55 Comments

1. DeAnander:

   Oh christ, not another HOA anti-environmental insanity. The clothesline thing is bad enough, but making anyone uproot a food garden should be a jailable offence.

   AFAIK there is not yet any umbrella organisation defending residents’ right to save energy and money by pursuing sustainable praxis on their own property. As this article notes, HOAs often prohibit hanging clothes out to dry (thus outlawing a savings of up to 10 percent of a household’s energy budget). In Florida the state has had to pass a “right to dry” law to protect residents’ right to dry their clothes on the line (does anyone wonder why the rest of the world thinks the US is one big loony bin? look no further).

   This article describes a HOA that prohibits planting any species of grass but Bermuda.  And this blog entry indicates that the madness has spread to the UK:

   If fewer people are gardening, is their housing situation to blame? The thinking goes that these non-gardeners either don’t have a place with a yard, or if they do, it has been planted with that abomination known as a contractor’s garden. Pile on the fill dirt, toss some Osmocote in a hole, plant a spindly little flowering cherry tree in the ground, stake it to within an inch of its life, and lay some sod around it. Then the homeowners association comes along and regulates it. Want to condemn some pansies to death by planting them in the terrible soil around that sapling? Not if it doesn’t match the neighborhood color scheme, buddy.

   I agree that brand new, plastic, planned communities with gardens planted by contractors and homeowners associations to regulate your every dig are horrible. I wish I could just say, “Well, a real gardener wouldn’t live in one of those places. He would simply find someplace else to live, someplace more conducive to gardening.” But we all know how impossible that can be, especially with the price of housing in hot markets like California.

   So what do I think should be done? Well, nothing. I don’t think that gardening is on the decline, and I’m not sure that fixing the problem would be top on my list of national priorities anyway. I would, however, like to propose a Horticultural Freedom Act that would prohibit any restrictions on what people can grow in their own gardens. Homeowners associations, go back to fighting over where people can park their cars or when they can fly a flag in front of their house. Leave us gardeners alone. Harumph.

   From a great blog, btw

   Here is an article on homeowners rebelling against their HOA:

   Promising to maintain property values and keep neighborhoods spiffy, HOAs are mushrooming across the United States. But they’re also pushing many Americans across the fence-line of civility. Heavy-handed rules and arbitrary enforcement are often blamed for pitting neighbor against neighbor, and turning serene subdivisions into raucous battle zones.This is not a new phenomenon. With roots in 19th century Boston, these quasi-democratic bodies–also called residential community associations or common interest developments–now number more than 200,000. An estimated 42 million people currently live under their rules, and today, it’s nearly impossible to purchase a home that doesn’t come with an association attached.
   […]
   Along with promoting a comforting uniformity, they also control the minutiae of daily existence for affected residents, right down to where you plop your petunia patch. All too often, say critics, that power is abused by neighbors with scores to settle. Those mandates often include big fines for tiny infractions such as planting the wrong type of shrubs, leaving a garage door open or even erecting a flagpole. Failure to pay up can mean a lien against your home, or even foreclosure.

   The result may be a national backlash, says Evan McKenzie, a University of Chicago researcher, and author of Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government. The book is highly critical of many association practices. Left unchecked, they “can really create little neighborhood Hitlers,” McKenzie said in an earlier interview with the Tucson Weekly.

   Still, he’s guardedly optimistic that the HOA juggernaut sees a need for change. “I think they realize that it comes down to giving these communities a chance to become communities,” he says.

   Lawmakers are listening as well. Arizona legislators recently passed statutes preventing HOAs from seizing homes for unpaid fines, and requiring that they follow open meetings laws.

   Other rapidly growing Sunbelt states with a plethora of associations, such as Nevada, are following suit with crackdowns on association excesses And Texas lawmakers have tightened due-process procedures for legal actions against homeowners.

   Among those now also trumpeting reform is the Community Associations Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group for association managers, lawyers and homeowners. Such efforts represent a shift for CAI: When McKenzie’s book was published in 1994, an institute spokesperson labeled it “tabloid journalism.”

   But on the ground, the CAI is still fighting reform every step of the way, says CHORE President Pat Haruff. To get new HOA laws through the Arizona Legislature, Haruff’s group broke sweeping changes into bite-sized chunks. “Then the CAI lobbyist complained that there were too many bills,” she says. “Earlier, he claimed that the combined bills were too big.”

   By phone from Mesa, Haruff contends that associations have become battlegrounds because lawyers make windfalls. For example, if a homeowner “gets fined $100 for not cleaning his yard and refuses to pay, then the homeowners association takes him to court to collect. And by the time the court rules against the homeowner for a $100 fine, the attorney has made $8,000 to $10,000 in fees.”

   This looks like (a) a fertile area for radical change, and (b) a scary fight to take on, because right now the tide has not yet turned and Goliath is definitely winning the opening rounds.

   Seems to me that one of the UN Conventions should guarantee the right to grow food on one’s own dirt — if there ever was a basic human right, that’s it right there.

   30 June 2007, 8:22 pm

2. DeAnander:

   And by the way, Stan, this is heartbreaking and imho underscores/illustrates what Ward Churchill said about “little Eichmanns” — the quotidian functionaries who enforce the fascistic, anti-life, totalitarian agenda. these microcontrol freaks invariably operate against adaptivity and fitness — against survival, if you take a long view.

   But in the short view this is the South Central Garden writ small. To cry over. There must be some way to get a stay of execution… there must be a local urban gardening org, organic gardeners association, Food Not Lawns group, some kind of structure to mount at least an organised protest…

   30 June 2007, 8:27 pm

3. Audrey:

   Heartbreaking was the word that came to mind here, as well. I knew that was happening in your general area, Stan, but didn’t realize it affected you.

   If you had more time - and this is something that should happen anyway - the city should write an ordnance forbidding HOAs from restricting vegetable gardens.

