FURIOUS homeowners blasted their HOA after it sent a notice banning a certain driveway look.
Residents of Sun City Grand in Surprise, Arizona, were up in arms after their homeowners association allegedly demanded that side borders be removed from painted sidewalks in 2017.
The City Grand Community Association Management’s Architectural Review Committee found that 223 of the 10,000 homes had nonconforming driveway edges and had not received approval from developers.
Driveway borders often resemble rectangles or bricks that are a different color than the home’s driveway.
The committee sent letters demanding that houses be painted across borders – provoking backlash from other residents.
“Why do you have to make a problem?” local Brent Kehrein fumed.
“I mean, it’s not like someone has junk vehicles sitting in their yard or garage and there’s oil spilled all over the driveway (and) it looks like crap.
“We don’t have that at (Sun City) Grand. It’s just not like that.”
Neighbors Michael and Karen Giel also attacked their HOA for the request.
Karen said, “I don’t understand. We have had this (entrance) for six years.
“People praise us. People say it looks great.
“And I don’t know why, after six years, someone took a picture and said it wasn’t acceptable.”
Legal expert Mark Bainbridge argued that residents who have been in driveway boundaries for four years or more may be beyond the statute of limitations.
“Case law says that architectural approval cannot be denied arbitrarily or capriciously,” he said.
“And so I think they would have the argument that if they had applied at the time they installed it, the association would have had to approve it because they approved hundreds of others identical to it.”
The US Sun has reached out to Sun City HOA for comment.
It comes after a man was ordered not to park his vehicle in his driveway following concerns about his commercial markings reducing property values.
He had to park his work van miles away to appease the association.
Joey Albritton, owner of a plumbing company in Houston, Texas, lived in the Summerwood HOA subdivision for two years before starting his business, Pleasant Lanier Plumbing.
“This is how I feed my family, this is what pays my mortgage and this is how I pay my HOA dues too,” Albritton told the ABC affiliate. KTRK-TV.
“So if I can’t leave here and make money doing what I do best, I won’t be able to pay my bills.”
His HOA told him that his work van lowered the value of neighboring properties and disturbed residents.
“It’s frustrating not being able to park my own vehicle in my garage,” he added.
What is an HOA?
One in five Americans lives in an area with a Home Owners Association – or HOA. But what exactly do they do?
- An HOA is a homeowners association – an organization that aims to maintain a clean, cohesive place for its residents to live.
- Entire neighborhoods, subdivisions, condominiums, single-family homes or townhouses within “a planned development” will often constitute an HOA.
- They also serve as a regulatory body for the tenants, who manage and finance the HOA through monthly fees.
- Its main goals are to keep the community functional and visually appealing and maintain property values.
- They focus primarily on a neighborhood’s common areas, like roads, parks, and pools — but they can also stipulate what residents can do with their properties, like yards and sidewalks.
- These restrictions often impose uniformity on properties, for example, ensuring that most houses look the same and that all sidewalks are free of weeds.
- An HOA Rule Book of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&R) is distributed to all residents, and an elected volunteer board of directors enforces these regulations.
- Violating these rules can result in penalties such as fines and even litigation – as most HOAs are incorporated and subject to state law.
- HOAs are often the subject of controversy, with some members feeling that the rules are too punitive and restrictive, or that the leadership has too much power.
- But other HOAs like this give communities the power of self-government and can ensure a degree of harmony among residents.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
