HELP! My HOA wants to evict our hens!!

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Not only do the HOAs tell what animals you can have. Some say how many cars can be in your driveway, what color your roof and house have to be, what plants you can have in your yard, whether or not you can leave your garage door open. I'd rather have neighbors with their undies flapping on the clothesline than pay an HOA fee and have all kinds of stupid rules pushed on me.

 

[Sillystunt]

san diego you can have chickens in un incorp areas BUT............. HOA's always trump those laws. They set their own rules & ordinances how they see fit for their community. Gated communities you are buying a lifestyle. You buy wanting a way of living that has to be applied to everyone(that's why i bought in a community with NO hoa's) Real estate is super expensive up there and they don't want chickens. lord, they don't even want visiable clothing lines!!!!

I am not trying to be a jerk but you will loose this battle. My husband is born & raised in rancho bernardo. Those hoa's are tuff........

you should start to look for a home for them that maybe you can visit. Sorry.........

 

[Peep_Show]

Reading your HOA's stance, it sounds like keeping poultry is a revocable consent.... That is, it is okay until somebody complains and then they are considered a nuisance and must go. I don't know what type of chickens you have, but sounds like your neighbor is sensitive to noise. (And, let me guess, she's over 50; right? Yep. Been there, dealt with that...for some reason that's the magic age for a crank-on) Hopefully your coop has NO smell to make it objectionable and is an esthetically pleasing structure. Nobody wants to live within eyesight of something trashy looking or definitely out of place. (It's amazing what a little lattice and gingerbread trim will do! Make it look like a playhouse)

You could get rid of the chickens, relocate the coop out of neighbor's eyesight and try a quieter breed. HOA's said these chickens must go; right? Or did they prohibit you from keeping poultry altogether?

Another avenue to explore is are your chickens a 4-H project? Some City ordinances are superseded by such organizations and in a lot of cases HOA rules and regs cannot trump City ordinances.... i.e., flagpole height, number of dogs to be kept, etc.

A lot of your success will depend on how hard you're willing to challenge and what you can find to make your case. It can't hurt but try. The bottom line, though, is they (HOA's) can impose their will and opinions on how the neighborhood is to be composed, just as you can through your free will decide to live there or not.

Good luck!

 

[SilverPhoenix]

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Yeah, count me out!

I guess I can see how that sort of thing would appeal to some people (...I guess), but I'm definitely not among those people, that's for sure!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Unless it is a RIGHT granted by the city or state, HOA covenants can be MORE but not less restrictive. For example, in Arizona, there is a RIGHT to have a flagpole, but HOAs are allowed to set reaonable height restrictions. The city may limit a person or residence from having say more than 5 dogs, but an HOA can limit their residents to two dogs; however, they cannot legally allow thier residents to keep seven dogs.

 

[Desert Rooster]

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[Peep_Show]

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Unless it is a RIGHT granted by the city or state, HOA covenants can be MORE but not less restrictive. For example, in Arizona, there is a RIGHT to have a flagpole, but HOAs are allowed to set reaonable height restrictions. The city may limit a person or residence from having say more than 5 dogs, but an HOA can limit their residents to two dogs; however, they cannot legally allow thier residents to keep seven dogs.

In Nevada (well, our community in Henderson, anyway) it is just about the opposite. Our HOA says only two dogs allowed but the Henderson City ordinances says three, the HOA bows to the City rules. The HOA says no visible antennae (cable-ready community), but the feds say you cannot restrict a person's choice in media and ergo lots o' satellite dishes. Our HOA can dictate *where* you can plant your flag pole, but height is determined by City. I guess it depends on the HOA and the specific CC&R's of a community.
Our CC&R's have a restriction clause about keeping livestock, birds and reptiles, but you can petition the HOA about "pet" status... Unfortunately, the City of Henderson allows hens only but ONLY if you have a written revocable consent of all neighbors within 350' feet of your coop filed with Animal Control. (That's 10 acres, folks) My immediate neighbors are all for a small 3-4 hen coop, but one sourpuss biddy 320' up the street is adamant that she doesn't want chickens in her neighborhood. Nevermind that my next-door neighbor could keep chickens as she's out of the biddy's approval zone. I am looking forward to the day I can move to a less regimented ag-zoned neighborhood where my neighbors have no power and control over what I do in my backyard.... The present situation seems vaguely unconstitutional.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I guess I am going to be the odd man out. We bought our 10 acres partially because it had an HOA. The other places that we looked at that didn't have an active HOA were dumps! I will admit that some HOA's can get pretty rediculous with their rules, but there is some merit to having a few rules to protect the neighbors from someone who feels "It is my property and I can do whatever I want on it". Since I don't want to live next to an overgrown yard infested with rats and mice because the neighbor won't take his garbage to the dump, I bought a place with a HOA, and rules that I felt I could live with.

