Folks like this complain whether they are in the country or the city. They object to sounds and odors that were there long before they moved in…
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That was at the top of our list, absolute hard no, we’ll give up the garage before we give up that requirement. The agent, to her credit, didn’t argue with it at all, nodded and said it was not an issue.
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Here’s an interesting wrinkle on that. What if you were that annoying person who hates church bells, cow bells and local traditions but your neighbours have the power to withhold citizenship from you because they’re annoyed by you?
As someone who grew up in the countryside, likes church bells and would hate to see them silenced this should read like sweet revenge. But on the other hand, being so dependent on your neighbours liking you and your conformity sounds like hell.
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From what I’ve seen on Street View and in a lot of american serials, in some suburban areas houses are packed one near another, and have a little garden strip, they are almost like terraced houses without being actually them. In a condo it’s clear that all the condo should be painted and finished with the same materials. Another thing that creates problem is that fences and bushes aren’t very popular. For instance in this terraced houses in Italy, due the fences and the plants the internal garden isn’t visible from outside so one could do things with more privacy. About the car, there’s a garage under the house I suppose like most of modern houses there, and I think if what you do in your garages isn’t going to make firefighters unhappy you’re ok.
Sounds like a nice guy, like the pig farmer (in all fairness: He was there before us) who installed the new ventilation system so it was most convenient to him instead of the other end of the stable, where it wouldn’t have vented against our house.
Good solid German stock who took no business with pesky newcomers.
I guess he still wonders why we canceled his lease to the 5 acres behind our house and turned his former source of fodder beets into a nature reserve.
There are plenty of other cantons this woman can emigrate to.
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I don’t know whether that’s the right solution, tbh. As I said above I sympathize with her neighbours but blocking her citizenship application (or making it dependent on her moving away) seems excessive.
only problem is that you won’t be on the committee forever, and the people who take over could decide to be total dicks. and then what?
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This boggles me too - I have restrictive convents on my house (in the UK) - Mostly about medieval stuff like grazing animals - and of course there are local authority codes on building, alterations, sanitation etc. But no-one in my cul-de-sac gets to tell me where my shed goes.
“The Institutes of the Laws of England” : “For a man’s house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium.” 1628, Sir Edward Coke.
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I remember this situation. I think it’s less about conformity and more about people choosing to live in a place, attacking neighbors’ traditions, and then being shocked or upset when the neighbors don’t want to include them as members of the community. No place is perfect, and most people choose to compromise in some way. She wants to control what other people are doing, and that’s the mindset that boggles me. To have complete control over your surroundings means living somewhere far away from other people.
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That reminds me of someone I know who I think works in the Forest Service. She said she has to deal with people who move out into the woods, but don’t want to secure their trash. They want them to “do something” about the bears.
I know a few people that decided to work in nature or with animals because it beats working with people. I feel bad for the kind of people they end up dealing with.
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You’re right, I should worry about 14 of 21 houses voting to expand the HOA’s authority just to make their association suck. Especially after 25 years of stability of neighbors not complaining about their roof color, or weeds, or other minor perceived slights. Woe unto us, the timer is ticking and we’re hell-bound for a future HOA overlord. I should just give up any hope of any aspect of life being fair or just.
Or maybe, when people voluntarily decide to cooperate, they don’t always devolve into petty tyrants.
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And then there’s the matter of perspective. When I was a teenager we moved to northwest Arkansas, the heart of poultry country, re:Tyson. We had a small chicken house at the back of our property, about 100 yards from the house. When I say small, ours held 11,500 broilers, which are raised until their 9 weeks old and then shipped out and you start over. As you can imagine the smell could be quite potent, especially in the summer, but after living there for several weeks you hardly noticed it. My mom however, never got used to it although she was a good sport about it. One of our neighbors who lived several miles away had a much bigger operation with 20 or more large houses that held 40,000 each. He knew how mom felt and when he stopped by for a visit he would gently tease her by taking a deep breath and then saying with big grin on his face, “You smell that? That’s the smell of money!”
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Ok take it easy. i was only speaking from my own experience. i served on my co-op’s board for over 10 years and as the makeup of the residents changed, there was a lot of changeover on the board, and rightly so. it wasn’t a lifetime job. however some people came in with their own agendas, and were not looking out for the community at large. and as a result of that were not particularly good board members. people are people after all, and some think only about #1. Was it impossible to think that as your neighborhood changed over time that everyone who came in would feel the same way about how to manage the HOA?
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Sorry.
The key to success is to write the original rules as restrictive and limiting on the association as possible. House color? We don’t maintain houses, so not our business. Lawn length? We aren’t paying to mow, so not our business. We avoided controlling anything that would be a matter of taste or opinion.
Omit anything that isn’t directly the financial interest of the association, and the busybodies will have nothing to do. And if they want to try to expand their authority, nobody else will want to play that game.
It also helps to have a diverse community, where nobody would agree on taste anyway.
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Amazing.
your HOA is proof that it can be achieved. a little common sense when establishing the charter goes a long way.
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Even an island in the middle of the Pacific has neighbours…
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