   Are you donating any of the extra crops to a food bank? Were you thinking of starting? It seems like it would be very bad publicity to order you to stop doing that. I can’t imagine the HOA would want a lot of bad publicity … even in the absence of that, threatening a grandpa and veteran with foreclosure because he grew some vegetables in a sunny patch of his yard seems like REALLY bad publicity to me - and the basis, potentially, for some good LTTEs, if you posted links for where those should go.

   Is there a direct email address to the HOA? I didn’t see one on the site you linked, just a form to complete on their web page, which isn’t as handy if you want to copy-furnish them.

   30 June 2007, 9:39 pm

4. adwred:

   Hey if you need legal advice, I can probably point you in a direction (I don’t know if I can really help, just that I know a lot of lawyers per my job). But if you need that let me know, I can ask around.

   30 June 2007, 10:49 pm

5. Legume Sam:

   What do the other residents in your community think about this?

   30 June 2007, 11:59 pm

6. Stan:

   That I haven’t figured out. But there are around 3K households in the HOA. I suspect that one can’t account for more than 50% (each house having a vote) as clueless anal-retentives who selected the place for its paved walking trail. We came here to get closer to one of our jobs and because there was a local school program that was very good for Jessie at a very tough time. Many choose it because it is quite close to a huge employment hub (the Research Triangle Park), and it is equidistant between downtown Raleigh and downtown Durham… also very close to the airport. Also, it was $143K for this house ten years ago; and right across HWY 70, a three-minute advantage toward the RTP, the same square footage will leap to around $250K. More and more immigrants with educations are moving here (from S AM, W Asia, and E Europe), and there are now at least enough African Americans here to say we still live in the south, instead of some kind of bubble.

   Many - esp from IBM (employees say that stands for “I’ve been moved.”) - are come-and-go withing three years, so there is a fair amount of turbulence in the spaces between those of us who intend to bury each other in the back yards.

   Other than that, I can’t say… as to attitudes on HOAs. So I need to know how to set up a freely-hosted web site, and beg a tad of technical assistance to set it up. That gives me a central place to make textual arguments, so all I need to do is subdivide the HOA turf into bite-sized canvassing chunks, then drop a slip of paper directing folks to the site at each residence. Once this is in place, I can develop some kind of instrument for sussing out people’s issues, and where resistance may come from.

   Rather than go full-frontal at the HOA, it seems, I can eventually make an issue (after careful and sustained education) on two points: (1) clotheslines and (2) veggie gardens,

   Meanwhile, again, anything anyone has on past struggles with HOAs is appreciated. Courts apparently vacillate back and forth between these self-appointed suburban aestheticliques… and lawyers cost mad money. My first sniff of this makes me thing that we need to remove the protective (bureaucratic and procedural) shell from the decision process (a Board of Directors serves as a kind of Executive Committee, with fairly broad powers). Going after the base first raises fewer alarms in the enemy camp, and - while slower and quieter - puts one in a position of greater strength long term.

   I do

   1 July 2007, 7:02 am

7. skol:

   Can you use http://home.igc.org/~sherrynstan/?

   STAN: A friend set that up years ago, along with that dead-eyed mugshot. I don’t know how to get there and use it, so I’m all ears (or eyes, as it were). Thanks.

   1 July 2007, 7:23 am

8. skol:

   Your friend would know. But if you know the name and pass, you can get access via http://FTP. Check http://support.igc.org/ for details. If you get the software they recommend (Filezilla), install it simple (just keep hitting next). When the program loads, the host field will probably be igc.org, and the port field will probably be 21. If you can connect, you can change anything (mess around with index.html (or index.php, etc) under the httpdocs directory). If you can connect but there are no files, go to edit->settings->firewall and uncheck passive mode.
   Try that if you know name and pass. If you don’t know name and pass, ask your friend who will hopefully remember.

   1 July 2007, 8:55 am

9. Audrey:

   I’m wondering about the legal definitions here. You brought up the rosemary hedges as falling within their definition, but not being enforced. Are fruits outlawed also? Any edible plants, or just vegetables and herbs? What about nut trees?

   What I’m getting at is that broccoli is just a flower that hasn’t bloomed yet, that we happen to eat. This makes them not so different legally from marigolds or carnations or daylilies, that are edible flowers that most of us happen to not eat.

   I was looking at the edible flowers list here: http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm and was surprised to see Okra on it. And I know people eat squash blossoms.

   For whatever it’s worth, it seems to me it’s a fine line that they likely haven’t defined very well. If you grow squashes but only eat the blossoms, that should be treated exactly the same as if you grow hollyhocks and eat the blossoms.

   1 July 2007, 9:55 am

10. DeAnander:

    Jams and jellies can be made from rose hips. Nasturtium blossoms are a common salad ingredient. You can make a terrifying pesto out of new, soft rosemary needles with garlic, olive oil and walnuts.

    If only inedible plants are legal in front yards then that means growing only what is toxic to humans… Hey, poison ivy, deadly nightshade, hemlock, dieffenbachia, jimson weed (datura)… you could make a real Rappacini’s Garden!

    1 July 2007, 3:04 pm

11. Audrey:

    If we could edit our posts here, I’d take out the bit about food banks I wrote earlier, now that I’ve been reflecting on that. It’s a bit … eh, ignorant.

    It’s more a reflection of my own frustration at not being allowed to let local renters use part of my yard to grow food in, and not having the time to cultivate a big enough garden so I can donate the extra to a food bank. It’s not right to donate food in order to be allowed to have a garden, it just should be done because it’s the right thing to do, since everyone that ought to have a space to grow food in, doesn’t. I have a tendency to try to live vicariously through others on that point, perpetually urging them to donate their crops for various reasons, since I can’t at the moment.

    Anyhow, for general amusement, I’m passing on someone else’s comment on your blog, from a woman who’s always on target: “Growing FOOD is icky and unsightly and breastfeeding is just… GROSS!!! DO IT IN THE LATRINE!!!”

