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?

[Usmcsousa]

Your anger is showing 😉

I bet the "200 year old lady" would not have said anything if you weren't doing major renovations in your driveway. If you are active duty, why not keep your RV at the base hobby shop and work on it there? That would also get it away from your own two children and keep from exposing them to the hazmat used in older RVs.

Also, are you piling the debris in your yard? I know it has to go somewhere, is that why some of your neighbors say you are endangering their children?

Although it may sound like it, I'm not really criticizing you. Just saying, to have a good neighbor, first you must BE a good neighbor.

PS, hubby and I have over 70 years of combined military service. 🙂

Base storage has a 7 year waiting period, lol yes 7 years is what i was told.
Not once was there even a scrap of debris in my yard, went from coach to pickup truck bed, to the dumpster. No time lapse .
At one point i was in my generator compartment replacing fuel filter and cleaning carb. Took about 20 min.
I also spent a good amount of time with a pressure washer and sponge cleaning the exterior .. any fluid changes, or hazmat fixes were done at the hobby shop on base.

[2oldman]

Usmcsousa wrote:
shame on us for not knowing covenants exist without a proper HOA, I have read through every shred of paper provided at closing,and there is nothing about deed restrictions, it actually says no known restrictions.

Then there aren't any, and somebody is taking it upon themselves to create some. If there's nothing in writing, there's no shame involved.

[steelpony5555]

Good idea to hire an attorney. Evidently it is not a true HOA or you would have been advised of dues and all the rules and regulations and who to go to when you have a ***** and when the meetings are. HOA's and their governing bodies like rules cause it makes them feel important, so they usually have a packet of papers for you to sign. An attourney can search the deed for any past deed restrictions and city codes and what and if you have any recourse. Who knows it may just be a couple of self appointed busy bodies who thought this all up who are too cheap to live in an HOA. Also 2 can play this game, I would go and knock on her door and anyone else's that opposes you and just advise them that you need their full name and address for your attorney and pending court case and possibly the media in regards to flying your American flag. She probably won't give it to you but I bet she sits up at night and worries about it, just thank her politly. Why should they have all the fun lol lol....

[AprilWhine]

Usmcsousa wrote:
93-97 diesel pushers around my area are around the 10k range..most are hurting pretty badly.
Paid $3500 for my 95 gas class a 34ft.. needed about $2,000 of interior work. Removed carpet sofa upholstery of any kind.
The deals are out there if you look hard enough.

Usmcsousa wrote:
SO my wife and I bought our first MH finally!
But first lets rewind.
...
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.
...
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.
...

Your anger is showing 😉

I bet the "200 year old lady" would not have said anything if you weren't doing major renovations in your driveway. If you are active duty, why not keep your RV at the base hobby shop and work on it there? That would also get it away from your own two children and keep from exposing them to the hazmat used in older RVs.

Also, are you piling the debris in your yard? I know it has to go somewhere, is that why some of your neighbors say you are endangering their children?

Although it may sound like it, I'm not really criticizing you. Just saying, to have a good neighbor, first you must BE a good neighbor.

PS, hubby and I have over 70 years of combined military service. 🙂

[SooperDaddy]

"I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members."

Groucho Marx

Google "Anti-Home Owner Associations" and you may have some pretty good info! Florida seems to have more Home Owner Gestapo organizations than any other state.

[Usmcsousa]

Usmcsousa wrote:

Two Jayhawks wrote:

OP wrote:
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.

Question, you have been living there for a year and a half....is anyone else doing what you want to do? Anyone parking a RV or boat in the driveway full time? Flag pole? Have no idea what other restrictions are listed but my hunch is some are "larger" than others. The RV in the drive is a big one.

There is one house who parks their fifth wheel for about a two weeks every 3shred months or so, usually has slides out jacks down and electric hooked up so i canget only assume they have someone staying in it periodically.

There aren't any large flag poles, only small house mounted ones,
There are however a lot of non 6ft high wood fences, garage conversions, multiple vehicles in driveways, some of which dont actually move. Stray cats, boats and trailers in driveways. All are listed as no nos in said covenant.
Guess me being the new guy on the block, I had eyes on me for whatever reason.

