came to realize that while dealing with a private renter wasn’t as easy as dealing with a homeowner, it was the corporate rental companies that proved most challenging.

He explained that if there were violations, the company would not remedy it in a timely manner. It could sometimes take more than six months and then the lawyers would have to get involved to resolve the issue.

Hammond, who has been HOA president for eight years, said it was quite the task to get the word out, because the community needed residents to vote to approve the changes.

Through help from the community’s lawyer, they streamlined the process, making it easy to vote by signing paperwork that could be picked up at the guard house or the community’s golf clubhouse.

“We also had block captains that would go door-to-door, too,” Hammond said.

The changes received 88% approval from the community and the amendment was registered with Pasco County on Feb. 22.

Eventually, the number of communities and nearby HOA board members contacting Hammond became overwhelming. He was willing to help, but new inquiries began to come in daily.

The communities that indicated interest span from Land O’ Lakes and Lutz, as well Wesley Chapel.

Communities of note include Arbors at Wiregrass, Asbel Creek, Connerton, Dupree Lakes, Grand Oaks, both Lake Padgett Estates and East, Meadow Pointe, Oak Grove, Sable Ridge, Terra Bella, Lakes at Heron Cove, Preserve at Lake Thomas, Villages of Wesley Chapel, Watergrass and Wilderness Lake Preserve.

Another Land O’ Lakes community, Valencia Gardens, which is just across Collier Parkway from Plantation Palms, is one of the many communities that reached out to Hammond.

Gail Spector, Valencia Gardens’ HOA president for 15 years, said adding this language on renters was born out of necessity. Communities keep changing, she said, as short-term, easily accessible renting wasn’t readily available when the HOA was formed.

“We have 393 homes and 8% of our community is corporate rentals,” Spector said. “We prefer people here who own it, but with new renters, if they sell to LLCs, then we want them to wait two years to rent. … It’s not the people who are renters that are the problem, if there is a problem — it’s the corporate renter companies,” Spector said.

She echoed what Hammond said regarding the difficulty in getting violations addressed by some rental companies. The violations seem to fall on deaf ears, until letters need to go out and those cost $7 per letter. If a call from the lawyer needs to happen, that could cost $150 per call to the rental company, she said.

“We put feelers out to the community, and they thought it was fantastic,” she added. “No one wants to move into a neighborhood and have a rental company or renter next to them because sometimes those won’t take pride in their house because they don’t own it and then it looks bad on the street.”

While she was surprised at the reaction that Hammond received to his social media post, Spector said it makes sense because there’s no longer a coalition for HOAs.

But Hammond has launched a monthly meeting at Plantation’s clubhouse restaurant, in which HOA board members or presidents can attend to learn more about the charter-amending process.

Those who have reached out to Hammond are invited to the meeting, and the previous meeting had about 14 communities represented.

“All of these communities indicated they had the exact same problem,” Hammond said. “Many are now working on the exact same type of vote that we did. Some of these communities already have a large rental presence.”

One of those communities with a lot of rental homes and properties is Lake Padgett Estates East (LPEE). HOA board member Chris Marangiello thought he had a grasp on just how many, but then was shocked to find just how many rentals were in the large Land O’ Lakes community.

“We have 245 or more rental homes in our community,” he said. “That’s more than 23% of the neighborhood.”

Marangiello said LPEE was already in the process of reworking its charter when it saw Hammond’s post, but agreed it is a slow-moving process. It’s taken time to get the 60% approval, as well as making sure the language is correct. 

The community wants to do exactly what Plantation did, to address the rental issue.

“We just want the correct language in there,” Marangiello said. “The same rules apply if it’s corporation or personal (rental) because we can’t discriminate. We’ll hold ourselves and others accountable to the same thing — we’re just revising and tailoring it to our neighborhood.

“As a community, we all just want the same thing and that’s a great neighborhood, whoever is in the house next door.”

Meeting of local HOAs
Where: Mulligans Irish Pub, at Plantation Palms Golf Clubhouse, 23253 Plantation Palms Blvd., in Land O’ Lakes
When: May 13, 10 a.m.
Details: Plantation Palms Homeowners Association (HOA) president Jim Hammond is hosting a monthly meetup of local HOAs interested in learning more about amending their charters to include language that addresses rental properties and companies in their communities. The meeting is by invitation only. To request an invitation, contact Hammond at .

Published May 03, 2023