HOA having issues with me cleaning my boat..ARRRRR

[Kevin107]

I store my boat at a covered storage, but occasionally take it home to clean and to add mods. Most of the time she is back to storage by the end of the day. Twice I parked there overnight. Just got a letter from HOA stating that I can't have my boat on my driveway at anytime. Per our Covenants, boats and trailer can't be park on any lot except for loading and unloading.
Also in the letter, they also stated, "If your boat is there for less than 48hours for cleaning purposes please notify our office." Note: This is not in our Covenants.
Called the office and the lady (want to use another word) told me," NOOOO. NO boats on lot period! Not for cleaning, not for anything." I mention the 48hours period, and she told me she's going by the Covenants only, not the letter. WTF!!!!! How is this reasonable? I also asked her if we can have a few hours per week to clean and maintenance. Again, the answere is NOOOOOO.
At this point, I wanted to cuss, but was able to calm myself hoping members on here can point me to a better direction.
Sorry for the long vent.....

 

[Cory]

Yep, I get that letter all the time. Right now I can see a trailer in the neighbors yard, and I can see anothers garbage cans all the time, but I get busted everytime I bring the boat home, or when I used to bring the RV home. Usually I get the letter about a week after I put the boat back away.

 

[Kevin107]

Yet, they allow a house in my neighborhood to park his RV on the side of his house. Even with a fence, I can still see about 2'. I don't mind it at all and think it's actually pretty cool he can fit that big RV there. But not allowing people to bring RVs and boats home to clean? What happen to be reasonable? I don't mind HOA and see the goods that they do. But some of the rules are just non-sense.
Of course, I'm not going to bring the RV guy in it. Don't want to ruin it for him either.

 

[JC6275]

If the letter you received is from the HOA, I would call them to inform them you were bringing it home for cleaning. As stated in the letter "THEY" sent you if the boat was going to be there less than 48 hours you were to call and notify them. So in my opinion you would be doing what they requested in the letter. If they have a problem with that then let them take that up with whoever sent you the letter "ON THE HOA LETTERHEAD" then politely tell them to kiss your ass...

 

[Kevin107]

If the letter you received is from the HOA, I would call them to inform them you were bringing it home for cleaning. As stated in the letter "THEY" sent you if the boat was going to be there less than 48 hours you were to call and notify them. So in my opinion you would be doing what they requested in the letter. If they have a problem with that then let them take that up with whoever sent you the letter "ON THE HOA LETTERHEAD" then politely tell them to kiss your ass...

The letter is from the HOA. I did call them and they basically told me to obey or suffer. The person I talked to won't acknowledge the 48hours rule in the letter at all. I have new bow roller, boat buckles, and grill to install but can't. So Frustrated!!
I'll be requesting a board meeting to discuss this. Hopefully they will be reasonable and allow me a few hours a week to work on my boat.

 

[Cory]

We have a little old lady around the corner that is the resident snitch. She hasn't been bothering me as much lately so maybe she is loosening up some. I don't care for the HOA either, but really don't have any choice on this side of town, all the neighborhoods have one

 

[Cory]

what if you leave it attached to your truck and park in the street? Not much they can do about that i don't think.

what part of Frisco are you in? I'm in Stonebridge, just a stones throw from the Frisco line.

 

[JC6275]

The letter is from the HOA. I did call them and they basically told me to obey or suffer. The person I talked to won't acknowledge the 48hours rule in the letter at all. I have new bow roller, boat buckles, and grill to install but can't. So Frustrated!!
I'll be requesting a board meeting to discuss this. Hopefully they will be reasonable and allow me a few hours a week to work on my boat.

The letter says to call and inform them, not ask permission,. Again if the letter is from the HOA I see no way they wouldn't have to honor it, wether the lady you talked to wants to recognize it or not is irrelevant. You have the letter as leverage so if you follow what it says they can do nothing, I'm not sure I would even ask for a meeting with them just follow the letter and go about living your life.

 

[Kevin107]

The letter says to call and inform them, not ask permission,. Again if the letter is from the HOA I see no way they wouldn't have to honor it, wether the lady you talked to wants to recognize it or not is irrelevant. You have the letter as leverage so if you follow what it says they can do nothing, I'm not sure I would even ask for a meeting with them just follow the letter and go about living your life.

I think you are right. I didn't want to escalate the issues and hoping to solve it peacefully. I'm just going to let it be for now considered I already notify them about the boat being there for cleaning. I will continue to bring her home to clean, but won't be there overnight. Also will have it hooked up on my truck at all time. Hopefully, I won't get another letter. But if I do another letter, at least it will look like the boat is being cleaned rather than "parked" there.
I really hope they realize it's a non-issue and just let it go.

 

[Magic]

We had this problem several years ago. A bunch of boat owners in my development and I got together and attended a board meeting in person, and each of us had 5 minutes to speak. We all asked for a 72 hour allowance so we can bring the boat home on a Friday, use it for the weekend, leave it in the driveway until Monday when it needs to return to storage. I think about 15 of us showed up and we got that added to the HOA CCR policy.

 

[Magic]

A lot of times the Board is just not educated on our "first world problems".... Most of the time they are human and will modify rules if there is a need to accommodate homeowners AND they understand the challenges involved. Communication is essential!

