Shed Construction

I live in a HOA, and would like to erect a storage shed. It states in our CCR they are not allowed. I asked the arch. chairman about it, and he said to fill out an arch request form as well as all the information needed to submit. After about three hours of putting my proposal together, I submitted it to the Association. After two months, I contacted the management firm about the status of my application. He said it was denied. We had talked to the "newly" elected president of the Association and said she would not have a shed in here. What are my chances on taking this to court to get approval for a shed. I have heard of someone suing this association and winning, but when I went to the courthouse to find out about it, I could not find it. Any help would be appreciated.

It's time to dig in the DOCs. I thought that most of the time that it spells out time requirements for responding to and authorizing applications. (Usually says that covenants committee must respond within 45 days.) IF application is denied, response is required in writing. Again, don't most builder boiler plate docs address sheds? I would think that they would have to give you a good reason as to why they are denying your application.

Then you can not erect a storage shed nor can the ACC nor the Board approve one. No ACC member should have even suggested you to fill out a request form. Forget about it.

Our CC&Rs have absolutely no time requirement or expiration period of an Architectural Committee Request. I've seen CC&Rs for other neighborhoods around here, and yes, most are developer boilerplates. None of them that I've seen have a time requirement for a response either.

Our restriction was not just against "sheds" in the original CC&Rs. They restricted ANY outbuilding, and then listed some examples, but also noted that the types of outbuildings restricted were NOT restricted to just the examples listed.

In other words, it said, no outbuildings allowed, including but not limited to gazebo, shed, greenhouse, playhouse, or any other detached building. So calling it a "workhouse" or a "poolhouse" wouldn't work! LOL

About 5 years after the HOA was turned over, the residents passed an amendment that allowed ONE outbuilding, and then gave some minimum specs that the building had to conform to.

But even then, no time limit for approval or denial for request was ever introduced.

Our Architectural Committee can theoretically sit on a request forever, I suppose. However, to my knowledge, I've never seen a request go more than 3 weeks unanswered.