    1 July 2007, 3:47 pm

12. robert willmann:

    Unfortunately, I have never practiced law in North Carolina. Only in Texas. So I can offer only a few thoughts.

    Read the originating documents and bylaws of the HOA very carefully. You certainly have a right to a copy of those papers. They might provide for procedures that can result in a waiver of the prohibition on closelines and gardens or permit a change in the rules themselves. These procedures might be subject to grassroots voting or influence. That may solve the problem.

    Go to the courthouse and look up the 1999 lawsuit against the HOA that you said was successful and read the file. The “court’s file” or “clerk’s file”, however it is named there, has all the papers filed in the case, from the paper filed to start it through the order or judgment signed by the judge that ends every lawsuit. That file is public record. The name of the lawyer who represented the homeowner will be on most or all of the papers.

    Contact that lawyer and he/she may talk to you a little for no charge, or for a small fixed fee ($100), especially if it is about a lawsuit in which the lawyer represented the party who prevailed, since lawyers like to talk about cases in which they were successful. Even if the lawyer will talk to you briefly for free, I would suggest insisting on paying a small fee in order to be sure the attorney-client privilege attaches to the conversation, which will keep it private, regardless of whether you hire the lawyer later for a case against the HOA.

    Also when you are in the courthouse, look up other lawsuits in which the HOA was the plaintiff or defendant, and see what they were about and what the result was, and write down who the lawyers were.

    I don’t know what North Carolina’s rules of civil procedure say about where discovery materials are kept for a civil lawsuit, but when you are in the courthouse, ask the clerk if the depositions, answers to written questions, and documents produced through the formal legal discovery process are kept there with the clerk or whether they are kept by the respective lawyers for the parties. In Texas nowadays that material is kept by the parties’ lawyers. Even if it is, you might be able to talk a lawyer into letting you look at the discovery material that was produced in the lawsuit, including depositions.

    HOAs, like so many efforts at forcing mass conformity, have grown to be more oppressive. Because they come out of “private transactions”, there had been little legal scrutiny of them until the usual coercion started, in which the HOA tried to start a foreclosure action against someone’s home for failure to pay $200 in dues or some silly “penalty” provided for in the bylaws. Or for painting their house the wrong color. Thus, State legislatures have been passing laws restricting some of the HOA practices and severely limiting or prohibiting them from foreclosing on someone’s house. I don’t know what North Carolina’s law says about HOAs, but it will say something.

    Public humiliation in the newspaper can help, if the local paper is so inclined. There was a situation here in which a HOA was going to try to foreclose on a person’s house after he put up about a 12-inch high decorative “fence” in the front of the yard. The newspaper made a big splash over it, and ridiculed the HOA, which then backed off.

    It sounds as if you want to stay in that neighborhood, especially for a school for one of the children (at least at one time) and its nearness to work, which is important with the artificially high gas prices due to the illegal merging of oil companies permitted by the Clinton and Bush administrations, thus destroying any chance of price competition, along with the price-fixing scam known as a commodities and futures exchange (not to mention the price-fixing done when the oil comes out of the ground in the Middle East).
    If you didn’t mind moving, you could find a place in the country outside of the city limits, and not have to worry as much about public or private harassment.

    STAN: Thanks, all!!! I’m staying because I have lived here longer than any place in my life, ecause I won’t be run off by these Stepford Mussolinis, because I’ve paid mortgage money and a lot of other money to keep the place up, because my partner wants to live here, because I’ve done so much stuff that constitutes a relationship with this patch of earth, and because I am about to suggest as a political matter that people who are buying even little pieces of land - with or without houses - try to take that land off the market forever. This may be a good learning experience for me. And I am very appreciative of all these replies. Cogitating…

    1 July 2007, 3:49 pm

13. Steve:

    Suburban lawns are the biggest waste of space. I cannot understand why a well mantained oramental veggie garden is such a problem,its like the rules are more important than the outcome.My cousins in Reggio Emilia have thier entire yard cultivated. They have fruit trees, veggies, rabbit hutches and free range chickens and a gravel yard to sit in with potted flowers.-they live in the functional equivalent of suburbia. Nothing tastes better than breaded squash blossons fried in olive oil as side dish with home grown braized bunny rabbit.The veggies are in raised beds, mixed with flowering plants to keep away bugs.Very pretty in the spring when the fruit trees are in bloom.

    1 July 2007, 9:08 pm

14. DeAnander:

    Stepford Mussolinis — that was good.

    2 July 2007, 3:01 am

15. jackautonymus:

    hey stan! post up some pics of your garden!! you could always put a sign up that says victory garden, and then invite the local paper by. that might throw them for a loop.

    2 July 2007, 4:31 pm

16. E&J:

    Stan - just read your post and empathize greatly, as two fellow peaceniks and gardeners, and one veteran/x-usmc (with similar car-based efforts in cognitive dissonance…) and land surveyor. Our first thoughts are that you’re in quite the pickle, because legally HOAs have a lot of power, and you did sign onto their rules (legally). It seems you could try several avenues in this short amount of time. You could theoretically call for a meeting of the fellow HOA members and attempt to get a body of people who could help you overturn the rule. If you were to form a coalition, this could be a resource: http://www.disputesettlement.org/public/. More than likely, you’ll have less power (and less support) than a coalition, and will probably have to abide by the HOA rules at the end of the day. You should definitely use a strict interpretation - e.g., if the covenant says “vegetable gardens” are forbidden in front yards, you can keep your fruits (e.g., tomatoes). It may also be worth pointing out their inconsistencies if indeed any edible landscaping is prohibitied, as you suggest. You should also find out what their definition of a garden is…do they have particular dimensions? Can your gardens be re-formatted as landscaping and thus not be considered gardens? (in the NE, we use cabbage as landscaping, just as you SE folks use rosemary…surely you could devise a garden-friendly and green/edible landscaped appearance, or find an architect who could help devise this) If your foods are in terraced beds will this help or hinder you based on their definition of what is prohibited as a garden?

