Unwritten Rules and Regulations Enforceable?

Our Covenant has a paragraph about Architectural Control shown below. There has never been written Architectural Guidelines. The board says they cannot tell you what the ACC committee will approve without plans. The ACC has existed for more than 20 years and yet they have never written down what is allowed and sent it to the homeowners.

GA code 44-3-223 states, "with any reasonable rules or regulations adopted by the association pursuant to the instrument which have been provided to the lot owners". Since in 10 years I have never received written Rules to support the request made below, are those rules enforceable? Does anyone know of court cases for or against unwritten Rules and Regulations?

For example, I have had a playhouse that the board objects to for 3.5 years. Just last week after the 5 set of plans they finally say that since my house is one story, the playhouse can only be one story, my house is brick, so the playhouse must be brick and the same architectural shingles used on my house must be used on the playhouse and the roof pitch must match the roof pitch of my house. The only think I objected to was bricking the playhouse. I offered to paint it to look like brick. Also note: that the houses are on 2+ acre lots, the playhouse is not visible from the road, the exact same playhouse is located on another lot without modification to it(i.e. it is wood with a 3 foot pitch roof), there are more than 10% of the houses that have a playhouse, play set, or shed that does not match their house that already exist in the neighborhood and they cannot show me in writing why they want me to do something different than other HO other than my neighbor complained and other neighbors did not.

The only wording in the Covenant or By-laws is:

ARTICLE VIII
ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL
Section 1. Construction; Review and Approval. No building, outbuilding, storage shed, pool house, kennel, tree house, pen, gazebo, fence, wall, dock, or other structure, except those provided by the Declarant, shall be commenced, erected or maintained upon the Properties, nor shall any exterior addition to, change in or alteration of any of said structures be made until complete final plans and specifications showing the nature, kind, shape, height, materials, basic exterior finishes and colors, location and floor plan thereof, and showing front, side and rear elevations thereof and the names of the builder, general contractor and all subcontractors have been submitted to and approved by the Association's Board of Directors or by an architectural control committee composed of three or more persons appointed by said Board as to harmony of exterior design and general quality with the existing standards of the neighborhood and as to location in relation to surrounding structures and topography. In the event said Board or its designated committee fails to approve or disapprove such design and location within 30 days after said plans and specifications shall have been submitted to it, approval will not be required and this Section will be deemed to have been fully complied with.

Section 2. Initial Improvements. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this Article VIII, the functions of the Association's Board of Directors or its designated committee during and with respect to the initial improvement of the Properties and the Association Properties shall be the responsibility of the Declarant.

As always, thank you for your input. It is always valuable!!!

FredS7,

The part that requires a playhouse to be constructed of the same material as the house.

That any house have a 12 on 12 pitch.

That a playhouse has 2 be one story because the house is one story.

Written guidelines include:

A house must hav a pitch of 12 on 12.
The height of a home can not be more than 17 feet tall.
A playhouse must be made of the same material as the main dwelling.
A Shed can not be more than 6 feet tall.

The board can not make up new rules with each request. The items that have been approved in the past are what are the basis of what will be allowed in the future unless the board states that it is changing what will be allowed and notifies all residence of those changes.

The statement above is vague and arbitrary. Don't actually Rules/ Guidelines need to be written based on that one paragraph. The ACC has had 20+ years to tell the homeowners what will be allowed.

For example, Garages can not face the road. Many HO(homeowner) have been denied to build second garages because their second garage would have to face the road to make it usuable for a car due to where the house is located on the lot. While other HO, about 5%, have before and after those denied requests been granted approvals for garages that face the road.

There is no written rule in the covenant that states Garages cannot face the road.

But many HO are upset about this Rule because it is applied so Inconsistently. Friends of the Board get appovals or Builders they specifically like.

I am thinking that if Garages are not to face the road it should be in writting and what will constitute a variance should be in writting as well. At a minimum, the board minutes should make it clear why one plan was approved and another was not. The reason for approval or disapproval is never given even when asked for many times. They don't think they need to justify their decisions or need to make them consistently.

Is the paragraph above enough? Is it not vague? I imagine that a log should be kept of ACC approval and rejections and each time something comes before the board they should use that log (Written Guidelines) to determine how to proceed. If that item has been approved 10 times then it is a no brainer... it will be approved the 11th time.