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HOA Issues


Ndawg12

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I might possibly be getting fined by my HOA for parking my boat at my house over some weekends. I now know it is against the policy that I signed when I moved in, but who reads all that crap anyways!!?? Actually my boat sat in my driveway for 2 months before I got my first notice, incidently some new neighbors moved in and also parked their 1985 Gayliner in their driveway and covered it with a tarp, some bungees, and the tongue sat on a cinder block, soon after that is when I got my notice.

Anyways now I have it at a storage yard during the week. Our normal weekend schedule was this: go get the boat on Saturday morning, boat all day, nicely park it in the driveway over night, perform any maintenance/upgrades and clean it up real nice on Sunday and take it back to the storage yard in the evening.

I realize the HOA is in place to keep the neighborhood looking nice and safe and help maintain perceived property values, but these boats don't look bad sitting in a driveway do they? Well that's just my biased opinion, I would like to hear what you all think, if theres a loophole, or if anyone has been able to get their boat exempt from such a policy.

Article XII, Section 2 of the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions for the Highland Creek Association states:

"Commercial vehicles, vehicles with commercial writing on their exteriors, vehicles primarily used or designed for commercial purposes, tractors, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, trailers with or without wheels, campers shall be parked only in enclosed garages or areas, if any, designated by the board or by the Neighborhood Association...."

SPECIFICALLY: THE BOAT IN YOUR DRIVEWAY NEEDS TO BE REMOVED.

BTW, I can not fit it in my garage and there are no designated areas.

Edited by Ndawg12
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I might possibly be getting fined by my HOA for parking my boat at my house over some weekends. I now know it is against the policy that I signed when I moved in, but who reads all that crap anyways!!?? Actually my boat sat in my driveway for 2 months before I got my first notice, incidently some new neighbors moved in and also parked their 1985 Gayliner in their driveway and covered it with a tarp, some bungees, and the tongue sat on a cinder block, soon after that is when I got my notice.

Anyways now I have it at a storage yard during the week. Our normal weekend schedule was this: go get the boat on Saturday morning, boat all day, nicely park it in the driveway over night, perform any maintenance/upgrades and clean it up real nice on Sunday and take it back to the storage yard in the evening.

I realize the HOA is in place to keep the neighborhood looking nice and safe and help maintain perceived property values, but these boats don't look bad sitting in a driveway do they? Well that's just my biased opinion, I would like to hear what you all think, if theres a loophole, or if anyone has been to get their boat exempt from such a policy.

Article XII, Section 2 of the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions for the Highland Creek Association states:

"Commercial vehicles, vehicles with commercial writing on their exteriors, vehicles primarily used or designed for commercial purposes, tractors, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, trailers with or without wheels, campers shall be parked only in enclosed garages or areas, if any, designated by the board or by the Neighborhood Association...."

SPECIFICALLY: THE BOAT IN YOUR DRIVEWAY NEEDS TO BE REMOVED.

BTW, I can not fit it in my garage and there are no designated areas.

The rules are in place to keep people like your neigbor from parking their bayliner with a tarp covering it, not necessarily against a nice malibu sitting in driveway. You might consider it a good thing.

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I might possibly be getting fined by my HOA for parking my boat at my house over some weekends. I now know it is against the policy that I signed when I moved in, but who reads all that crap anyways!!?? Actually my boat sat in my driveway for 2 months before I got my first notice, incidently some new neighbors moved in and also parked their 1985 Gayliner in their driveway and covered it with a tarp, some bungees, and the tongue sat on a cinder block, soon after that is when I got my notice.

Anyways now I have it at a storage yard during the week. Our normal weekend schedule was this: go get the boat on Saturday morning, boat all day, nicely park it in the driveway over night, perform any maintenance/upgrades and clean it up real nice on Sunday and take it back to the storage yard in the evening.

I realize the HOA is in place to keep the neighborhood looking nice and safe and help maintain perceived property values, but these boats don't look bad sitting in a driveway do they? Well that's just my biased opinion, I would like to hear what you all think, if theres a loophole, or if anyone has been to get their boat exempt from such a policy.

Article XII, Section 2 of the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions for the Highland Creek Association states:

"Commercial vehicles, vehicles with commercial writing on their exteriors, vehicles primarily used or designed for commercial purposes, tractors, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, trailers with or without wheels, campers shall be parked only in enclosed garages or areas, if any, designated by the board or by the Neighborhood Association...."

SPECIFICALLY: THE BOAT IN YOUR DRIVEWAY NEEDS TO BE REMOVED.

