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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:09 am 
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So our HOA has decided they want to amend the bylaws and distributed the latest version to us. The meeting to “discuss” is Tuesday the 28th. I have a few questions and if anyone has had a similar experience please let me know what you did (if anything) to try and get some common sense adhered to. I don’t have the document with me but some of the updates are as follows:

1. If you rent your unit you need to file a financial AND criminal background check on the renters with the HOA. How can they ask for that? I own the unit its up to me who I rent to, no? If they are allowed to do this, can I ask to see policies on how they handle this sensitive data and if it is insufficient how can I fight it?
2. Also they say units can only be rented to a family or an individual. If two same gendered people want to rent, they can’t? That can’t possibly be legal.
3. You can’t run a home business from your home. How can they tell someone they can’t make money at their own house?? If I want to sell shit on eBay as a side business I can’t?? Eff You. The lady a few doors down sells gourmet coffee as a business out of her home, she is going to have to stop doing that?
4. No portable fire pits allowed per Village of Cary. A couple phone calls to the village and the fire department and this is a flat out lie. The village said it was perfectly fine to have one.
5. No kiddy pools allowed on property. So the cheap plastic pool I have for my daughter to swim in on hot days is not allowed? What the hell is that? Its properly stored in my garage when not in use.

Those are the main ones I can recall off the top of my head. What kind of asshat wrote this up? And can they really enforce this? Are these meetings just dog and pony shows or can these people actually be reasoned with and convinced these are some bad ideas? I know we have some lawyers and master debaters here, any ammunition you can give me to argue with these people will be greatly appreciated!

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:20 am 
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jackref wrote:
1. If you rent your unit you need to file a financial AND criminal background check on the renters with the HOA. How can they ask for that? I own the unit its up to me who I rent to, no? If they are allowed to do this, can I ask to see policies on how they handle this sensitive data and if it is insufficient how can I fight it? They technically can ask for that information from renters. It is really common practice for many complexes. This may be included as a clause in your mortgage contract as well.
2. Also they say units can only be rented to a family or an individual. If two same gendered people want to rent, they can’t? That can’t possibly be legal. That sounds a little odd to me, but what's stopping any renters from saying they are cousins?
3. You can’t run a home business from your home. How can they tell someone they can’t make money at their own house?? If I want to sell shit on eBay as a side business I can’t?? Eff You. The lady a few doors down sells gourmet coffee as a business out of her home, she is going to have to stop doing that? That's some bullshit right there. I would ask for further clarification on that. Perhaps the HOA just doesn't want someone to open a business establishment on their property (as I am sure there are different laws/insurances needed in that case).
4. No portable fire pits allowed per Village of Cary. A couple phone calls to the village and the fire department and this is a flat out lie. The village said it was perfectly fine to have one. You would know this better than me.
5. No kiddy pools allowed on property. So the cheap plastic pool I have for my daughter to swim in on hot days is not allowed? What the hell is that? Its properly stored in my garage when not in use.I've seen this bylaw before as well. At our condo complex, anything other than what is inside my actual condo unit is considered "common area", which means that I don't own it and can't use it as I deem fit. I'm assuming this means you can't have a kiddie pool out in the middle of the parking lot, for example.

Those are the main ones I can recall off the top of my head. What kind of asshat wrote this up? And can they really enforce this? Are these meetings just dog and pony shows or can these people actually be reasoned with and convinced these are some bad ideas? I know we have some lawyers and master debaters here, any ammunition you can give me to argue with these people will be greatly appreciated! I have had some luck arguing my point to the head association president at our meetings, usually when it deals with us receiving some bullshit warning letter for having the incorrect curtain colors or having something out on our patio. Completely depends on the person in the position of power.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:10 am 
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jackref wrote:
So our HOA has decided they want to amend the bylaws and distributed the latest version to us. The meeting to “discuss” is Tuesday the 28th. I have a few questions and if anyone has had a similar experience please let me know what you did (if anything) to try and get some common sense adhered to. I don’t have the document with me but some of the updates are as follows:

1. If you rent your unit you need to file a financial AND criminal background check on the renters with the HOA. How can they ask for that? I own the unit its up to me who I rent to, no? If they are allowed to do this, can I ask to see policies on how they handle this sensitive data and if it is insufficient how can I fight it? This is pretty standard. The sensitive data handling is a fair question. Also, I would want to know what the guidelines will be after they have that information. Does the board decide? The President? The entire association?
2. Also they say units can only be rented to a family or an individual. If two same gendered people want to rent, they can’t? That can’t possibly be legal. Again, it sounds like they are giving themselves the right to deny anyone.
3. You can’t run a home business from your home. How can they tell someone they can’t make money at their own house?? If I want to sell shit on eBay as a side business I can’t?? Eff You. The lady a few doors down sells gourmet coffee as a business out of her home, she is going to have to stop doing that? I've never heard of anything like this and would certainly pursue it further.
4. No portable fire pits allowed per Village of Cary. A couple phone calls to the village and the fire department and this is a flat out lie. The village said it was perfectly fine to have one.
5. No kiddy pools allowed on property. So the cheap plastic pool I have for my daughter to swim in on hot days is not allowed? What the hell is that? Its properly stored in my garage when not in use. My association stopped allowing all pools, bag sets, etc. because people were breaking the sprinklers. Personally, I think it was used because one guy had to have his idiot friends over every night playing bags in the driveway, creating what sounded like a gunshot every three seconds followed by douche laughter. I would ask what the reasoning is and ask this to be for times it is not being used.

Those are the main ones I can recall off the top of my head. What kind of asshat wrote this up? And can they really enforce this? Are these meetings just dog and pony shows or can these people actually be reasoned with and convinced these are some bad ideas? I know we have some lawyers and master debaters here, any ammunition you can give me to argue with these people will be greatly appreciated!


Be very careful when presenting your opposition. Many of these board types take the position to have any sort of power in their life. I ran for my board because there was an out of control tyrant. People didn't even want to go to meetings because they would be screamed at by the guy. If you have logical opposition, with examples like the village call, you'll hopefully be OK.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:31 am 
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The home business thing I've seen before. No one wants trucks coming day and night through a quiet neighborhood.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:02 am 
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Good info guys, much appreciated!

And I wish I could sell, but I would lose too much money, hence wanting to rent it out and my concerns with what seems like a ridiculous process of approval by them.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:07 am 
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Gloopan Kuratz wrote:
The home business thing I've seen before. No one wants trucks coming day and night through a quiet neighborhood.


Not every home business is like that though. I can be a one man consulting shop and use my residence as a place of business for tax purposes. Them telling me I cannot do that seems absurd.

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Oh...Eastern Illinois. They contacted me. I didn't take the entrance exam because I had 64 crayons instead of 3. But I loved going through Central Illinois. Watching people on bad cooked up Tide is the best.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:08 am 
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jackref wrote:
Good info guys, much appreciated!

And I wish I could sell, but I would lose too much money, hence wanting to rent it out and my concerns with what seems like a ridiculous process of approval by them.

As a person who might be wanting to rent their property in the future, it would probably be best for you to do the credit and background checks on any potential renters. You don't want to get screwed. Better to spend the relatively small amount of money to do this than to get saddled with someone you're going to have trouble collecting rent from in the future.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:08 am 
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A majority of Associations I've seen do not allow businesses to be run from homes, so that seemed fine. It's a slippery slope. You really want commercial vans/trucks and additional traffic coming through your Association? You can easily run an eBay business from your home without any neighbors knowing. Same goes for the gourmet coffee. Just be smart about it.

Same goes for fire pits. I would assume most Associations do not allow them. Your R&R must be very outdated if they're updating them to include this. For instance, my Association does not allow them. However, my neighbor and a few other owners have them. Our board (yours truly) is not full of sticklers.

Again, you have to realize you live in an Association. My advice would be to speak to neighbors in advance to get a general feel about it. They may not even be aware of the rule changes. Most people probably just pitch the HOA mailings. Get enough on your side of things, and the board won't have the 75% voting needed to change them. Hope this helped a bit.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:31 am 
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Douchebag wrote:
jackref wrote:
Good info guys, much appreciated!

And I wish I could sell, but I would lose too much money, hence wanting to rent it out and my concerns with what seems like a ridiculous process of approval by them.

As a person who might be wanting to rent their property in the future, it would probably be best for you to do the credit and background checks on any potential renters. You don't want to get screwed. Better to spend the relatively small amount of money to do this than to get saddled with someone you're going to have trouble collecting rent from in the future.


I am more concerned with why the association wants this information and what they plan to do with it. If someone has a blemish on their record do they get to tell me I can't rent to them? And what is the HOA going to do to protect that information? With so much identity theft can we really trust some property management company to manage that information properly? Just seems like it is information they don't need.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:32 am 
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You mention this is in Cary. You don't happen to live in the Cloisters townhouses do you? I lived there when they were first built, and the association was a wreck.