    We have emailed a lawyer friend your story, and hope he will respond with useful advice. May also be worth looking at the wikipedia posting, last section on constitutionality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowners_association. Perhaps you could argue free speech if you choose to take this to the next level.

    What an irony that you cannot have a garden in the front yard but can probably dump poisons galore to make a fabricated lawn look “nice”!!!

    Keep fighting the good fight. In solidarity,
    Elaine & Jason

    2 July 2007, 9:40 pm

17. E&J:

    Stan-

    Another possibility is a man named Walter Robillard. He is a Professional Surveyor in many states including North Carolina, has written 3 of the 5 books recommended to take the Land Surveyors exam and he is also an attorney. I’ve been to several of his seminars for my own license aspirations and I feel he is someone that could have some helpful information. He is very conservative, i.e., less government, which includes HOA’s. His contact info is http://www.worldboundaries.com/contact_walter.htm.

    Good luck.

    2 July 2007, 9:51 pm

18. Guy Montag:

    Stan,

    I had a Chevy Prizm which I ran into the ground. My upgraded Toyota Echo also displays stickers intended to induce cognitive dissonance among the Republican masses of West Michigan. Although a bit more modest and less in-your-face than your own.

    “Tillman 40″, IAFF Firefighter, Veterans for Webb for Senate, Gravel for President, and “WTF” with an upside down flag (evolution.com parody of the W ‘04 sticker).

    Good luck with your run-in with the condo nazis. Years ago they sent me a nasty letter telling me to move my ‘78 Nova (with Airborne wings and Ranger tab in the rear window) off the street. I was lucky enough to be able to park it on the very end of the short driveway to let my landlady in and out of the garage.

    2 July 2007, 10:02 pm

19. mj nelson:

    How do people live like this? I’m in Canada and things like HOAs don’t exist. Only a condo type arrangement…strata council that tells you how to live in your own apartment.

    I wouldn’t waste one calorie of energy ‘fighting’ such an abominable intrusion on my life. I’d run fast and run free.

    It’s not worth the aggravation.

    imho.

    3 July 2007, 2:13 pm

20. Legume Sam:

    hey stan! post up some pics of your garden!! you could always put a sign up that says victory garden, and then invite the local paper by. that might throw them for a loop.

    This looks like a great idea!

    3 July 2007, 8:30 pm

21. xenia:

    It’s terrible how consistent and omnipresent this cultural logic is. Lawns instead of vegetable gardens, silicone breasts instead of real flesh, faux protection of embryos at the expense living babies and mothers. In short, it means celebration of the deadened, the artificial, the unreal, and denigration and derision of everything alive…

    Stan, you have my best wishes and support since I cannot offer anything else. I rant often against property as such but everyone should be allowed to grow food in their own garden, for Chrissake!

    4 July 2007, 6:21 am

22. kevin:

    Don’t mess with the HOA; they are modern day nazis(and legally untouchable!). Have you ever thought about running for election on your neighborhood’s board?

    4 July 2007, 10:01 am

23. Charles:

    Do the bylaws or contract provide for some kind of appeal process ?

    4 July 2007, 10:04 am

24. Charles:

    I second Lawyer willmann’s suggestions. You should quickly file with the hoa some type of appeal statement, in case there is a time limit in which appeals must be filed after notice to you. Just send them a letter saying you want to appeal their order to you, and you want a hearing. Keep a copy of your letter.

    It is especially important to get the exact language in the bylaw in question. Maybe you could post the language.

    There must be some state laws regulating homeowner/hoa relationships , and foreclosures, just as there are state laws regulating mortgage and tax foreclosures. Those laws won’t necessarily be like the ones mentioned in other states which have limited abusive bylaws, but maybe N.C. does have a law already that will help you.

    This doesn’t speak to your immediate problem, but I find it hard to believe that they could literally “foreclose” on you as in a mortgage foreclosure or tax foreclosure, wherein they take your property and your money. Seems more likely that they could evict you, but would have to pay you your equity or your mortgagee would have to pay you still.

    I’m not sure where you are going with your question about whether “no vegatables” means “nothing edible”,but if it says “no vegatables” a court is not likely to broaden that to mean “no edibles”. But you list mostly vegatables, as to what you are growing.
    I guess you might be trying to argue that if other homeowners have grown “herbs” for years, and they haven’t been stopped that custom and practice have rendered the provision in question unenforceable with respect to you. However, that does not feel like a strong argument to me. But maybe some variation of it would work.

    4 July 2007, 10:34 am

25. Charles:

    http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Statutes/Statutes.asp

    North Carolina General Assembly - General StatutesThe Statutes on the North Carolina General Assembly web site are updated through the 2006 session. Browse. NC Statutes Table of Contents · NC Statutes and …
    http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Statutes/Statutes.asp - 70k - Cached - Similar pages

    4 July 2007, 10:39 am

26. Charles:

    North Carolina General Statutes
    Chapter 47C: North Carolina Condominium Act.

    http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Statutes/StatutesTOC.pl?Chapter=0047C

