ignorance, judgment, neighbors

[Usmcsousa]

SO my wife and I bought our first MH finally!
But first lets rewind.
About a year and a half ago, we bought our first home, 2000 square ft absolutely beautiful in a quite dead end neighborhood.
I knew then i wanted two things, a flag pole to fly my usmc and american flag and a large enough driveway for a class a.
Our "wonderful " neighbors have been great up until recently.
A few months ago, i pulled our new used 34 foot gem up to our home and like with any new toy, began making it ours, wash wax rip out the old, put in the new ect.
Not even 4 hours into my endeavor, this 200+ year old lady from waaay down the road( not visible from our property ) walked up to my driveway to kindly explain to me that there are restrictive covenants in our neighborhood. Which my realtor neglected to inform us of.
She came back the next day with a print out, sure enough, no flag poles, no motorhomes, amongst 140 other ridiculous restrictions.
About a week later i moved my mh off of MY property and into storage. Even though. We have NO hoa and 3/4s of the neighborhood are not in compliance with the covenants.
I recently found a facebook page of our neighborhood where i read a lot of nasty comments from about 4 select neighbors of which I've never met, calling us trailer trash and scum, putting their childrens safety at risk ect.
I was shocked to say the least, not One of these folks actually spoke to us about their concerns, just blasted my character over the internet.
Am i crazy for wanting to sell my $200,000+ home to go live in my MH with the friendliest "trailer trash" people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting throughout our short RV'ing travels?

[wildmanbaker]

I would find out everything I could about the HOAs, and if you are really bound by them. You will be surprised at what the Realtor is liable for. Check with Attorneys about this, as most times the first consul is free. You may find one that will take it on for a reasonable price. If you decide to stay, I would consider making life a little unpleasing for the offending neighbors, within the HOAs.

[2oldman]

Usmcsousa wrote:
no flag poles, no motorhomes, amongst 140 other ridiculous restrictions. We have NO hoa and 3/4s of the neighborhood are not in compliance with the covenants.

If the neighborhood has covenants, but no HOA, how are they enforced? If 3/4 of the folks are in non-compliance, why is the OP being singled out?

[2bzy2c]

It seems you have done the right thing by moving your RV into storage. Not much you can really do. Every HOA has the busybody type that is bound and determined to enforce the rules. Frustrated cops I guess. I have them, you have them, everyone has them. Not much you can do.

More a case of the "have nots".

Keep you head down, and try not to start an HOA war. No one wins, and it turns everyone against one another.

[the_bear_II]

After hearing stories from folks in communities governed by convenants with or without HOAs I would choose to live elsewhere.

My wife's cousin lives in a community where you can't keep your garage door open for more than an hour. You can't keep anything on the driveway or parked on the street. Even his use of a tablesaw is restricted.

[Usmcsousa]

2oldman wrote:
If you're being singled out for punishment, make whomever is in charge of the covenants aware of it.

Or leave.

Usmcsousa wrote:
there are restrictive covenants in our neighborhood. Which my realtor neglected to inform us of.

That is very difficult to believen.

Believe it, not a word from our realtor, nothing noted in our closing documents, no deed restrictions.
An attorney i spoke to said, "when you sign at closing, you are agreeing everything is right "so there is no non disclosure.

[amandasgramma]

2oldman wrote:
If you're being singled out for punishment, make whomever is in charge of the covenants aware of it.

Or leave.

Usmcsousa wrote:
there are restrictive covenants in our neighborhood. Which my realtor neglected to inform us of.

That is very difficult to believe.

Not hard for me to believe at all.....I had the same thing happen to me, too. And those covenants were presented to me AFTER I'd signed for the property....at closing. My understanding (in the town I lived in) that once a neighbor is allowed to bypass those covenants, then they can't enforce the rules. Check with an atty..(as much as I hate to advise this)....because you have TWO problems. 1) Are you going to have to abide by those covenants and 2) what recourse for the neighbors making those comments online........

If you have a yes to the 1st one and none to the 2nd one, then I'd be tempted to put the house up for sale. It isn't worth it to put up with that carp. (misspelling intended)

[2oldman]

If you're being singled out for punishment, make whomever is in charge of the covenants aware of it.

Or leave.

Usmcsousa wrote:
there are restrictive covenants in our neighborhood. Which my realtor neglected to inform us of.

That is very difficult to believe.