Well, there are things that renters just don’t get to do. like building giant concrete fish tanks. I have to admit I don’t know very much about renting or owning in GB.
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When I moved to England in the 80s the first place I looked at to rent was nice in every respect except for a huge structural crack running down the kitchen wall, leading to a clear view of the outside. I asked the landlord if he intended to fix it, he said I could do it if I liked. I even offered him a higher rent if he would fix it, he said he didn’t do that kind of thing. I encountered enough similar issues in other flats I looked at that I finally decided UK rental conventions were too weird for me. I ended up buying.
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I was about to condemn the nanny state, but in this case it looks like it is just another asshole HOA issue.
This is the equivalent of “Won’t someone think of the children?”, where one makes it sounds like you are acting in the interest of safety vs something else. I mean it looks to be ABOVE GROUND. How are you going to fall into that?
I’d have replied that the tiger pits are for the trespassers.
I think this might officially be a case where the facts got lost in translation.
What we know so far:
- UK Housing Association != US Homeowner’s Association.
- The man doesn’t own the property.
- There is a commercial enterprise intended.
I like the picture of the fish in the BB article, though.
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The BOCA fence code exists for a reason, mainly kids are dumb and many of them can’t swim.
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Riverside are arseholes, aye. There are some better ones, but they’re few & far between.
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Try anywhere: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/65/contents
However most let and managed properties have no pet clauses anyway because land barrons are lazy parasites.
That wouldn’t happen in America. In America it would be the resident’s insurance company that would make him take out the pond because he might be sued by trespassers.
You can’t get home insurance up here if you have a trampoline. An “attractive nuisance” they call it.
Same idea.
That’s because the HOA is necessary to acquire the funds to run the new utility lines out to whatever distant suburb.
Some reasons to start/participate in a HOA make sense.
With a ladder.
For all the water in Florida, kids still can’t swim, climb into pools and drown.
Not that this story has anything to do with liability but everything to do with a 3rd party running a commercial operation on land that’s not theirs.
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Turns out this was another misleading headline. Guy’s renting and the Housing Association is the landlord telling him not to alter property they own and are liable for.
I too never knew that a UK Housing Association was different from an American HOA. From what I can gather, it’s neither an HOA covenant or a leasing company, but something like a leasing company where the government subsidizes tenants’ rents. Maybe it’s like Section 8 housing in the US.
Question for any UK residents. Is a Housing Association the same thing as a council estate?
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A council estate is owned and maintained by the local council. Housing Associations are privately owned (but probably publically supported) non-profits (so more like Section 8?)
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Mostly- much of the remaining council housing was transfered to semi private companies. Housing associations tend to cover a geographical area, with multiple areas. The housing can be all the properties on an estate- as with the Council Estate you referred to, but after the sell off of council houses thanks to Saint Maggie, they often have some of the houses in a street or purpose built blocks.
The HA in my area recently redeveloped some houses, but as they were semis they didn’t own the whole building, so knocked the half they did own off and built new houses.
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That’s what it sounds like to me if it’s subsidized housing. Sometimes it can be both public housing that works with Section 8. HOA in the U.S. is strictly private covenants for the homeowners.
eta: It sounds like the U.K. version is similar to a property management co.?
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The semidetatched house is one of those things that distinguishes British housing stock from American housing stock.
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Oh we have those here in the States too.
I have been living in one since 1998. In older/larger cities in the U.S. there are row houses, duplexes, four-plexes etc. Lived in some of those in St. Louis, MO.
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The CC&Rs for the HOA-mandatory house that was our starter home specified that in extreme situations like fees levied by the association and then unpaid, they could put a lien on our house.
Lots about HOAs and liens on Google.
(Oops, I see I’m late to the party again!)
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hook, line, and sinker
Not necessarily. Chicago has semi-detatched housing in some areas. Yes, they’re usually old (over 100 years old, which is OLD in the Midwest) and the architecture in in the surrounding area will be British-like in general, but they do exist. My guess is that the New England region would have the most examples, though.
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