Help! My neighbor is worried about rats!

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DH and I bought a home in a neighborhood with an HOA. We chose this neighborhood knowing about the HOA and reading the rules.

So I guess I fit under "Snobby people who think their rear ends don't stink and wish to flock together and create a "perfect" neighborhood."

We did this because this was the only neighborhood that we saw that didn't have dead cars, piles of trash, weeds, loose pets, and crap everywhere. Those lots that did not have that stuff had 5 acre horse pastures without a blade of grass left on them. In an area which is known for being windy - 50 mph predicted for Sat. - I could not imagine living next to a bare field riddled with horse apples. My boss lives next to one of these and has the first 10-15' of his property along the neighbors fence buried in about 1' of horse manure that rolls under the fence. As it is, where we live all the lots have all native short grass prairie, fully vegetated and we still have massive dirt windrows form and constant dust getting into the house.

And yes, my life experiences have shown to me that if you have piles of rubbish (housing and food for rodents), loose dogs (bowls of dogfood left outside), and just generally don't care about what you pile onto your property, there is a good chance you will get rodents in the neighborhood.

Our HOA covenants do not allow any livestock except two horses per lot. I am working to get them changed. If I cannot get them changed, then I will not get chickens. It will be an education issue for many in the HOA to overcome their ignorance about chickens. Some I will never be able to convince. However, according to our bylaws, I only need 2/3 of the homeowners WHO SHOW UP TO THE ANNUAL MEETING to vote for a change in the covenants. I know a high percentage of those that show up are either for chickens or don't care if someone else has them.
 
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I absolutely have to agree with goobhen. When my husband and I were looking to buy our home, the one that we really liked had an HOA that did not allow chickens. It was a big decision that we had to make and we chose to pass it by because we did not want to violate the agreed upon rules, rules that we knew in the end would make us unhappy and hinder our life choices.

As much as you love your little flock you do have an obligation to follow the HOA rules, even if they were concocted by a "small-minded" individual as I've read on a previous post. I don't know who put the rules in place and why, you would know better but summarily dismissing them as small-minded is not going to get you anywhere. KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS!!! And I sincerely hope that you can convince them of how wonderful a small flock can be. The painful side of all of this is that your children may learn the hard way the consequences of knowingly breaking the rules and the importance of thinking twice before forging ahead.
 
Back to topic, I agree with being nice to the neighbor and ask her why she thinks your chickens are going to bring rats to the neighborhood. Explain and show her that you do not leave food laying around to attract the rats and that the chickens will eat bugs and weeds. Heck some people have chickens just to control the woodticks.
 
HOA's have their place, but not for me and my family. That being said, when my neighbor built a huge quonset garage for his gas tanker truck, I had second thoughts. lol... Now we are all used to it. And I DARE anybody to say anything about my chickens!
 
I am not totally against HOA, they exist because there is a need for them. Wyodreamer's example of the horse manure is why people want these rules. Who wants the value of their home to go down, simply because a neighbor doesn't keep his yard up, or the neighbor whose roof is falling off, etc. I do not think people who live in HOA developments are snobs, they have their reasons. We all have our opinions, that is all. I have a neighbor who has at least 15 cars sitting in full view of my living room window. I am happy, it is down from about 30!! My back yard makes up for it, beautiful woods. Wyodreamer is also looking at ways to make changes in her HOA, she is following the rules that are in effect now. BUT Wyodreamer is respecting her neighbors by doing that. I would rather have 6 chickens for neighbors as opposed to neighbors who blare their music until 11:00pm on work nights. A friend has to call the police at least 4 to 5 times a month on her neighbors. I bet my friend would love to live with HOA rules, but she cannot sell her house!

I think my husband would love to live in a HOA, condo would be right up his alley! Not so much for me!

I think our world needs more respect for other's rights, what goes around, comes around. Would'nt it be nice if it was something good??

hugs.gif
 
let me remind you that at one point in time chickens were okay in the neighborhood according to those same rules.

How is it possible for them to have been "OK" if the rules say "NO poultry"?

They may have been overlooked, but they couldn't have been "OK" under that rule.

I'd start the petition now and stop trying to deal with the neighbor at all, since she already doesn't want your birds there, and has the rule to back her up​
 
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