How enforceable are subdivision restrictions? (small update 2/28)

[Josie]

I don't know how enforceable they are. My neighborhood has one without a hoa also. When we bought the house five years ago, it was passed to us.
It says no chickens, but I went ahead and got some, because it also said only white people can live in the neighborhood so I am hoping that voids the whole agreement.

 

[sfisher]

It is better to ask for forgivnes, than permission!!

 

[chad76]

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LOL I'd say you have a pretty good case.

 

[chad76]

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After talking to several people, I'm leaning that way... but I have a while to think about it still. I wanted to go around and talk to my neighbors to try and get it amended. But after just tossing the idea out to my father inlaw and a friend, I can see this isn't going to go over very easy. The immediate reaction was pretty negative until I explained everything.

 

[1acrefarm]

Do you have a garage you can hide them in?

 

[chad76]

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Actually, I do... and would consider it, but my wife would NEVER go for that!

She was dead-set against the whole idea until I showed her an eglu. (I've pretty much decided against that because of the price, but it's what started changing her mind) She's fine with something nice and "cute" in the backyard, but I'm not going to press my luck!

 

[1acrefarm]

I can most certainly understand that.

 

[birdnutz]

We had one,but it expired. Besides the point. I was told by an attorney that the HOA would have to hire an attorney to enforce it. And it's a civil matter.Do they collect money from you for the HOA? Also we weren't notified at the time of close. Our mortgage lender didn't even know about it.Otherwise they wouldn't have loaned on the house. I don't think I'd worry about it too much. It sounds like they're not enforcing it anyway. Wyoming does have state subdivision laws.But it deals more in water wells and septic.

 

[chad76]

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Nope, I don't pay anything. We actually don't have an HOA, but the covenants state that we can form one if the majority of homeowners want to (I don't see that happening). It also says the restrictions expire in 10 years (filed in 1994, so expired in 2004)... HOWEVER, they are "automatically renewed" at the end of the 10 years.

I looked through all of my papers last night and the only thing I found was a "property description" that I initialed. The property description lists the address, the legal name of the subdivision, and says "a residential subdivision". There is no word on the property description about restrictions. I have seen on a realtor's webpage where new houses in my area are listed as being in a "restricted residential subdivision". But I didn't see that on mine.

My mother works at the courthouse and I'm going to see if she can pull a few more documents just to make sure I've looked at everything.

 

[Moselle]

Not being a great legal mind or anything, I think it would be fairly easy on your part, especially considering that there isn't an actual group of people who gather regularly to discuss subdivision problems (that's an HOA, right?). Since the rest of the city, county, state, etc. don't have a problem with chickens, I think it's a reasonable risk! And with a nice looking coop, the chickens will bring a great deal of charm and class to neighborhood!