    4 July 2007, 10:43 am

27. Charles:

    Article 3 - Management of the Condominium. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-101. Organization of unit owners’ association. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-102. Powers of unit owners’ association. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-103. Executive board members and officers. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-104. Transfer of special declarant rights. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-105. Termination of contracts and leases of declarant. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-106. Bylaws. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-107. Upkeep; damages; assessments for damages, fines. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-107.1. Procedures for fines and suspension of condominium privileges or services. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-108. Meetings. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-109. Quorums. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-110. Voting; proxies. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-111. Tort and contract liability. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-112. Conveyance or encumbrance of common elements. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-113. Insurance. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-114. Surplus funds. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-115. Assessments for common expense. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-116. Lien for assessments. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-117. Other liens affecting the condominium. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-118. Association records. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-119. Association as trustee. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-3-121. American and State flags and political sign displays. [RTF] [PDF]
    Article 4 - Protection of Purchasers. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-101. Applicability; waiver. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-102. Liability for public offering statement requirements. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-103. Public offering statement; general provisions. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-104. Same; condominiums subject to developmental rights. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-105. Same; time share. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-106. Conversion buildings. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-107. Same; condominium securities. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-108. Purchaser’s right to cancel. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-109. Resales of units. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-110. Escrow of deposits. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-111. Release of liens or encumbrances. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-112. Reserved for future codification purposes. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-113. Express warranties of quality. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-114. Implied warranties of quality. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-115. Exclusion of modification of implied warranties of quality. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-116. Statute of limitations for warranties. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-117. Effect of violations on rights of action; attorney’s fees. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-118. Labeling of promotional material. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-119. Declarant’s obligation to complete. [RTF] [PDF]
    § 47C-4-120. Substantial completion of units. [RTF] [PDF]

    4 July 2007, 10:46 am

28. Charles:

    Homeowners association - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaUnlike a municipal government, homeowner association governance is not subject to the Constitutional constraints that public government must abide by. …
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowners_association - 48k - Cached - Similar pages

    4 July 2007, 10:54 am

29. Charles:

    Aha !

    ^^^^^

    Certain states are pushing for more checks and balances in homeowners’ associations. The North Carolina Planned Community Act [4], for example, requires a due process hearing to be held before any homeowner may be fined for a covenant violation. It also limits the amount of the fine and sets other restrictions. There is also pending legislation in several states to mandate licensure of community managers. This will benefit homeowners in the association because the professional managers (who advise Boards of the laws and regulations governing the decisions that Board may make) will be educated and have professional designations (such as CMCA, PCAM, [5]etc.) Management companies are in favor of the legislation because it will narrow the field of potential management companies to those who are licensed. With the additional regulations, checks and balances being imposed on the field, the business of managing community associations is getting more complicated and will require educated professional managers.

    4 July 2007, 10:59 am

30. Charles:

    Chapter 47F.

    North Carolina Planned Community Act.

    Article 1.

    General Provisions.

    http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByChapter/Chapter_47F.html

    4 July 2007, 11:00 am

31. Charles:

    Does the bylaw in question provide for eviction or just a fine for violation ?

    4 July 2007, 11:05 am

32. Charles:

    “Recognized bodies, such as homeowners associations, which fulfill government functions, and have since been bound by subsequent court decisions to certain restrictions normally applying to local governments.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_divisions_of_the_United_States

    4 July 2007, 11:27 am

33. Stan:

    Wow!!! Thanks to everybody, as well as my lawyer Charles (grin), for everything. Looks like this is a real deal in a lot of places.

    Here’s the update.

    First, the NC Senate has already passed the bill saying sustainable “devices” (clotheslines, solar panels, etc) cannot be restricted by HOAs. Even my Repuglican state senator voted for it. So using state legislators on this issue works, if you want to put a stop to sheer idiocy by HOAs.

    Second, these HOAs use management agencies to do their dirty work (because who the hell has time to inspect 3000 houses for these picayunish “violations?). So Sherry called up the contact person listed on Charleston Management Corporation’s nasty-gram; and said that she had a moral objection to destroying food. The woman at the agency was extremely sympathetic and accommodating, which tells me something. CMC needs the $$$ from HGHOA - this is a serious racket, these management agencies - but this is a new agency, which may mean the last one pissed off so many residents that they pressured the HOA to fire them. In other words, this whole scam only works as long as everyone remains quiescent. In terms of power analysis, a few pissed-off, organized residents could huff and puff and blow the house down. The agencies are on a tightrope between the HOA Board and the residents-at-large. Oops.

    At any rate, she said keep the garden until harvest time (but take down the stakes (so now I’ll have viney things crawling all over the place).

    I spent all day today building a customized picket fence that meets their bullshit criteria, but still looks different than all the others (childish, yes). Got a deal on 5-1/2-inch-wide 6′ pickets (buck and a half apiece) and spent the extra bracing them up on 8′ ducking, bottom and 3/4 up, anchored on 4×4s. The duckings were $5 each (ugh!). Also built two matching gates heavy enough to smash a HOA inspector’s hands.

    I’ll work on unlacing the vine plants tomorrow. The cherry tomatoes are turning red, and they are sweet as honey. New okra is showing, so we are slipping up on gumbo. I also like it fried crispy or boiled slimy and slathered in hot sauce. I have an okra gene.

    Sherry spent the whole day mulching, weeding, and clearing the “yard waste” (or bird habitat, for some of us).

    James is cranking up a web site edifice, and I’m putting content together to direct at my neighbors, mostly pooping them up on peak oil as a way of calibrating their headspace. Once we are up and running, I’ll strategically flyer the place with the url and some catchy, semi-mysterious hook… then slip the HOA shit in between the lines. It’s a fishing expedition… just want to see what hits the line. Might be a total bust; but we’ll see. It could lead to an organizing committee of some kind that builds to a HOA coup. (-:

    The more I look into this, the more I am convinced that there is a latent HOA rebellion all over the country. Heck, even Kevin (above), who hates me, calls them Nazis. But again, I think there may be room for transformation instead of extermination.

    Thanks again, y’all… and Charles, just send me a bill. (-:

    4 July 2007, 4:46 pm

34. Charles:

    Hey, Stan, I’m a Legal Services lawyer. My clients don’t pay (smile).

    Way to go !

    4 July 2007, 5:21 pm

35. Susan Hoch MD:

    Plant nasturtiums, daylilies, pansies, rosemary, bay, and of course marigolds at the front of the garden - all edible flowering plants.
    And behind them your squash blossoms which you will try to pick as flowers and dredge in flour and saute rather than putting in vases.
    Since there is no problem with fruit, your tomatoes will easily meet these criteria.
    Sweet potato vines are often used for decoration and the potato is underground. Similartly potatoes show as greenery and then die down. And of course, ornamental kale.
    I have peppers and tomatoes in my front yard but it is New Jersey, not North Carolina.

