Unfair Enforcement of By-Law Violations

[rjs72]

What is the name of your state? Ohio

My HOA’s by-laws have many restrictions that include: no metal fences of any kind are allowed, no structures besides your house are permitted on the lot, no satellite dishes are to be seen from the street, no recreation vehicles shall be permitted to park for an extended period of time on the property, etc.

All of these restrictions have been violated, especially the metal fence issue. There are approximately 15 metal fences in our neighborhood. My husband and I wrote a letter to the board and asked for a variance, the same type of variance the homeowners who have metal fences must have, to erect a small shed in our backyard and the board responded by saying that according to the by-laws no variances can be given by the board. In essence, they just said that all of the metal fences are violations. They did not approve them, and nothing was done to remedy the situation.

My husband and I built a shed, knowing that we are in violation of the by-laws, but felt that the by-laws were not being enforced and other people were reaping the benefits. As we were building it, a board member came over and said legal action would be taken against us. I asked her if legal action was being taken against the other violators (metal fences, play structures, etc) and she said no. This board member has expressed in the past that she does not like sheds. I was upset because no other home owner was threatened with legal action over their violation. I think the board takes no action on metal fences and satellite dishes and huge play ground structures erected in backyards because most of them don’t mind these infractions.

If they do take legal action against us, can we counter sue claiming unfair enforcement?

 

[Rodneydunes]

Unfair Enforcement of By-Law Violation

From Delaware
Hi,
I'm not an attorney (far from it) but we ran into a problem with a neighbor who did not like the fact we had a boat in our backyard (we live on a lake). We live in the middle of two roads that both dead into the lake. The neighbor bought the house behind me that faces my backyard.
She complained to the county who sent us a letter that we were in violation for having a boat stored in our front yard. As they explained it to me the first 20 feet of our backyard is classed as front yard because it borders on a road. What they failed to realize is that the road is a private road to which I own to the center and is not county maintained. None of the surrounding neighbors with boats received letters, only us. When confronted with legal action on our behalf because they did not send the same notice to everyone else in the county who was in violation, they backed off and said they could not do selective enforcement and to disregard the letter until we heard from them. That was in 1987 and we are still waiting and the neighbor is still complaining. Our county worker advise us to always have something there for her to look at that she would not like.
I think, in my opinion, you would have a good arguement as to selective enforcement. If you must comply then so does everyone else.

 

[rjs72]

Thanks for the reply

Thank you for your input. It's nice to know that other people are having similar problems with their association and had a good outcome.

Thanks Again!