It’ll never not be weird to me that a guy nailed to a piece of wood is not considered weird.
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there’s a really good point in that “if” –
saying that black lives matter isn’t political. it’s simply a fact.
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The law does generally support HOAs prohibiting issue signs, because HOAs are not private, not government. My state law has a carveout where HOAs must allow campaign signs before elections. But unless BLM members run for office or get a proposition on the ballot then BLM signs wouldn’t qualify.
My home has deed restrictions (no HOA or HOA fees though), enforced through an Architectural Control Committee. A resident who didn’t like being subject to the ACC restrictions recently took massive action to destroy it.
First they requested all the ACC emails from all of history through open records laws, claiming that the ACC was a government agency since it answers to the MUD which enforces the restrictions. That would cost $80k to filter all the emails removing private info, paid by the ACC. There was some legal wrangling that cost the MUD that oversees the ACC about $40k, which ended with the state attorney general issuing an opinion that the ACC is not a government agency and not subject to open records.
Then they had a lawyer send a cease and desist order to the ACC claiming that although the deed restrictions created the ACC with several named members, they didn’t have any means for electing new ACC members. Since all the original members are long gone, the ACC does not have deed restriction authority.
Since the ACC themselves would have to defend that lawsuit, and the ACC has zero funds to do so, they issued a statement saying that they are dissolving and would not issue any new rulings.
The net effect is that even though the letter of the law prohibits such signs, the hero decimated the authority that would have stopped it.
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What? You have something against torture porn?
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My goodness. For a country that’s supposedly all about FREEDOM! y’all sure do have some funny ways of showing it.
I know it’s a sample with n=1, but I’ve lived in a rental apartment, a condo, and a house here in America’s Hat, and I’ve never come across anything that’s infringed on my rights to do what I wanted.
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HOA, "How dare you display your political disposition rather than silently submitting to the CIS-Het-White Status Quo.
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Movie-Trailer Guy, “Dare you watch, Eli Roth’s seasonal sensation, “The Carpenter”! He really nails it!”
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- Never join an HoA.
- Press charges for invasion of privacy.
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I mean, TECHNICALLY / all / halloween decor would be “religious” so …
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I’m very glad I don’t have an HOA. I’m pretty sure my house would cause most HOA busybodies to spontaneously combust.*
*I’d offer to douse them in water, but that would likely just cause them to melt.
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I live in an HOA that doesn’t allow any signage on the lawns, including for sale signs if your house is for sale. No candidate signs visible in windows either, I think. At least, I know that I haven’t seen any, which I am grateful for because most of my neighbors are Trump supporters. I have seen a few thin blue line American flags, which I guess are acceptable. I should throw a Pride American flag out there and see what happens. Anyway, mostly I’m just happy I don’t have to look at Trump 2024 or Let’s Go Brandon flags, so I’m not inclined to rock the boat.
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It seems like a good place to chum for lawyers against hate organizations on the …stink eyed march, and/or HOA deprecation precedents one can be glad to have almost become wealthy on.
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Huh. Got a city with open signage but no graffiti (words painted on fences count?!?) Boy howdy are there some boring signs; is a creative design organization signed Creative Designs, I saccharinate?
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If you were to create signs, Flossie, I would happily buy some! Pick your platform and let us know when they’re ready for purchase!
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My hobby is arguing with libertarians over whether an HOA is, in fact, a government.
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The ACLU will be of no help, except maybe knowing a good real estate attorney to challenge HOA rules. An HOA in most states is free to restrict signs, even political signs, for almost any reason or no reason at all.
It isn’t generally. An HOA is considered a private contract manner, and much like a forum can ban users under terms of service an HOA can enforce incredibly terrible rules. There are a few states that make explicit carveouts, but I don’t recall Washington being such a state. There would be some arcane tricks the homeowner could probably use to get the rule overturned. The easier course would probably be rules lawyering the HOA. Odds are there is a structural problem with the rules change (quorum wasn’t met according to the bylaws, there weren’t the appropriate number of readings, whatever). A stronger, but more difficult course would probably be a title VIII fair housing act claim. It would probably be easy to show unequal enforcement and one of the barred forms of discrimination would be preventing the use and enjoyment of any part of the property on account of race. If they can demonstrate that the rules aren’t being equally applied (they won’t be) and that the racial content of the message motivated the rules change (trickier, but probably provable) they could easily get it tossed.
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I wonder if the HOA can nitpick cars parked in the driveway with bumper stickers. I guarantee a goodly portion of Trump lovin folks in the neighborhood have political stickers on their cars. My tactic would be to slap a magnetic oversized BLM sticker on the car facing the street and see how the HOA tries to eat its own brain in a fit of rage.
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Wow!
Thanks for your answer and for taking the time. Details (correct details!) are everything.
It’s reality-based IIRC about your worklife.
I will be sending this to friends with signs in their yards, especially those who have HOAs to deal with.
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I could see the argument that they are a government, but not the (federal, state, or city) government.
Have you ever convinced anyone that HOAs are the government?
I’d also suggest that they go out for a walk somewhere, find a nice splintery stick and a quiet corner, and sodomise themselves with it.