    4 July 2007, 6:41 pm

36. Audrey:

    I’m glad to hear the veggies can stay.

    I’m not sure I understand the staking rule, because around here people put up stakes around transplanted trees and leave the stakes up for years. I think a stake with a vine growing on it looks prettier than a plain stake that’s tied to a tree, but the HOA might know something I don’t about aesthetics.

    While I was surfing around, I came across a website designed to help people with problems they’re having with their HOAs: http://www.ahrc.com/new/index.php/src/home

    They have state forums within that, where people might be able to get assistance with their local issues, and also blog areas for states - some states appear to be inactive, some have a little bit of stuff going on. Anyhow, there’s a whole site set up there already with a small network in place for people dealing with issues like yours.

    About the okra: Sometimes I try to hide vegetables in food in experimental ways. I can shred squash or carrots into oatmeal cookies, and nobody acts like I’m trying to poison them. I made the mistake of hiding surplus okra from the garden in the batter once. They didn’t taste too good, that was the first problem, so on that basis alone I don’t recommend it. But aside from that, they started giving off heat. They cooled down for a few hours, but then they started to warm up again and by the next morning they were back up to hot. I never saw anything quite like that before. My mother’s impressed that my cooking could have been so horrific that it figured out on its own it should turn straight into compost; my husband still, years later, refers to them as the cold fusion cookies. Based on my experience, I think okra might count as a renewable resource – I’m convinced I could heat a small house with okra oatmeal disks.

    4 July 2007, 11:47 pm

37. DeAnander:

    1) HOORAY for the stay of execution [dances a jig]

    2) this thread is a goldmine for suburban gardeners having HOA problems… maybe we could summarise it all neatly as a Resource Page for IA?

    3) Charles, I am impressed. Terrific research and analysis.

    4) Audrey, the cold-fusion cookies are the funniest thing I have read in several days. I needed the laugh, thanks…

    5 July 2007, 2:02 am

38. Charles:

    Thanks DeAnan(der). Gotta do what I can for Stan the Man, uh “persan”. :>)

    5 July 2007, 2:54 pm

39. Linda c:

    Aubrey,

    Your cookies may be the answer. Instead of “Bio” it could be “Okra”.

    5 July 2007, 3:24 pm

40. Legume Sam:

    As for the power of photos in dramatizing community gardens, try here…

    6 July 2007, 10:28 am

41. TomL:

    File a lawsuit the day before the deadline. Ask for injunctive relief. Base your suit on 1. Public policy 2. That the covenant obviously intended to forbid large-scale industrial farming and not small veg gardens 3. Ambiguities, if any, in the covenant. 4. If anyone else in the neignborhood is being allowed to have a garden, claim unequal enforcement.

    Check with a N.C. lawyer to make sure that your lawsuit is not frivolous, because you can get in trouble if it is.

    Get enough extensions to take you through the harvest season and then move for the court to dismiss as moot, since there’s no garden anymore.

    Ask yourself if it’s worth the value of the vegetables.

    Another tactic: Take your legal complaint, unfiled, to the association and offer not to file if you promise not to grow a garden next year.

    The important thing is that you must file a complaint or make a move before they initiate some kind of proceedings.

    6 July 2007, 11:16 am

42. Randy Morris:

    Your news of success v the HOA is awesome—congratulations!

    Randy

    8 July 2007, 4:01 pm

43. xenia:

    Here is an echo of sorts, a seventy-year old woman arrested for not fixing her lawn:

    http://www.policeone.com/news/1287501/

    ps i’m not sure about the etiquette of posting links
    here, so forgive me if something is amiss.

    MODERATOR: You are always appropriate and welcome, Xenia.

    9 July 2007, 9:33 am

44. cole:

    Our little website is making aLOT of difference fighting our POA. More to come.

    http://www.angelfire.com/planet/frf/

    9 July 2007, 10:51 pm

45. r graves:

    for a glimpse of a time when suburban gardening was encouraged, check out mike davis’ recent look back at frugal living on the homefront during ww2

    http://www.alternet.org/environment/55925/

    10 July 2007, 11:35 am

46. TomL:

    This via Sam Smith of the Progressive Review:

    MIKE DAVIS, SIERRA MAGAZINE - The World War II home front was the most important and broadly participatory green experiment in U.S. history. Lessing Rosenwald, the chief of the Bureau of Industrial Conservation, called on Americans “to change from an economy of waste — and this country has been notorious for waste — to an economy of conservation.” A majority of civilians, some reluctantly but many others enthusiastically, answered the call.

    The most famous symbol of this wartime conservation ethos was the victory garden. Originally promoted by the Wilson administration to combat the food shortages of World War I, household and communal kitchen gardens had been revived by the early New Deal as a subsistence strategy for the unemployed. After Pearl Harbor, a groundswell of popular enthusiasm swept aside the skepticism of some Department of Agriculture officials and made the victory garden the centerpiece of the national “Food Fights for Freedom” campaign.

    By 1943, beans and carrots were growing on the former White House lawn, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and nearly 20 million other victory gardeners were producing 30 to 40 percent of the nation’s vegetables — freeing the nation’s farmers, in turn, to help feed Britain and Russia. . .

    In The Garden Is Political, a 1942 volume of popular verse, poet John Malcolm Brinnin acclaimed these “acres of internationalism” taking root in U.S. cities. Although suburban and rural gardens were larger and usually more productive, some of the most dedicated gardeners were inner-city children.

