Homeowner Associations
by Ruby Hawk on Oct 05, 2008 with 13 Comments
60 million Americans are effected by Homeowner Associations rules which are narrow minded and outdated. The majority of them ban natural landscapes, vegetable gardens, window fans, clothes lines, solar panels and all things green.
Twenty percent of Americans now live in homes subject to Homeowners Association rules. People hand over all control of their property rights to this persnickety group. They determine the size of the residence down to colors of the trim to where the basketball hoop can be placed.
Susana Tregobov wanted to dry her clothes on a clothesline in her back yard as a way to go green and save on her electric bill but a neighbor complained and the “whip cracked”. Tregobov and her husband are going to fight for the clothes line but chances are they will lose. In the view of the HOAs, people hand over control when they buy their home, so they no legal rights but a growing number of states are deciding that when HOAs ban eco friendly practices they violate property rights of their members and damage everyone’s right to a habitable planet.
Some states have passed laws that restrict the ability of HOAs to ban solar power panels and solar water heaters. Florida and Colorado have passed laws to protect the homeowners who wish to replace irrigated, chemically dependent lawns with more natural landscaping that require little or no extra water.
These restrictive HOAs cling to outdated standards that are a detriment to our planet. They ban all renewable energy sources such as the clothes line, fans in the window, awnings, vegetables gardens, fruit trees, compost bins, natural landscaping as eyesores. They commonly mandate large centrally air-conditioned homes, lawn sprinkler systems, synthetic lawn fertilizers, and weed killers. These property cops are not one bit embarrassed to enforce over consumption and pollution, but seen determined to impose this wastefulness and pollution on everyone.
Critics say only stringent national laws can protect American’s 60 million HOA residents from anti-green rules. A bill called the “SolarOpportunity and Local Access Rights Act,” (SOLAR) is designed to do just that, but it languishes in congress with only one co-sponsor. The energy to restrain these overbearing narrow minded HOAs may have to come from the grass roots, as families struggle with the ever rising high prices of daily living they may well put the heat on lawmakers to protect their rights to moneysaving conservation,
A small but growing number of HOAs are encouraging green practices. Let us hope they will push harder for strict limits on house size, ban leaf blowers, pesticides, irrigated chemically dependant lawns, and keep their eye on the green practices that will save our planet.
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Published in: Homeowners
nobert soloria bermosa | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
ouch,that hurts,i’m glad those are not implemented here in our place
Bozsi Rose | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
I hate hate hate HOAs with a passion! No one should be able to tell you what to do with your home. People are so willing to give up freedom for money (resell value of the homes). It just makes me sad.
jo oliver | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
yet another reason i love living in the country! no one can tell me when to mow my yard, what color to paint my house etc…..
great job ruby!
Mark Gordon Brown | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
Any one or any organization or group banning solar stuff is an idiot, or controll freaks.
My wife and I live on a small acreage in Canada, and look forward to getting a solar panel on our roof
B Nelson | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
WOW that is totally crazy, I had no idea about this! Glad it does not affect me. Good warning for others!
Darlene McFarlane | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
I think I will stay with my small town way of life.
Great article, Ruby.
william rodriguez II | Oct 5, 2008 | Reply
Very stricted Homeowner Associations..Great job,Ruby!
PR Mace | Oct 6, 2008 | Reply
Thank goodness I live in an older area without a HOA. I hate them. Florida also has a Right To Dry Law for using clothes lines and many HOA are fighting it. What a gruop of stupid people. I love to hang out laundry and I use box fans in my windows as the weather gets cooler. Great article.
CHAN LEE PENG | Oct 7, 2008 | Reply
This sounds a bit crazy…good work, take care!
Ruby Hawk | Oct 7, 2008 | Reply
Thank you one and all for your interest. You are the best. I think HOAs are the pits. I would never buy a home in one of these subsivisions. I always had my clothes line and my fans too when I lived in a house. Now that I live in an apartment I still have my fans and windows open. Take care everyone. Ruby
Amos | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply
These HOA’s are the pits. I don’t have anything to do with them and I do what I want on my own property. Maybe laws will change things. I hope so.
Mind1 | Oct 20, 2008 | Reply
Thank goodness, I don’t have to contend with them.
Ralph Brandt | Dec 19, 2008 | Reply
Within reason a man or woman’s home should be their castle and others should butt out. Sure, if the guy wants to run a hog farm in a tight residential neighborhood, set up a rifle range, or something that impacts safety of the neighborhood that should be prohibited. But nobody should be required to even get permits to do many of the things we have to from the government either.
I think I needed a permit from the township to put up a TV antenna, in some HOA’s you would also need their approval or worse, no way. Ham operators are finding that their license from the FCC to operate does not guarantee them the right to put up even a minimum antenna, a 5 foot antenna like the one on a car may be illegal in some places if placed on the rain gutter of a home, even in the back! I could understand asking the guy to not put a 40 meter cubical quad in his front yard – that looks like a wire box kite with about 20 feet on each side, but this is ridiculous.
We have to get governments and pretend governments out of our lives…