Informed that I was in violation of our covenants???

[OldGuy43]

I got a knock on the door last night from the president of our so called association. I live in the county in fact our neighbors across the street have cattle and horses. We bought and paid for this house 2 yrs ago, and before we did I read and made sure that we could have farm animals. Our covenant states that we are allowed two large animals meaning horse, cow, llama, or emu.OR 4 small animals meaning calves, sheep, goats. Then the covenant goes on to say "Poultry, domestic ratite, and small animals will also be allowed, but in all cases must be adequately cared for and must be confined in a satisfactory manner to the owner's property." I can't find anywhere in that, that I am only allowed a certain amount of poultry, but my president is stating that it says i can have 6 animals total. I would think that if the poultry was included in the small animals that it would have listed them, but it doesn't. My neighbors are complaining that my birds smell and that the wind blows it right to their house, well they knew when they bought the house behind me that I had chickens and there house sits right behind my pasture. I am very clean with my birds, but I do compost the manure. I started raising batches of 50 meat birds in the warmer months. What rights do I have??? I am willing to fight this as long as I can win. I moved to the country so that I could have chickens and now I am being told I can only have six and that I am not allowed to raise chicken to feed my family of 7. Please help...

Finished my second cup of coffee and ready to tackle this one.

First; I'll preface this by saying that I agree with you in principal. You bought and paid for your home and you're the one paying the taxes etc. on it, and should be able to do whatever you please, with the exception of say, running a meth lab or some other completely illegal activity. Not that I would even care about that as long as you don't cause problems for me. What you do on your place is your business. We live in a nominal republic.

I've quoted your original post for clarity and reference since I find that, on rereading it I have a few questions;

Do you actually have a home owners association?

Do you really live in the country or is it an unincorporated subdivision? Your use of the term street as opposed to road leads me to believe that the latter is the case, but not necessarily true as it's a mistake commonly made by by "city folk" when they first move into the country. Here in the country we usually call them roads.

How much acreage do you have? Fifty chickens on an acre is nothing, fifty on a 1/4 acre may be a problem if you have close neighbors. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee, "Anything under 10 acres is a hobby farm."

Your neighbor across the street; Assuming a subdivision is he part of it? How much livestock does he have? How long has he been there? Is he bound by the same covenants or is he grandfathered in.

Remember, I'm on your side on this, but I suspect there's some things that you aren't telling us.

Have you tried to do anything about the smell? There are products available that deal with it quite well.

 

[jessicayarno]

OldGuy 43 I live on just over an acre. It is an HOA, but like i said it isn't formal, the rules are never inforced. Street? Road? Seriously.. A road to me, isn't paved, a street is. I am far from city folk. I live in a town of 7,000 people and I don't even call that a city. I live outside of those city limits. More than half of this town walks around with some kind of manure on their shoes.. You can call it a hobby farm, i call it trying to feed my family. We bought this place because it's what we could afford to pay cash for. We forked out $200,000 for this house and I had every intention on growing old in this home. Just enough space to grow a nice sized garden, plant fruit trees and be able to raise chickens.I have handled the situation and I don't need your ideas if you are going to bash me..Thanks and have a nice day...

 

[OldGuy43]

Subscription removed. Best of luck.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I understand hiring an atty does not = lawsuit. However, if there is legwork this OP can do herself (such as reading her County restrictions), it will save her a pocket full of change - and sound more friendly to her neighbor while she is talking to him face to face. "My atty says" is more threatening than "the zoning official says".

Also, this OP needs to decide if she wants to do a ton of work to change the HOA deed restrictions - or - just come to an agreement with her neighbor, to get the HOA off her back. The approach to this situaion will be much different, depending on her goals.

Maybe the things she is compromising away are not the things upsetting the neighbor.