    With the participation of the Boy Scouts, trade unions, and settlement houses, thousands of ugly, trash-strewn vacant lots in major industrial cities were turned into neighborhood gardens that gave tenement kids the pride of being self-sufficient urban farmers. In Chicago, 400,000 schoolchildren enlisted in the “Clean Up for Victory” campaign, which salvaged scrap for industry and cleared lots for gardens.

    Victory gardening transcended the need to supplement the wartime food supply and grew into a spontaneous vision of urban greenness (even if that concept didn’t yet exist) and self-reliance. In Los Angeles, flowers (”a builder of citizen morale”) were included in the “Clean-Paint-Plant” program to transform the city’s vacant spaces, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden taught the principles of “garden culture” to local schoolteachers and thousands of their enthusiastic students.

    The war also temporarily dethroned the automobile as the icon of the American standard of living. . . While overcrowded defense hubs like Detroit, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., never achieved the national goal of 3.5 riders per car, they did double their average occupancy through extensive networks of neighborhood, factory, and office carpools.

    http://www.alternet.org/environment/55925/

    11 July 2007, 9:57 am

47. J Williams:

    As an industry insider, first let me say that not all HOAs are bad and they do serve a purpose if governed by reasonable people. Second, you are a member of the association and are able to affect real change in your community by getting involved. Do not stand by and be uninvolved if you feel that your neighborhood is becoming a police state.

    Your governing documents or state statutes should provide some provision that allows you an opportunity to address the board or architecutural committee on this issue prior to them taking legal action. Request a hearing IN WRITING, get familiar with the rules that are being enforced, tour the neighborhood to see if other owners have similar violations that the board may or may not be enforcing, and approach the board in a NON-CONFRONTATIONAL manner to discuss the issue and hopefully reach a compromise that makes everyone happy. I’ve seen many simple issues get out of control quickly because either the resident in “trouble” or the board (or both!) are spoiling for a fight.

    You may also want to check the governing documents and state statutes to see if there are any provisions that would allow an owner to request a variance. You would probably need to prove a hardship that required you to violate the rules. (i.e. rear yard being to shaded to allow a vegetable garden, mention the time and expense that you have put into your garden, etc.) It also never hurts to have other owners provide statements that support your point of view.

    There are times when the rules are ridiculous but because it is a rule, the board is obligated to enforce it. There are times when a blind eye is turned to silly infractions but if a complaining neighbor brings it to the board’s attention, they are compelled to address the situation. Otherwise, they may lose their ability to enforce other rules that are really needed (i.e. not allowing yard to become overgrown with weeds, maintenance issues, etc.)

    Don’t get frustrated, get involved (for the right reasons - to build your community, not because you have an “axe to grind”!)

    11 July 2007, 4:29 pm

48. chris:

    Some more HOA news regarding Freedom of Speech:

    http://origin.denverpost.com/rapids/ci_6352763

    Silent flag protest raises outcry

    Beth Hammer has turned her gated Wheat Ridge community upside down with her upside-down display of the U.S. flag.

    On March 19 - the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq - Hammer decided to hang her flag upside down, which under the federal flag code is a signal of distress.

    The 64-year-old retired banker said flying the flag with the white-starred blue field - called the union - on the bottom is her silent protest.

    “I think the war in Iraq has put this country in distress,” Hammer said. “We are losing lives, liberty and our honor.”

    Hammer contends displaying the U.S. flag upside down is her First Amendment right of free speech. She has hired a Denver civil rights lawyer, Mari Newman.

    “Just because she lives in a covenant-controlled community doesn’t mean she gives up her rights to free speech,” Newman said.

    The Cambridge Park Homeowners Association, which represents owners of 107 patio homes, doesn’t agree with Hammer’s perspective.

    On Wednesday night, the association’s board met to hear her response to its notice of noncompliance. The board took no action, and board members refused to comment.

    The board was minus one member: Hammer’s husband, Doug, a board member who did not participate in the meeting but supports her.

    The association board notified Beth Hammer in an April 24 letter that the flag display is against federal flag code and is in violation of the association’s “patriotic and political expression policy.”

    The letter gave her a week to right the flag or face fines that appear to range from $25 to $500.

    “Living in a community association offers many advantages to the homeowner, but at the same time, imposes some restrictions,” said the letter signed by association manager Melissa Keithly.

    “These restrictions are not meant as an inconvenience or an invasion of your freedom, but rather as a means of maintaining harmony in your community,” the letter continued.

    Most of her neighbors are unhappy, Hammer said. She does have supporters, although Hammer said, “I don’t think they are enough to make a football team.”

    This isn’t the first time Hammer has flown the flag this way. When she lived in a Lakewood neighborhood with no covenants, some neighbors expressed their opposition to her upside-down display.

    “There were threats and whatever,” she said.

    When she moved to her current home in 2004, Hammer decided not to put up her flag “until our neighbors got to know us for who we are and not to judge us on how we hung our flag.”

    Then the Iraq war anniversary arose.

    “I don’t think of myself as a rabble-rouser,” Hammer said. “To me, it’s my personal protest as a First Amendment right to free speech.”

    15 July 2007, 7:37 pm

49. Mark:

    I just ran across this article today about the growth of front yard gardens.

    http://www.nwi.com/articles/2007/07/30//business/business/docf833b52e5bef24bf8625732300638856.txt

    30 July 2007, 1:00 pm

50. Christine:

    Stan:
    I’m just at the beginning of what looks like to be a long battle with our HOA. Our board of directors are all volunteers and they think because no one shows up for elections and they appointed each other, they are actually a legal board! Not only that, but they are threatening fines but there are no fines provisions written in to our D&C’s or by-laws. They keep referring to NC statute 47F to claim they can levy fines. I’m under the impression that the statute is a due process statute and if there’s no provisions, it does not give them the right to fine at will. Am I correct about that? The property managemet co is just as bad because they are acting on behalf of this illegal volunteer board. Can anyone chime in? We are seeking a lawyer to represent us and few other residents to remove them from the board but don’t know where to find one.

