Home Based Business and HOA
Hey guys. Not to over extend my welcome but I have yet another question. State of Alabama. I applied for and received a special variance by my city's zoning board to run a home based business in 2006. In 2010 our developer turned over the neighborhood maintenance to a newly formed HOA. The original covenants do state that the neighborhood is to remain 100% residential. No one has said or indicated that they would challenge me on this. Frankly, most probably don't even realize that I have my business at home since it's 100% computer/internet based (drafting). Could the covenants be cited to overturn my variance?
Thanks,
BRB
Re: Home Based Business and HOA
Your HOA could seek to enforce their covenants by imposing whatever consequence the homeowner's agreement permits, most likely a fine. I can't read your agreement from here, so you'll have to check it yourself.
Re: Home Based Business and HOA
I can't read your HOA agreement from here either.
But the key to it is probably flying under the radar. I live in an early planned unit development with an HOA dating from 1962. Home based businesses are permitted but strictly limited. We have several which would probably not pass but no one seems to be inconvenienced. It's the increase in traffic and noise which will get someone to gin it up with the HOA. I can't believe you are attracting much attention with a computer drafting business.
As a surveyor and user of Autocad and Microstation, I would say that you are worrying about a problem you don't have. Are you slowing down the internet access in your neighborhood ?;).
Re: Home Based Business and HOA
OK guys, I get it. This is how it reads:
Quote:
C-1 Land Use and Building Type: No lot shall be used except for residential purposes. No building shall be erected, altered, placed or permitted to remain on any lot other than one detached single family dwelling not to exceed two and one-half stories in height. For structures other than main building refer to C-2.
No problems yet but I anticipate a lot of backlash from challenging the authority of the HOA and this is one area I wondered about. Thanks again for the input.
Re: Home Based Business and HOA
Your HOA verbiage is much less restrictive than mine. I ran a home office business for ten years with no problems.
Are you actually planning to attend an HOA meeting, confront them with your situation, and see if they respond?
Or do you already have a bad relationship going with the HOA for some as yet undisclosed matter?
Re: Home Based Business and HOA
Quote:
Quoting
LandSurveyor
Your HOA verbiage is much less restrictive than mine. I ran a home office business for ten years with no problems.
Are you actually planning to attend an HOA meeting, confront them with your situation, and see if they respond?
Or do you already have a bad relationship going with the HOA for some as yet undisclosed matter?
The gist of it is that we had no HOA until Jan. of this year. Developer decided it was time to pass the torch so he formed the HOA and filed what is now the Articles of Inc. and By-Laws. I don't know what the norm is today but those Articles of Inc. and By-Laws don't even resemble the original covenants. They are a set of well laid out documents that basically give the HOA all power and authority over pretty much anything and everything they choose. The original covenants, filed in 2001, were a series of pretty common sense rules that you would expect 99% of any group of people would do regardless. I paid my dues in full but denoted my check as a donation and declined membership in the HOA. IMO, and hopefully the court's opinion, membership in the newly formed HOA is not a requirement. The HOA returned my check and quoted some of the new documents as saying that all property owners were required to join. A month later they sent me a certified letter stating they were placing a lien on my property.
Don't get me wrong, i'm sure there are a lot of people that just don't want to pay and I take exception to that. If you live in a community you should want to keep it nice and therefore you should willingly pay your fair share to keep it nice. Money is not my issue. My issue is that I feel by joining this thing I would be accepting/endorsing the terms and conditions of these newly created and filed documents that go well beyond the scope of the original covenants that I did agree to upon building.