Phone: (925) 687-9961

Clubhouse: (925) 825-0250

Email: businessoffice@walnutcountry.com

Rental Procedures & Information

Last Updated January 12th, 2021

The Association’s CC&Rs have a restriction on the maximum number of houses that may be rented within the community – currently set at 25%, or 265 homes. (GM note – recent California law now requires that the minimum threshold for rental restrictions be set at 25% for all HOAs in the state – meaning that this 25% rental cap can never be reduced further). As of January 2021, the Association is still well under this maximum rental capacity. The CC&Rs also require that all homeowners obtain approval from the Association prior to renting out your house.

Your Board of Directors has put in place a simple process that owners may follow when wishing to rent out their unit. Please review the steps below and contact the General Manager at 925-687-9961 or by email at businessoffice@walnutcountry.com if you have any questions or need assistance.

Note: This page was written with the intent that it would be read by the homeowner. If you are a tenant, this page should answer most of your questions, but not everything here will apply to you. Feel free to contact the Business Office if you have additional questions or are not sure what to do next!

WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU RENT OUT YOUR HOUSE

  1. Prior to advertising your house as for rent or agreeing to a lease with a prospective tenant, fill out the Rental Application form and submit it to businessoffice@walnutcountry.com or drop it off through the mail slot at the Business Office located at 4498 Lawson Court.
  2. The Board of Directors will review your application at their next regularly scheduled Board meeting – currently held on the fourth Thursday of every month (November and December’s meetings are combined and held at the beginning of December).
  3. If approved, you will receive confirmation from the General Manager no more than 10 days following the Board meeting. If denied, owners may request an appeal at the next regularly scheduled meeting and present his or her case in writing or in person.

Once approved, you may begin your search for a tenant!

WHAT TO DO ONCE APPROVED TO RENT OUT YOUR HOUSE

  1. When you have a tenant lined up and a lease agreement signed, fill out the Tenant Information & Key Deposit Form and submit it to the General Manager via email at businessoffice@walnutcountry.com or drop it through the mail slot at the Business Office.
  2. This form is extremely important as owners can update their mailing address to ensure that all Association correspondence (including bills, ballots, violation letters, etc) are all going to the correct location.
  3. Please note that your tenants will require keys to access common area facilities such as the pools, tennis courts, and dog park. Owners who already have a set of keys should provide these keys to the new tenants. The CC&Rs do not permit both an owner and a tenant to access and utilize the common areas. If you are renting out your unit, only your tenant may use the pools, tennis courts, and other common area facilities.
  4. If tenants are not provided with any keys by the owner, they will need to purchase replacements from the Association.
    1. Key fobs (which open the pools and tennis courts) can be purchased for $10 each
    2. The key fob entry system does not allow for both the owner and tenant to have active keys in the system concurrently.
      1. This means that if you as an owner have key fobs which you do not give to your tenant, and the tenant purchases new key fobs, the key fobs belonging to the owner will be deactivated permanently. In summary, it is easiest for all involved if owners give all keys over to the tenants once the lease has been signed.
    3. The dog park key requires a $100 deposit for any tenant, which will be cashed and then refunded back to the tenant once the key has been returned following the end of the lease.

WHAT TO DO IF A CURRENT TENANT IS MOVING OUT

If your tenant is moving out and a new tenant is moving in, you do not need to obtain approval from the HOA again to rent out your unit.

However, you do need to fill out a new Tenant Information & Key Deposit Form to ensure that all of your information is up to date. This will also allow incoming tenants to purchase replacement keys, if needed.

If your tenant is moving out and you, the owner, plan to move back in, please send an email to businessoffice@walnutcountry.com letting the Association know so that your mailing address may be updated and the rental restriction information updated accordingly.

HOW DO I GET MY DEPOSIT BACK?

If you paid a deposit for a replacement key, simply fill out the Key Deposit Refund Request Form and submit it to the Business Office along with any keys that required a deposit. These can be dropped through the mail slot 24/7 and the General Manager will confirm receipt, usually on the following business day. Once approved and processed, a check in the original deposit amount will be mailed to the address indicated on the form. Please allow 2-3 weeks for processing and mailing.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

What considerations are made when the Board is reviewing my rental application? Can it be denied?
  • While extremely rare, the Board does have the right to deny an owner’s request to rent. However, there should be a particularly strong or egregious reason for denial. One example might be that an individual owns multiple units in the Association, one of which is already rented. If that rented unit is consistently problematic – complaints from neighbors, a significant number of violations, etc – then the Board may deny the owner’s request to rent out an additional unit. Another example might be an owner who is significantly behind in payment of Assessments, or has multiple outstanding violations. This decision is made at the Board’s discretion, but in general there should be a legitimate, tangible reason for denial, similar to the examples listed above.
I am a tenant and my landlord told me to contact the HOA about how to get keys. What do I do next?
  • If the landlord already obtained approval from the Association to rent out their unit, the next step would be to fill out the Tenant Information & Key Deposit Form and return it to the Association. Note that this form needs to be signed by the owner. Once received, the tenant can work directly with the Association to obtain keys. The form linked above will have pricing and deposit information, depending on what keys the tenants need. If owners have keys, they should hand those over to the tenant to use. Owners are not permitted to use the Common Area facilities when renting out their unit – all common area keys should be given to the tenant. If the owner never obtained any of these keys, the tenant can purchase them directly from the Association.
What if I am already renting out my unit but never got approval from the Association?
  • In this case, you will still need to fill out the Rental Application form and submit it to the Association for approval, since the CC&Rs require this process.
If I am currently renting my unit but have a new tenant or lease starting soon, do I need to get HOA approval again?
  • You only need HOA approval once, when asking to rent out your unit for the very first time. Once you have HOA approval, you do not need to obtain it again if you have a change in tenants, the lease agreement, etc. You should fill out a new Tenant Information & Key Deposit Form each time you have a new tenant, to ensure that all contact information is up to date.
Do I need to obtain HOA approval if I am just going to be renting out my unit for less than a year?
  • Yes, the CC&Rs require all owners who wish to rent out their unit – even if for a shorter timeframe – to obtain approval from the Association beforehand.
What if I get approval to rent out my unit but end up changing my mind, or rescheduling the start date of my lease?
  • Depending on the length of the delay, you may be required to resubmit for approval closer to the actual date you intend to lease your unit. Please send an email to the GM at businessoffice@walnutcountry.com if your anticipated lease start date has changed or if you have obtained approval to rent but are no longer going through with leasing the unit for whatever reason.
What if I want to rent out my unit but the Association has already reached its 25% rental limit?
  • In the event that the HOA has reached its limit for units permitted to be rented out, a waiting list will be created and maintained. Owners approved to rent their unit will be added to the waiting list, ordered by date of approval. Once we have received confirmation that a unit is no longer being rented, owners on the waiting list will be notified that they may begin renting their unit (in order of approval).