Guidelines versus Restrictions

In an HOA community there is a Restriction on installation of sheds. Written in two different areas of the restriction the wording contrdicts each other. The HOA
attorney gave an opinion on this matter and stated there was ambiguity in the two statements. Therefore, residents could installed sheds.
My question is, Can the HOA board set written guidelines on installation of a shed, such as height, size, distance from fence, cannot be viewed from street, etc.
and not change the actual Restriction? If this can be done, then HOA's may set guideline after guideline making the restriction more onerous without a resident
vote.

Any opinions??

Hi Daniel

A change and a clarification are often treated differently.

If the rewrite is being done merely to clarify or interpret something that's already in your docs, it can often be done by the Board only without any participation by the owners. If the rewrite involves an actual change to the meaning of what's in your docs, then any rules about homeowner participation must be satisfied.

Where you have 2 conflicting guidelines, hard to say whether you are dealing with a clarification which can be done without owner vote and a change that requires an owner vote.

ADD ON

In my last HOA our Covenants allowed for sheds but the BOD disapproved any and all requests. One owner stood their ground and had their attorney meet with the BOD attorney. The BOD attorney told the BOD that as they had never approved any shed, they were in the wrong.

After some infighting (a whole other story), the BOD told the ARC to come up with some shed guidelines. The guidelines were very tough. One guideline was the shed had to match your house in looks and material thus basically eliminating many type/style sheds. There were placement restrictions also like the shed could not be seen when standing across the street and facing your house. As a result of the restrictions, few sheds were built.

Many people just want to install something from a big box store including metal sheds that will rust out. A strict set of R&R's should be able to control what type sheds are installed. The tighter the R&R's, the less sheds will be built.