If your HOA doesn't specify...

[Moselle]

If HOA bylaws don't specify "no chickens/poultry/farm animals" etc., and you are approved by the city/county to have chickens, can the HOA force your chickens out? We may be moving into an HOA governed neighborhood, and just want to know what our rights would be.

 

[arlee453]

Be sure to read read read them VERY carefully. Look for any ambigious language about specific animals, animals in general OR even vague language about 'nuisances'.

Good luck!

 

[fullhouse]

What does it say about outbuildings, landscaping, smell, noise, and use of property? In many HOA you can't build ANYTHING without approval, can't leave an animal out unattended, can't do anything to in any way offend anybody. Read all the fine print, then know they can change the rules if they don't like the chickens.

 

[arlee453]

Personally I would never buy property with a convenant or HOA on the deed. We give up so many of our freedoms involuntarily through community/city/county zoning, etc that I can't imagine VOLUNTEERING to live under somebody else's ideas of what makes a nice neighborhood. On top of that, as you said, fullhouse - the HOA can then just get together and amend the agreement if someone gets a yen to force out your chickens, playhouse, flagpole, orange shutters, etc.

That's just me though...

 

[patandchickens]

I'd have a lawyer look at the HOA rules document - the fee would be better than moving in and then discovering Oh, they CAN enforce some rule so's to ban chickens.

Biggest problem would likely to involve nebulous things like smell, noise, nuisances, eyesores, etc.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Moselle]

Thanks for the ideas. One thing I love about our current neighborhood is that it's old - no HOA. We are planning to move in the next year, and there is one neighborhood that we are looking at that has no HOA and we are hoping to find a good house there. If not, we may need to get a lawyer to look at the HOA "fine print". It aggravates me to no end when I hear about HOAs insisting that people take down their flagpoles. I mean, give me a break.

 

[clarktx]

Quote:
Hi Arlee...

Unfortunately, in metropolitan areas it is often very difficult. I am one of those people who lives in a neighborhood with an HOA, and we don't live here because we were too ignorant or passive to avoid it.

Usually, if a poster lives in an area with an HOA, they have a reason more important than chickens for living there, and they are just trying to make the best of it.

I'm certainly not telling you that you are wrong. I have a lot of respect for your viewpoints. But its a real problem for those of us who work and live in a metropolitan areas. The VAST majority of the places to live around town have HOAs. And, then, the city of Houston has an ordinance stating that your coop has to be 100 feet from your neighbor's property. Which means that your property had better be at least 220 feet square with your chicken in the middle, or, backs up onto a public area like a flood zone. That makes it mostly impossible for anyone to own chickens legally.

Of course, the duh response to this is "just don't live in Houston". Ahhhhh yeah. Move so that I can have chickens. That would be a bit like the tail wagging the dog. Well, not this year, anyway.

Moselle, the best risk/reward ratio for you is to work out a deal with the 3 or 4 neighbors closest to you, don't spend too much money, and make sure there are no problems. Prove you can do a good job at it first. Prove you can make it so its not a problem. Then go and try to raise support and make changes.

If your neighbors get a look of terror on your face when you mention it, then forget it.

If you can't keep the stink down to a point where you can't smell it outside the coop, then forget it. People have a reasonable right to walk in their backyard without smelling the chickens over the fence.

Without your immediate neighbhors being ok with it, and without the proof it can be done, and lots of backup documentation, most of the residents will not have enough empathy to lift a finger to help you, and most will say "don't fix whats not broke, everything has been fine so far, just buy your eggs like the rest of us"...

just my .02.