Associations have things in their bylaws all the time that conflict with the law. The best example is ones that prevent you from putting up a Directv dish. They always try to control those, but Federal law overrides these bylaws. I suspect it is the exact same thing with some of those proposals. Our company insures associations, and they get sued all the time for this garbage. The folks running these associations are dumb and power hungry.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:36 am 
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denisdman wrote:
You mention this is in Cary. You don't happen to live in the Cloisters townhouses do you? I lived there when they were first built, and the association was a wreck.

Associations have things in their bylaws all the time that conflict with the law. The best example is ones that prevent you from putting up a Directv dish. They always try to control those, but Federal law overrides these bylaws. I suspect it is the exact same thing with some of those proposals. Our company insures associations, and they get sued all the time for this garbage. The folks running these associations are dumb and power hungry.

I don't see how banning dishes would be against any kind of law. In a townhouse or condo, you only own what is inside the walls of the home or garage. Everything else is common space, and the assosciation should be able to do whatever they please with it.

Also, nothing looks worse than when you drive past an apartment, condo, or townhome complex, and you see a line of dishes along them.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 10:37 am 
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denisdman wrote:
You mention this is in Cary. You don't happen to live in the Cloisters townhouses do you? I lived there when they were first built, and the association was a wreck.

Associations have things in their bylaws all the time that conflict with the law. The best example is ones that prevent you from putting up a Directv dish. They always try to control those, but Federal law overrides these bylaws. I suspect it is the exact same thing with some of those proposals. Our company insures associations, and they get sued all the time for this garbage. The folks running these associations are dumb and power hungry.


Hold up... Federal law states I can have Directv if I want?

I only ask because our association states we cannot get a dish because we can't install in on the building.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:03 pm 
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Yes, Federal law overrides muni, state, and association laws that prevent people from putting out a dish. I had to fight this battle. The law was enacted to promote competition, and lots of placing were banning satellite dishes. Here is the law:

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/installing-co ... ite-dishes


I used it to fight my association.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:52 pm 
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First, it has been my experience that HOAs wield a lot of authority. They act like mini-governments and I'm not sure if the items you noted are fightable. From what I can tell, even if you legally battle with the HOA and win, the money comes from the budget of the HOA and therefore they will just raise your rates to cover the amount.

My own personal experience with home-based business is that each municipality has their own rules and zoning. For Crystal Lake, I can legally run a home-based business, so long as I do not put up any signs, not have any visits from clients or vendors and not store some amount of inventory at my house. Most likely Cary has similar rules and the HOA is just re-iterating it. Thankfully, my HOA chooses to cede these issues to the municipality and do not get involved. You may want to take that approach in your argument against the association. If Cary is already handling this, why do you want to add additional politics and legal to it.

As far as the renting restrictions go... good luck. The one thing my HOA cracked down heavily on was rentals and from speaking with the head of the company running our association, these types of rules are legit and enforceable. He said some HOAs use it for an additional revenue stream. They put in these laws knowing that rental companies are not doing the proper background checks, not maintaining the property to code, etc. Companies will usually not fight the fine and just pay it rather than getting into a legal dispute. Not sure how widespread or accurate that is, but it sounds logical.

The rest of the stuff is crap, but as Panther mentions, you likely don't want to fight it legally. Pick the thing that is most important and use a sob story on them.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:55 pm 
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Tell them you need a dish for your home business.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 1:00 pm 
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Tell them you need a dish for your home business.


Like a Men's Warehouse.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:43 am 
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So I attended this shit-show last night. And there were a lot more people even angrier than I was. I thought the police were going to be called to remove one gentleman who was quite loud and boisterous. When asked to lower his voice he said he couldn't because he worked outside all day and it was how he talked :lol:

About 40 people showed up, compared to the regular 3-4 people I was told. The board consisted of 5 members and the property management company representative. Two of the board members actually listened and understood where the homeowners were coming from. Two of the board members had a universal NO to everything and were unwilling to budge on anything. The other board member was asleep I believe.

Some people had well thought out arguments and reasons for their issues (me), others went ballistic and had some good points but they were lost in the shouting and f-bombs. After 3 and a half hours I left as I had had enough. They weren't sure if they were going to vote on it later that evening after the board finished the rest of their meeting agenda. They may table it until the next meeting.

Not sure what will happen but I appreciate all the replies to this thread as it definitely helped me and I would encourage everyone to go to at least one of these meetings, just for the unintentional comedy factor alone. I do plan on going to more meetings though and be as much of a pain to them as they are to me :P

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