HOA Laws Are Changing To Allow Chickens- MUST READ

[fluffiechick]

Here is one abuse case for chickens that is not to believed! No wonder that this lady is upset. I have heard stories all over about HOA's and I am keeping my few chickens a secret for now. Does anyone else out there have problems with their chickens in HOA area? How do you hide chickens?

Small Town HOA Bellville Tx Spends $100,000 In 8 years, Hires 13 lawyers To Close Chicken Coop


Homeowner Bill Of Rights Finally some good news for chicken owners

 

[Kiki]

Her story is a very sad one.

 

[TattooedChicks]

This is exactly why when we were house hunting I looked our realtor in the eye and said to throw any homes she'd printed for us to consider with HOAs into the trash.

Just helped a poor woman in tears the other day who was being sued by her HOA for using the wrong color of roofing material. Had a hoard of people come in to my store last year with letters about bare spots in their yards that they would be fined for.

And in this area we have a notorious house of a man who'd finally had enough- he painted stripes of every acceptable color option on the HOA list on his house. That legal battle went on for years, but he technically didn't break any rules and won the suit.

I get why some people like them and are so worried about the value of their property, but when did little organizations get to be more important than individual rights?

 

[The Moonshiner]

I haven't read the story yet but to be honest and unpopular here. I usually don't have a lot of sympathy when I hear about these cases.
To me its real simple.
DON'T LIVE ANYWHERE THAT HAS A HOA.
I have never done it myself and would never nor do I get why anyone would unless they favor restricted freedoms of their neighbors AND themselves.
Seems a lot of people love the idea of decisions being made about how others should live but then don't agree when decisions are made about their lives.
HOAs would not ever be an issue if you stay out of them.
Its easy to end them. Quit living there.
When homes with HOAs quit selling and people start living and buying in areas without them they will quit causes all these heartbreaks.
Unfortunately that will never happen because I believe. Some people will not ever want their neighbors to be free to do as they please on their own properties.. Its sad that many are willing to give up their rights to insure the neighbors don't get to keep their rights.
I honestly don't get it. What am I missing????

 

[GilligansGirls]

There was quite a bit of discussion on this in the Texas thread when Texas "almost" passed a bill allowing backyard chickens. However, it took us a while to realize that the language used did not include HOA's! But we got 3 anyway.
Two are now starting to lay and one does so quite noisily. If we get busted that will be why. We have the coop and run hidden right behind our house which is in the middle of two acres. We are letting them "free range" some now but have an area fenced off with netting so they can't get to the fence or anywhere in view. If someone sees them they will have to be trespassing. If someone says something about hearing chickens I think I will respond "yeah, I heard them too!"
I look at it the same as having a dog or dogs. Some cities, counties and HOA's have ordinances on how many you can have, how they must be cared for etc, but none, that I know of say NO DOGS!

 

[BantyChooks]

I haven't read the story yet but to be honest and unpopular here. I usually don't have a lot of sympathy when I hear about these cases.
To me its real simple.
DON'T LIVE ANYWHERE THAT HAS A HOA.
I have never done it myself and would never nor do I get why anyone would unless they favor restricted freedoms of their neighbors AND themselves.
Seems a lot of people love the idea of decisions being made about how others should live but then don't agree when decisions are made about their lives.
HOAs would not ever be an issue if you stay out of them.
Its easy to end them. Quit living there.
When homes with HOAs quit selling and people start living and buying in areas without them they will quit causes all these heartbreaks.
Unfortunately that will never happen because I believe. Some people will not ever want their neighbors to be free to do as they please on their own properties.. Its sad that many are willing to give up their rights to insure the neighbors don't get to keep their rights.
I honestly don't get it. What am I missing????

Kinda agree... I moved out of a place with restrictive rules like that about 8 years ago and never looked back.

 

[PirateGirl]

Kinda agree... I moved out of a place with restrictive rules like that about 8 years ago and never looked back.

meeeee too. I knew I wanted chickens (among other things) and I never tried when I had an HOA, but when looking for our new home, the HOA rules definitely would make or break whether or not we were interested in a property (not just in regards to chickens, but some HOAs are super restrictive in general). So we bought a home with no HOA at all.

Now we are looking for land, and we know that zoning and land use regulations must be carefully reviewed before purchasing vacant land to be sure that our intended use of this land is allowed. Can we have a well? Can we graze cattle? Can we build a barn if we have no intention of building a house? How many animals are permitted? What types of animals are permitted? Is there legal road access? and the list goes on.

Unfortunately homeowners and landowners are not allowed to just do what they want with their property and depending where it's located, different rules/laws apply. It's frustrating, but for our own good in terms of safety, fire hazards, and sewage/sanitation.

 

[Kiki]

I haven't read the story yet but to be honest and unpopular here. I usually don't have a lot of sympathy when I hear about these cases.
To me its real simple.
DON'T LIVE ANYWHERE THAT HAS A HOA.
I have never done it myself and would never nor do I get why anyone would unless they favor restricted freedoms of their neighbors AND themselves.
Seems a lot of people love the idea of decisions being made about how others should live but then don't agree when decisions are made about their lives.
HOAs would not ever be an issue if you stay out of them.
Its easy to end them. Quit living there.
When homes with HOAs quit selling and people start living and buying in areas without them they will quit causes all these heartbreaks.
Unfortunately that will never happen because I believe. Some people will not ever want their neighbors to be free to do as they please on their own properties.. Its sad that many are willing to give up their rights to insure the neighbors don't get to keep their rights.
I honestly don't get it. What am I missing????

I stopped reading at the CAPS to say this (I'll go back and read soon)

Many years ago when I bought my house...the though of owning chickens never crossed my mind.

 

[Kiki]

Kinda agree... I moved out of a place with restrictive rules like that about 8 years ago and never looked back.

See my last post above....

 

[Kiki]

I haven't read the story yet but to be honest and unpopular here. I usually don't have a lot of sympathy when I hear about these cases.
To me its real simple.
DON'T LIVE ANYWHERE THAT HAS A HOA.
I have never done it myself and would never nor do I get why anyone would unless they favor restricted freedoms of their neighbors AND themselves.
Seems a lot of people love the idea of decisions being made about how others should live but then don't agree when decisions are made about their lives.
HOAs would not ever be an issue if you stay out of them.
Its easy to end them. Quit living there.
When homes with HOAs quit selling and people start living and buying in areas without them they will quit causes all these heartbreaks.
Unfortunately that will never happen because I believe. Some people will not ever want their neighbors to be free to do as they please on their own properties.. Its sad that many are willing to give up their rights to insure the neighbors don't get to keep their rights.
I honestly don't get it. What am I missing????

So I read the second half.
And this second have I kinda agree with but....Save you have a really good job...great schools for your children..etc....and there is not once "area" within 100 miles that is not under an HOA?
It isn't quite as simple to pack up and move to another state.
Again...you have not seen me complain about living in an HOA just want to put this "side" of it out there.