I am on an HOA board. My philosophy is what will an appraiser think? Some of our rules wouldn't register with an appraiser. Junk cars would. So our staff goes after that sort of violation. I have lived next to nazi HOAs, not fun and it really doesn't add to property value, as "the word" gets out, so resale is affected. In regard to the OP- if this was here, it would certainly be allowed- there is a difference between letter of the law and spirit of the law. In this case, letter of the law is unreasonable due to the current situation.