HOA's Breed Restrictions on Pit Bulls? (Tampa: sales, rent, home owners insurance)

[Jesslyn848]

Is this common? My Fiancé and I have just started looking at purchasing a home. We currently rent from a relative in NPR. However, in looking at a few new construction communities we have encountered a bit of a problem with Breed Restrictions, specifically the banning of "pit bull" type dogs. We have a 5 year old American Staffordshire Terrier (25lbs, with papers) and she is usually lumped into this group. Although she is a completely harmless, loving dog, we are concerned that having her as part of our family could prevent us from moving to quite a few communities, and possibly prevent us from living in a deed restricted community at all.

I have no problem with bans like this being put in place and have no desire to be deceptive in our home search. I do, however feel that it is very difficult to label certain dogs as “pit bulls” when there really is no specific breed in which that term can be categorized. I am just trying to figure out how common this type of ban is in the Tampa Bay area, and how stringent HOA’s are in labeling dogs. I have spoken with a friend who owns two Rottweilers and she too encountered a problem in her home search as well. Any insight is appreciated!

[jessiegirl_98]

Um, pretty much every place in Tampa bans them. Sorry, I know it's unfair! My supervisor just adopted a pit bull and she had to list it as a "mix breed" or she would be dropped by home owners insurance!!! When have a huskey mix, and even when I was looking, I found that many complexes didn't allow them!?!? She became a collie mix then...

[Mike1306]

I have not seen any HOA documents that ban by breed specifically.
I would be curious to know which ones are doing this.

I do doubt that it is pretty much every place since I am sure I would have heard something about it.

[jessiegirl_98]

Originally Posted by Mike Peterson

I have not seen any HOA documents that ban by breed specifically.
I would be curious to know which ones are doing this.

I do doubt that it is pretty much every place since I am sure I would have heard something about it.

Every single place I looked at when I was looking for a place restricted them. I know my supervisor, who lives in a nice house in South Tampa, had a big problem getting hers "allowed" (by lying basically). I've actually never lived in a place that had this many general restrictions. It may be not "almost every place" in Tampa, but it was every place that I looked at, or my friends looked at, or my boss looked at...

Currently, they are considering banning the dogs in the state, which I think is ridiculous.....

Florida Lawmakers Considers Pit Bull Ban

Even if you just search for places and restricted breads in Tampa, so many of them come up as banning pits, which is again, unfortunate.

[Eastern Roamer]

I wouldn't want to live in a "community" with such a restrictive HOA. If you are purchasing a home, no one should tell you what kind of dog you can have. There are many reasons not to live in gated "communities" with zealous HOAs who are drunk from a tiny sip of power. Find a house elsewhere, and big metal gates do not make you safer than knowing your neighbors.

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by jessiegirl_98

Every single place I looked at when I was looking for a place restricted them. I know my supervisor, who lives in a nice house in South Tampa, had a big problem getting hers "allowed" (by lying basically). I've actually never lived in a place that had this many general restrictions. It may be not "almost every place" in Tampa, but it was every place that I looked at, or my friends looked at, or my boss looked at...

Currently, they are considering banning the dogs in the state, which I think is ridiculous.....

Florida Lawmakers Considers Pit Bull Ban

Even if you just search for places and restricted breads in Tampa, so many of them come up as banning pits, which is again, unfortunate.

House Bill 101 had to do with eliminating the restriction on breed specific regulation, not banning pit bulls. This is a dead bill though.

Edit: Thought it was dead but upon further reading might still be breathing.

[Jesslyn848]

We were actually looking at a new community in Pasco called Lone Star Ranch by StanPac and they ban Pits and Rottweilers. It's good to know that I may be able to find a place without such restriction, as the sales person made it seem as if nearly every new community has similar rules. (she did name a few that I cannot recall who apparently have similar bans)

[Mike1306]

Well 5 minutes up the Suncoast from SR52 where Lone Star is you hit Countyline Rd and there are 2 new communities there, One is Avatar and the name of the other one eludes me. I will check with them today and see if they have similar bans as I am very curious now. I will let you know.

[homesheba]

YOU ALL have actually noticed im sure ,that more and more rules and regulations are being 'put upon' in good old' free' usa?
one thing THEY do want is to get rd of any kind of 'protective' type of item people have ,
whether its guns, dogs or whatever.
and dont be fooled into thinking that 'other' types of dogs wont be outlawed also in time,-
i have a pit bull which is a sweet dog and has never bit anyone, and have owned many ' 'scary' dogs that was gentle as lambs .
the media tries over and over to put a killer dog on every week and blows it so out of proportin that people scream for government help and protection.
its ridiculous.
do you know how many dogs there are?
and one dog bite every now and then doesnt make them all terrors!
plus if you dig down enough-
you'll find that many, if not all have been either trained that way or mistreated to where the poor animals are the ones that need protection.
im sorry- but this kind of stuff really gets me mad!

[Jesslyn848]

Originally Posted by Mike Peterson

Well 5 minutes up the Suncoast from SR52 where Lone Star is you hit Countyline Rd and there are 2 new communities there, One is Avatar and the name of the other one eludes me. I will check with them today and see if they have similar bans as I am very curious now. I will let you know.

Thanks! I have heard of Avalon but not Avatar, and I am familar with Heritage Pines on County Line but we are trying to stay away from Lennar if possible.