WHO GETS A SAY?

Four years ago, I asked my HOA if we could ban wind chimes.

I hate wind chimes. I find them intrusive. If your neighbor has wind chimes, you have wind chimes.

Cory’s answer was clear.

He said he would not advise an HOA to regulate something like that. More importantly, he explained that prohibiting wind chimes would mean changing the covenants, which would require more than two-thirds of the owners to agree in writing.

Fair enough.

I live in a community with other people. My dislike of something outside someone else’s house was not enough to create a new rule prohibiting it.

Now, four years later, we are discussing a Board resolution regulating seasonal decorations. 

And I have questions.

Our governing documents do not currently establish a seasonal-decoration schedule. They do not say Halloween decorations can only be displayed for thirty days. They do not define skeletons as Halloween-only decorations. Cory has already acknowledged that.

Yet the October Board agenda includes “Discuss Board Resolution RE: Seasonal Exterior Decorations Policy​" and homeowners have been told that no membership vote is anticipated.

Maybe there is a perfectly good explanation for why these situations are different.
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That is exactly what I want to understand.

Why would banning wind chimes require changing the covenants and obtaining approval from more than two-thirds of the homeowners, while restricting what seasonal decorations people may display, and when, could potentially be accomplished by three Board members passing a resolution?

This entire discussion began because of complaints about two skeletons outside one house. My house.

I do not want this to become a rule written specifically around my skeletons. I do not want a vague policy rushed through because a couple of complaints forced the HOA to confront a question it had never needed to answer before.

And I do not think the solution to an unwritten rule is to replace it with a hastily written one.

Reasonable rules are not the problem.
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The question is how those rules are created, what authority supports them, and whether the people who will have to live under them get a say.

This weekend I met another friendly neighbor who received my postcard. She told me she wanted to live in a fun neighborhood with skeletons and shared that message with Cory.

The management's response:
​"We don't adjudicate fun."

Good. Because I now have six skeletons, a calendar, and no choice but action.