Can the HOA Board change it's policy on trees

Started by JosephH2 • 3 replies • 1436 views

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JosephH2 (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 57

Posted:

Our Board is almost 2 years under homeowner control. The current Board was elected last March.

Last year the Old homeowner Board approved the planting of 3 trees on one lot for privacy. Now we are getting more requests from other homeowners. The current Board does not want to allow any more trees on lots.

Can we not allow trees after the previous Board allowed them?

NancyG3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 342

Posted:

Joseph - My opinion is yes the new Board can refuse to plant trees as long as it is not in your Declarations. However, you should try to find out why the past Board approved the planting of the 3 trees on one lot. Were the trees planted on a common area or lot? What was the reason for privacy? Were the trees to hid something on the common property belonging to the Association? If you refuse the other homeowners you should have a sound reason why the Board will not plant more trees. The Board is only responsible for the common areas, not individual homeowners properties. Hope this will help. Nancy

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

Joseph,

An approving authority (committee or BOD) typically makes approvals or disapproval to external changes based on the covenants and guidelines adopted by the board. If there is no covenant or guideline that deals with the request (or a poorly written guideline) the approving authority is left with their personal opinion when making the decision.

As Boards or Committees change, personal opinions change.

Past precedence can certainly be used in a request but if there was only one lot approved, it's not really a precedence. It's possible that the approving authority thought the idea should be tried and, once the change was completed, felt it didn't work and no additional requests should be approved.

What can be done? - Get involved and have yourself or others with similar views as yours elected to the Board and start approving the requests again.

AnthonyD11 (Colorado)
Posts: 13

Posted:

If you are restricting new owner to plant trees then there must be a strong reason behind why the board can’t plant more trees.

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