HOA Rental Properties

For those of you who do not receive the Chesapeake Beach Town Newsletter, or don’t read it, there is an important item about residential housing in the new Summer 2019 newsletter.  The Town has recently adopted Ordinance O-19-11, which includes requirements for residential rental properties and landlords who rent out a home located with the Town borders.

Of particular note, Section 162-14 of the Ordinance sets down a requirement that all residential rental properties in the Town must be licensed!   Approximately 17% of the homes in Chesapeake Station are rented out by their owners and this Town requirement will apply to those properties.  More information about the new Ordinance can be found on the Town website here.

The first step by property owners in meeting this Ordinance is to register their rental property with the Town.  The on-line registration form can be found here. The Town expects to begin inspection of rental properties in the Spring of 2020.

Note that this Town Ordinance is in addition to the long standing requirement in the Chesapeake Station HOA Covenants (Section 13(b)(iii)), which are incorporated in owners’ deeds by reference, that a Chesapeake Station owner who leases out their property must notify the CSHOA Board of Directors within 5 days and provide a copy of the lease.  The reason for this provision is for the Board of Directors to understand, for reasons of management and safety, who is living in our development.  The notification requirement also helps prevent short term rentals such as seen on AirBnB and VRBO and the transient population associated with that.  A notification form is available on the CSHOA website here.  This form must be be sent to the Board of Directors each time a new lease is signed or an existing lease renewed.