My wife and I have lived in our house for less than a year and we're already tired of our homeowner's association.
First, we wanted to revamp the backyard... Add a fence that is no where near any property lines, add a deck, and some rock stairs. We have to get approval for said modifications. Ok fine, I can understand that, don't want to put up an eye sore that pisses off the neighbors. We submit the form in the first week of January. They still have not approved it and we've already went ahead and built everything. We looked at the agreement and in the first revision it said that if the committee fails to approve/disapprove of your proposal within 15 days, the proposal is by default approved. But then in a later revision it was changed to 30 days and by default disapproved. WTF... Is that really fair? It seems its on them to tell us explicitly not to do something on OUR property, not by default we can't alter OUR property... So now the question is what happens if they don't act and by default we're disapproved? Do they have the right to enter our property, walk to the back, and check to see if we made the modifications already? And if they do, what can they do about it?
Second, I've been a lazy *** and haven't taken down our 3 strands of Christmas lights. I haven't had them on, but they have been hanging. They are white strands, white lights, and our brick is white. You barely even see the lights. We get a letter saying that all "holiday decorations must be removed 30 days after the event" and they even provide a nice picture as if we don't already know what they're talking about. First - can't you find something better to do with my homeowners' dues than to drive around the neighborhood, taking pictures, and then mailing me pictures of my own house? Second, how does she know we were celebrating Christmas? We very well may have been celebrating some other "holiday" and it seems shortsighted of them to assume otherwise w/o asking us about it first. In fact, there is a Hindu holiday (I'm Hindu) that is celebrated Jan 14th which would give us until Feb 14th to take the lights down. Not that I was celebrating, but if I were, would I have a legitimate complaint here? Yes I am looking for ways to ***** slap them in the face. Yes I'm petty.
First, we wanted to revamp the backyard... Add a fence that is no where near any property lines, add a deck, and some rock stairs. We have to get approval for said modifications. Ok fine, I can understand that, don't want to put up an eye sore that pisses off the neighbors. We submit the form in the first week of January. They still have not approved it and we've already went ahead and built everything. We looked at the agreement and in the first revision it said that if the committee fails to approve/disapprove of your proposal within 15 days, the proposal is by default approved. But then in a later revision it was changed to 30 days and by default disapproved. WTF... Is that really fair? It seems its on them to tell us explicitly not to do something on OUR property, not by default we can't alter OUR property... So now the question is what happens if they don't act and by default we're disapproved? Do they have the right to enter our property, walk to the back, and check to see if we made the modifications already? And if they do, what can they do about it?
Second, I've been a lazy *** and haven't taken down our 3 strands of Christmas lights. I haven't had them on, but they have been hanging. They are white strands, white lights, and our brick is white. You barely even see the lights. We get a letter saying that all "holiday decorations must be removed 30 days after the event" and they even provide a nice picture as if we don't already know what they're talking about. First - can't you find something better to do with my homeowners' dues than to drive around the neighborhood, taking pictures, and then mailing me pictures of my own house? Second, how does she know we were celebrating Christmas? We very well may have been celebrating some other "holiday" and it seems shortsighted of them to assume otherwise w/o asking us about it first. In fact, there is a Hindu holiday (I'm Hindu) that is celebrated Jan 14th which would give us until Feb 14th to take the lights down. Not that I was celebrating, but if I were, would I have a legitimate complaint here? Yes I am looking for ways to ***** slap them in the face. Yes I'm petty.
