Help! My neighbor is worried about rats!

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Thank goodness, you won't be moving in next to me!
The dead cars are spare parts
The piles of trash are rabbit habitat for hunting later
The weeds help feed my chickens and provide mowed mulch for my garden
The loose pets are working animals
And the crap everywhere is fertilizer---otherwise known as "Money in the bank"

 

[Beekissed]

We all make choices in life and some are more important than others....but you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you like living in an HOA type environment because it eliminates undesirable sights, smells and sounds and then get poultry that just may violate your neighbor's sights, smells and sounds, then you need to be able to see the hypocrisy in that.

I've often wondered just why people prefer to live in the cities and suburbs but still try to have livestock in their backyards. It just doesn't make any sense to go to all that trouble with changing ordinances, antagonizing neighbors and going through all that stress over a few hens.

I live in the country and I'm allowed to have any animal I may wish....but I can't get cell service or high speed internet. This is something I accept because it is just one of the things you do without in order to have no near neighbors, nobody complaining about your rooster crowing or your dog barking, no city noises and no city crime....and you won't see me trying to get the state to mount a cell tower in my backyard so that I can have cell service too.

Some folks just want it all in this life but it's just not realistic.

 

[partsRheavy]

I believe you when you say there aren't rats there. The actual pest here is the HOA and the neighbors.

Nevertheless, at some time in the past you chose to buy into a HOA-governed subdivision for a reason that appealed to you at the point of purchase. Perhaps you enjoyed the orderliness or wanted to be with similar young families raising children in the neighborhood....in other words, pets and chickens weren't in the picture when you bought into the HOA.

Years ago I lived in a vacation condo near a beach...and I didn't even have a cat much less a hen or heaven forbid a Rooster!!!

. The neighbors freaked out about stuff like SHOES left by the doorstep to air out. Moved out of there about 5 years before Hurricane Katrina blew it all away LOL. Got a cat pretty quickly after I moved out of the condo though.

You didn't have to buy big-HOA-government property but there you are....it might not be the Feds but you're nevertheless under a big HOA government of sorts.

So what to do??

What does your HOA allow? Does the HOA permit only cats and indoor pets like aquarium fish? Dogs (small only?)? Or better, dogs (up to 3 or so of any breed/any size?) Or even better, 1-2 Horses? Your chances are best if either a horse or any size of dog is already permitted. If they only permit indoor fish and a couple cats and one or two under-25-lb (small) dogs I strongly doubt they will ever allow hens.

Petition through appropriate channels for rule changes or else go somewhere that respects your freedom more and is more chicken-friendly.

Do EVERYTHING you can to keep any trash appropriately picked up and disposed. Usually excess trash on a property has NOTHING to do with chickens. I figure the chooks are happier with trash cleaned up unless it's a weekly-maintained compost heap that creates treats for them.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

I read through this entire thread and agree with the others on being kind, kind, kind to the complaining neighbor - also about not inviting her dogs if you do invite her over. If she if upset that her dogs are going nuts over your birds from a distance then having them frothing at the mouth to get at them up close and personal isn't going to help your cause in the least.

 

[Mattemma]

Your neighbor can report you,and that will be the end of your chickens.Do you really want to live in fear of being turned in? I say move.Not over this neighbor,but because you live under HOA rules that no longer meet your needs.People choose to live in areas that have HOA becuase they want to have the security knowing people will follow the rules,and if they do not they will be punished.

I am not siding with the neighbor on this.Her rat claim in BS,and she is really just annoyed that her dogs are going crazy over the(unfortunately illegal) hens.

Me, I would tell her I am planning to move in hopes that she will have a bit of sympathy for the kids who love the chickens. I would be nice but really she owes you nothing.Play the *kids love those chickens* card,and hope they she or anyone else will not report you.

Also,speak with your children.Explain that you made a choice to break the HOA rules,and because of that you may have to rehome the hens or move.I would not put it on rat dog neighbor or on the HOA-it was you and the kids need to understand that.

I often tell my kids NEVER buy a home with a HOA.We learned our lesson with a condo.What a mess that was.Best of luck.Good point some made to try and change the HOA laws.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I see so many people that complain about HOAs, and often wonder how many of those complainers have ever lived in one or had personal experience. The HOAs that make the news are pretty uncommon.

Then there is the complaint that they are anti-American. How anti-American is free enterprise? HOAs have a legally binding contract with their members. No one forced a person to purchase property within the HOA, but when they chose to, they also agreed to the terms of the contract. In many ways, an HOA is not all that different than a smaller, more local unit of government.

Back to the OP, I am still uncertain from your original post as to whether the chickens are actually disallowed or not. If one provision allows them and another does not, there is a conflict unless there are differences in when they are allowed and when they are not. And if there is a conflict, then you have a chance of having the provision against them tossed.

 

[OldGuy43]

Quote:
How many here remember when you bought A house, and lived in it for the rest of your life? You didn't think of it as "an investment", but as a home. You didn't worry about "property values" because you had no intention of selling your HOME, ever! You had no need for a neighborhood association because you knew all your neighbors for blocks around. You watched their kids grow up, go off to school, marry and buy homes of their own, often in the same neighborhood.

The memories of a kinder, gentler age by an old man. I miss those days.

 

[partsRheavy]

I'm not complaining about the HOA. I'm saying for the resident to follow its rules or if they're not happy to move somewhere probably more rural where the chickies are clearly allowed.

Free enterprise??!! Maybe for the developers LOL. In terms of the homeowners/residents HOA's seem more like collectives to me....

Free enterprise is being allowed to build a productive coop/run, keep it clean and OK with distant not-nosy neighbors who accept a Roo or two as a distant alarm clock....build a flock...add on as needed...(i..e. invest capital and labor expenses) and eventually produce the best eggs the friend or potential buyer has tasted!

Investments = coop/run/lumber/labor/cost of chickens/feed/time. Returns = egg sales and a couple other possibilities but to start with eggs.

Free enterprise with chickens inevitably involves chicken math....

 

[seminolewind]

Get a cute silkie. Give it a bath, put a diaper on it, and a band with a bow on her head. Take her to the HOA meeting. I would not ask for permission to get chickens, I would ask permission to have __ chickens, like a limit of 5?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
How many here remember when you bought A house, and lived in it for the rest of your life? You didn't think of it as "an investment", but as a home. You didn't worry about "property values" because you had no intention of selling your HOME, ever! You had no need for a neighborhood association because you knew all your neighbors for blocks around. You watched their kids grow up, go off to school, marry and buy homes of their own, often in the same neighborhood.

The memories of a kinder, gentler age by an old man. I miss those days.

I live in that kind of neighborhood...and it is an HOA.