BTW, I can not fit it in my garage and there are no designated areas.

The rules are in place to keep people like your neigbor from parking their bayliner with a tarp covering it, not necessarily against a nice malibu sitting in driveway. You might consider it a good thing.

I actually do think it's a good thing, but just one night a week? The way I interpret it, I can't ever bring my boat home, ever, not even for 5 minutes to load gear or what ever.

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I might possibly be getting fined by my HOA for parking my boat at my house over some weekends. I now know it is against the policy that I signed when I moved in, but who reads all that crap anyways!!?? Actually my boat sat in my driveway for 2 months before I got my first notice, incidently some new neighbors moved in and also parked their 1985 Gayliner in their driveway and covered it with a tarp, some bungees, and the tongue sat on a cinder block, soon after that is when I got my notice.

Anyways now I have it at a storage yard during the week. Our normal weekend schedule was this: go get the boat on Saturday morning, boat all day, nicely park it in the driveway over night, perform any maintenance/upgrades and clean it up real nice on Sunday and take it back to the storage yard in the evening.

I realize the HOA is in place to keep the neighborhood looking nice and safe and help maintain perceived property values, but these boats don't look bad sitting in a driveway do they? Well that's just my biased opinion, I would like to hear what you all think, if theres a loophole, or if anyone has been to get their boat exempt from such a policy.

Article XII, Section 2 of the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions for the Highland Creek Association states:

"Commercial vehicles, vehicles with commercial writing on their exteriors, vehicles primarily used or designed for commercial purposes, tractors, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, trailers with or without wheels, campers shall be parked only in enclosed garages or areas, if any, designated by the board or by the Neighborhood Association...."

SPECIFICALLY: THE BOAT IN YOUR DRIVEWAY NEEDS TO BE REMOVED.

BTW, I can not fit it in my garage and there are no designated areas.

The rules are in place to keep people like your neigbor from parking their bayliner with a tarp covering it, not necessarily against a nice malibu sitting in driveway. You might consider it a good thing.

I actually do think it's a good thing, but just one night a week? The way I interpret it, I can't ever bring my boat home, ever, not even for 5 minutes to load gear or what ever.

That's not right. Isn't there an HOA rep in the area you could talk to about it in the off season?

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Ours allows us to keep it out on Saturday and Sunday nights, but must be put away by Monday. We are a development on the lake so they are probably being more relaxed because alot of people have boats.

What really steams me is the cars that look like they took part in the Iraq war, and they are allowed to sit in front of the houses as long as they run. :unsure:

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Usually covenants have a time period that they allow you to keep it at your house, like 12 or 24 hours before it has to be removed. Does it have any language like that?

Nope, that's the whole article, the one before it and after it are completely different topics.

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Usually covenants have a time period that they allow you to keep it at your house, like 12 or 24 hours before it has to be removed. Does it have any language like that?

Nope, that's the whole article, the one before it and after it are completely different topics.

Do you attend your HOA meetings? Is there a process in place to apply for a change to the covenants? I think that I'd start exploring those options. Don't get yourself sideways with that group, they can make your life miserable if they want to.

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The clause you posted covers your vehicle but does not describe the restriction specifically. I have not seen any CC&R's that restrict the vehicle from the property, only long term or overnight storage. My neighborhood CC&R's restricts metal buildings but I put one up for the boat storage, been there 1 1/2 years and nobody said anything about it. Guess I do not have a bunch of A-holes in my neighborhood. Have you considered moving?

Edited by Sandbagger
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This is why I was hesistant to build in a neighborhood with HOA covenants. I got around the issue by building an approved 'architectually similar' garage to house the boat and the motorhome. Some neighbors don't like that we have the nice big outbuilding, but there is nothing they can do about it now.

Our covenants don't allow for a boat to be left out overnight:

6.8 Parking. Except as may otherwise be provided in the Rules and Regulations of the Association, parking of boats, trailers, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, mobile homes, campers or other recreational vehicles or equipment, regardless of weight, and parking of any other vehicles with a gross vehicle weight in excess of 9,000 pounds shall not be allowed to remain overnight on any part of the Property or on public streets within the Property, excepting only within areas designated for such purposes by the Board of Directors of the Association or within the confines of an enclosed garage or screened area, the plans of which shall have been reviewed and approved by the Architectural Review Committee prior to construction, and which must be constructed behind the front building line of the dwelling. No portion of the vehicle may project beyond the screened area. If there is no rear fencing and the vehicle could be seen from the outside the Lot other than from the front road, the vehicle must also be screened from view from that direction as well. Vehicles may not be used for storage of materials for more than forty-eight (48) hours without approval from the Architectural Review Committee. Each Owner shall provide adequate off-street parking on such Owner's Lot for parking of vehicles owned by such Owner and shall not park the Owner's vehicles on adjacent roads or streets as a matter of course. Blocking of Common Area roadways is prohibited. Any vehicle parked in violation of this section can be towed or impounded as provided in Section 11.1© below.

