Christmas Light CLIPS, not lights. Must come down?

Hello all, first time poster.

Have a house that literally covers every square inch of all four sides of his house AND the roof with lights. There are thousands and thousands. For 10 years neighbors have been complaining to the board. However, the Board has not had any specific rules and regs on anything. This Spring we finally added some rules and regs which included not only can they not put the lights up until Thanksgiving, and take them down at a certain time, but the thousands of ugly clips that are nailed into his house have to come down. The clips are part of the lights and are very unsightly.

Now he's starting to fight us. He is actually calling around town getting quotes on a new management company so he can tell the Board to fire the current one. He believes the management company is dictating these rules, not the Board. This of course is complete wrong. We chose the rules and had the management type them up and send them out.

He's also sending a petition around saying he should be able to leave the clips up all year round.

It's going to get ugly.

So, anyone deal with clips and light hanging hardware before like this?

People from out of town come by to look at it. Problem is, few in the neighborhood think its fair to the people who live next door and within eye shot of the house. The entire roof is full of the clips, and when I say every single square inch, including windows is covered, it is. It's so beyond what any "normal" home would do that it's almost comical. Clark Griswold would be proud. The home next door sat for sale for almost 3 years, and neighbors were convinced that was a big part of the problem. All those clips and hooks looks so bad. Not sure if painting would even be possible.

The possibility of painting them is an option no one mentioned on the board before. I'll bring that up.

thank you.

I would want to know exactly what words your rule uses, and I would want to make sure the HOA did every proper step to enact the new rules. you might win that in a court, or you might lose. As rick points out, if you go to court (and you will) you could lose even if you win.

I am also glad that some of your neighbors have actual, documented evidence that the failure to sell of the neighboring house in a RECESSION, HOUSING GLUT, CREDIT CRUNCH, and poor economy was due to a bunch of nails in another house nearby. Of course, if they have no evidence of that, then whatever their opinion is has no bearing.

I guess I'll have to show a picture. It is not a bunch of nails. It is THOUSANDS of white plastic things nailed in. Not along the trim, but along every square inch of all 4 sides and roof. Somehow he even goes over windows and doors too. And the houses not selling next door happened 3 years ago before the recession, long before. Houses in our neighborhood were on the market an average of 3 months. That house sat there for several years. Not proof, just what we know from the records.

Our rules say that lights can't be put up until 5 weeks prior to Christmas. And they have one month to quit lighting them, and another month to remove them (March 1). I think that's perfectly fine and found many other HOA's rules and regs from around the country that follow that same basic time span. Many, not all, also include all clips and mounting hardware, like ours do. We are not in any way unique, stricter than the majority, etc. Just your average rules.

Here's the actual text from the rules as it now stands:

Holiday Lighting / Decorations
1. All holiday lighting/decorations (excluding the Christmas holiday) may not be
displayed until 30 days prior to the holiday and must be removed within 2 weeks
after said holiday.
2. Christmas holiday lights/decorations are permissible up to 5 weeks prior to the
holiday and may remain on full display until January 15th.
3. Christmas holiday lights including hanging or mounting devices may remain in
place unlit until no later than March 1st.

I'm actually pushing to have the installation wording spelled out like the removal - put them up 60 days prior to holiday, but don't light them until 5 weeks (or thanksgiving, about the same thing). Then it's more clear - since removal separates lighting and removal, so should installation. Less confusion.

There were in fact Bylaws and rules put in place, they were just very vague in some respects. Up to much interpretation, we just spelled out certain things. Like, you need to have visible house numbers, no wiring and dishes on the front roofs of the house, no sheds built in the front yards, only back, stuff like that.

The City of Aurora has a no holiday decoration/light rule too, 60 days before, 60 after. However, they don't specify one way or another about mounting hardware. Sometimes they enforce it, sometimes not. Aurora is a big city with many different types of neighborhoods. Slums up to 2 million dollar gated communities. It is the 2nd largest city in Illinois only behind Chicago itself. So when they leave a law vague, it might as well not be on the books.

It's unfortunate, because if it wasn't for this one house, we likely wouldn't have even put a holiday light clause in our ruels. But his next door neighboor really thinks it lowers his own property value and is just such an eyesore the other 10 months out of the year, that we felt it necessary to deal with it now.

I guess we'll likely have to let him keep whatever he wants. He wants to keep his property as if he is in a rural area, and our neighborhood is most definitely not rural. It's a planned 240 home subdivision. And at 14 years old now, the homes are starting to need maintenance to keep the area looking decent.

Just curious. Are you are any other members of the current board -- among the neighbors proclaiming that this home is preventing yours from being sold? I see the problem here, but after being allowed for 10 years, I think changing the rules to target one homeowner seems wrong. You would have firmer ground if you asked the entire community (in the next election) to vote on it, and I doubt they would vote to have this guys light clips taken down as your new rule would require. As stated earlier, what if this homeowner moved in knowing that the covenants that he signed and agreed to, allowed his passion, these lights? I really just wonder if this is for the good of the entire community, or is just a response to a vocal complainer.