Rules Enforcement

I am the president of an HOA that is currently in tranisition from the Developer. One of the issues we are facing is that during the developer control period, the developer granted certain exceptions to the rules (he gave himself the right to do so at his discretion in the governing documents), i.e., rules state no dogs over 40 pounds, but we have about 5 households with pets over that limit. They owned the animals before buying into the community and were permitted with the proviso that if they replaced their pet it would have to meet the rules.

Now that the developer is moving out of the picture, I do not believe that the current board has the authority to go back and enforce a rule against those individuals where the developer granted an exception.
I am also concerned this would open the association to legal action if we attempted to enforce.

Any thoughts?

You bet! Many developers will do this - especially if they are hungry for sales and allowing a change will make the sale, leaving the following homeowner boards to deal with the problem.
I would not have bought here if I couldn't install outside roller shades on my windows and doors. (I did try to get him to install them within the walls as they are in Germany, but he had no concept of how to do that.) You can bet I have the variance signed by the builder in a safe place! Since then I've been told by subsequent homeowner boards that they would never have allowed me to install them. TS.
This is the big fallacy about CC&Rs. Everyone says they are so sacred and must be enforced. The builder writes them, but he can waiver them at will to make a sale. So that the subsequent homeowner boards have to put up with "So and so has that, why can't I?"
That's why I've always said, if you want something not allowed by the CC&Rs, get it while it's being built - and keep that variance letter. Harold

Jadedone - so what was the question? FWIW there was something in the news a week or two ago about some communities either have or are planning on banning pit-bulls. Dunno how they are going to enforce that one.

Got my own enforcement question: how do those of you with restrictions on signs in the common areas handle enforcement? With the warmer weather we are starting to see the cardboard "Garage Sale" signs stuck up on street-light posts, and we've had an on-going problem with weekend "Open House" signs on every corner. I'm starting to get calls from people complaining about the violation. So far I've been lucky and the signs are usually gone by the time I get out there, but I know it's going to get worse. Do you send a notice of infraction after the fact? Talk to the offender and ask them to remove them? Remove them from the common areas yourself?

Any suggestions (including sample policy statements) would be greatly appreciated.