#SAMPLE HOA COVENANTS FULL#

They are a cornucopia of discrimination suits. One of my professors predicted that HOA's are the next goldmine for litigators. It allows them to turn you down because they 'feel' it doesn't fit or they don't 'like' it, even if you followed the rules to the word.' 'Our HOA has slightly vague definitions and that is how they designed them. What if someone builds a lean-to on the back of the house that hides trash cans or tools? Is that an outbuilding? If you have a second garage that's attached to the house, is it an outbuilding? Is a covered porch that's not attached to the house an outbuilding? Is a carport an acceptable outbuilding? What about a small building that hides a pool's plumbing items? Is a built-wooden play house an outbuilding? What about a Little Tykes plastic playhouse? Is a children's climbing toy an outbuilding? Is a dog house an outbuilding? What if it's one of those igloo dog houses? You might want to specify just what constitutes an outbuilding: How many outbuildings will you allow on one lot? I ask this because my uncle's neighbor is a hoarder, and he has about 7-8 mismatched sheds lined up across the back of his large lot. You probably want to specify where sheds can be place - a typical rule might specify that the shed must be behind the line created by the back wall of the house. You might want to require some sort of landscaping around the shed - a naked shed doesn't do any lot any favors. Must the shed have a window of any type? I personally wouldn't require that. Will you make rules about the roof of the shed? Must it match the house in color /in material? What if you re-roof the house (which everyone will do at some point)? Must the homeowner also re-roof the shed? A full-brick shed is kinda ridiculous, but a bit of brick would be reasonably affordable and would tie into the house nicely.

I also like the idea of saying that the materials must coordinate /echo in some way the materials on the main house. I'd say create a guideline and have a committee look at it - this leaves space for a good, creative idea but gives you space to say no to a lime-green monstrosity. I agree with the rule on color matching (or coordinating) with the house. Thoughts on things you might want to specify: We are also working with the lawyer representing the HOA but wanted to get this community’s opinion, or see if anybody has ever worked with similar covenants. We’d like to keep color requirements to be similar to the residence, and require painted wainscoting or something of the like.

#SAMPLE HOA COVENANTS FULL#

They are trying to ensure that the outbuildings still stay nice without requiring a brick home to have a full brick outbuilding.ĭoes anybody have sample covenants that would fit this need? All of the houses are either hardy board, stone, or brick. They created an outbuilding committee to change the covenants, which my husband is part of. if you have a brick house, you must build a brick pole barn. They currently state that the outbuilding must be the same material as the primary residence… i.e. At our first meeting, most everybody agreed that the restrictions for outbuildings were too strict. This is in Indiana and in a somewhat rural area.Īll of the lots have been sold, so ownership of the HOA was passed to the residents of the neighborhood. The neighborhood only has about 20 lots and the houses are within the 400-600k range, all on lots larger than 1 acre. My husband and I recently moved into a new build home in June.

Sample hoa covenants