HOA Issues

[Soon2BV]

i only wish i had covenants.

we live in a nice neighborhood (older homes, 1 acre lots) but it was built in the 60's and most covenants in place prior to the early 1970's we not enforceable and were throuwn out by the city.

One of my neighbors has a boat and travel trailer sitting by his garage, covered by shiny silver tarps for the winter.

Another is a construction worker who parks his van on the street, instead of his driveway. Another has enough firewood stacked to have a campfire from now to Halloween 2012.

Just remember, everyone in you neighborhood thinks their exception should be allowed but no one elses should, so be glad they are enforcing the rules.

[BillFooter]

Maybe this is the boat your neighbor wants to park in his driveway.

[dlb]

Since when is a boat a vehicle? Vehicles have to be self propelled on land.... Trailers are what "some"people live in.

A good lawyer could shoot holes in that article with out much effort. They might even help you file for harassment......

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" I do that has some historical relevance.........

[dlb]

PS: We have a HOA that includes boats.

Look on google maps and mine is in the driveway, LOL.......

[Lance B. Johnson]

Maybe this is the boat your neighbor wants to park in his driveway.

Don't need an HOA to take care of that..........just a match and a little fuel

[MalibuTime]

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 I'm kidding, of course.

Every year we have a few new rules to kick around, some pass, some don't. Unless there is more to your rule though, It has huge holes in it. I would do these things:

1) Draft a rule change that allows for temporary (48 hours) RV/boat parking. (or what ever you think will pass)

2) Find out how to get it on the ballot

3) Lobby your neighbors why it is good to have rule that make sense instead of stupid rules, that way people will be more likely to follow them

4) Start taking picture of all of your neighbors breaking that rule. Then you have a case that the rule is not being consistenly enforced, and should be changed. If you can show you are being singled out, then I think you also might have some more leverage.

My point with number 4 is that every service truck that every comes into your neighborhood is breaking the rule. Period. (they are all Commercial vehicles, vehicles with commercial writing on their exteriors, vehicles primarily used or designed for commercial purposes) Take pictures of the Sears truck, the UPS truck, FEDEX, the carpet cleaners, the landscaper and on in front of all of your neighbors and then explain to the HOA how stupid that rule is. (unless there are more rules somewhere else?) That was not the intent of the rule (I am willing to bet) but that is still what it says.

Good luck. Many HOAs have rules that are poorly written crap that don't make sense, but there thay are. In ours, a lot of the rules where obviously written by an idealistic architect with little or no grounding in reality.

Edited October 24, 2009 by MalibuTime

[wakechick3]

sounds like you probably got noticed because of the neighbors boat and also because yours had been there for an extended period of time (sounds like something you dont commonly keep it there for 2 months).

I used to do the same thing in our old neighborhood- that is bring it home for the weekend then back to storage on sunday, but we had a 48 hour rule on weekends.

Recently, my friends who have a 20' sailboat had been keeping it in thier driveway (they live in my old neighborhood) and they repeatedly got letters telling them to move it. When they were about to the fine stage they called me and asked if they could keep it at my place for a little while. So we now have a sailboat sitting beside our house- I am gonna put xmas lights on it soon- as everyone can see it as they drive down our street.

My husband would like the sailboat gone, but I dont mind it -it's not hurting anyone, and I know it wont go back in the water till the lake level increases dramatically.

If it were me, I would just let it go for the winter and come next season just go back to your normal routine of overnight on the weekends. I betcha the neighbor saw yours there for an extended period so he thought it was okay for him to do so also, then ya'll got spotted or complained about.

[Intense]

OP, if you're serious about moving, come out to Tega Cay. It's a huge waterfront community and the part of the neighborhood I'm in predates alot of the self-righteous soccer moms that have nothing better to do than turn people in for HOA violations.

I actually leave my boat in the water on the weekends at my neighbors house at the end of the street. And there's plenty of storage places that are dirty cheap around here.

[msuwaterski]

HOA's are good and bad. I happen to live in a neighborhood that does not have an HOA. That is nice in the spring when I can put my BU, jetski's, and pontoon in the driveway and street all at the same time and take a week to get them ready for summer. It's bad though because the guy 4 houses down from me keeps his 32' RV in his backyard covered with a giant blue tarp, and leaves his '70's boat trailer that is falling apart in the driveway.

