1st house: May 1966.
2nd house: January 1989.
3rd House: Feb 2005.
NEVER even would look at a house with an HOA or CC&R’s.
NEVER have & NEVER will.
They rarely produce harmony among the home owners.
I am one of three members on the Architectural Design Committee of a 748 acre residential and commercial HOA. I’m on it for the benefit of my company to get our designs in front of the committee quickly, even though we are extremely responsive anyway. The problem I find is that too many members want design exceptions, without proposing an amendment to the design standards. Amendments require a full vote, and legal documents to be drawn up and paid for by the applicant. Many homeowners don’t have the money for that (although many do), so they tend to dislike the red tape. Some try to evade the rules and just do what they want, but will be the first ones to call me out and threaten legal action against me personally for all sorts of perceived illegalities that don’t exist. Of course, the problem with ignoring “slight” violations of the rules, is that people will say you tacitly “approved” something you may not have even noticed. It becomes a snowball effect. Anyway, this story sounds a little fishy. You need to get something in writing by the HOA before you start building. Assume nothing.