HOA: No backyard swing for you!

"[MINEOLA, Texas ] A homeowner?s association is suing a returning Army veteran for having a swing set for his kids in his backyard."

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Reply to
HeyBub
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Are Army veterans exempt from the established rules?

Maybe he should have read the HOA agreement ***before*** he signed on the dotted line.

Reply to
Snake Doc

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The dude is an army captain, he ought to know how to follow orders from a higher authority.

Reply to
Mr. Austerity

On May 2, 7:36=A0pm, Steve Barker wrote: =A0it's still a free country

Yeah but that is a moot thought when the association files suit and starts running up your legal bills. Note that the homeowners association's position is they did not submit the design drawings. Standard position for these kinds of groups. In my old (and absolutely LAST) controlled neighborhood they enforced "standards" beyond what was written and got away with it. The written rule was you could not build a storage building until the association's design committee reviewed the drawings and approved them. But the president's position was "There ain't gonna be any ***damned" storage sheds in my neighborhood!" During the five years of his reign no sheds were built because he would not accept drawings from homeowners or his committee for signature.

A couple who lived across the commons from us submitted drawings for a privacy fence. They were in an area where wood fences were OK. The lake area required iron. After bugging the committee and asking for approval, to no avail, they built what everyone thought was a very attractive fence. Box famed, cedar lower sections with an attractive lattice strip across the top and copper-clad post caps. IOW, they went out of her way to make it attractive (and spared no expense). The association watched quietly as they built the fence themselves over a period of a couple of weeks. These folks were in their 60's so they worked hard at putting it in. About a week after completion and with no discussion with the homeowners the association filed a lawsuit. Their basis was no approval and the homeowners should have hired a competent fence company (Bulls**t - the fence was a work of art). The community protested the action but the fence came down. About six months later two very nice neighbors left.

RonB

Reply to
RonB

Yeah but that is a moot thought when the association files suit and starts running up your legal bills. Note that the homeowners association's position is they did not submit the design drawings. Standard position for these kinds of groups. In my old (and absolutely LAST) controlled neighborhood they enforced "standards" beyond what was written and got away with it. The written rule was you could not build a storage building until the association's design committee reviewed the drawings and approved them. But the president's position was "There ain't gonna be any ***damned" storage sheds in my neighborhood!" During the five years of his reign no sheds were built because he would not accept drawings from homeowners or his committee for signature.

A couple who lived across the commons from us submitted drawings for a privacy fence. They were in an area where wood fences were OK. The lake area required iron. After bugging the committee and asking for approval, to no avail, they built what everyone thought was a very attractive fence. Box famed, cedar lower sections with an attractive lattice strip across the top and copper-clad post caps. IOW, they went out of her way to make it attractive (and spared no expense). The association watched quietly as they built the fence themselves over a period of a couple of weeks. These folks were in their 60's so they worked hard at putting it in. About a week after completion and with no discussion with the homeowners the association filed a lawsuit. Their basis was no approval and the homeowners should have hired a competent fence company (Bulls**t - the fence was a work of art). The community protested the action but the fence came down. About six months later two very nice neighbors left.

RonB

Sounds like the worst kind of tribal government. We're never far from our historical roots it seems.

Tomsic

Reply to
Tomsic

Sounds like the homeowner's lawyer slipped up. If, as you say, the HOA watched construction for two weeks without saying anything, under contract law, which would certainly be extendable to the homeowner's situation, the HOA "consented by silence" to the fence.

It is said that almost all of contract law can be absorbed by studying "The Fence," "The Pit," and "The Bull."

In the case of the fence, if you see your neighbor beginning to erect a fence between your property and his, you have the duty to protest at the earliest opportunity. Should you not protest, under the aforementioned rule of "assent by silence," you are responsible for half the cost of the project.

Of course there are sub-considerations: You might be okay with a chain-link fence but the neighbor is putting up a fence made of hand-carved marble blocks topped by gargoyles and winged demons. In this case, and dozens of other permutations, adjustments to the basic rule might be necessary.

Reply to
HeyBub

The contract is only as good as the HOAs will to enforce it. In some

*political* situations enforcement may become difficult.

Crossing Vets and the improper American flag placement are two common examples. You see them from time to time in the newspaper since they make good controversial reading. (Translation: More paper sales.)

Some years back a Vet in my community was behind in his dues. The HOA removed several of his privileges. Among those was participating in parades. Course the next parade coming up was Vets day parade. The local papers in my area had a great time with that. The HOA got lots of hate mail and finally backed down. Never mind that the guy was quite wealthy...

Then of course there are the guys that want to hang the American flag against the rules and then complain about the HOA as unpatriotic. If this turns out to be a vet too, even the better. The papers love it.

By the way, my 16' flagpole has the necessary HOA permit. I don't want any waves since it doubles as one of my stealth ham antennas... ;)

Reply to
AJL

It sort of does for the small dishes, but not for ham and some other antennas.

Anyone that joins a HOA deserves what they get. No one made them move in, they are free to move out anytime they want.

I always made it a point to check on any HOA and other restrictions outside of the general county rules before I bought a house. Even had a clause in one contract that I could move out if there were any that restricted any of my hobbies.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Nope. HOA rules can outlaw ham antennas. Course the HOA can't enforce what they can't see (my stealth antennas). I knew and approved the restrictions when I bought the house...

Reply to
AJL

Like i said it's been a while and at the time FCC trumped HOA (this was Texas)

Reply to
NotMe

Only for commercial receiving antennas. It specifically avoids the issue of ham antennas. I was taken to task for this, here, last week. ;-)

Reply to
krw

so you've asked for a copy of the minutes of the ACC where your request was discussed. doesn't matter if it was yay or nay, if they don't have a record of the discussion, you may be able to leverage that

Reply to
Malcom "Mal" Reynolds

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