You can't win, unless of course you live in the country, but then you have no neighbors. See what I mean??

[Lance B. Johnson]

HOA's are good and bad. I happen to live in a neighborhood that does not have an HOA. That is nice in the spring when I can put my BU, jetski's, and pontoon in the driveway and street all at the same time and take a week to get them ready for summer. It's bad though because the guy 4 houses down from me keeps his 32' RV in his backyard covered with a giant blue tarp, and leaves his '70's boat trailer that is falling apart in the driveway.

You can't win, unless of course you live in the country, but then you have no neighbors. See what I mean??

Thats the idea

[msuwaterski]

You can't win, unless of course you live in the country, but then you have no neighbors. See what I mean??

Thats the idea

True, but I actually like having neighbors. Most of my neighbors are also my ski buddies. To each his own though!

[martinarcher]

HOA's are good and bad. I happen to live in a neighborhood that does not have an HOA. That is nice in the spring when I can put my BU, jetski's, and pontoon in the driveway and street all at the same time and take a week to get them ready for summer. It's bad though because the guy 4 houses down from me keeps his 32' RV in his backyard covered with a giant blue tarp, and leaves his '70's boat trailer that is falling apart in the driveway.

You can't win, unless of course you live in the country, but then you have no neighbors. See what I mean??

Thats the idea

Exactly. I will never live anywhere that has a HOA. Telling me what I can't do on my own property just sounds crazy!

Just an idea - would you be allowed to park the boat in the backyard and clean it up the next day?

[SkiingPT]

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.

Buy the oldest, ugliest car you can find that runs for $300 and park it in the driveway just to pi$$ off your neighbors. When they complain, tell they could have been looking at the Malibu.

[Bill_AirJunky]

Buy the oldest, ugliest car you can find that runs for $300 and park it in the driveway just to pi$$ off your neighbors. When they complain, tell they could have been looking at the Malibu.

I thought about doing just that. And then one day I happened to drive by the perfect car. Sorta like this baby but more run down & banged up. Ran & drove fine though.

Edited October 25, 2009 by Bill_AirJunky

[skyskier]

AMC Gremlin? It looks like them made them two at a time and then chopped them in half.

[Tao of Wake]

I live in a sub with an HOA (only 82 houses on 1 acre lots), and I hated it. Until I got on the board and made changes to the bylaws! It was much easier with just 82 homeowners, though, and it was early in the development of the sub, so the majority of owners would attend the yearly meetings; so I just drafted my proposed changes for the next meeting, put it to a vote, they passed (after a lot of "greasing the wheels" prior to the meeting), and I retired from the board.

I still really don't like living in a sub with an HOA and would not do so again. I didn't think it would bother me, but it did. I did move in having read the bylaws and restrictions, but I didn't have the boat at the time!

I particularly liked the early comment about "bored soccer moms". That is exactly what it is. They are so bored they just drive around the neighborhood looking for violations. At one of the early meetings, I spoke up and said something like why don't you use that energy to better the community by volunteering rather than acting as some self-appointed official. If you don't like what you see in the neighborhood, get over it!

I've heard the arguments that HOAs are to protect property values. The rules established by your local government already do this. For example, if you live within a city, township, village, etc., you cannot have a non-running vehicle stored outside on your property (I believe this is universal). There's more language to it, but you get the point. No clunkers sitting on your lawn. For something to negatively affect your property values, the majority of people would have to be against it. That is, the majority of people considering your house would have to decide not to purchase it purely because your neighbor has a boat on the driveway (as an example). How can you prove that? Where is the survey that indicates a list of items that have been studied and considered as things that lower property values?

I could really care less what my neighbors have on their property. It's not on mine. If I consider selling my house, I will take a look at my neighbor's property, and if anything violates the township laws, I will call it in to get it rectified before I put my house up for sale. Other than that, I let them be just as I would like for them to leave me be. This is a learning experience for me: Never live in another sub with an HOA. My fault for doing so in the first place. I'm just trying to make the point that people are just too concerned about what everyone else is doing. Just worrying about myself and my family is enough for me. Anything more is just not healthy. Live and let live.

