Tell us your RV Unfriendly Communities

ken56 wrote:
I can understand the reasoning behind these restrictions. You live in a nice neighborhood and want to keep it that way and the property values stable. BUT...some of the restrictions are over the top I can agree. We lived in a deed restricted 'hood, no fences on property lines, no out buildings like those barn style ones, no parking trailers and RV's in your driveway among others. We got our new trailer and brought it home, put it in the driveway for 3 days. The head of the HOA shows up and says "you know you can't park your trailer in the driveway for more than 30 days out of the year." I said OK, its been 3, he said no, its been a week already. Argument ensues and I tell him to get of my property and don't come back.

We go camping for the first time with the new rig for a week, get back and park in the driveway. Yep, here he comes again. He starts up my driveway and I tell him I heard him the first time and to get off my property or I will call the cops and file a trespass complaint. He holds up the copy of the covenants he was carrying and tells me I can't do that because it says he has the right to inspect any violations. I told him "watch me" as I got out my cell phone. He stopped. Finally turned around and left. I did still adhere to the 30 day restriction though. After all, when I bought my house I agreed to the covenants. We really liked our neighborhood and the covenants were not outrageous really.

I agree, it's a shame it has to come to this due to people putting old clunkers etc. that they leave there on their property and do nothing for years. Things like that is what spoiled it for others who tries to keep a nice clean home environment.

I can understand the reasoning behind these restrictions. You live in a nice neighborhood and want to keep it that way and the property values stable. BUT...some of the restrictions are over the top I can agree. We lived in a deed restricted 'hood, no fences on property lines, no out buildings like those barn style ones, no parking trailers and RV's in your driveway among others. We got our new trailer and brought it home, put it in the driveway for 3 days. The head of the HOA shows up and says "you know you can't park your trailer in the driveway for more than 30 days out of the year." I said OK, its been 3, he said no, its been a week already. Argument ensues and I tell him to get of my property and don't come back.

We go camping for the first time with the new rig for a week, get back and park in the driveway. Yep, here he comes again. He starts up my driveway and I tell him I heard him the first time and to get off my property or I will call the cops and file a trespass complaint. He holds up the copy of the covenants he was carrying and tells me I can't do that because it says he has the right to inspect any violations. I told him "watch me" as I got out my cell phone. He stopped. Finally turned around and left. I did still adhere to the 30 day restriction though. After all, when I bought my house I agreed to the covenants. We really liked our neighborhood and the covenants were not outrageous really.

ReadyToGo wrote:
Sun City AZ has just under 400 HOAs, Plus the City itself has a CCR, plus the county has it's laws.
No RV parking on the street for more than 72 hours is a County issue.
No golf carts on 2 busy streets is either the City or County issue.
No plants except in pots is the local HOA issue.
No parking overnight in front of your garage is the HOA issue.
Just about any gated, or town house or condo unit has an HOA.

If anyone doesn't like their HOA, get elected to the board which is probably the easiest thing to do. Most HOAs that get unreasonable is because of a few fanatics that are on the board year after year and make it their personal goal to restrict everything they don't want for themselves.

It is just as likely they got unreasonable because there were a few, as you call them, fanatics that think things like old toilets make for good pots for plants and that everyone will love the fact that the burned out RV they bought from the salvage yard for $50.00 to use for parts for their other inoperable RV is parked in their front lawn.
True story, there is a gentleman in my home town who is a very severe hoarder. The town has an ordinance about not allowing inoperable vehicles to be kept in in an area visible from the street. This man has at least 30 old clunkers, each completely filled with stuff he collects from the dump. Broken 2x4s, old newspapers, empty plastic bottles, anything you can think of. The city finally got fed up with it, got the proper court documents and went to haul off all the junk vehicles. Trouble was, the guy went out and started each and every one of those pieces of crud. Under the letter of the law, each was "operable". Currently old junker car number 31 can be found daily at the dump rapidly filling up with trash.