One neighborhood we looked at was horrid. The one house that we looked at was nice, but was next door to a lived-in basement - just the basement was there. The main floor has the joists and subfloor installed, but no walls put up. The guy tar-papered the subfloor, cut out a hole for a chimney for a wood stove and moved into the basement. Three dead cars - all with at least one wheel missing, a pile of rusted out 50 gallon drums, a dead refigerator, and a shed full of rotting garbage (in garbage bags) that was leaning really bad and ready to fall over. The neighbors upwind had 4 horses on their pasture and there wasn't a blade of grass left. Nothing growing in that pen. You could see where the horse apples had blown onto the lot we were looking at and had stacked up about 6" for 20 feet deep along the fence. Without any vegetation it must have been like a sandstorm every time the wind blew. From the number of dead flies in the windows of the house, that was obviously a problem also. We were house shopping during the winter time, so I can only guess how bad it would smell in the spring with rainfall and dampness.

Now all that being said, I am currently trying to change the HOA rulse to allow a limited number of chickens. But I will not get chickens unless I can get the rules changed, because I agreed to the rules when I bought the house.

 

[Peep_Show]

I whole-heartedly agree that HOA's are useful as far as maintaining neighborhood appearances and thereby maintaining property values. However, my beef is with the fact that a neighbor who is out of eyesight and earshot of my property and who probably doesn't even have a clue that I exist can dictate what happens hobby-wise in my secluded backyard on her whim. I would be the first to get rid of my chickens if I thought they posed an eyesore noisy, smelly, rodent-drawing nuisance to the neighbors....but to have somebody not even remotely involved with the happenings at the bottom of the street nix somebody else's hobby because of their noninterest in chickens (or, perhaps, because of their perceived b*tchiness) seems rather onerous. I'm not a big fan of swimming pools or certain breeds of dogs (they, too, can be noisy and sometimes even dangerous), but I don't begrudge my neighbors the right to own the same...especially if it has no effect on me.

Our HOA is big on the privacy of one's own backyard. The only time permission regarding anything "to the rears" is needed is if it impacts the neighbors, and then you have to get them to sign off on an approval (i.e., if you're putting in trees taller than 8 feet which might become visible over the fence). My neighbors have all signed off on the coop and several want to help me build it. All of my neighbors have signed the revocable consent...except the one at 320' up the street and, thusly, she prohibits my pet hen endeavor. If she didn't have the power, there would be fresh eggs in my fridge right now.

Sometimes it's the HOA and sometimes it's just one neighbor.... A lesson in picking one's home wisely.


BTW, my husband and I are both on our HOA's board....a most thankless volunteer job if there ever was one. If you want to avoid aggravation, don't move to a neighborhood with an HOA or CC&R's. If you want to keep your sanity, don't be on the HOA board. I've lost an acquaintance or two because folks here don't realize it's the management company and not the HOA board that's sending out nasty-grams. Unfortunately, you cannot prohibit small minds or close-minded ignorance in folks....

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

Reading this thread with great interset as I purchased a home within a "deed restricted" neighborhood last year (before Daughter ever even thought about Chickens) When I purchased the home I never saw any paperwork pertaining to the HOA so have never signed anything in that reguard. I researched the city ordinances and they only cover restricting "roosters kept for fighting purposes" cant find our HOA online at all....and everyone I ask doesnt have a rule book or whatever. That being said we now have 3 young silkie chicks
This neighborhood has many many empty houses now because of the resession etc. and although I did get one letter asking me to join the HOA it made it sound more a donation thing..so I chose not to LOL I really think this HOA is almost dead.....but prefer not to get bit on the butt ..........sooooo going to approach the one occupied home owner next door and if he is ok with it then we will build a coop.