Renting out a condo unit

A Massachusetts condominium is governed by its own documents — the master deed, the declaration of trust or bylaws, and the rules and regulations the board adopts — and those documents can say a great deal about renting a unit out. Minimum lease terms, whether short-term letting is allowed at all, a cap on how many units may be rented at once, a requirement to give the board a copy of the lease or the tenant’s contact details: any of these may apply, and they differ from one building to the next.

So we read them first. A unit listed on a lease term the bylaws do not allow is a vacancy waiting to happen, and an owner who signs one has a problem with the association and with the tenant at the same time.

In a condo the line between what you own and what the association owns is drawn by the master deed, and it decides who pays for a repair. Inside the unit is usually yours; the roof, the structure and the shared systems usually are not; and the pipe inside the wall is wherever that building’s documents put it.

When something fails we establish which side of the line it sits on before anyone is sent, coordinate with the association’s manager where it is theirs, and keep the record either way. A tenant does not care whose boiler it is. They care that someone is dealing with it today.

The association’s master policy covers what the association is responsible for, and what it covers inside a unit varies by building. The owner’s own unit policy is often written for someone who lives there. Once a tenant moves in, it is worth confirming with your insurer that the policy fits a rented unit, because the moment to find out it does not is not the night of a water claim.

This is general information rather than insurance advice, and the specific answer comes from your agent and the association’s documents. What we do is make sure the question is asked before the tenancy starts, rather than after.