Sun City AZ has just under 400 HOAs, Plus the City itself has a CCR, plus the county has it's laws.
No RV parking on the street for more than 72 hours is a County issue.
No golf carts on 2 busy streets is either the City or County issue.
No plants except in pots is the local HOA issue.
No parking overnight in front of your garage is the HOA issue.
Just about any gated, or town house or condo unit has an HOA.

If anyone doesn't like their HOA, get elected to the board which is probably the easiest thing to do. Most HOAs that get unreasonable is because of a few fanatics that are on the board year after year and make it their personal goal to restrict everything they don't want for themselves.

We do not have a HOA with restrictions where I live. It is out in the county and there are not many close neighbors. Several of us have RV's of one sort or another and all of us keep them at home, mostly behind the house or barn or in a position so as not to be seen easily. Until now, that is. Last June my closest neighbor's grandfather died and left him a very old Winnebago that does not run and has not for many years. Looks terrible. Well he had the thing moved from the grandfathers to his house and put in the driveway right in front of his garage saying that he was going to fix it up and use it. Well, it is still sitting there and several folks have been "buzzing" about it as it is an eyesore for sure. Nobody had yet said anything to him, but I look for it to happen soon. Seems it would just be common courtesy to put something like that way back on his lot until he fixed it up, but maybe he does not see it that way.

magnusfide wrote:
His HOA president went around the neighborhood with a tape measure making sure no one's shrubs were too tall for regs. :s

Very common. When we had to deal with them in a condominium setting, we privately called them "Condo Commandos"

They were truly were a PITA. One such commando slugged a local judge in the face for walking on "his" sidewalk, which is fact, was a public sidewalk!!

Looking back now most were pitiful people, retired, and looking for anything to give them self worth.

In all fairness, I know a few towns who have stopped RVs from being parked on their streets because of RVer's who take advantage and/or end up unable to extricate their rig from a narrow street.

I always choose to park in a parking lot like Walmart's or a shopping plaza if I want to visit a town so that I don't disturb or disrupt the residents and give RVers a bad rep.

Re HOAs: have a friend who moved out of a neighborhood because of the massive restrictions of the HOA which had a reg handbook 373 pages long. He said he knows where all the Gestapo & Nazi war criminals are hiding: they're HOA presidents now. His HOA president went around the neighborhood with a tape measure making sure no one's shrubs were too tall for regs. :s

profdant139 wrote:

Some of the HOAs are run by reasonable people. Many others, though, are dominated by zealots, who seem to enjoy hassling nonconformists.

If we had purchased a house in one of those cookie-cutter neighborhoods, we probably would never have tried RVing -- we bought a little trailer on a whim, just to try it out, and we never would have done that if we had been forbidden to park it on our driveway. That was ten years ago, and we are now campaholics.

It goes to prove that you have to do your homework before buying any property.
Glad you did otherwise you would probably, as you said ”never discover the joys of RVing”.
Hope we cross paths one day :)

GraciesDaddy wrote:
Despite taking the GypsyJournal's Unfriendly Communities with a bit of skepticism, what's written there certainly reinforces my feelings toward Arizona. In light of their SB1062, I refuse to go there and leave ANY of my money there. (Yes, it's true That Woman vetoed it... But the legislature still passed it!)

Arizona will just have to get by without my cash.

That's not the first time I heard that people avoiding Arizonia for the reasons you stated above.

In much of Orange County, Calif., there are "CC&Rs" (covenants, conditions, and restrictions) that prohibit RV parking on private property. These covenants are essentially in the deed to your property -- they are not laws passed by a governmental agency. But the covenants are administered by the HOA of each neighborhood, and they have the power to enforce the covenants. (Plus they get monthly dues, so they can hire legal help when needed.) We sought out a neighborhood that did not have those covenants, and I am very glad we did.

Some of the HOAs are run by reasonable people. Many others, though, are dominated by zealots, who seem to enjoy hassling nonconformists.

If we had purchased a house in one of those cookie-cutter neighborhoods, we probably would never have tried RVing -- we bought a little trailer on a whim, just to try it out, and we never would have done that if we had been forbidden to park it on our driveway. That was ten years ago, and we are now campaholics.