HOA ignoring request to construct a fence

[Jlane20]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington state. We have had numerous conversations via email with thr board members from our HOA regarding constructing a cedar fence along one side of our property (enclosing the backyard). The president of the HOA is "out of the country", so the vp has been our primary contact. He has said many times that he didn't foresee a problem with the construction so long as we followed the guidelines. We are/have followed all of their instructions for submitting the request and are wanting to build the fence to look exactly like the rest of the fence (constructed by the builders folks). There is nothing extraordinary about it. We have not received the final approval, apparently the president is still out of the country (although he has access to email and has responded once giving us the form to complete), and now the vp is not responding to any of our follow up email. We have had this ongoing convo for over a month now. What recourse do we have?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington state. We have had numerous conversations via email with thr board members from our HOA regarding constructing a cedar fence along one side of our property (enclosing the backyard). The president of the HOA is "out of the country", so the vp has been our primary contact. He has said many times that he didn't foresee a problem with the construction so long as we followed the guidelines. We are/have followed all of their instructions for submitting the request and are wanting to build the fence to look exactly like the rest of the fence (constructed by the builders folks). There is nothing extraordinary about it. We have not received the final approval, apparently the president is still out of the country (although he has access to email and has responded once giving us the form to complete), and now the vp is not responding to any of our follow up email. We have had this ongoing convo for over a month now. What recourse do we have?

If you are going to build a piece of fence that is going to look exactly like the fences constructed by the builder, then I would probably just go ahead and do it if I were in your shoes.

 

[Stephen1]

Do your HOA By-laws say anything relating to how long the HOA has to respond or what happens if they don't respond? For my HOA it says that if the architectural committee (changes such as yours go to that committee) doesn't approve or disapprove within 30 days then approval will not be required.

Now, this won't help your fence but, if your HOA's rules do not contain appropriate guidance on this you should propose a change before the next annual meeting.