Home based business

Hi I'm new here. I need a bit of input on my current situation with our HOA.

I am a fulltime Senior Systems Engineer and work from home a lot of the time. I also have an online business where I sell custom automotive parts. Many of these parts simply dropship from the manufacturer to the customer and I never do anything but fill out a purchase order for the item. Some products that are custom made for me get shipped to my house in batches and then get shipped out to customer. Our deed restrictions do state that no businesses or anything for profit should be run from the house. This is a neighborhood wide and HOA rule that has never been enforced from what I see. I have several neighbors that have businesses they run out of their homes selling anything from beads, to baked goods, to custom welded art work. I have not seen complaints filed against them in any form.

about 6 months ago, our neighbor across the street who is the ex president of our HOA filed a complaint against us for running a business out of our home and stated that we had too many delivery trucks coming to the house. We received a few phone calls from the HOA folks and also a letter. The gentleman who called us first spoke with my wife and my wife was at the Subway down the street picking up a few sandwiches and said "i'm picking up an order, can I call you back". The HOA rep took this and put it in his letter as "also the first time we called your wife said that she was taking a customers order and would have to call us back". Although I clarified the situation for the HOA rep, he is dead set on believing that my wife had a customer in the house. This is also weird because my wife has absolutely no part in my business dealings for the auto parts that I sell.

We have no customers that come to the house, it is strictly online sales. There are no signs, there are no outside storage of parts or anything like that.

So far I've asked UPS to stop coming by everyday for their daily pickup. And I've started taking packages to the local UPS dropoff myself. Now only around 2 or so delivery trucks come by per week for dropoffs and many times it is for personal packages from my wife ordering things online.

I have also talked to the UPS driver since I still see them coming down our street almost everyday and they've mentioned to me that there are several folks that are part of book clubs, wine clubs, etc... that get shipments every couple of days, and also a couple of other home based businesses which require them to come down our street almost everyday.

Then we get a second letter in the mail today stating that the neighbor has reported fewer deliveries to our house but that the neighbor across the street (same one that filed the complaint) has talked to the UPS truck driver and noted that UPS has "daily pickups" scheduled for my residence. Obviously those have stopped because there are no more daily pickups, but the neighbor is using that as further ammunition against us.

I'm really not sure what to do in this situation. My online business is a large part of my income and has been running for 4+ years and I simply cant afford to stop, otherwise I would to get this guy off my back. I have not ever been rude or anything to the gentleman across the street. We have been great neighbors since we moved to this house 2 years ago. We completely remodeled the house inside and out and brought it back from the dead. The house was an eyesore to the community when we first bought it. I don't want to pull the discrimination card, but the only possible reason that I can think of that our neighbor across the street is picking on us is because of our age and our race. Our entire street is filled with older white families that have owned these houses since the early 80's when they were first built and there are only 2 young couples on the street. most folks living here are 70-90yrs old, and we're 30 and middle eastern. We're not loud, we're not abnoxious, we don't have loud parties or anything annoying like that. We keep our home nice and clean inside and out.

Any suggestions of where to go from here?

Steve, If I had the sort of income to be able to afford getting a brick and mortar storefront, I would.

The problem now is that the business related deliveries to my house have all but ceased other than a couple of deliveries a week at most. I have no way of reducing the deliveries further than they are now. We're also having a baby in August, and we're getting deliveries for the baby shower gifts people are sending in addition to any personal items my wife purchases online.

The UPS truck comes down our street almost everyday, our deliveries are not adding any additional traffic to the street.

The HOA filed a complaint with the city. The city ordinance inspector came by and took a look at things and said we're not doing anything illegal.

Brian,
Thank you for taking the time to post that. That is truly helpful. I don't want to burn any bridges. We plan to live here for at least a couple more years if not more and I would hate to have to duck and hide every time I see a neighbor. I'm a very fun loving open and honest person and don't want to go down that path. So #2 is out of the question, I would hate to be the "bad guy". #1 isn't an option. With my wife being laid off and our first baby on the way, quitting the internet sales isn't an option for me right now. #3 & 4 are the routes I'll need to look into.

Other than purely being nosey and wanting me out of here, I don't know what else our neighbor's motivation could be. There's obviously others on the street that have home based businesses. There's obviously other neighbors that bring delivery trucks to our street multiple times per week (whether it be personal or business related), and the extra traffic is definitely not an issue. Just last week our neighbor from across the street (same one that filed the complaint had an 18 wheeler parked directly in front of my house blocking my driveway, walkway and mailbox. I didn't say a thing and just parked on the street and went inside and he clearly saw me. And for the last few weeks he's had 3-4 work trucks a day, all day at his place doing some work on his house.

Talking on the phone with the HOA representative didn't get me anywhere and didn't get me any straight answers other than "just keep it quiet and nobody will be bothered". But then they sent another letter. I guess my only option at this point is to play the same game and respond in writing back and forth until we come to some sort of a resolution to keep everyone happy.

Bak,

IMO, the BOD should have no authority to limit the number of times a delivery truck comes to a member's home, unless the streets are private. If it were me, I would ask for a meeting with the BOD to discuss my "home business". IMO, a "face-to-face" is much better than playing telephone tag with one board member or another. Let them know that when most CCRs were written it was during a time when home businesses were not as prevalent as they are now (because of the advent of the Internet) and there was no such thing as Internet shopping. And, because of this, home business usually meant some type of manufacturing or perhaps an auto repair shop or beauty salon. I would also suggest that the BOD adopt a rule to define "home business". That definition would include only those businesses that are manufacturing in nature, cause noxious odors, have customers coming to the home thus creating more traffic, promote loud noises or create any other type of disturbance to the neighborhood. To uphold your opinion regarding delivery trucks I would suggest keeping a log for at least a week. Enter the number of times a delivery truck comes to your home and the reason (business or internet shopping) and also enter the number of times you see a delivery truck at a neighbor's home. Also, IMO, there is a big difference between customers coming to the home (creating traffic) and a delivery truck stopping by. The customer parks his car on the street and may be there for a length of time whereas a delivery truck only stops for a minute or two. Customers create "traffic" on the street; delivery trucks do not.

Glen's advice is not only excellent, but can very easily remove the onus from you to them.

In other words, for a small annual fee, your business's "address" will not be your home address.

Our local UPS Store has very affordable post office boxes -- I think something like $150 per year?

Unlike the United States Post Office boxes, they are actually "street" addresses.

Plus, they accept UPS AND FedEx deliveries.

They send you an email whenever you have a delivery and you can pop in and pick it up anytime (even after business hours, in many cases).

How does that benefit you?

You have an off-site "bricks and mortar" business address and you no longer have the UPS/FedEx deliveries (daily or otherwise) to your home.

If they take you to court, you simply provide the mailing address of your box as your business's street address and it will be on the association to prove that you are "running" a business out of your home.

Which you are not. You are running it out of the UPS Store mailbox that you rent.

If you have your "business" incorporated, you can also use that UPS Store box as your official address for all legal documents, including taxes.

Anyway, just something to consider.

This is why the amendment you cited also has an element of fail. A UPS or FedEx delivery daily, or in some cases, several times a day, would impact the neighbors.

Plus, day care centers. Home based day care centers don't allow in the general public, but can still create a nuisance in the neighborhood, especially during drop-off and pick-up times.

At any rate, this is why the business clause is so difficult to deal with, regardless of today's "technology" advances.