You need to find exactly what your rules state.

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I might possibly be getting fined by my HOA for parking my boat at my house over some weekends. I now know it is against the policy that I signed when I moved in, but who reads all that crap anyways!!?? Actually my boat sat in my driveway for 2 months before I got my first notice, incidently some new neighbors moved in and also parked their 1985 Gayliner in their driveway and covered it with a tarp, some bungees, and the tongue sat on a cinder block, soon after that is when I got my notice.

Anyways now I have it at a storage yard during the week. Our normal weekend schedule was this: go get the boat on Saturday morning, boat all day, nicely park it in the driveway over night, perform any maintenance/upgrades and clean it up real nice on Sunday and take it back to the storage yard in the evening.

I realize the HOA is in place to keep the neighborhood looking nice and safe and help maintain perceived property values, but these boats don't look bad sitting in a driveway do they? Well that's just my biased opinion, I would like to hear what you all think, if theres a loophole, or if anyone has been to get their boat exempt from such a policy.

Article XII, Section 2 of the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions for the Highland Creek Association states:

"Commercial vehicles, vehicles with commercial writing on their exteriors, vehicles primarily used or designed for commercial purposes, tractors, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, trailers with or without wheels, campers shall be parked only in enclosed garages or areas, if any, designated by the board or by the Neighborhood Association...."

SPECIFICALLY: THE BOAT IN YOUR DRIVEWAY NEEDS TO BE REMOVED.

BTW, I can not fit it in my garage and there are no designated areas.

The rules are in place to keep people like your neigbor from parking their bayliner with a tarp covering it, not necessarily against a nice malibu sitting in driveway. You might consider it a good thing.

I actually do think it's a good thing, but just one night a week? The way I interpret it, I can't ever bring my boat home, ever, not even for 5 minutes to load gear or what ever.

That's not right. Isn't there an HOA rep in the area you could talk to about it in the off season?

Our subdivision is huge (4400 houses and 14,000 residents) so there are subdivisions of the subdivision Crazy.gif Anyways, each one of these has it's own anonymous "inspector". I would love to know who it is.

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The clause you posted covers your vehicle but does not describe the restriction specifically. I have not seen any CC&R's that restrict the vehicle from the property, only long term or overnight storage. My neighborhood CC&R's restricts metal buildings but I put one up for the boat storage, been there 1 1/2 years and nobody said anything about it. Guess I do not have a bunch of A-holes in my neighborhood. Have you considered moving?

I am now, I don't like being away from my baby that long!! :)

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Usually covenants have a time period that they allow you to keep it at your house, like 12 or 24 hours before it has to be removed. Does it have any language like that?

Nope, that's the whole article, the one before it and after it are completely different topics.

Do you attend your HOA meetings? Is there a process in place to apply for a change to the covenants? I think that I'd start exploring those options. Don't get yourself sideways with that group, they can make your life miserable if they want to.

I can't get out of work in time to attend them at 5:30. I have written a response to my notice stating my situation so I'll see how/if they respond to that.

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I'm a Board of Advisors member to the Board of Directors for our HOA. If your covenants are POAA, then to change an existing rule you will have to put it up for vote with the HOA residents and have a majority to pass it. My HOA has the same policy. My house is the only house in a cul-de-sac, so I park my boat over-night when I know I will be using it the next day. I know, not setting a good example as a BOA member. Remember though, the only way the HOA knows about parking over night is if they drive by and see it or someone is turning you in. Otherwise, it is stored at an off-site storage facility down the street from me. We have a third party HOA management company that does not work on weekends and we take the neighbors out on our boat all the time, so they get excited when they see my Bu sitting in the cul-de-sac. Personally, I like the rule and would vote against changing it. Maybe join the HOA board, like me, and get the perks Thumbup.gif I'm kidding, of course.

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Come to think of it, I did live in a upscale community where they restricted parking vehicles on the street or in the driveway overnight, and they did give us several warnings, luckily I was renting a house temporarily. Just goes to show you that reading the CC&R's is important prior to closing the deal.

