Why is it illegal to run a business out of your home in the USA?
It’s legal to run a business from your home. It’s not legal to run every kind of business from your home.Some businesses are illegal, no matter where they are. Drug dealer, prostitute, and others.Some businesses are illegal because of health regulations. Bakery, tattoo parlour or other businesses that require inspections.Some businesses are illegal because they disrupt the neighborhood. A nail salon with 10+ customers an hour would likely be prohibited in zoning laws, as the impact on neighbours would be high, even if the business itself is not “bad”. A home-based beautician that only had one appt per hour may be lawful at the same address.But if you want to be an Amazon affiliate who works from home and spends 20 hours a day spamming links to products you get a kick-back on, I know of nowhere in the USA where that business, run out of your home, would be any more illegal than doing it in an office building. You can incorporate and use your home address as your corporation’s address.
How does real estate investment trusts work?
What are real estate investment trusts or REITs and how do they work. Is there some law that give these trust some tax efficiency status and how can investors invest in these REITs. With the real estate market in the US the way as it is, is it a good time to invest in the property market through real estate investment trusts. What kind of people manage these funds or trusts and what are their typical return on investments?
How do you implement a rule to restrict the number of rentals in your Home owners Association (if one does not exist now)?
How do you implement a rule to restrict the number of rentals in your Home owners Association (if one does not exist now)?Your Board of Directors can do this, as they can modify the Rules and Regulations at any time. They can make a modification to the R&R, vote on it, and have it take effect immediately.I will caution you, however. When it comes to things that severely impact homeowners (especially things that may financially negatively impact homeowners), courts do not look fondly on rule changes. While they are technically binding on homeowners, courts are not in favor of a small group of people imposing their will on the community, especially when the change is unpopular or unresearched.In that case, if you want the change to not only be binding but to stand up to court challenges, make the change in the Covenants of the HOA. In order to do that, you will need a percentage of homeowners to agree to the change (that percentage is different in each state, but it’s usually no less than 3/4 of all the homeowners), and then you will need a lawyer to draw up the paperwork to get the Covenants amended with the City in which they are filed.I will give you an example. We had an incident with a homeowner who turned his home into a luxury rental, violating tons of rules along the way (we eventually foreclosed on that property, but it was a years-long battle). We decided that to try to forestall events like this again, we attempted to limit short-term (VRBO and AirBNB) rentals in our neighborhood by implementing a Covenants amendment requiring rentals to be a minimum of 6 months and requiring a filing of a rental agreement with the HOA along with a refundable deposit of some significant amount (I think we were going to make it $100 initially). The community, while initially showing support, decided not to pass that amendment. Oh well, there’s only so much we can do to limit the damage done by rentals to neighboring home prices. If homeowners eventually become sufficiently motivated, perhaps we can run that amendment again, but for now, we can’t limit rentals to a specific timeframe because the homeowners didn’t approve it.
Are Home Owner Associations really bad as people make them out to be? What's your neighborhood's Home Owner Association like?
I am the President of our Association. (Condo) We try not to be dictators but people simply REFUSE to obey basic rules like picking up dog poop. We recently had to enforce a rule that kids cant be outside without adult supervision due to several acts of vandalism where the kids were seen destroying property, including throwing bricks over the fence and breaking car windows on the property next door.The worst thing about a Board of Directors is when they arent committed to doing the job. Our last Board was in place for 12 years and they didnt even want to BE on the Board but no one else would run so they were stuck. They did the bare minimum and the place went to hell. I ran because I knew changes needed to be made. It was only AFTER I was elected and appointed President that I found out we were 5 years away from needing new roofs ($1 million) and had ZERO in the roofing fund. The buildings had never been treated for termites (IN FLORIDA!) and the finances were just SHEET! I spend about 40 hours a month working on getting things done. I dont get paid.The REAL problem isnt usually the Association, it is the Property Management company. You hire them to run things yet they are so lazy and incompetent that it takes 6–12 months to get a roof leak fixed. Bills get paid late, phone calls dont get returned, you get misinformation, etc etc etc. All you can do is try another one when your contract ends. We are about to do just that. It shouldnt be my job to babysit the management company.
We live in my parents home, they live in their own home. The home we lived in sold at auction today and the?
California law requires the new owner to give your parents a 30 Day Notice To Terminate Tenancy since they are not renters, but borrower who were foreclosed on. If they are not out after that time they can removed them by the eviction process which takes about 4-5 weeks. Having an eviction on your parents credit is bad, but adding on to than a court ordered eviction will make it very difficult for them to find another place to move into. Very few landlords will ever rent to someone who has be evicted from a property. I would suggest that they move within the next 30 days.......if they don't it will make things much harder for them in the long run.
How can the HOA kick you out of your house when you own it?
How can the HOA kick you out of your house when you own it?Your HOA cannot directly kick you out of your home. There is a bit of a legal process. The HOA can do this because while you own your home, the HOA owns the neighborhood in which your home lives. That means you are responsible to pay dues to the HOA which controls your neighborhood. If you break HOA rules, you may get fined. If you fail to pay fines or HOA dues, the HOA can put a lien on your house for the dues and fines and lawyers fees owed. You cannot sell or refinance your home until that lien is paid.And if the lien goes unpaid for long enough, the HOA can choose to foreclose on that lien, which means that the home will be sold to pay the outstanding liens against the house.You must, as a homeowner, maintain your financial obligations that you agreed to when you bought your home. Remember that stack of papers you spent an hour signing (and you never knew you could sign your name that many times)? One of those was the covenants on file with the City which says that you agree that the HOA runs the show in your neighborhood and you have to play along or face financial penalties. You also agreed that if you don’t pay, the HOA can take what you owe out of the cost of the home. You agreed that the HOA would be the primary non-mortgage lienholder, and could use your house as the collateral for unpaid HOA debts. The bank may be the mortgage lienholder, but the HOA is usually the first non-mortgage lienholder in line behind any mortgage liens. So even if you’re paying your mortgage on time but you fail to pay HOA dues or fines, you can still have a lien foreclosed, and you can be evicted and your house can be forcibly sold in a foreclosure sale to cover what you owe.I oversaw two foreclosures for failure to pay HOA dues and fines during my tenure on our Board of Directors. It’s a very lengthy process, but we worked as closely with the homeowner as they would allow. In one case, we worked out a payment plan with the homeowner which allowed him to stay in his house. In another, the homeowner simply wouldn’t play nice at all. Tangentially, he ended up going to jail on a DV charge. A real sweetheart, that one. We threatened to foreclose, and while we were preparing to file, the bank decided to foreclose which meant we got paid without paying for the foreclosure. Phew.
Does a rental car have liability insurance?
In the United States that is true except in the state of California where rental car companies do not automatically provide any liability protection to the renter as part of the standard rental agreement. However, some (e.g. Hertz) may provide the minimum primary liability protection to international customers (driver's license indicates an address outside the USA) renting in California.This means drivers need to provide their own liability insurance when renting in California. In general, US residents should already be covered by their regular auto insurance but drivers need to confirm that they have the minimum level of liability insurance from their own insurance company. If not, renters will need to purchase purchase liability insurance (LIS or SLI) through the car rental company, or a non-owner liability insurance policy.