Are landscaping laws against your rights as a property owner? (Irvine: apartment, HOA)

[Fortaz]

i was watching on the news where this town is obsessed with how your house and yard are supposed to look and if you don't have it the way the town wants it, you get fined. I think laws governing how peoples houses should look go too far when its only about aesthetics and nothing else. What do you think?

[Donn2390]

It would be interesting to read the article and see exactly what restrictions are in place before making a decision. For the most part, I would agree with it. Too many people let their homes and yards go to Hell and the neighbors suffer for it. My community has strick HOA rules, and you aren't even allowed to plant a tree or paint the house without first submitting a proposal to the board to approve. It may sound strick, but the results are a beautiful community that everyone can be proud of.
You may also be talking about zeroscaping, meaning the city has strict water conversation laws that must be abided by. There is a servere water crisis in California, and therefore many restrictions on how water is used. In some cities you can get a ticlket for washing your car. The rules are there for good reason.

[LoneStarJerry]

Sounds more like a HOA than a town.

[labmf]

I'm finding out that your right. I haven't had much team work with my home ascetics so the process has been a slow one, but I am recently trying to buy an apartment house with some lots. One apartment needs to be remodel. It also was used for storage and one day I was cleaning it out, I only get to work on things for like 3-4 hours at day, so I didn't get to the clean up right away. So now I have received a letter from the city that if I don't remove it right away they will fine me. They are also saying that they will fine my tenant, for what they call, junk in her yard. She has old wooden boxes, wheelbarrow and such lining her yard with them and are filled with flowers. I can't say that they are my favorites but I believe that it is all in one's taste. So you see I'd like to find out just how much any of us have a right to (if any) to b****.

[RobE]

There's good and bad about homeowner's associations and the OP sounds like he's describing Irvine. Those who choose to live in communities with HOA's want some kind of predictability as to the atmosphere of their surroundings as well as preservation of the market value of their homes. If that is too "strict" (not "strick") for you then buy yourself a place in a non-HOA environment.

The cities also have an interest in preventing blight because rundown communities tend to draw criminals and other lowlifes. Plus it erodes home values and therefore property taxes. Freedom, in order to work, also requires a sense of responsibility as well as consideration for one's neighbor, so it does not give you the right to turn your home into a garbage dump or improvised giant litter box for 300 cats.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by RobE

There's good and bad about homeowner's associations and the OP sounds like he's describing Irvine. Those who choose to live in communities with HOA's want some kind of predictability as to the atmosphere of their surroundings as well as preservation of the market value of their homes. If that is too "strict" (not "strick") for you then buy yourself a place in a non-HOA environment.

The cities also have an interest in preventing blight because rundown communities tend to draw criminals and other lowlifes. Plus it erodes home values and therefore property taxes. Freedom, in order to work, also requires a sense of responsibility as well as consideration for one's neighbor, so it does not give you the right to turn your home into a garbage dump or improvised giant litter box for 300 cats.

Yet another reason to be leaving CA in two weeks to move into our home in a state that values personal freedom.

You see, responsible and considerate people don't need a government to tell them how to live, lead them by the hand and nanny them to death. A truly "free" state assumes that adults want what's best for themselves, their neighbors and their community and strive to maintain them on their own and without undue influence and interference. Pride in home ownership and maintenance should be an expectation, not an abberation, and shouldn't require enforcement.

We have a HOA in our new state and community which costs $205 a YEAR for which we receive unlimited water, road maintenance, road clearing if needed in the winter, a community center, pool and spa, and park and lake access. Those are the types of things that HOAs that exist for adults do. CC&Rs are for children!

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

You see, responsible and considerate people don't need a government to tell them how to live, lead them by the hand and nanny them to death.

No, they don't. But what about the other 97% of the populace?

[MisterDuke]

Originally Posted by Fortaz

i was watching on the news where this town is obsessed with how your house and yard are supposed to look and if you don't have it the way the town wants it, you get fined. I think laws governing how peoples houses should look go too far when its only about aesthetics and nothing else. What do you think?

If you don't like it, don't move into a city or HOA that has those rules. The people who move to those places have agreed to live by those rules. A deals a deal.

If you look at some of the worst places in California you'll find that they don't expend a lot effort on enforcing rules like these. And what many people consider to be the best places to live.... Coto de Caza, Beverly Hills, Carmel, Rancho Santa Fe... have all sorts of excessive rules about what you can and can't do to your property. So what does that tell you?

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Steve97415

No, they don't. But what about the other 97% of the populace?

Why does the image of them running after one another going over a cliff immediately come to mind?

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Increasingly these sorts of regs are used to further the "Green" agenda. Given them an inch and they will take a mile. At some point they will have their noses in your shorts.