FLORIDA LAW

[SHEETS_GUY]

People who coerce others to sign away their rights make for bad neighbors anyhow .
Control freaks love HOAs .

 

  

Amen.  Whatever happened to live and let live.

I rent in a community where maybe 20% of the houses are in some state of foreclosure.  The homes are worth anywhere between $300k and $1mm.  We pay more in rent ($3k) than many pay on a mortgage.  My wife and I both have graduate degrees and our son is a straight A student and a varsity athlete.  We are quiet, keep to ourselves and the house we rent looks 100x better than when we rented it.  When we signed the lease the previous owner had just been evicted after a 6 year foreclosure process.  He hadn't mowed the 'lawn' (it was all weeds) in months, the mailbox was attached with wire ties and the garage doors wouldn't close.  We have paid to put in sod, plant seasonal flowers and mulch even though I will never get the money back.

Today the property manager told us the owner received a letter about my antenna (a 20m dipole hung between the palm bushes that grow behind the house that I have done my damnedest to conceal) and that the bushes are too high (about 12 feet which gives us just a little privacy on this postage stamp sized lot).  Half my neighbors have lawns that look like vacant lots and haven't paid their HOA dues in three years (OK I exaggerate but only slightly).  Yet my discreet wire dipole is a problem.  I am thinking I am going to walk around the neighborhood knocking on doors telling people their unkempt houses looked like sh*t and they need to maintain them and put together a list for my HOA on every violation I see...

No, I am really not going to do that, that's not my style. As long as people are quiet and decent and do their best to make their properties presentable I would never think to complain about the basketball hoop in their driveway that violates HOA rules.  I just don't get why people can't respect the rights of their neighbors as long as it's doing them no harm.

[KV4BB]

I live in a HOA community and I just came off the board of directors.  Here is what I learned:  Everyone in the state of FL has a right to fly the American flag on a free standing flagpole no matter where they live.  This may be true of other states as well.  We had a veteran put up a flagpole without contacting our architectural review committee.  The committee went ape on the guy and told him to take it down (our ARC is separate from our board).  He was very quick to quote the law stating any citizen of FL can fly a flag notwithstanding any HOA covenant.  The ARC immediately backed down.  There is no reason why any ham cannot put an antenna in a flagpole or make a flagpole an antenna.  However, there are some restrictions on height.  I've done the flagpole antenna and it works.  I saw an ad for a company that makes such an antenna.

Another thing I learned is most people aren't bothered by what they can't see.   RV's, trailers, and boats aren't allowed in our hood IF you can see them.  If you can't, they are allowed.  We have many trailers and boats in our hood and they are all behind fences.  Be discrete with your antenna farm and you will likely get away with it. 

Finally, get on the board and make friends with the board.  If you work for the community, it's harder for them to say no to your antennas.  Diplomacy goes a long way.  And teach your board to be lenient.  The point of HOA covenants is to help protect property values not to stop homeowners from enjoying their property.  If you get caught, demonstrate you aren't hurting your neighbor's property value. 

Finally, I lived in a hood whose covenants stated no home could have antennas or emit RF.  Well, that's impossible with garage door openers, cell phones, remote controls, cameras, etc.  These developers don't read the covenants, they just ask their attorneys to find some and make it a part of the property.

Good luck!

[KD0REQ]

I noticed a little piece on Da Web today  (MarketWatch) that said 80 percent of all new construction for two decades has been HOAs or condos with an Association that tells you what color to paint your bathroom.  and that if you fall behind in your fees, they often have "super liens" that even short the lenders, and can foreclose on you.

read those mortgage papers really carefully now, before you sign.  more land mines in there than the road to the Baghdad airport.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/condo-fee-foreclosures-become-headache-for-homeowners-2015-01-09?dist=afterbell

[N2EY]

No, I am really not going to do that, that's not my style. As long as people are quiet and decent and do their best to make their properties presentable I would never think to complain about the basketball hoop in their driveway that violates HOA rules.  I just don't get why people can't respect the rights of their neighbors as long as it's doing them no harm.

