Beautiful home.
The angel figures reminds me of an HOA in the neighboring county that's made some local headlines the last 2 years. The small town HOA was fairly relaxed with low dues and mostly let people be unless there was a serious environmental or health issue. Well, nobody wanted to manage it, many favored dissolving the HOA completely, but the board felt that a way out was to relinquish regulatory control to a management company. The company had (supposedly) stated that no drastic changes would be made, merely a change in point of contact. They went back on that day 1 when they released a 50+ page book on the new laws that would apply to the neighborhood.
The last board members must've just been oblivious to what they were doing. The management company doesn't even have an office or any kind of local contact. The nearest point of contact for them is 3.5 hours away in Charleston. The new rulebook they released was essentially a copy/paste of the rules they enforce in the suburban neighborhoods there. Here's just some of the new rules they put in place...
- HOA dues increased from $225/yr to $550/yr. (no increase in common public benefits from this)
- Homeowners have 90 days to come into compliance. No exceptions can be made. All regulations are non-negotiable.
- No displaying of religious figures to include angels, crosses, depictions of Jesus or God, scriptures, sculptures, bibles, decals, bumper stickers, signs, and flags. This also includes figures inside the home visible from outside.
- Nothing can be hung or suspended on outside doors to include wreaths and signs.
- Only plastic mailboxes permitted and must be black in color. Mailbox posts must be natural wood colored with no painting.
- Driveways must be concrete and free of any cracks. No asphalt, cement, brick, or rock/dirt driveways allowed.
- No boats, RVs, campers, or trailers permitted on any property, regardless if visible or not.
- No above ground swimming pools, hot tubs, or anything of the like. In-ground pools limited to 12 ft x 24 ft or 288 sqft in size, can be no deeper than 5 ft, and must be on the backside of the property and concealed by a wooden or wood colored plastic privacy fence a minimum of 6ft tall.
- Displaying flags of any kind, as well as erection of a flagpole, is forbidden.
- No vehicles older than 15 years old permitted. (no exceptions, even for pristine condition classic cars)
- One outside light permitted by the front door only with a max of 800 lumens. Flood lights, pathway, driveway, and step lights forbidden. Christmas lights permitted only on elevated outside trims, porch railings, and in windows. Christmas lights must be static on, (no flashing, sequential, or waving lights) and must be turned off between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am. No Christmas lights permitted prior to November 1st or after December 31st.
- No Christmas or holiday decorations permitted on the front lawn, on any vehicle, driveway, or siding of the home to include air up figures, light sculptures, flags, etc... This includes any holiday, including 4th of July and Easter.
- No patriotic symbolism permitted.
- No open carry of firearms permitted. (despite being legal with a permit in the state)
- No street parking permitted. (visitors and homeowners alike)
- No trees taller than 10 ft permitted on any property. (then proceeded to give a list of "approved" trees)
- Houses must be painted mono-color in one 1 of 3 approved colors. Only black or gray roofs permitted.
- No stained or tinted windows permitted on any home or building on any property.
- No grills, smokers, or other outside cooking permitted where smoke and smell may carry outside of your property.
- One storage shed permitted, must not be visible from the road, and a max on the size it can be.
- Any garage must be attached to the home and cannot be larger than 2 vehicles.
- Certain dog breeds not permitted to include pitbulls, rottweilers, dalmations, malamutes, chow chows, dobermans, shepherds, akitas, cane corsos, wolfhounds, bloodhounds, great danes, bull mastiffs, tosa inus, wolfdogs, saint bernards, huskies, boxers, jack russel terriers, labradors, great pyrenees, newfoundlands, and deerhounds.
As if that wasn't all bad enough...
- Any violations of these regulations committed by any visitor including renters, business personnel, private visitors (including visitors of renters), and neighbors are the liability of the homeowner. It is the homeowner's responsibility to ensure all visitors are aware and in compliance with HOA regulations. The only exception is official government and county and city personnel in the act of official business.
- Management company retains the right to enter and inspect any property, with or without the homeowner's consent, with or without the homeowner's presence, with minimal notice, to investigation violations of, or to ensure compliance with, HOA regulations.
That's not all of it either. It's absolutely insane and completely irrational to think people can subjected like that, much less have to conform to that with a 90 day notice. It's been tied up in court between a coalition of homeowners against the management company. Roughly 40% of the homeowners took advantage of the high real estate prices last year and GTFO.
The example someone mentioned above of the HOA sending fines for a visitor parking outside the home. That's happened a few times in that neighborhood with fines issued. The management company wouldn't budge, if they could even get ahold of them. Most calls to company go to voicemail with no callback, yet they're fast to issue fines for violations. A lot of people have gotten notices of liens against their homes due to non-compliance over things that can't be easily changed like the size of their in-ground swimming pool and age of their vehicle. They've only been saved by a fast-tracked county ordinance to overrride many of the regulations, which likely only came to fruition because one of the elected county council members lives in that neighborhood.