Are CCR's positive or negative rules?

If the CC&R's don't distinctly address an issue, it is allowed unless subsequent boards of directors have passed policies, which can have effect but aren't as protected from change by a majority board vote. A major challenge is HOAs pass rules but don't have a robust record of policies being passed over a long period of time.

They're both. For example, the provisions that address assessments and other responsibilities are positive, and the ones that address prohibitions such as parking restrictions are negative. In addition, boards can make reasonable rules to supplement and clarify the CC&Rs as long as these rules don't contradict the CC&Rs.

However, CC&Rs will never be able to address every situation that can arise, which is where things can go off the rails. Most CC&Rs have prohibitions against "nuisance" activities, but different CC&Rs may interpret the word "nuisance" differently and different community demographics and characteristics will also affect this. Activities that may be just fine in a community with 5-acre lots can be a problem in communities with tiny lots or in condos.

CC&R provisions that require judgement calls are the bane of many board members' lives, but unfortunately they exist and the board has to enforce them along with the black-and-white ones such as "no on street parking".

To make things more confusing, many court cases have involved interpreting CC&Rs to decide whether or not a board has overreached, and you can find case law on either side of your question. This is why going to court is an expensive and time-consuming crap shoot - and why I often say that moving can be the fastest, cheapest, and easiest solution and nd the one where you're in control of the outcome.

I take it this is your first time in a HOA - you'll find different people have different views, which is ok. Just remember what's true about our communities may be completely different in yours, so you need to learn how to live with yours.

Generally CCRs dictate how the common areas of the community are used, with the goal being to help preserve the overall look and design of the community. So, you start with considering what type of community you live in and what areas are considered common area vs. what's homeowner responsibility.

When you have communities with shared walls and roofs, like a townhouse community (I live in one), you may have more rules than a community of detached homes. You also need to remember CCRs are established by the developer, but after the community is turned over to the homeowners, they may decide to chant some things. Over time, the CCRs may change again, as people move on - the original owners may have felt one way about sheds, for example, but 10 years later, a new group moves in and may feel different.

This is why you'll never have every situation addressed by CCRs - there would be too many, and frankly, some shouldn't be necessary. If you're a responsible homeowner, you shouldn't need to be told to pick up after your pet, don't litter, play your music at the volume at 2 am, or park a bunch of cars on your grass.

Your bylaws generally dictate how the community is run, so if you read yours, you may notice it contains language saying the board of directors has the power to enact additional rules as long as they done supersede the CCRs. For examples, your CCRs might say exterior changes to the home must be more approved by the board. The board may be allowed to set certain design standards regarding, say approved heights, styles and colors of fences.

Those rules are typically approved by the board via a vote during a board meeting or a resolution. A good board will ask for homeowner input, draft the rule and ask for comments before a vote. Then it'll advise homeowners of an effective date, although some rules may need to be effective immediately.

Here's another approach to community rules. In my community, we adopted the county rules on parking as our community rules and have hired off duty police officers as security to make periodic drive throughs to look for cars with expired plates and or are inoperable - the drivers/owners must remove it or risk the car being towed at their expense. That helps prevent the community from looking like a junkyard.

I was about to say something about your previous post about the beehive, but I see someone beat me to it. In some countries or states, the CCRs can be tougher than city or state legislation, but that doesn't always apply to everything, so depending on the situation, you may have to check them

When you move into a HOA, it's best to review the documents BEFORE you buy so you'll know if you can live with them. you don't get to ignore them just because you think they're stupid or outdated or don't apply because the city says you can do something. If you think the rule isn't clear of needs to be amended to make it more specific, find some like minded neighbors and petition the board to start a conversation about amending the CCRs - which usually requires a certain percentage of homeowners to agree, so if you're willing to do the work, have at it and good luck

in the meantime, CCRs can be enforced by homeowners against each other, so it's possible if you kept your hive and a neighbor got stung, you could be used for having something that wasn't allowed by the HOA to begin with. If the HOA didn't take action against you for getting the hive, it could also be used and if It lost, the money ALL homeowners, including you, paid to maintain the , would have to be used to pay the judgement. Why should others have to have their share of the resources used to pay for something you knew or should have known wasn't allowed, but you installed It anyway?

It would have been better if you'd discussed the hive with the board before getting it, perhaps talked to your closest neighbors to see how they felt before moving forward. But hindsight is 20/20 and it may not be too late to turn this around. If your board has an appeal process for CCR violations, use it and perhaps bring a beekeeping expert with you to help answer questions and perhaps help suggest a compromise that will make everyone happy?

Ditto what CathyA3 posted.

Also, in the jargon of real property law, covenants can be either affirmative or negative. "Covenants that allow certain activities are called affirmative, while those that restrict are classified as negative covenants." I recall from reading case law that some court decisions involving covenants hinge in part on whether a covenant is affirmative or negative.

It's not silly. It makes the point well. Of course no such permission is needed.

This has come up a lot in the case of HOAs, where the lots are sizable and the setting is rural, that want to prohibit, say, chickens. If the covenants are either silent on the subject of chickens or are on ambiguous on the subject, then the courts tend to find in favor of free enjoyment of property. (An ambiguity would be something like, "Dogs, cats and other domestic pets are allowed, but no fowl shall be raised on the lots." The courts have often ruled the phrase "domestic pets" may include chickens in some cases. This means the chicken owners often win.

But we all know what the goal here is: AdamL1 wants his beehives. His HOA's covenants have no specific restriction on beehives. But the covenants do have a restriction on "nuisances." As CathyA3 pointed out, and as AdamL1 has been advised in other threads, settling this may very well be an expensive legal battle. I continue to feel there is no question that he needs an attorney and that otherwise, the judge will toss his arse out of court, due to being some flavor of frivolous and wasting court time with jabberwocky. Furthermore, if either statute or the covenants either require the losing side to pay the prevailing side's attorney fees, or give the judge the option to assess attorney fees, I expect the judge to order AdamL1 to pay the HOA's attorney fees.

A nuisance is a subjective term based on the standards of a community, of which each one is unique in its own way.

Yard chickens can be a nuisance, especially roosters, in a suburban HOA neighborhood. So can cars on blocks being repaired by do-it-yourselfers that may be allowed in the non-HOA street one block away. Same goes for portable basketball goals. Some communities want playgrounds in common areas while others feature demographics that would abhor a playground with its unique noises and traffic patterns. Dog pens in the backyard are another.

Mainly HOAs will exist to enforce "quiet enjoyment" of the neighborhood, a term that clearly applies to noxious conditions (Loud sounds & smells) but also to stress and subjective annoyance if enough of your neighbors are stressed about activities on your property.

It's all a judgement call for the most part to some degree and most people know when their activities are not aligned with their community standards.

Thank you for your post, but the CCR's do not say anything about annoyances. I'm not really sure what you're getting at here. Is your position that anything that annoys you should be regulated by the HOA, despite the CCR's not saying anything about it?

I would have written [wink], "Whether beehives are a nuisance or not is clearly defined by a reading of the covenants, which explicitly references City Code. City Code in turn references the requirements for beehives. Please see my other thread where the covenant and city code are posted."