How to Notify Residents of New or Revised Site Rules

It’s a good idea to do so even if local law doesn’t require you to.

Most owners impose certain requirements on residents through site rules. Such rules are usually aimed at keeping residents and their guests safe and the site functioning properly. For example, a site’s rules may govern the use of common areas such as your swimming pool or fitness center; general conduct such as recycling of certain materials and excessive noise; and potential hazards such as space heaters, grills, and storage of lithium-ion batteries used in e-bikes and e-scooters.

As discussed in the March issue of the Insider, site rules are specific to your community and may at some point be changed. And site rules are easier to update and change as opposed to requirements listed in your leases. Because site-specific requirements are likely to change, you should include them in your site rules. If you include them in your leases, you’ll have to amend all your residents’ leases every time you want to change such a requirement.

Although most leases don’t include the site rules, they typically give the owner the right to enforce the rules and evict residents who violate them. If you want to add new site rules or revise your existing rules, your leases or state or local law may require you to notify residents of new or revised rules before you can start enforcing them.

Even if your state or local laws don’t have such a requirement, it’s good practice to notify residents anyway when you update or change site rules. By doing so, you’ll give residents a chance to become familiar with your rules before the rules take effect. And you’ll prevent complaints from residents that they didn’t know about your rules. We give you a Model Letter: Tell Residents about New Recycling Program Rules, that you can adapt and use to notify residents of new site rules or revisions to existing rules.

What Letter Should Say

Whenever you add or revise a site rule, send residents a letter notifying them of the new or revised rule. Along with your letter, attach a copy of the site rules that includes the new or revised rule, which you can either mail to residents or slip under their doors. Your letter, like our Model Letter, should:

Remind residents of your right to create, revise rules. Remind residents that their leases give you the right to create site rules and revise existing rules, and refer to the lease paragraph that gives you this right.

Tell residents you’ve created new rule, revised existing rule. Inform residents that you’ve created a new rule or revised an existing rule, whichever is the case, and the reason you’ve done so. For example, explain that you’ve revised some of the site’s swimming pool rules to help protect residents and guests. And ask residents to carefully review the new or revised rule, which should be highlighted in the set of rules you’ve attached to the letter.

Give effective date. Tell residents when the new or revised rules will take effect—for example, in 30 days. The lease paragraph that gives you the authority to create and revise rules should say how much notice state or local law requires you to give residents before enforcing these rules. If the lease doesn’t state this, ask your attorney how many days the law requires.

Require compliance. Require residents to comply with the new or revised rules, and warn them that noncompliance with your site rules is a violation of their lease and could result in eviction.

Invite questions. Invite residents to contact your management office with any questions they may have about the new or revised rules. Doing so shows you’re open to resolving concerns residents have with your rules before you begin to enforce them.