Communism will never truly be defeated as long as Homeowners Associations still exist. We already knew that HOAs could prohibit the type of mailbox you have, or has the aesthetic rights to dictate whether you can put fake flowers in your lawn. Well, add smoking to the list. Not smoking in a public area. Smoking inside your own home.
In Golden, Colorado, a judge has upheld an HOA rule barring a couple from smoking inside their own home....
Colleen and Rodger Sauve, both smokers, filed a lawsuit in March after their condominium association amended its bylaws last December to prohibit smoking.
"We argued that the HOA was not being reasonable in restricting smoking in our own unit, nowhere on the premises, not in the parking lot or on our patio," Colleen Sauve said.
The condo's associatiion claims the smoke "
seeps" into the other units. However, it is odd that the couple can't even smoke on their patio or anywhere outside within their complex.....
The Heritage Hills #1 Condominium Owners Association was responding to complaints from the Sauves' neighbors who said cigarette smoke was seeping into their units, representing a nuisance to others in the building.
In a Nov. 7 ruling, Jefferson County District Judge Lily Oeffler ruled the association can keep the couple from smoking in their own home. Oeffler stated "smoke and/or smoke smell" is not contained to one area and that smoke smell "constitutes a nuisance." She noted that under condo declarations, nuisances are not allowed.
The couple now has to light up on the street in front of their condominium building. "I think it's ridiculous. If there's another blizzard, I'm going to be having to stand out on the street, smoking a cigarette," said Colleen Suave.
I know some people will say that these people should have thought about something like this before they bought their condo, but it's a little more complicated. Many HOAs have
undemocratic ways of changing these rules....
By law, a majority of the homeowners in an association have to approve any change in the bylaws. But many boards sidestep this by simply changing their house rules, which are as binding as bylaws but can usually be rewritten without asking all the homeowners. "Even if you were to be given the rules today, they're probably already out of date because [boards are] constantly making changes to the rules at whim," says Elizabeth McMahon, a co-founder of the American Homeowners' Resource Center, a San Juan Capistrano, Calif., consumer group. "And they couldn't care less if you don't like them."
At the Reston (Va.) Homeowners Association, for instance, only residents who used the swimming pools and tennis courts had to pay for their upkeep. But then in 1990, the board decided everyone ought to chip in, and it polled members. More than 70% of those who voted opposed the new rule, but it didn't matter. In the end, the board pushed it through anyway, and fees climbed 26%. "They disregarded the will of the people," says Thierry Gaudin, a Reston homeowner, "and that was wrong."
And God forbid the "Lawn Nazis" don't like your roses....
A gardening violation. That's what landed Jeffrey DeMarco in hot water with his Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., homeowners association a few years ago: He planted too many roses on his four-acre property. Peeved, the association fined him monthly and sat back as the bills mounted. Then it placed a lien on his property and threatened to foreclose, according to DeMarco.
He took the board to court, but lost on the grounds that he had violated the association's architectural design rules. (In addition to planting roses, he also had regraded the site.) In the end, he got stuck with the association's $70,000 legal bill and lost his home to the bank. "Mr. DeMarco came into the community and wanted to step outside the rules," says Walt Ekard, the association manager. "That's a detriment to everyone."