VickiC1 (Texas)
Posts: 36
Posts: 36
Posted:
I live in HOA in TX. It has about 84 homes built on 98 lots...Most of them under the original developer. One lot was resold last year and the owners have been trying to get plans for their home approved for more than 6 months. The issue is that they are apparently need a variance on the setback rule in the CCRs because it sits 12 to 14 inches too close to the house to their left...the HOA president's house...He was on the ARC committee--and refused to recuse himself when one of the other ARC members whose house is on the OthER side of the lot suggested that both of them do that--and have two other Board members substitute for them on the ARC's 3 person board...
This refusal which is basically rooted in his personal desire not to have a house block his view became even more of a contentious point when the ARC rushed through approval for a house on the culdesac street where I live. The plans were submitted and supposedly approved within 3 days--before anyone on the street even knew they were turned in. This is the last lot at the foot of the culdesac. The plan that was approved was for the smallest sq ft the CCRs allow--a 2600 1-story...
The house does not face the street--it sits crookedly on the lot. The ARC claimed that it needed no variance--which is why it was approved so quickly. The fact is that two people on the ARC--the Board president and a man who actually lives on our culdesac--allowed the house to be built IF the owner would have a porch opening that creates a false impression that the front door of the house faces the street--
the Porch comes out at angle and turns to face the culdesac--but the door faces the garage of the house next door--
Initially no one knew what was going on with the plan and when people did and tried to argue with the Board president that the house was crooked he said that it was not -- that it met the CCRs---
It is pretty obvious to anyone who is NOT the Board president or in his pocket of friends that the house is crooked. Now that it is almost finished, the woman who lives on the side it faces wants to put in a fence down her driveway and add a security gate. There are others homes in the neighborhood with same thing...our house has one and so does our neighbor's...but our homes face the street...
She was putting in metal fence--not wood (although CCRs would allow wood for side fence)with metal security gate...the issue is that her fence would show very effectively that the crooked house is indeed crooked--because her fence would cover basically the front (supposedly) half of the house that is turned to her driveway...
Now I think the Board is not going to let her do that--because the new owners object...in point of fact, he threw a fit in her driveway when she told him what she was going to do...
One of the Board directors that she talked to about it told her that she was within the CCRs to add a fence...but I think once the new owner started talking to some people in the neighborhood about how he was being taken advantage of and how her fence would "spoil the look" of his house that they will go along with his version...
this is punishing her twice--once by allowing the house to be built and now by refusing her a permit to build a fence...
she has every right under the CCRs of the HOA--she has been owner since 2005--and her house does face the street--
yet she is the one being denied her rights in order to accomodate someone who has gotten unfair advantage...
How can an HOA refuse a to allow something that is legally within the CCRs?
Does she have any recourse beyond the HOA?
This refusal which is basically rooted in his personal desire not to have a house block his view became even more of a contentious point when the ARC rushed through approval for a house on the culdesac street where I live. The plans were submitted and supposedly approved within 3 days--before anyone on the street even knew they were turned in. This is the last lot at the foot of the culdesac. The plan that was approved was for the smallest sq ft the CCRs allow--a 2600 1-story...
The house does not face the street--it sits crookedly on the lot. The ARC claimed that it needed no variance--which is why it was approved so quickly. The fact is that two people on the ARC--the Board president and a man who actually lives on our culdesac--allowed the house to be built IF the owner would have a porch opening that creates a false impression that the front door of the house faces the street--
the Porch comes out at angle and turns to face the culdesac--but the door faces the garage of the house next door--
Initially no one knew what was going on with the plan and when people did and tried to argue with the Board president that the house was crooked he said that it was not -- that it met the CCRs---
It is pretty obvious to anyone who is NOT the Board president or in his pocket of friends that the house is crooked. Now that it is almost finished, the woman who lives on the side it faces wants to put in a fence down her driveway and add a security gate. There are others homes in the neighborhood with same thing...our house has one and so does our neighbor's...but our homes face the street...
She was putting in metal fence--not wood (although CCRs would allow wood for side fence)with metal security gate...the issue is that her fence would show very effectively that the crooked house is indeed crooked--because her fence would cover basically the front (supposedly) half of the house that is turned to her driveway...
Now I think the Board is not going to let her do that--because the new owners object...in point of fact, he threw a fit in her driveway when she told him what she was going to do...
One of the Board directors that she talked to about it told her that she was within the CCRs to add a fence...but I think once the new owner started talking to some people in the neighborhood about how he was being taken advantage of and how her fence would "spoil the look" of his house that they will go along with his version...
this is punishing her twice--once by allowing the house to be built and now by refusing her a permit to build a fence...
she has every right under the CCRs of the HOA--she has been owner since 2005--and her house does face the street--
yet she is the one being denied her rights in order to accomodate someone who has gotten unfair advantage...
How can an HOA refuse a to allow something that is legally within the CCRs?
Does she have any recourse beyond the HOA?