Hello I’m Brian. I live in Miami and have a HE cabin in Boone, North Carolina for 20+ years now. My wife and I are upset by the actions of our Homeowners Association that has implemented a very pricey renter transaction fee for any rentals. It’s a gated mountain community with a security check-in. We have not yet tested whether a Home Exchanger would involve a fee but believe the HOA will say we are obtaining something of value, for example, guest points or a reciprocal home.
Has anyone dealt with this issue? I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.
We have done a lot of exchanges over the years and now it appears that our HOA is going to end our ability to exchange our cabin!!
Hi Brian, as HomeExchange asks for no financial exchange the situation is considered the same as welcoming friends to your home. Does your HOA allow that? Unfortunately there are some members that have the same problem as you (in NYC for example) and they just remain very discreet about who they invite as ‘friends’. Certain cities have also tried to ban exchanging, Edinburgh and Amsterdam for example, and HomeExchange has managed to negotiate with them for now. This is one of the reasons that HE is very strict about members not being allowed to charge any form of financial exchange.
Thx for your reply. That’s interesting about HE recommending no $ changes hands & the reason behind it. We have learned that our HOA is using the rental fees to purchase & maintain a very sophisticated camera/surveillance security system & associated software that benefits ALL homeowners yet our rental fees have been paying for it. The fees also pay for an employee’s salary. We (rental property owners) are trying to make that more equitable. The HOA lied to homeowners prior to this new policy by stating crime went up due to outsiders - renters - which we know is false & backed up by a lack of police incident reports. There has never been any mention of home exchangers & we did not want to bring up. Very frustrating!!