I was on our Board for 10 years and this is an easy one..... Try dealing with a homeowner that painted their entire house Seafoam Green.....Even the roof!

 

[Kevin107]

A lot of times the Board is just not educated on our "first world problems".... Most of the time they are human and will modify rules if there is a need to accommodate homeowners AND they understand the challenges involved. Communication is essential!

I was on our Board for 10 years and this is an easy one..... Try dealing with a homeowner that painted their entire house Seafoam Green.....Even the roof!

I thought it was an easy fix too.
Seafoam Green will actually go very well with my boat. LOL

 

[Scottintexas]

I've had my battles with the HOA also, always BS stuff of them just trying to intimidate me into "their" way of thinking the neighborhood should be,

The management company goes by the letter of the covenants for their own legal protection. Obviously since you received a letter from the HOA somebody has some common sense about it. I would go and knock on the door of your HOA president or board member and nicely talk to them about it. They can comment on the 48 hour exception in that it is something they look the other way to give some leniency or it was an old letter that needs to be revised to show they are now following the letter of the law. I wouldn't bother with a board meeting yet. I bet it can be solved much simpler in person.

I would read and understand your covenants and when you go speak to the board member if your not making any progress say "I'm confused, joe has an RV, jim has trash cans out, not that I'm complaining I'm just trying to understand the enforcement policy" and let them know if they don't have any leniency you could become a pain in their backsides.
I would also go talk to the guy with the RV and ask him if he's received any complaints, maybe they granted him an exception, if so do your bylaws allow them to do that?

Unless your in a gated/private community the city owns the streets so you can park there as you wish.

 

[Julian]

What enforcement rules does it have in the covenants? How can they force you to comply? The covenants you wrote in are vague anyway. It says they can be parked for loading and unloading only? Does it give a limit of time for this? If not, then you are loading and unloading ALL weekend. Also, what is their policy for notification and enforcement? Do the covenants say they must notify you of breaches and you have x amount of time to comply? You get where I'm going....my HOA's rules are so vague that they have no way to enforce the no boats parked rule. I park mine for weeks at a time. The Mgmt company writes letters once a month and I have 30 days to comply....so I typically move it before the letter arrives anyway....stupid....

 

[Team Bristow]

I built neighborhoods for a number of years and all of them had a C and R policy at the start. I typically acted as the board president until we had a 70% occupancy rate at which time we turned it over to an elected board. Because we started the HOA we used a standard policy that was extremely strict and instructed the new board to amendments as they saw fit. Our policy had items like; all cars must be parked in the garage, only 2 dogs per household, no wood or chain link fencing, no trampoline's, etc....

We started with very strict rules because it was easier for the HOA to amend or delete than to add. I would be willing to bet that you could get an addendum created for your boat by getting a few people together and asking at the next meeting.

Good Luck!

 

[Team Bristow]

What enforcement rules does it have in the covenants? How can they force you to comply? The covenants you wrote in are vague anyway. It says they can be parked for loading and unloading only? Does it give a limit of time for this? If not, then you are loading and unloading ALL weekend. Also, what is their policy for notification and enforcement? Do the covenants say they must notify you of breaches and you have x amount of time to comply? You get where I'm going....my HOA's rules are so vague that they have no way to enforce the no boats parked rule. I park mine for weeks at a time. The Mgmt company writes letters once a month and I have 30 days to comply....so I typically move it before the letter arrives anyway....stupid....

Be careful with HOA's. It is common for an HOA to have foreclosure rights, all of the communities that I built in FL had it and we saw it used by an HOA nearby. The husband left for the military and the wife did not pay the HOA dues for some reason that I don't remember, it didn't take long and they foreclosed on them.

A quick google search will get you countless stories of people being foreclosed on for fees of just a couple hundred dollars.

http://news.msn.com/in-depth/dollar288-in-unpaid-fees-homeowner-association-took-her-home

 

[Julian]

Our HOA needs to have 50% of the houses vote on changes to the Covenants and changes ratified by 50% of those voting....so ours never change! So they are stuck!

 

[Julian]

Be careful with HOA's. It is common for an HOA to have foreclosure rights, all of the communities that I built in FL had it and we saw it used by an HOA nearby. The husband left for the military and the wife did not pay the HOA dues for some reason that I don't remember, it didn't take long and they foreclosed on them.

A quick google search will get you countless stories of people being foreclosed on for fees of just a couple hundred dollars.

http://news.msn.com/in-depth/dollar288-in-unpaid-fees-homeowner-association-took-her-home

No need to be careful with my HOA...very few of their rules would stand up in court...they were written 30 years ago and were written horribly vague!

 

[Kevin107]

What enforcement rules does it have in the covenants? How can they force you to comply? The covenants you wrote in are vague anyway. It says they can be parked for loading and unloading only? Does it give a limit of time for this? If not, then you are loading and unloading ALL weekend. Also, what is their policy for notification and enforcement? Do the covenants say they must notify you of breaches and you have x amount of time to comply? You get where I'm going....my HOA's rules are so vague that they have no way to enforce the no boats parked rule. I park mine for weeks at a time. The Mgmt company writes letters once a month and I have 30 days to comply....so I typically move it before the letter arrives anyway....stupid....

I'll scan that part of the covenant when I get home.

 

[Zeus2013]

Notify them per the letter. So you do not have to deal with a person, call off hours and leave a message notifying them of the cleaning.