Previous Board

I sent an email to my attorney but looking to get free advice. Our previous board approved had several barn-type sheds and sunscreen where our hoa covenant says they that have to match the design of our homes. No homes are barn style. Our new board recently denied some new requests. Since the previous board approved would the new board be able to deny it, seems that once one was approved and the presidency is set that all hold true for future requests. Please advise

it states that the shed should be uniform to the home and match the color. Our past board approved everything and was happy people sent in requests. The new board is following the restrictions. Just wondering they have to approve a similar/new request since the previous board approved it.

If there were a substantial number of sheds that were approved that did not match the design of the homes, then that covenant was essentially abandoned by the previous board. If owners with new requests are denied sheds that they know others had approved, they are very likely to challenge it. I would. Whether or not they would win comes down to how the courts in your area rule on abandonment cases. An HOA attorney familiar with your courts is the person to ask.

If the CCRs say the sheds have to be uniform to the house (I assume this means the same design or very similar to it) and match the color, what's wrong with you complying with that requirement? I get what you're saying about previous board's letting people doing whatever but as others have said, some new board's may decide there been too many different things allowed and now the original look of the community is gone.

If you can't find a shed that meets that requirement, can you have one built? If the board turned down your request, Did you request an appeal so you could make your case? Did the new board announce that going forward, it would be sticking to the original language? If so that would have been the time to bring this up. Perhaps letters have been sent to every stating they can keep what they have for now, but when they or the next owner out in a request, approval will be based on that standard.

As Augustin said, you could talk to an attorney to see what your options are and then decide if this is worth a legal battle - or you can talk to the board and ask for clarification on its approach. Maybe this is a good time to review design standards to see what should be updated. This may require more work on your part, but it would be a lot cheaper than a lawsuit.

We have had some similar issues with “non-compliant” items being brought up by disgruntled homeowners. Unfortunately we have no information on who approved these items prior to our current board. Some were put up at first build and without a paper trail we really can’t say if actual approval was given by the builder, etc. some of the original owners no longer live here and personally just because 1 or 2 people don’t think it’s fair I don’t think it’s fair of our board to try and go back years to find out the when/why/how. Our current board is doing things correctly, if there’s a large want for different sheds now why not look to change the decs/rules and have them voted on to be allowed going forward?