Question for those who live in an HOA (states, years, adults)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
No to your question. If you start "bending" the rules it makes it hard to manage the community. The key is to read and understand, especially HOA agreements, any agreement you sign. And expect that everyone will have to follow the same rules.
No to your question. If you start "bending" the rules it makes it hard to manage the community. The key is to read and understand, especially HOA agreements, any agreement you sign. And expect that everyone will have to follow the same rules.
This. I'm on an HOA Board and we're pretty reasonable but we're bound by the Restrictions. One guy wanted to put up a CB antenna. There's a law in the works that may REQUIRE that we permit CB antennas because CB networks are vital in emergencies, but it's not law right now. I felt bad but as you noted, if you don't enforce restrictions you open yourself up to lawsuits by people who want to ignore other restrictions.
We're working on a draft of new ones that give us more leeway, but they'll have to pass legal review and be voted on by the members.
With very few exceptions HOA's are not the same as non-HOA developments. Good to see someone is thinking before they jump into it. I've seen too many people misjudge, go HOA and later regret it.
You lose money every time you sell and rebuy. No way around that. The choice is 100% yours - not theirs, so, a wrong decision is 100% your fault.
We live in a condo with HOA. HOA, all good people, is fairly closed to any ideas not invented by them. But, on the plus side, they deal with a bunch of stuff we'd not want to deal with. And, there are a lot of irresponsible owners/tenants doing completely stupid and inconsiderate things.
So, it is a trade-off, and you need to take good with bad.
From OP's post they live in a very strict HOA with stringent rules.
I live in an HOA development and based on OP's original description I would not buy there.
Don’t ask, don’t tell worked for the military, it should work just as well for a small garden not visible to others in the community. Moderation and discretion are key.
A friend of mine lives in a California over-55 HOA community that is very strict about what people can and cannot have on their property/lots (approved plants, decorations, paint colors, etc etc....there are tons of Do Not rules.) At their previous (non-HOA) house they always had a vegetable garden but of course those are not allowed in their HOA, and she is very upset about having to go to a store for fresh produce. She and her husband are both in their late 70s and diabetic, and have no friends in the community who would shop for them, and no family members either.
I asked her whether anyone had petitioned the HOA to temporarily suspend their "exterior landscaping" rules so as to allow residents to grow edibles in their backyards or even in patio containers. Just like the old Victory Gardens during WWII. Personally I cannot see the harm, especially if it's limited to backyards but to be honest, at this time, who cares about appearances? Anyway, she said that as far as she knows, the HOA still forbids anything of the sort even in this emergency situation. Seems ridiculous to me.
Anyone here live in an HOA that has relaxed their rules so that residents can plant edibles for their own use during this crisis? It seems like a no-brainer idea to me, especially in parts of the country where the growing season has already begun, and given that so many HOAs are for "over 55" only.
It doesn't sound to me as if she even ASKED. HOAs are not a them. They are YOU. They are your neighbors. Does she not understand this? If not, it sounds as if she has deeper issues than not having fresh vegetables.
Besides, even if she planted something now, it wouldn't be grown and edible for months.
Even if she starts a vegetable garden today, how long will it be before she can actually pick any produce? I live in California too, and my garden is growing well with the mild weather and all the rain, but it still takes even the fastest vegetables (lettuce, radishes) weeks to months before they are ready to eat.By the time most vegetables would be ripe, the crisis will (hopefully) be over. How is she going to get produce in the meantime? So phrasing this as a "temporary" request is kind of silly on her part, in my opinion. The HOA would have to allow it all of the time or never.
At the same time, I'm shocked that a HOA is telling anyone they can't even grow a few tomatoes or peppers in a pot. Isn't there somewhere on your friend's property where they could put a few pots that would not be visible from the street or by nosy neighbors?
My sister's 55+ HOA has a similar rule. The issue is that the vegetables attract animals.
I live in a condo complex. The HOA disallows vegetable gardening in the front of our units for the same reason, but we all have a fenced in patio area in the back. I've grown tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers back there. My sister's place doesn't have that fenced-in type of area. I doubt they will suspend the rule for COVID-19, but I could ask her. Maybe I'll get her stirred up.
Some idiot a couple of years ago had pumpkins growing out front. The landscapers took the pumpkins and ripped out the vines. This same idiot then contacted the board president and asked her how he can go about not paying the HOA fee and taking care of the landscaping and snow removal for his own area. She said, "Buy a single-family house."
Here's a solution to the problem if you are stuck in a strict HOA community ruled with an iron fist like a communist dictatorship, and can't or don't want to move.
If you have the space inside your home or garage, you can setup a hydroponic grow room. You can grow a lot of plants inside your home or garage. When you grow with hydroponics, the plants grow faster, and bigger than if you use soil, and there is never any weeding. Growing with hydroponics is drastically less maintenance compared to traditional outdoor soil gardening. Growing with hydroponics is not expensive. You can start off small and ramp up to whatever scale you want. The hydroponic nutrients are not expensive, if you use the three part dry mix. The premixed liquid nutrients are very expensive. You can learn everything you need to know about hydroponic gardening by watching free YouTube videos.
If you grow plants indoors, you will need lighting. The greens can grow under cheap fluorescent or LED lighting. If you are growing fruiting plants, like peppers or tomatoes, then you need more expensive hydroponic lighting that closer matches the lighting intensity that you'd get outside in the sunshine. If you have to run lighting 16 hours a day, the cost can add up on a monthly basis.
If you live in a cold climate, you can grow with hydroponics in your basement all winter. In warmer climates or in the summers in the snow belt areas, you could grow on your deck if you have a deck but don't have a yard.
It's possible to automate hydroponic growing, so you can be away from your garden for months, without any concern about watering plants. There are about seven or different methods how you can grow hydroponically. Again, you can start very small, and scale up. Starting small is growing one lettuce plant in a one gallon plastic milk jug. After you set up the plant to grow in the one gallon plastic jug, you do zero work. You simply wait for the harvest time. You can harvest that lettuce plant three times.
Hydroponics can be scaled up to giant warehouse type greenhouses larger than many football fields in size. There are YouTube videos of those large scale hydroponic operations. When you are inside those giant greenhouses, you cannot see the perimeters of the giant green houses!
If you need help starting with hydroponics, I can help you get started.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