You might want to document the various violations by your neighbors and present it to the HOA if the press on with the complaint about your dipole.

73 de Jim, N2EY

[WI8P]

Ah yes, the old "If I don't get mine, you can't have yours" mentality.

Will it get the HOA to change their mind and let him have his antenna? No.
Will it get the neighbors to rally behind him against the HOA? No.
Will it make him the scourge of the neighborhood? You bet!
Will it get his kid picked on at school, his trash can run over, his cat to disappear and his newspapers lost? Probably.      

Pointing out other violations will never get yours approved, it will only get those violations corrected - and piss off your neighbors. 

[KK4GGL]

Ah yes, the old "If I don't get mine, you can't have yours" mentality.

Will it get the HOA to change their mind and let him have his antenna? No.
Will it get the neighbors to rally behind him against the HOA? No.
Will it make him the scourge of the neighborhood? You bet!
Will it get his kid picked on at school, his trash can run over, his cat to disappear and his newspapers lost? Probably.      

Pointing out other violations will never get yours approved, it will only get those violations corrected - and piss off your neighbors. 

Goose... gander ... etc

[N5PZJ]

Ah yes, the old "If I don't get mine, you can't have yours" mentality.

Will it get the HOA to change their mind and let him have his antenna? No.
Will it get the neighbors to rally behind him against the HOA? No.
Will it make him the scourge of the neighborhood? You bet!
Will it get his kid picked on at school, his trash can run over, his cat to disappear and his newspapers lost? Probably.      

Pointing out other violations will never get yours approved, it will only get those violations corrected - and piss off your neighbors. 

And so he tolerates the BS, runs scared of the neighbours, yeah right, and  if the neighbors are not in compliance, it points to a general abandonment of the Covenants and then the covenants are held to be null and void.   

Only involve the HOA board and their legal counsel.

The neighbours are on their own.

If the HOA tries to bring in the neighbors, then, "In Personem" mentions in lawsuit usually cause the neighbors to back away, who wants to have an honorable mention plus a judgment, HOA Lawyer strictly warns the HOA Board not to stir up the troops since he is forbidden to represent additional parties!  A recipe for disaster in Louisiana.  HOA boards usually consult with their attorneys and the attorneys usually look to the circumstances and if the area points to abandonment of covenants, the board approves the variance to avoid general dissolution of covenants.

I wish somebody would make the cats disappear, tho.   

[KM4FMK]

At least within 100 miles or so of me in North Florida, more and more people are getting sick and tired of egotistical power hungry HOA boards, and essentially form their own citizen group to force a vote of no confidence or whatever is needed to boot the current board members. They get elected themselves and essentially change or remove the strict and idiotic rules one by one. In some cases they completely dissolved the HOA, and basically turn it into a "owner based gated community". One of the first to do that 9 or 10 years ago looks better today than it did under the strict HOA.

The houses that sat unsold for years because no one wanted to live under the nazi-like HOA board, have all since sold, and now they sell quickly and for a lot more money than before. They dealt with rules like the homeowner cannot have any vehicle parked in the driveway outside of the garage for more than 1 hour (made no difference if it was guest or their own, made no exceptions for a family with 3 vehicles yet only a 2 car garage), and grass must be between 3/8" and 1/2" long at all times, and all kinds of other idiotic crap.

So the moral of the story is if you and others don't like it, make a stand to change it. You make a few enemies of the rich powerful HOA board members, but once others see you making a stand, they will also make a stand, and the dominos fall one by one.

[K1DA]

Seems to me that  that selective enforcement of rules is frowned upon by the courts.  Read the rules carefully and with politeness, point out which of the  rules are  left unenforced.   The association lawyer may  not like to hear  that rules are enforced in a random mannor and  some compromise might be in order.  You must tread lightly, however, because the owner is technically  one with "standing" to bring such things before the board.