Yard swing is "unsightly articles" but not basketball hoops?

JohnS122
Posts: 15

Posted:

Curious about this. New homeowner here.

Many houses in our HOA have basketball hoops, rope tree swings, tetherball, etc in their front yard and driveway. I recently put one up as well, the nice round rope swings for my kids. They play on it every day. There's two other houses on my street with swings out front.

So we all just got a letter in the mail saying that the swings must come down, citing the "unsightly articles" clause.

Yes, I know the standard response of "well, you agreed to the rules when you bought the house," but the HOA has let many other people have swings, basketball hoops, alarm signs, yard art, etc for years and years and years. We just put ours up and our kids use it every day. It seems the 'essence' of this CCR clause is to just ensure that yards don't get run down, not nag young families for small tree rope swings.

Thoughts? If the HOA 'abandons' a rule, is it enforceable? Is it reasonable that the HOA is subjectively interpreting a kids rope swing as 'unsightly'?

Can I respond asking for a list of other houses that received the takedown letters? Did every house with a basketball hoop get a letter? Did every house with an ugly birdbath get a takedown letter? etc.

Or should I just ignore it? I texted the HOA president and their response was "oh, it must have just been from the management company's driveby. It's not a big deal."

-----------------------------------------------------
Unsightly Articles. No unsightly articles shall be permitted to remain
on any Building Lot so as to be visible from any other portion of the Property.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, refuse, garbage and trash shall be
kept at all times in such containers and in areas approved by the applicable
Architectural Committee. No clothing or fabrics shall be hung, dried or aired in such
a way as to be visible to other property, and no equipment, heat pumps, compressors,
containers, lumber, firewood, grass, shrub or tree clippings, plant waste, metals, bulk
material, scrap, refuse or trash shall be kept, stored or allowed to accumulate on any
Building Lot except within an enclosed structure or as appropriately screened from
view. No vacant residential structures shall be used for the storage of building
materials.
-----------------------------------------------------

MaxB4
Posts: 3,513

Posted:

I run a management company and I would ignore the whole post except for this, Or should I just ignore it? I texted the HOA president and their response was "oh, it must have just been from the management company's driveby. It's not a big deal."

I see nothing in what you posted that would give the management company the authority to cite you and write a letter. If this is a new issue, then it is the board, not the management company who would give company the authority to enforce the existence of the swing.

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

In view of everything, it's clear to me that this HOA is out to get you. They have more resources than you do. They have a paid goon (the manager) to go after you. The power imbalance is enormous.

One either concedes that the other side has more power, and it's not worth trying to fight them; or one battles the other side, at great expense of time and money over years often; or one moves. Of course, in these situations of power imbalance, and heck yes, psychologically-sociologically speaking, many (most?) people have to learn the hard way.

Yes, the covenant might be effectively abandoned in the eyes of a court.

I do not know if the violation/warning is a big deal or not. How aggressive is your HOA about going after violations?

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

John

Leave it go and see what happens. The MC works for the BOD thus the BOD, directly or indirectly, controls what happens.