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Our HOA has the CC&Rs which we get copies of on the Title Report. Also the association has "house rules" that address issues like loading and unloading RV's, pets rules, etc. Our CC&R's state at no time not even for loading/unloading should boats/RV's be in the neighborhood but the House Rules state we may park it in the driveway, (Not on the Street) for 72 hours.

Do you have a similar document or second set of rules? It's my understanding they do that so we don't have to get a bunch of changes recorded at the county and incur extra expenses.

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Our HOA has the CC&Rs which we get copies of on the Title Report. Also the association has "house rules" that address issues like loading and unloading RV's, pets rules, etc. Our CC&R's state at no time not even for loading/unloading should boats/RV's be in the neighborhood but the House Rules state we may park it in the driveway, (Not on the Street) for 72 hours.

Do you have a similar document or second set of rules? It's my understanding they do that so we don't have to get a bunch of changes recorded at the county and incur extra expenses.

Not that I'm aware of. I want to see what my punishment is before I start asking them questions.

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I went thru this a year or so ago with our HOA. We bought a 7 yr old house in an HOA with 53 owners, a block from the lake, 300' of beachfront, our own ramp, docks, slips, etc. Our covenants give a 72 hr grace period so you can bring your boat or RV in, park it, clean it, load it, whatever before or after your trip. Otherwise we're not allowed to park the boats anywhere they can be seen, on or off our own property.

We have an RV spot on our property, beside the house & behind a 6' tall x 15' wide gate.... it is big enough for the boat, but obviously you can see the tower over the gate. When we moved in I was happy with the RV spot on the side of the house & didn't know about the rule that they would not allow it if they could see any part of the boat behind it. We got served the first year & I was livid. I went to an HOA meeting & listened to the debate & spoke my piece....... actually told them I'd pull the tower off & put it in the front yard with a rope swing on it & call it playground equipment.... which IS allowed. I also talked to a number of other boat owners & we decided we had a list of boat related rules we wanted relaxed, ie; mainly to be allowed to park the boat in the driveway from April - October.

After almost a year of debating the issue, they decided that if I stopped pursuing the changing of the rules for all boat owners, then they would consider my own situation "in spirit of the HOA rules". And they actually put it in writing that my boat was permitted in my RV spot behind the gate. Of course I accepted it. And while it's not ideal for everyone, I would still vote in favor of relaxing the boat parking rules a bit if someone else were to pursue it.

Gotta look out for number one. So maybe it's time to do that for yourself. Hope you can make it happen.

In hindsight I'd like to say I won't ever live in another HOA again. I hate being told what I can't do on my own damn property, especially when we're talking about a boat nicer than 1/2 the cars in my neighborhood. The guys that complained about my boat live 2 blocks away from me & have had a pile of bricks on the side of his house for 2 yrs....... something else that is not allowed is for construction debris to be visible from the road for more than 72 hrs.

I've thought about buying a place on some land, with a shop, and maybe buy/rent a waterfront condo so I can use the boat slip. Hope I would have the best of both worlds at that point. And I can flip'em the bird everytime I drive by.

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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In our community, i got a 'warning' notification this summer fofr leaving the boat in the driveway for more than the allotted '48hrs per calendar week'. They told me that next time it would be a $250 fine, and a third infraction would be $500. After that, i think they have a legal right to start putting lein's on my house....

What is strange though, is that (at least in our neighborhood), a direct neighbor has to complain. However, i know all of my neighbors and they all seem to be ok with the boat in the driveway for a couple of days (i had one neighbor tell me that he thought it 'classed up the neighborhood' :)). So i am not sure if they can still levy the fees on me if it was not a neighbor who complained....

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My HOA is no overnight parking of RVs..., My Dad lives in the Ca. bay area and you can't park any RV or boat overnight and NO cars of any type are to be parked on the street overnight.

Our City Ordnance also does not allow any vehicle to be parked on the street without moving for longer than 72 hrs. I like that one. It keeps the streets looking clean and uncluttered. Driveways and garages are for cars not boxes of Junk that should be in storage or thrown out or broke down POS cars.

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There are some things I most definitely miss about my old house. Our property was surrounded by homes that had CC&R's, but ours did not as our house predated all of those around us. I could park my boat, cars, and motorhome anywhere on my property I wanted to and, while some neighbors did complain, they couldn't do anything about it as long as I was within county code.

