Arc aproval 3 yrs later trying to rescind

I had a corner of my property that I wanted have a "wild" look to it. I told them I would palnt a willow and apple trees with tall grasses etc. I did not get written premission but the fact of me getting approved is not in denial. They are now saying they want it removed because it is in violation of "suitable material". The main concern is definition of wild area. They did not ask what else was going to planted or how long the progression of the plants would take. I was wondering since I had permission for this material to be used would and should it be deemed suitable.
thank you
david

If you did not get it in writing they can rescind their opinion that was given three years ago. That is why there are ARB committees. If they had approved in writing or looked at the plans three years ago they could have told you that these were not approved plants. Three years later and a new committee now sees that the plants were not on the approved list. They will now enforce the doc's.

Talk to them, see if a compromise can't be reached. When something like this happens it is hard to say to the next person "no you can't, because now they will point to you.

Add to that there were processes stated in the Association Doc but were not being applied except as what they wanted to see. The process was not being followed with paper work.

A few years ago here in Florida we had a few bad hurricanes. The BOD hired many companies to clean up and replace over 1000 trees and countless shrubs and flowers. It took over 10 months just for clean up.

When we started to replace we noticed many homeowners had already replaced with trees or shrubs that were non conforming with our doc's. The BOD, working in conjunction with the ARB, identified each and every home that did their own planting. If the plantings were not on our list but were within the realm of proper, we did a moratorium for these homes. We put the information in each homeowners file for future reference for ARB.

As you say there are many examples of homeowners who have done this, maybe you can bring up the subject of a grandfather or moratorium clause. It will make it easier for the community to move forward if there are a lot of homeowners in your situation.

I regret to say that even if the documents don't specifically state "in writing," it would be common sense that anything that would require "approval" would, as a matter of course, have that approval "documented" somewhere so that a new board or homeowner can't come up 5 years later and say it was not approved or whatever, as is happening now.

This may not be what you want to hear, but we have had similar situations. At least two residents in our community swear up and down that the original developer gave them permission to put in metal sheds, 8 years ago.

We did not know about these sheds because they were short and squatty and the flat roofs fell just below the fence line.

Both claim their approvals were verbal.

Which is unfortunate because at the time they claim they were given permission, sheds were not allowed by our CC&Rs. We had an amendment added 2 years ago that allowed for some very specific types of sheds, neither of which these 2 sheds would qualify for anyway.

The developer has no documents saying they approved the sheds. The person both people claim to have spoken to died 2 years ago.

They are having to go through the expense of either tearing the sheds down or retro-fitting them to fall into specification for the allowable sheds.

Sorry you have to go through this, but please think of the future and try to protect your investment of time, materials and energy -- next time get the approval in writing, even though you don't "have" to, it's an Ace in the hole if there's a conflict later down the road.

Good luck.

Many times, the CC&Rs will state a time frame in which the ACC, ARB, or whatever must respond to a request for a change or the request is automatically approved. This is, of course, poor language, but it is often the case.

If you requested the change and can prove that you did so, and if the ACC, ARB, or whatever cannot prove that they denied the request, I believe that you cannot be required to restore the area to the previous condition. Of course, they may feel otherwise. This is a time to ask to speak to the ACC or BOD in person and calmly try to reach a compromise.