    16 August 2007, 1:58 pm

51. barbara:

    I hope that everyone stops to think about the other side of the HOA that everyone hates so much. I am against heavy handedness and taking property away from someone. BUT….
    1) You entered into a contract BEFORE buying or moving in. 2) YOU have an obligation to the other members of the HOA to follow the restrictive covenants, who expect the covenants to be followed. 3) HOA board members are all volunteers trying to help out. We get slammed and have lawsuits threatenedagainst us. In my opinion, everyone living in an HOA community should have to serve a term on the board! 4) Why does everyone claim that the restrictions are too strict AFTER they move in!

    20 August 2007, 2:10 pm

52. barbara:

    Sorry, to clarify about the “illegal” HOA board. When you bought into the community, you should have been given a Disclosure Packet (it’s required by law in VA), with a copy of the Covenants, by-laws, and articles of incorporation. Everyone belongs to the HOA, not just a few members of the community. If you truly cared, you would come to the meetings to be heard and if you don’t, then you should just grin and bear it! Where do you think the board members should come from? should they be paid. How would they become legal? A Board is required by law! I get so fed up with people who buy into an HOA, and then claim to have never seen the by-laws, get meeting notices, have no idea what the covenants are, etc. That is so frustrating for us illegal volunteer board members!

    20 August 2007, 2:16 pm

53. Audrey:

    Barbara, there are a couple of points you raise. The first issue is whether people signing contracts should read all the fine print. Yes, of course they should. And most of us don’t. I’m betting at some point in your own life, you’ve entered into a contract, whether it was buying a house, a car, getting a credit card, etc., without reading all the fine print. Maybe I’m wrong on that – if so, you’re a better person than me.

    When we do truth-in-recruitment workshops, we pass out copies of the enlistment document to each student, and have them read it, and circle the parts that are unclear. And then we talk through what all that fine print really means, including gems like any promises made here can be changed without notice to you. The reality is, though, that most enlistees don’t understand what the fine print means, until it affects them – until they’ve been stop-lossed, or until they are discharged early for medical reasons and find out that not only are injured, but they’ve lost a bunch of benefits as a result. It shouldn’t be a surprise that people are upset when they lose a chunk of flesh, literally or otherwise, due to fine print provisions.

    Another point you brought up is whether the boards are legal, and there’s a difference between their existence being legal, and their actions. In Stan’s case, they had a history of doing illegal things, which is why they got sued in the past. I’m not following your point that nobody should sue if the board is all volunteer. Being a volunteer doesn’t give you a free pass to act in illegal ways; the folks in the community still have rights, and are entitled to use the justice system to enforce those rights if need be. People don’t have a moral obligation to be nice to volunteers to the point where the volunteers are above the law.

    Aside from that, legal doesn’t always equal ethical. If you look at the covenants where Stan lives, you can see the ethics laid out right here in the section about architectural control: “The primary purpose of these covenants and restrictions and the foremost consideration in the origin of same has been the creation of a community which is aesthetically pleasing and functionally convenient.”

    Pretty and convenient. Is that really what the foremost concern of communities should be? Is being pretty more important than being environmentally responsible?

    When unethical decisions are made, people have a moral obligation to speak out against them – even if they haven’t served a term as one of those officials or found time to go to a meeting. Having been a single working mom before, I recognize it’s a luxury some people don’t have, to be able to sit on a volunteer board or attend meetings we’d like to be at. There were points in my life where I didn’t have money for a babysitter, times when if I had hired a babysitter in the evening, I wouldn’t have seen my daughter at all for the day, and times when I didn’t have reliable transportation to get to those meetings. What ends up happening is that people with money and leisure time can afford to go sit on boards for free, and those who are poor don’t have as much of a voice in their government. I understand that. But to say that people like me shouldn’t even be allowed to voice our opinions if we can’t attend meetings – to completely silence us – is disturbing. I don’t know, maybe that’s not a situation HOAs face, maybe those sorts of communities thrive in a way that doesn’t allow for poor people to live there. Maybe that’s part of their point.

    21 August 2007, 12:01 pm

54. DeAnander:

    Right To Dry Movement Spreading

    on a related note, the rebellion against anti-clothesline ordinances is growing:
    

    Over in New Hampshire, clothesline activists have asked for legislative advice from Project Laundry List – the first US clothesline activist group – according to the group’s founder, Alexander Lee. And North Carolina recently passed a law invalidating city or county limitations on “energy devices based on the use of renewable resources.” In addition, the clothesline movement there is hoping to find a “test case” to legally establish clothesline rights in North Carolina, Mr. Lee says.

    “We get e-mails and calls every day from people wanting to know where they can get the materials to hang out their clothes or how to deal with homeowners’ association rules,” says Bryan Wentzell, the group’s chairman of the board. “[The Right to Dry movement] could take off all across the country,” he says, noting that independent states like Vermont will be the first to jump on the bandwagon.”

    Maybe. In June, Vermont’s Gov. Jim Douglas (R) vetoed an energy bill with Right to Dry language – though not because of the clothesline clause, according to state Sen. Dick McCormack (D). Proponents are now revising a bill to be introduced in January, one similar to legislation in Florida and Utah that prohibits “state or local laws or regulations or private contracts from limiting the ability of dwellers to erect and use clotheslines for the drying of clothes.”

    27 August 2007, 3:21 pm

55. rene:

    One way to get around a veggie garden in an unfriendly veggie garden community is to incorporate it as landscaping. Your typical square garden will not work; is unsightly and can be spotted right away. Be creative in your landscape design. Most folks won’t know a broccoli from a hollyhock.In the community I live fines of $100.00 a day commence after the date set to rectify.OUCH!!Set flowers and bushes around the perimeter. I have never heard of an association that dictates the type of plant. Perhaps you should get a very large Venus Flytrap for complaining neighbors. grin….
    Good Luck in 08….

    4 April 2008, 12:48 pm

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