No HOA, can CC&Rs defunct?

I’m new to the forum and I was hoping someone can give me some advice.

I live in a neighborhood of zero lot lines. There is a 5feet easement line allowed. We are the third owners who moved into this property beginning of this year. The original owner of the home had put in landscape and hardscape. We replaced the dying grass with new grass and also filled in a planter that sits within the easement and that’s what opened a can of worms for us.

Our neighbor doesn’t like the fact that the grass is up against their property even though that’s where we were told our property line ends. They wanted it removed and the neighbor also requested for us to remove all the dirt/grass that is in our planter because it is cover a weep screed which is suppose to allow the stucco walls to breathe. A city inspector told us, to be up to city code we will have to remove the dirt and the grass to expose the weep screed even though he has seen this situation very often which isn’t an issue until someone complains. We comply and bring it up to code.

The city inspector brought up another issue which concerns the neighbor’s downspouts that drains into the easement. He cited them and asked the neighbors to have it removed. Now our neighbor is asking us to possibly remove all the hardscape that is against their wall because it covers their weep screed, but it's been that way since 1978 when the first owner put it in. The neighbors are the second owner of their home and they've never asked the previous owners to remove the hardscape but is now requesting for us to do so. We want to comply and just have it remove so we can be up to city code even though it’s going to cost a fortune! BUT the contractors won’t cut the brick/concrete until the downspouts are moved.

Now the problem is, our neighbor does not want to move their downspouts and wants to fight it with the original CC&Rs from 1978 (we didn’t know it existed since there’s no HOA). They are trying to claim that the 5feet easement is part of their property, so they don’t have to remove the downspouts. The easement has been enclosed to be a part of our side yard from the original builders, so it doesn’t make sense that it’s part of their property.
The CC&Rs state after 90% or more of the Lots within the Property have been sold or after 5 years, whichever shall first occur, the Owners of the majority of the Lots shall appoint all the members of the Architectural Committee. Not sure what this means? Does it mean that by now the CC&Rs is defunct?

Thank you for reading. Please Help!!! Thanks!
Fannie

Fanny,

You need to find a copy of the original survey plat for your lot to see where the property lines and easements are. This should have been recorded with whatever agency records deeds in your area. What is the purpose of the easement?

Is it possible that your city or county building codes did not permit zero-lot-lines? The developer may have been required to build five feet from the property line and achieved the zero-lot-line appearance by granting the neighboring property an easement to use that five feet. Thus, the five feet that you use as part of your yard would belong to your neighbor and you own five feet on the other side of your home but your other neighbor has a similar easement. This is just a possibility.

Building a planter against the wall of a building is a bad idea. It looks great in Sunset magazine but in the long run it creates an incredible amount of water damage, even for brick or block walls.

In one case that I saw for myself, the owner of one townhouse installed a sprinkler in his garden area that sprayed water onto the wall of home next door and had been used for a number of years. The wall was concrete block and the water traveled through the mortar joints, destroying the furring and drywall of the neighboring home.

The last home I owned had a raised planter built against the exterior wall. The home inspector warned us when we purchased that this was not a good idea. I noticed that there were sprinklers in the planter that did not seem to be connected. Then one day I had to pull up the carpeting along the exterior walls in one bedroom and found that where there were planters on the exterior all the nails in the carpet strip were rusted but where there were no planters there was no rust. I concluded that water from the planters had seeped in through the walls. I also concluded that one of the previous owners had deliberately disconnect the sprinklers in the planter because of the water damage.

At the very least, remove as much of the planter and hardscape as possible without messing with the neighbor's downspouts. The city has cited them so let the city deal with the downspouts. Building or moving material against the neighbor's home could create a liability for you, so removal would mitigate whatever damage has been done, if any.

Your CC&R's are going to take some research. You will need to find out if they have been amended or terminated and that will be at the recorder's office if it exists. CC&R's almost always have some restrictions on what may be done with the property and often provide for an association to maintain any common areas and/or to enforce the restrictions. If there are no common areas owned by the association, the owners may let the association die for lack of interest but the restrictions still remain. It sounds like the developer intended to have an association with at least an architectural committee, but once the development is built out there would be little interest among the owners to maintain such a committee. Most CC&R's allow individual property owners to enforce the restrictions through court action, so even without an association you could still get into trouble violating the restrictions.

Thanks Larry for the input. The 5ft easement on our side yard allows the neighbor to do anything to there property such as paint, cleaning out rain gutters, etc. We have the right to do any landscaping as long as it's not a structure that prevents the neighbors from working on their property.

From what I have learned, the planters were there from the first owner back in 1980. The current neighbors are the second owners and they've had water damage previously due to an el nino. The previous homeowner of my property added french drains and paid for the neighbor's rain gutters to be newly installed. Currently our planter is up to code because we lowered it 4inches below the weep screed which is what the city code requires.

It's just frustrating that instead of tackling the problem and bringing everything up to city code on both ends, the neighbors are trying to argue against city code with CC&Rs. All just to prevent removal of the downspouts! The city inspector, told us that both claims are on hold until we can figure out who owns the easement. Which doesn't make sense if the city told us that city codes supercede CC&Rs. Shouldn't the city be able to just enforce the rules by citing the neighbors if they don't remove it?

That's a good place to start.
Since I live in VA I can't give you specifics on where to look. Typically it's within the same department that issues building permits.


Yep.

The CC&Rs are actually a contract between all owners who have the same deed restrictions. Contracts only work when the parties involved are willing to comply with the specifics of the contract. If someone decides not to comply with the contract and the issue can't be resolved by themselves, the only other option is to take them to court.