Architectural Standards
Q: Our six year old association is having some problems with compliance by homeowners who ignore the notices from the architectural standards committee about the condition of their property or additions to the yard area and fences. I am fairly new to the neighborhood and to the board of directors. Recently I told the other board members that I didn't receive anything as a new member of the community concerning the expectations, rules or guidelines about this topic. We agreed it was a problem, but no one is doing anything about it. Maybe if you will give us some suggestions we can overcome our inertia. What steps should we take?
A: It sounds like you are in a homeowners association of single family homes that is not professionally managed and may not be communicating well with the homeowners - especially new members of the association. Good initial communication on architectural standards is essential to successful enforcement and voluntary compliance. It is pretty basic that if one doesn't know there are rules, one has a good chance of violating at least one of them.
Most modern Declarations of Covenants for subdivisions contain a few restrictions on exterior changes, but many times these are somewhat vague and require refinement by the board of directors. There is generally authority granted to the board to create architectural guidelines which enhance, and do not conflict with, the recorded covenants. Where such authority is not granted, an amendment by the homeowners may be in order. The documents provided and recorded by the developer often are not tailored to each individual community to the degree necessary to provide a good foundation for covenant enforcement after the subdivision is built out. For that reason, we encourage all communities, especially new communities, to review their declarations, rules and architectural guidelines to identify areas needing modification, deletion or improvement. Some older communities will find that a review every five years will result in discovery of a number of items which need to be changed or deleted.
The first step is to meet with your manager or attorney in order to determine the scope of authority for architectural and other covenant enforcement set forth in your recorded documents. If you have the necessary authority and you believe your guidelines are far less than adequate (or nonexistent), then a good way to begin your review is to ask your manager or attorney to supply you with a set of architectural guidelines from another similar community which are very comprehensive so you can see what you might want to have in your guidelines. You can then work with your professional advisors to create guidelines which are tailored for your community and enforceable.
Our experience tells us that you will definitely want to focus on fencing as a major item. Hopefully the types of fencing in your community are not out of control, which could prohibit you from establishing new standards in your guidelines. Another popular exterior addition is storage sheds. You must decide on and then publish rules which state what size, height, composition and color they can be. It is not unusual to require the shed to match the house. Avoiding a hodge podge of different exterior materials and colors generally provides a better overall appearance of the community and tends to enhance property values due to greater desirability. Consequently, if possible, you may want to require selection of colors from a color palette if an owner wishes to change the color of his home.
The bottom line is that the board must show leadership by clearly establishing the standards on all important issues and then communicating them to all the owners and letting them know that they intend to enforce them. The communication should take place as an exhibit to the resale packet given to prospective buyers, a welcome package given to new homeowners (who may have never seen the resale packet), and regular reminders in a newsletter to homeowners that the board expects cooperation on this topic and will enforce the rules. Most owners will appreciate that the board is doing a good job of protecting their investment by setting the clear standards and then expecting compliance after a reasonable time. First offenses should not be greeted with a "nasty- gram", but, rather a visit from a member of the Architectural Standards Committee with a friendly reminder of the rules and reasons for them. It is also important to know that if a violation is detected during the site visit in connection with the preparation of a resale packet that violation must be reported on the cover sheet of the resale packet - if it is not, the association may not be able to require correction of the violation by the new owner.
We hope these pointers will get you started down the road to better communication and enforcement of your covenants and rules.