Board ignores me!

Do you're covenants state that if there is no written denial of your project by the BOD or Architectural Committee within a certain period of time, then the project can proceed as planned or if there is no response is it considered denied?

I would say document your attempts and everything you are doing up until you are ready to start work.

Merita:

Two things, neither of which help you much, but still:

1) We have periodically sent members letters to remove unapproved structures within XX days, UNLESS PLANS ARE SUBMITTED FOR APPROVAL BY THAT DATE.

Almost all do send in the plans, and almost all are then "approved" (albeit after the fact, in a couple cases several years after the fact). In a few cases they've had to make minor adjustments to their fences. All did.

2) I can't think of a single time in our history that we've ever directly ignored a resident to whom we've sent violation notices.

What would be the point? The goal is compliance, not punishment! If we don't speak to the resident, how can we come to common ground and gain compliance through the minimum amount of friction?

Makes no sense to me!

One thing I think was probably inappropriate on behalf of the plans you did submit was to put the Project Commence date at February 14.

Unfortunately, you don't have the luxury of putting that kind of pressure on the Board.

You must follow your documents, and the PURPOSE of architectural approvals it so ensure that the plans conform to the community covenants or specs.

As such, you should expect to follow an appropriate time frame to allow thorough review of your plans, and you don't get to dictate what that time frame is.

As was mentioned by other posters, it's very likely your governing documents have some sort of time frame for approvals to be returned.

Many have an "auto-approval" date, which is often 30 or 60 or 90 days after submission. Meaning if you don't hear back a denial before that date, the plans are automatically approved.

You, on the other hand, appear to have given THEM an ultimatum of less than a week turnaround for approval.

That wouldn't fly in many HOAs simply because you must at the very least follow the reasonable time lines in the documents.

You must plan your project start date to fall within whatever timelines your governing documents provide.

In our case, we do NOT have "auto-approve" dates. If you never hear back from us, your project was NOT approved.

On the other hand, that has never happened. We ALWAYS reply, approval or denials, regardless.

We do, however, have GUIDELINES posted that we must receive the plans at LEAST 3 weeks prior to your planned start date. The only exception to that is if it is an emergency project. Those are few and far between, but they do occur.

This doesn't help much for your immediate case.

However, it's likely that your response to them has put them on guard and they might feel you are trying to harass or intimidate them.

It might be a good idea to go to a close friend or neighbor and request an intervention.

Let them know you are only trying to work out an equitable resolution.

You indicated good faith by removing the fence within their required time frame.

Now try to engage them less emotionally. I know it's hard if they won't even talk to you, but that is why I recommend a third-party intermediary.

Good luck to you, hope it resolves.

I had suspected that there was an urgent reason, however, from their perspective it just appears as a sort of "show down" sort of move.

What is the possibility you can get a third-party intermediary to broker a non-confrontational meeting?

I agree that their methods were pitiful and contributed greatly to the situation.

Michele, unless I'm mistaken, I don't see how the Feb 14th date she submitted could be viewed as an ultimatum or undue pressure on the members, AT THE TIME she was being ignored. The BOD didn't know the date when she was trying to arrange discussions, phoning, nor at the time of delivering them door to door. It doesn't explain the avoidance.

For the record, I know the HO's time line doesn't express an "or else" explicitly, but the board may well feel somewhat bullied by the "this is my start date" and it being such a short one.

This entire scenario could have been avoided by the board engaging in appropriate behavior in the first place.

I've no doubt a homeowner can become defensive and assertive when put in this sort of corner.

As I said, we would never make the resident TAKE THE FENCE DOWN and THEN re-file to have a NEW ONE installed.

That is bogus, in my opinion, and is not in the spirit of "compliance not punishment."

All the board had to do was have the homeowner supply the plans for the CURRENT fence.

Any portion that was not in compliance with specs could have been noted and the fence "conditionally approved" PENDING them getting any portion that is NOT in compliance with specs into compliance.

In most of our cases here, the fences that have gone up without approval are usually pretty well within compliance of specs, with the exception of a few that neglected to put a fence in the rear (to allow access to the rear-area ditch as the HO is responsible for that maintenance).

So the board's entire stance out of the starting gate is alien to me.

As a board member I am disgusted with other board members who think they are God. I had a homeowner call me(when was number was unlisted)because she was being ignored by other board members. Do you know have a management company? If so send a letter to them,if not send a registered letter. WE have many owners who have violated the bylaws and I tell them just put in an ARC application,and you will be approved(its not a bylaw violation). IF you're a jerk,you will be a board member who is a jerk. Shame on them
Barbara

A red flag went up long before this HO ever contacted the BOD if a notice is just now going out for a 4 year old fence. It wouldn't surprise me if accompanying that were a less than clear contact structure outlined for the HO's in this HOA. Something's got this HO on the radar.