From: sbishop@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Neighborhood from hell
Date: 23 Nov 92 11:23:22 EST
Organization:  Wright State University 

In article <1992Nov23.141314.6886@linus.mitre.org>, bwise@hemlock.mitre.org (Barry Wise) writes:
> In article <1992Nov21.140321.5749@desire.wright.edu> sbishop@desire.wright.edu  
> writes:
>> 
>> 
>> I've learned one thing from all this.  AVOID ANY HOUSE THAT IS PART OF AN
>> OWNERS' ORGANIZATION!
>> 
> 
> Virginia now requires that any covenants/homeowners associations bylaws be  
> provided to the new owners prior to settlement because of these kinds of  
> problems. Knowing how overwhelming a settlement can be they probably signed  
> everything without reading it.
> 
>  Having served on a home owners association I have the opposite view from  
> yours. Home owners who move into a neigborhood and assume they can do what they  
> want without thinking about the effect on their neighbors. Your friends had  
> trucks and didn't think to check to see if anyone else had commercial vehicles  
> in the neighborhood? Did they get a building permit for any of the work they  
> had done? 
> 

There is another home owner in the plat who has a commercial truck.  He
was there before they were and didn't have any problems with the homeowners
org.  He is very sympathetic but afraid to support them because he's afraid
the H O will go after him next.
The main complaint has always been that several members of the HO are angry
because they accuse my friends of being two separate families living in
the same house.  Well, legally they haven't a leg to stand on in that area.

yes, they did have a building permit for the barn.

> I've seen people paint there townhouse bright pink and can't see why other  
> people are upset. She kept her yard a mess and said she thought it was 'pretty'  
> that way. Oh sure, she thought it was her 'right' even though see affected the  
> property values of her neighbors. 

They have a gorgeous house, a three acre lot and they keep the place spotless
and the yard in excellent condition.  Much better than some of the other
places in the plat.  In fact, they have the loveliest house in the plat
and the largest, six bedrooms, three baths, huge living room, family room,
etc.  I've wondered if that could be part of the problem.  

> 
> Those yuppie types were there first and your friends don't have a right to  
> impose there style of living on people who moved to a community with covenants  
> _because_ there were covenants to prevent the sort of things your friends were  
> doing. They started the harassment by refusing to obey the covenants. 
> --
> Barry Wise

Their style of living is no different than their neighbors.  Except that they
are an extended family, four generations all in the same house.  The only
thing my friends wanted was the right to live in their house and not be
harrassed and to be able to build a barn on their property.  I might add
that several of the houses in the plat already have barns, the barn my
friends built was bigger and nicer than any of the other barns, one of which
is built of plywood and looks pretty crappy.  The HO passed a rule (after
the fact) that barns must be less than 24 by 32 (funny, my friends' barn
was that size) and that houses on one side of the street could build barns,
houses on the other side of the street could not.  
The HO rules are extremely vague, evidently the deed covenant was drawn
up by a fool.  The HO rules can be changed by a majority of the members
present at a meeting.  So, they don't really need a quorum.

Sue