We had a chairman of our HOA that we called the Condo Nazi and his cronies were the Henchmen.
Wahoo...Free Republic as a primary source!
Our home is in a great area, and it had some strict homeowner rules when we moved in. The original land owner was a hard nosed retired Marine Officer, who became a petty supervisor for local government. He had some fairly tight restrictions like no fences and having to keep the same paint color and never removing any trees including feral and planted non native trees.
He and I butted heads several times re the paint. My original paint was a stain that didn’t protect the wood and ended up not being made any more. When I had to replace the south facing wood due to the worthless paint, I used a newer latex bonding.
He went ballistic, and I handed my bill to him for replacing the siding and two paint jobs in a few years and demanded payment. He went ballistic and a lawyer we both knew told him that I could demand payment from he and the other property owners because of the demanding of a certain stain/paint that didn’t work.
We didn’t speak much after that. He moved on to the big sky or below.
Since then, we have repainted our house two more times. We have had the painter paint samples on the street side. If anyone didn’t like them, they could write letter. That has worked well.
The no fences has become a serious issue with our expanding deer population. We couldn’t plant anything that the deer would not eat. The lady, who semi took over the responsibilities told us we could put in a deer fence if we used wood posts stained green instead of metal posts. We did and now have a garden and roses in our back and side yards.
A new comer tried to revise the original HOA guidelines, and no one came to the meeting. His wife was raised in a Florida Condo and was probably the pusher. I told him that since he moved in, he has construction trucks and yard guys doing things to his house without ever asking anyone for about two years. I told him that I was tired of looking at the big blue rental porta potty that has been in his yard next to mine for over a year for his jobs.
So now we are back to common sense not some damn dictator convenants.
Haha
