Can Your HOA Add a New Fee After You Buy? Sunterra's $1,000 Leasing Charge, Explained
A Katy homeowner is challenging a new $1,000 annual leasing fee from the Sunterra HOA. Here is what actually controls whether an HOA can add a fee like this after you buy.
A homeowner in Katy's Sunterra master-planned community bought two houses as rental investments after reviewing the HOA's governing documents, which allowed leasing under specific conditions. Then the Sunterra Homeowners Association emailed residents about a new policy: anyone who rents out their home now owes a $1,000 annual leasing fee, on top of the community's existing $1,200 annual assessment and a required internet fee. The policy also adds new leasing rules, including a 12 month minimum lease term, tenant registration, and lease documentation.
KPRC 2's Joy Addison first reported the story on August 6, 2026. The homeowner, Bernard Ukbu, says he is already doing everything the new policy requires, written leases, tenant compliance with community rules, professional lawn maintenance, and is now being asked to pay $1,000 a year on top of it. He told KPRC that if the fee had existed before he bought, he could have factored it into his decision. Because it arrived after closing, he says it changes the math on properties he already owns. The HOA had not responded to KPRC's request for comment as of publication.
What actually controls whether an HOA can do this
Houston real estate attorney David Kahne, who is not involved in the Sunterra dispute, told KPRC that the answer lives in the community's deed restrictions, also called CC&Rs. "The primary way to control HOA fees comes from your deed restrictions," Kahne said. Those documents typically spell out whether a board can impose new fees on its own, whether an increase needs a homeowner vote, and whether the association can treat rental owners differently from owner occupants. Kahne noted that charging landlords a different rate than owner occupied homes isn't something he commonly sees, and that the deed restrictions would need to specifically authorize that kind of unequal treatment.
This is the part that catches even experienced buyers off guard. Creating a new fee, or a new category of fee, usually does not require a vote of the full membership. If the governing documents give the board broad assessment or rule making power, a board can often add a fee like this the same way it might raise regular dues, and homeowners find out by email after the fact.
Before you buy into any HOA, check these five things
Every buyer considering a home in an HOA, not just Sunterra, should pull the governing documents and confirm:
- Whether rentals are allowed, and under what conditions
- How assessments and new fees are determined and approved
- Whether an increase requires a homeowner vote, or only a board vote
- How much authority the board has to create new rules and fees on its own
- Whether there is a cap on how much assessments can increase in a given year
None of this shows up on the MLS listing. You have to request the resale certificate and governing documents directly from the HOA or its management company before you close.
If you already own in an HOA that just changed the rules
You have options short of just paying it. Organize with neighbors who are affected the same way. Run for the board, or support a candidate who will push back. And if you believe the board acted outside what the governing documents actually authorize, that is a question for an attorney who handles HOA law in your state, since the answer turns entirely on your specific declaration and bylaws, not on what feels fair.
Why this kind of change is so hard to see coming
No law requires an HOA to publish its fee schedule, its rental policy, or its enforcement history anywhere a buyer would find it before making an offer. That is the gap HOAReview exists to close. Residents write about what it is actually like living under a given association, including the fee changes that never make it into a listing, so the next buyer has a chance to ask about it before they are the one finding out by email.
Sunterra has a profile on HOAReview, and no resident has reviewed it yet. If you live there, yours would be the first, and it would be the only place a future buyer could read about this fee from someone who actually pays it.
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Source: KPRC 2 / Click2Houston, reported by Joy Addison. Read the full article