Can you pick and choose which covenants to enforce and against whom?

Not sure if i understand your situation, regarding finding the rules. Every homeowner in your association should have been given a copy of the HOA bylaws and the Codes/Covenents or Rules. the board should have plenty of copies as well, to give out to new owners, etc..

As for the other question: the board is obligated to enforce ALL rules, in a manner consisten with their bylaws. You cannot pick and choose which rule, or which violator. Unless you love lawsuits.

Enforce all the rules all the time or change the rules. The rules were written to protect the rights of all the homeowners, if your on the board your job is to protect those rights and look out for everyones best interest. Make a form letter and address it to each and every person that has broken a rule and bring their attention to it in a nice way, then give it a week or two and have a meeting and discuss the rules and hand out copies to everyone and start enforcing what should have been done from the start.

Good Luck

Hi, PatS1. I'm sorry, but I was a bit taken aback by your comments about homeowner input into the Covenants. By virtue of taking title to the property, each and every owner has agreed to abide by the Covenants and By-Laws of that particular community. There are owners, I'm sure, who have chosen that property BECAUSE of those Covenants, and they will expect them to be enforced. Of course, as time goes on, some may become less appropriate and the proper procedures for amending the Covenants would need to be followed; but, other than that, owners are bound by the Covenants, period, paragraph.

Federal or local laws may prevent the HOA from enforcing some parts of the CC&Rs (such as installing a satellite antenna, a handicap ramp, etc.). I agree though, they have agreed to abide by the CC&Rs even if they don't realize it. Ignorance is no excuse.

I have never driven thought a community w/o seeing many violations. These violations never seem to be corrected (this included both of mine). I think most HO's/BOD's pick and choose the ones that don't effect them to complain about. Others(the ones they break) are considered silly/stupid. And we all know we do have some of those but those we need to change in whole or part and if we don't than they should be enforced. I have found that the BOD's are just a quilty of picking and choosing also which ones they will enforce. In our CC&R's it states only personal NON-commerical vehicle may be parked on the lots or the streets (ones w/logos and ladders) in the subdivision. A friend of the President has a truck w/logo and latter on the side parked in his drive, nothing has been done. We now have many rentals, these TH's are being rented by a single person and than 3/4 more people move in and w/them come more commercial vehiclets w/ladders/logo on the side. It really looks bad but she can't violate one w/o the other so here they stay. We have 13 satalite dishes, all installed in different location on the TH, one even in the front yard, nothing was every done about this ( I know that we must allow them but we can halfway control the location). One went up beside the VP's unit, she was furious. This satallite is now gone but the others remain as they were. It's not an easy job being on the BOD's and staying friends/good neighbors if you have to enforce that friend/neighbors violation of the rules. I have ask many times that we enforce ALL the rules or remove the ones we don't like. I may as well been talking in space. Enforcement is a never ending battle anyway....send a notice of violation, wait 10 days, send another notice, offering a hearing, wait another 10 days and so on and so on. We hired a new MC two monthes ago, I am hoping to see some changes but so far nothing. Has any community ever successfully eliminated violations?

Said it before, and Roger will back it up... Hiring a Management Company will not automatically solve all your problems. In fact, unless the board gets some cajones, they will probably bind the MC's hands, and nothing will get done except frustrate everyone. A MC can only do what a board will back them up in doing. if the board grants exemptions to everyone for any reason, or play favorites, if they refuse to apply the rules evenly, a management company is going to be shot full of holes by "friendly fire" before they can even engage the problem effectively. Remember, the MC can only "suggest" a course of action, a board can over-rule them on any action. a weak board often will, due to the peer pressure or favoritism you mention earlier.

Getting a new board, with some new resolve, and then getting an MC to help the board may well be helpful. But tossing the ball to an MC and saying "fix it" will not get the results anyone hopes for. they are not a magic bullet.

We're working ours down. Unless you have a very dedicated manager like Roger, I believe someone on the board must take the initiative to sit down with the manager and go over a plan to begin enforcing the violations and stay with the plan.

In our case we have a large master association with a paid professional in-house management team. We are a sub-association. We find that it is best to work with the master association compliance person for two reasons. One is that we don't duplicate efforts, and the second is that the master association carries more clout.

One of us accompanied the master asc compliance person on an inspection tour and pointed out the types of things that the person would not normally see, and may not know whether what he is seeing is owned by our asc or by an owner.

Parking on the streets is not allowed, yet people do it all the time. When the inspector comes around it's usually in the middle of the day and the cars are at work. So we gave license numbers and addresses and times the cars are parked there. Now he can come at a time when he can see those cars and write a violation.

It takes some cooperation and effort. We are looking at a goal of one year to get down to close to zero violations.

Set a goal, develop a plan, then work the plan, and you'll reduce the violations little by little.