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I know ours allows for trucks, RVs, and boats over the weekends and only overnight on weekday nights if you arrange with the HOA before hand. What's funny is by the language in our covenants the ONLY vehicle that can be left in the driveway without fuss are cars (i.e. coupes, sedans, convertibles). Any kind of SUV or truck is lumped in with the exclusion of recreational vehicles. Of course no one gets barked at for such that I know of.

I just kiss the HOA's hiney every time I get the chance. They've begun to get my routine of having the boat out a few times a year for the bulk of a week and then it's gone. The last couple of times this summer I didn't even get a letter for it. I try to be nice to all the neighbors I can get my hands on as well. Someone's got to turn me in between the biweekly drives out to the neighborhood from the city by the property management company hired by the HOA.

However, they did send me a letter for the 6' bass tracker I had leaning against the wall WAY at the back of the property where you couldn't see it from the street unless you were walking between the houses all the way past my AC units. I'd forgot it was there since you really can't see it from any angle until you're on it. I happen to know that my HOA has a LONG process for fines. It goes something like this:

Warning 1

Warning 2

Warning 3

Letter from Lawyer

Letter from Lawyer 2

Fine

Up until last year we didn't even have that "fine" part in there. :) I laughed for a good 10 minutes at the first HOA meeting when I found that out.

All in all I don't mind my HOA so long as they don't poke there noses into what I do around the house in the way of landscaping, painting, staining, etc. I'll ask permission for patios and such which makes sense. A very bored person though could make our lives hell though because the covenants say that we have to get approval for ANY landscaping changes like new beds, trees, or significant changes in the plantings.

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A very bored person though could make our lives hell though because the covenants say that we have to get approval for ANY landscaping changes like new beds, trees, or significant changes in the plantings.

We had a gal get all bent out of shape because a neighbor was painting their house without HOA approval...... the SAME color it was already painted!!

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I live in a small neighborhood with 13 lots about 4 acres each and we do have covenants and a HOA. It really kind of ticks me off when someone buys a property in the neighborhood and then wants to gripe about the rules. If they didn't like the rules then why did they buy the property? The rules are there to protect everyone, and I see no reason to give anyone a special exception, and if you do then you open the door for exceptions for anything. If you give someone an exemption to park a boat, RV, or camper for the weekend, then how can you turn down the neighbor that is a truck driver that wants to park his 18 wheel truck in his driveway for the weekend?

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I went thru this a year or so ago with our HOA. We bought a 7 yr old house in an HOA with 53 owners, a block from the lake, 300' of beachfront, our own ramp, docks, slips, etc. Our covenants give a 72 hr grace period so you can bring your boat or RV in, park it, clean it, load it, whatever before or after your trip. Otherwise we're not allowed to park the boats anywhere they can be seen, on or off our own property.

We have an RV spot on our property, beside the house & behind a 6' tall x 15' wide gate.... it is big enough for the boat, but obviously you can see the tower over the gate. When we moved in I was happy with the RV spot on the side of the house & didn't know about the rule that they would not allow it if they could see any part of the boat behind it. We got served the first year & I was livid. I went to an HOA meeting & listened to the debate & spoke my piece....... actually told them I'd pull the tower off & put it in the front yard with a rope swing on it & call it playground equipment.... which IS allowed. I also talked to a number of other boat owners & we decided we had a list of boat related rules we wanted relaxed, ie; mainly to be allowed to park the boat in the driveway from April - October.

After almost a year of debating the issue, they decided that if I stopped pursuing the changing of the rules for all boat owners, then they would consider my own situation "in spirit of the HOA rules". And they actually put it in writing that my boat was permitted in my RV spot behind the gate. Of course I accepted it. And while it's not ideal for everyone, I would still vote in favor of relaxing the boat parking rules a bit if someone else were to pursue it.

Gotta look out for number one. So maybe it's time to do that for yourself. Hope you can make it happen.

In hindsight I'd like to say I won't ever live in another HOA again. I hate being told what I can't do on my own damn property, especially when we're talking about a boat nicer than 1/2 the cars in my neighborhood. The guys that complained about my boat live 2 blocks away from me & have had a pile of bricks on the side of his house for 2 yrs....... something else that is not allowed is for construction debris to be visible from the road for more than 72 hrs.

I've thought about buying a place on some land, with a shop, and maybe buy/rent a waterfront condo so I can use the boat slip. Hope I would have the best of both worlds at that point. And I can flip'em the bird everytime I drive by.

Bill, I am right with you. HOA was a deal breaker for me.......not because I have a junky house or anything of the sort. I can not stand being told what to do with my property. I even have completed a few projects w/o a permit because the thought of seeking a permit irritated me to no end...

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