Question Regarding Rules on Patios

Hi, I am not aware if this is the right place to ask this and I have no idea who to ask otherwise. I live in the scripps ranch area of San diego and do not know what the rules are that the HOA has regarding patios. I live on the first floor and when I just moved in the patio was a disaster I worked for hours to get the soil healthy again and was told I could plant and maintain the patio however I wanted so long as it looked nice. Recently there has been an outbreak of fungus gnats and I looked for an organic pesticide free way to get rid of them, now that I have them under control I have been considering building a green house around the patio dirt area to prevent re-infestation. What rules are there about these kinds of things? My dirt patio area measures 10'x 3'. The actual patio area itself is more of a 10'x 10'. I am only 4'9" tall and the patio wall is about 4' tall if I were to build a green house it would measure more of a L7'x W3'x H5' please fill me in on what I need to know regarding this issue or if someone could point me in the right direction it would be appreciated! Thank you!

The very first thing you need to do is to contact someone within the HOA to find out how to obtain a copy of your Deed Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions (commonly referred to here as CC&Rs), or you need to go to your municipality's deed room and look for/search for the one that was filed on your property.

Once you obtain those, you should read them thoroughly to determine if OUTBUILDINGS (not patios) are governed by your HOA in terms of what types of outbuildings are allowed (if any), and the procedure for which you need to obtain permission to build one. Generally there will be an Architectural Committee to which you would need to submit some type of formal request for approval for your project.

A "greenhouse" to enclose your dirt and/or patio area would be considered an outbuilding.

Best of luck to you. I would love to have a greenhouse myself.

LauraM2: Are you certain you are a unit owner in a Homeowners' Association (HOA) or a Condo Owners' Association (COA)? If you are part of an association, you would have recd governing documents at settlement of your unit. These documents will dictate to you the restrictions and allowances as part of the governing of the association. Learn if you have a Property Mgr. and/or an Executive Board, and by what documents they govern.