Well said Brian! And if this occurs our choice would be to terminate the Agreement. For a MC to continue would place them at risk of a losing law suit. And IMO we are an overly litigious society with a legal system which seldom addresses justice

It is done all the time. For example, my neighbors complained that I moved some bushes from the front to the side. I had filled in an application to plant bushes on the side which was approved. However, since my neighbor complained I had to put the bushes back in the front, buy new bushes and put them on the side--or face a lawsuit by the developer. When I protested that every house in my neighborhood has moved original plants, I was completely ignored. Nobody else was told to return plants to their original location. Nobody else has to fill in an application to put in azaleas or perennials. The rules are only enforced if your neighbors complain.

Kitty, when you made your application to plant bushes on the side of your house did you indicate that you were moving existing bushes from the front? Face a lawsuit? I can see a fine if you are in violation but a lawsuit? If you feel you were singled out for enforcement, write the BOD a respectful letter asking the reasons why and noting that there are others who have moved original plantings and ask when they are going to have to replace them. If your CC&R's require you to make an application to plant flowers / move bushes, do it; don't worry what your neighbors do, make sure you are in compliance. How do you know that no one else filed an application? I've seen it happen where a neighbor tells another that they did something in violation and "got" away with it; when in reality they did everything by the book. They were simply trying to stir up trouble.

Ronald - I've said it a dozen times: I read my documents and I abide by the rules. It would be a hunky dory world if everyone followed the rules - driving, living, and yes in our HOAs. But it isn't, and they don't. And HOAs seem to be the only place we are expected and actually encouraged to turn in our neighbors - not for crimes against humanity, but violations of CC&Rs for crying out loud. My thesis is just that doing so does not make for happy, interacting, mingling neighborhoods when you know your neighbor turned you in for something maybe a dozen other residents are getting away with. And it is even worse when you don't know who turned you in so that you become wary of everyone. Makes for happy neighborhood living eh? Harold

We operate a self-managed association of 389 homes and I empathize with you. In our case, we simply inspect one street at a time using our inspection guide.

Every home we find a violation(s) we note and send out violation notices (see attached guide). If we are consistent in demonstrating a concientious effort toward enforcement members shouldn't fault you. If so, those that continue to complain it isn't good enough should step up and serve on the inspection team.

My bets advice is inspect routinely and send the notices no matter what. If everyone has a violation of some sort, send your notice.

David

You knew (or should have known) the "rules" before you purchased your property. If you didn't bother to check, shame on you. If you thought you didn't have to obey them, shame on you again.

If you don't like the rules, do yourself and everyone else a favor - move to a place without "rules".

Ronald: Your comment doesn't reflect reality; Harold is right. Most people just want a house to live in and don't read or care about the HOA until someone complains. The majority of people in this neighborhood did not understand that they could be harassed by their neighbors legally through the HOA. There is nowhere you can buy a new houses without an HOA. The HOA gives narrow-minded, controlling neighbors a legal way to get back at the world for their perceived injustices. It turns neighbor against neighbor.

You should have submitted a complete plan with an explanation if necessary. Was the plan approved before you made the changes?

The bottom line is, you live there next to your neighbors and it's not a good plan to anger them. It's also not a good idea to argue with the ACC, management company, or whoever you are dealing with. E-mail is the worst for this.

If there was a misunderstanding of your request, the best thing to have done would have been to request a face to face meeting with the person or group and calmly and politely discuss it.

That's no longer possible at this point so I would suggest that you keep quiet, make friends with your neighbors, and do your best to live within the CC&Rs. The bushes probably aren't that critical to your enjoyment of your property anyway.

If you want to make a change in the future, discuss it with your neighbors if it might affect them, then submit a complete plan with explanation. Letters signed by your neighbors approving the changes will help.

I disagree. "harassed by their neighbors legally through the HOA" - There are rules in place and they are legally binding. If you follow these rules, there will be no "harassment". My neighbors have never harassed me, I follow the rules. They even nominated me and elected me to the BOD. By following the rules, I am showing respect for my neighbors.

"The HOA gives narrow-minded, controlling neighbors......... " The rules are in place when you buy the property. Are you suggesting that they not be enforced?

When you buy a house, you usually (if it's a new house) get a guarantee on the house, appliances, etc. When you buy in a community with CC&Rs, that's your guarantee on the neighborhood; that your neighbor will not paint his house purple, park an old school bus in the driveway, operate a construction business out of his back yard, etc.

Bottom line – if you can’t live with the CC&Rs, don’t buy the property, buy elsewhere.

If it was approved and you did it as outlined in your application, I don't see how it could be "disapproved" retroactively. Perhaps we're not hearing all the story here.

You should be able to appeal a denial. Request an in-person meeting with the ACC or BOD. Look for a compromise. Also, take photos of any yard with landscaping similar to what you propose.

I appears you already had a discussion with the neighbor about the ball in his yard so you might have talked to him about the bushes as a solution at that time. Your neighbor cannot stop your kids from playing on your property unless it's in violation of the CC&Rs. Talk to him about a solution. Be nice.