Ndawg12 - The above doesn't really help your situation; sorry for the hijack. I think you have received some very good advice from others, though. The wording just doesn't seem to justify the actions taken by your HOA. If you really wanted to fight it, you would probably win, but you probably don't want to do that for many reasons. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[UberXY]

My HOA at the lake may be a little different from yours, but they are pretty much powerless to do anything more than write unhappy letters. I mean, they can put a lien on the house for a violation, which could make for a problem if you have done something permanent and want to sell your home, but for a temporary thing like parking a boat, one can just move it a few weeks before selling the home and the HOA has to remove the lien.

I recently had a guy painting the boat house and he put one of those metal real estate signs out front of the house advertising his services, which netted him a few jobs. The HOA wrote me a letter complaining about commercial signage. What kind of heartless pinhead would do that in a recession with 10% unemployment? I never mentioned the letter to the painter.

Ub

Edited October 25, 2009 by UberXY

[auto]

Happiest day of my life is when I moved from an HOA neighborhood to one w/o. Spent the last year threatening to sue the HOA and personally sue the Board members, finally got those assclowns attention. That BS of maintaining property value is a load of crap it is about control. Lets see in three year since I left, my home value has increased the value of my last house. The house I moved from went down in value. Wonder how that is?

[Ndawg12]

OP, if you're serious about moving, come out to Tega Cay. It's a huge waterfront community and the part of the neighborhood I'm in predates alot of the self-righteous soccer moms that have nothing better to do than turn people in for HOA violations.

I actually leave my boat in the water on the weekends at my neighbors house at the end of the street. And there's plenty of storage places that are dirty cheap around here.

I would move down there in a heartbeat. We have family down there and I prefer Lake Wylie over Norman anyways (Lake Wylie just needs a couple more restaurants) but that would be a helluva drive to work for both of us (Huntersville).

[Ndawg12]

Buy the oldest, ugliest car you can find that runs for $300 and park it in the driveway just to pi$$ off your neighbors. When they complain, tell they could have been looking at the Malibu.

Ooh, good idea!!

[martinarcher]

Buy the oldest, ugliest car you can find that runs for $300 and park it in the driveway just to pi$$ off your neighbors. When they complain, tell they could have been looking at the Malibu.

Ooh, good idea!!

That is awesome! Do it!!

[Ndawg12]

Wow, so I really got some people stirred up since Friday, thanks for all the good advice.

Some highlights that I take away from this posts:

I don't want to park the boat there permanently, and I don't really want my neighbors doing it either, just a 48 hour rule, I'm still not sure if this is accepted or not, I will check on that.

I like the country, HOA's suck, I want some property that I can do what ever I want on it!!

I will not be attending board meetings or kissing neighbors arses, I will just move eventually.

I built a 400sqft deck and chopped down 10 12" thick trees in my backyard without approval from the HOA, thought about it but said f&%$ it, that makes me feel better.

I've paid $600 a year for the last 5 years for what? Nicely mowed common areas, some street lighting, and a couple trips to the pool!!??

[Ndawg12]

Buy the oldest, ugliest car you can find that runs for $300 and park it in the driveway just to pi$$ off your neighbors. When they complain, tell they could have been looking at the Malibu.

Ooh, good idea!!

That is awesome! Do it!!

I definitely would, might lower my car insurance as well, but it would be a tough sell to the wifey!!

[Bill_AirJunky]

I've paid $600 a year for the last 5 years for what? Nicely mowed common areas, some street lighting, and a couple trips to the pool!!??

Ouch. The only reason I put up with an HOA is to have shared waterfront & a boat slip.

[Ndawg12]

I've paid $600 a year for the last 5 years for what? Nicely mowed common areas, some street lighting, and a couple trips to the pool!!??

Ouch. The only reason I put up with an HOA is to have shared waterfront & a boat slip.

Nope, I still have to drive 10 minutes, hook up to the boat, and drive another 15 minutes to the ramp.