Dealing with "rogue faction" in HOA

The board needs to do their job and do it properly. If a violation occurs, they should take appropriate action, period.

IMO, an email of the nature you mention is less than professional, and served no purpose. The board should deal professionally.

If people in the HOA wish to change the rules, that is their right. They should learn the proper way to do so, and then give it a try. If the proper process is followed, and the required votes are received, then that is the will of the HOA. If not, then that is the will.

we deal with similar people and situations all the time. My best advice is to fall back on the rules and regulations of the HOA... CC&R's, By-laws, State Laws, etc., and conduct business in a proper, legal and professional manner. To do anything else is futile.

1) Don't feed the trolls. Ignore their rogueness.
2) If they present an issue, address it as you would from anyone else.

The FCC regulates what restrictions are allowed to be placed on Satellite dishes (otherwise HOA's could ban them).

It is just that except for a handful of homeowners (i.e. 3) no one wants confrontation. So we have maybe 5 homeowners who care, 15 who care as long as it doesn't affect them, and 155 who don't care.

Matt,

We had a similar situation with a group who wanted to dissolve our association and start up their own. They even went so far as to incorporate a new association. After lots of arguing, we put it up for a vote as it required 2/3 of the owners to approve any change to the CC&R's. The oppositionists lost and essentially disbanded.

You might try putting a similar amendment out to your members. It does not sound like they have much support and having them lose the vote may shut them up.

GlennL-

The FCC's website (and their customer support staff have confirmed is accurate) states:

"However, a regulation requiring that antennas be placed where they are not visible from the
street would be permissible if this placement does not prevent reception of an acceptable
quality signal or impose unreasonable expense or delay. For example, if installing an antenna in
the rear of the house costs significantly more than installation on the side of the house, then
such a requirement would be prohibited. If, however, installation in the rear of the house does
not impose unreasonable expense or delay or preclude reception of an acceptable quality
signal, then the restriction is permissible and the viewer must comply."

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-reception-devices-rule

You have to remember that dish installations are almost always 100% free, and they provide up to 100 feet of distance from the entry point. One house in violation could move their dish 5 feet (and around a corner) to comply. Another could move theirs up about 10 feet. Both of these homes back up to an open space so there is plenty of southern facing exposures to put their dish on.

As far as "know their rights" I am a big proponent of this. They fight back not because their rights are being trampled, but because they don't think that some of the rules should be enforced. Then rather than work to get the rules changed by the HOA (which is a tall order) they ostracize anyone who disagrees with them. Case in point is there was an issue where there was a big backlash by this group only and they were e-mailing everyone (including all of their friends). We would then get an e-mail from their friends saying they disagreed with them, but they couldn't/wouldn't publicly back the board due to their friendship.

Our biggest heartache is that we are a newer recently released HOA and the Developer didn't enforce a lot of what was in the CC&R's. Then we try to clean it up and people think they should be given a pass because they have been in violation so long, etc.