Quite frankly, I would never consider saying "my attorney says" in a conversation with someone with whom I am as odds with as the OP is with her neighbor. At this point I would barely be speaking to them. I heartily agree that doing the legwork to see what county ordinances and zoning allows, along with reading through the entire set of HOA documents is a good start. But at some point, she needs clarification that her understanding is legally accurate if she plans to pursue the issue.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

OldGuy 43 I live on just over an acre. It is an HOA, but like i said it isn't formal, the rules are never inforced. Street? Road? Seriously.. A road to me, isn't paved, a street is. I am far from city folk. I live in a town of 7,000 people and I don't even call that a city. I live outside of those city limits. More than half of this town walks around with some kind of manure on their shoes.. You can call it a hobby farm, i call it trying to feed my family. We bought this place because it's what we could afford to pay cash for. We forked out $200,000 for this house and I had every intention on growing old in this home. Just enough space to grow a nice sized garden, plant fruit trees and be able to raise chickens.I have handled the situation and I don't need your ideas if you are going to bash me..Thanks and have a nice day...

I hardly think he was bashing you. He was asking legitimate questions to which you need to consider the answers. Regardless of what YOU consider your lot, the size of a property OFTEN has to do with the legal uses, especially when it comes to agriculture. Larger properties are usually allowed uses that smaller properties are not, or are allowed them at a higher density. If all you wanted was supportive "oh, sorry"s or "fight the B%%^$*(!" then you should have posted in Random Ramblings, not in a section that is supposed to give you some ACTUAL help. None of hte responses here are trying to be unsupportive. We are all trying to give you information and resources so that you can get the best result possible, whatever you decide to do. Asking questions allows us to give you more accurate information; it doesn't mean we are being unsupportive. Read through other threads in this section and you will see that that is common to most of the threads where people are encountering legal issues concerning their property uses.

I do think that the distinction between using the words road and street are not at all clear. To me they are completely interchangable words. I imagine that this is something that could vary regionally. I consider that either could be paved or unpaved, urban or rural. In some places "streets" run one direction and "roads" another (N/S vs E/W, for example), or are on opposite sides of a divider road, or are simply chosen phonetically--whichever sounds better with the attached name of the street/road. Throw in avenue, lane, boulevard and probably a few others and they are pretty much all the same. Attach "highway" and I expect something that goes long distances through multiple cities/towns.

 

[jessicayarno]

Your use of the term street as opposed to road leads me to believe that the latter is the case, but not necessarily true as it's a mistake commonly made by by "city folk" when they first move into the country. Here in the country we usually call them roads.
I don't live in Texas I live in Idaho, therefor I am not from the south. I was born into a town of 1,500 people, my backyard was called West Mountain, I climbed trees for fun and lived in the camper for the summer while my dad logged. I learned how to gut a fish at 5 yrs old, and we fished and hunted to put food on the table. I knew growing up that food didn't come from the grocery store. I call anything paved a street, and if it isn't , then it's a road. If you call that "city folk" then I guess I am... @ Sonoran Silkies.... I was looking for legitimate answers, but when people become judgemental then I will stand up for myself. He didn't need to make fun of me for calling it a street and not a road, and imply that because i said that I must be "city folk". I was looking for suggestions on how to handle this matter. I appreciate everybody's input, and for them taking the time to give me advice... This matter has been dealt with..

 

[LaLoomis]

Your use of the term street as opposed to road leads me to believe that the latter is the case, but not necessarily true as it's a mistake commonly made by by "city folk" when they first move into the country. Here in the country we usually call them roads.
I don't live in Texas I live in Idaho, therefor I am not from the south. I was born into a town of 1,500 people, my backyard was called West Mountain, I climbed trees for fun and lived in the camper for the summer while my dad logged. I learned how to gut a fish at 5 yrs old, and we fished and hunted to put food on the table. I knew growing up that food didn't come from the grocery store. I call anything paved a street, and if it isn't , then it's a road. If you call that "city folk" then I guess I am... @ Sonoran Silkies.... I was looking for legitimate answers, but when people become judgemental then I will stand up for myself. He didn't need to make fun of me for calling it a street and not a road, and imply that because i said that I must be "city folk". I was looking for suggestions on how to handle this matter. I appreciate everybody's input, and for them taking the time to give me advice... This matter has been dealt with..

The written word can be interpreted so many different ways. I didn't think he was making fun of you, I thought he was trying to better understand your situation. To be honest, I don't really understand your situation. What's an "informal HOA"? Does that mean that they don't have the power to enforce their CC&Rs?

 

[Judy]

The OP stated that the problem had been dealt with, so I think we are through here. Thank you for your participation.