Covenant vs Design Standard Document

Started by JimK14 • 8 replies • 516 views

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JimK14 (Georgia)
Posts: 4

Posted:

I live in the state of Georgia. We have a resident in our neighborhood that has asked the HOA board to allow them to temporary park a 23 foot camper in their backyard. Due to the current situation that is going on the resident has been laid off and they cannot afford the storage fees. The board initially said no they could not, but revised saying that if the neighbors around them were okay then it would be okay with the board for a limited period of time. I looked in the covenants and it states that as long as the camper is less than 28 feet long and no one lives in the camper they can park in their backyard. I then looked at our HOA Design Standards document which states that they cannot park the camper in the backyard so, my question is which document takes precedence?

AugustinD
Posts: 5,144

Posted:

Chances are good that the Covenants trump the "Design Standards." A few questions to help confirm this:

Is the covenant in question on file with the county with the rest of the HOA's covenants?

Are the Design Standards incorporated, word for word, into the covenants? I do not mean some verbiage in the covenants that says something like, "The Board shall establish Design Standards for _____ and promulgate the Design Standards to all members."

Do the Design Standards indicate who wrote them? Is there a seal on the Design Standards indicating they have been recorded with the county?

JimK14 (Georgia)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Thank you for your response

The answer to your questions:

Is the covenant in question on file with the county with the rest of the HOA's covenants? yes they are

Are the Design Standards incorporated, word for word, into the covenants? I do not mean some verbiage in the covenants that says something like, "The Board shall establish Design Standards for _____ and promulgate the Design Standards to all members." No they are not. The document was taken from another association years ago

Do the Design Standards indicate who wrote them? Is there a seal on the Design Standards indicating they have been recorded with the county? The answer to both questions is no.

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

Thus seems simple - if everything us accurately represented.

The limit is 28’, the owners have 23.

I can’t help thinking the Board has additional info? Otherwise, thus makes no sense.

Are there fencing requirements?

Are the words “camper” and “RV” or some other term used in different ways?

Does the Board dispute the 23’ length?

Gotta tell ya, 28’ is pretty darn big to be in the backyard ... but, if it is in the CCRs, it is what it is.

Could you quote the CCR component on this?

MarkW18
Posts: 1,290

Posted:

Legally, the Covenants will always take precedent.

BenA2 (Texas)
Posts: 1,273

Posted:

The covenants always take precedence when there is a contradiction. They are at the top of the hierarchy of documents within an HOA.

Design standards, architectural guidelines, and similar documents generally are used to clarify where covenants might be vague.

JimK14 (Georgia)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Basically here it is: pleasure boats or boat trailers and campers up to twenty eight(28) feet must be kept in the rear yard, but not lived in

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

OK - so apparently, there is no issue?

JimK14 (Georgia)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Pretty much. I am not currently on the board but will be starting my 4th term next week and knew I was going to have to deal with this since the current board told the resident that he could not park the camper in the back yard. Just want to get a feel for which document was the one that we needed to go to to make sure we were doing the right thing

thanks for your help

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