Sorry about my auto correct misspelling, damn smart phones are quite stupid at times.

[Usmcsousa]

Two Jayhawks wrote:

OP wrote:
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.

Question, you have been living there for a year and a half....is anyone else doing what you want to do? Anyone parking a RV or boat in the driveway full time? Flag pole? Have no idea what other restrictions are listed but my hunch is some are "larger" than others. The RV in the drive is a big one.

There is one house who parks their fifth wheel for about a two weeks every 3shred months or so, usually has slides out jacks down and electric hooked up so i canget only assume they have someone staying in it periodically.

There aren't any large flag poles, only small house mounted ones,
There are however a lot of non 6ft high wood fences, garage conversions, multiple vehicles in driveways, some of which dont actually move. Stray cats, boats and trailers in driveways. All are listed as no nos in said covenant.
Guess me being the new guy on the block, I had eyes on me for whatever reason.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Usmcsousa wrote:
This was our first home purchase, shame on us for not knowing covenants exist without a proper HOA, I have read through every shred of paper provided at closing,and there is nothing about deed restrictions, it actually says no known restrictions.

Did you buy Title Insurance? I ask because if so and it turns out that there are valid restrictions that the Company missed, you may have a claim against them.

[Usmcsousa]

This was our first home purchase, shame on us for not knowing covenants exist without a proper HOA, I have read through every shred of paper provided at closing,and there is nothing about deed restrictions, it actually says no known restrictions.
I Am not too much concerned with the covenants because it seems that if I wanted to fight them I could successfully.
I guess this is more of me ranting about secret underground snob community gosip that grinds my gears, considering these prople don't actually know me nor I them.
I did however begin interior renovations on my class a in my driveway. Make note, a very meticulous reno of which had anyone not known it was happening, they would continue to not know. IE all debre was clean an disposed of off the property and not left laying around.

My internal debate is weather to sell my home and invest that same 200,000 into my dream coach without the headache of nosey neighbors who can be so rude an vile behind others backs.

[down_home]

This kind, of thing, happens often. Either ignore them and make friends with everyone else and hope they go away.
Encountered the same thing of sorts. Ignored it.
Space is your friend. When we moved to our first home, we had two neighbors on the street. I walked the road, to go fishing or hunting and if we saw two cars a day it was an occasion. We now have right at 11 acres, which ain't all that big, in the grand scheme, of things and anyone can say whatever they want not that they want to. We don't give a hairy rodent's posterior. I'm thinking, of a really big flag pole; and a really big ole cannon to sound retreat. Not really, on the flagpole. 🙂

[JayGee]

This guys neighbors did not want him to put up a flag,so he did this instead.
Flag

[Daveinet]

Many people use a lawyer to purchase a house as well as sell a house. The realtor is just a sales person and has little interest in protecting you. They are there to make the sale. When you signed all those papers, the lawyer should have been explaining to you what each paper was and what was contained in each document. If no one was doing that, then you should not have been signing them. When I purchased my first home, the seller's lawyer freaked out, because I did not have a lawyer. Since the realtor was a personal friend, one of the pieces of advice he gave was to contact the loan officer and get a copy of the title ahead of time. This meant I saw a copy of every paper that I was going to sign before the closing and had time to review each piece at my own pace.

If there was any covenant that you needed to abide by, your bank would have had you sign an agreement to abide by that covenant. The bank is the most interested party at a closing, so in many ways, they are your most trusted party. Ultimately, if there is any enforcement, that enforcement goes through the bank, as their name is on the title.

[Two_Jayhawks]

OP wrote:
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.

Question, you have been living there for a year and a half....is anyone else doing what you want to do? Anyone parking a RV or boat in the driveway full time? Flag pole? Have no idea what other restrictions are listed but my hunch is some are "larger" than others. The RV in the drive is a big one.

[tbred]

rgatijnet1 wrote:
Most neighborhoods have deed restrictions when they are first formed. This is something that most developers use to show new buyers how the homes are to be built and maintained, etc.
Now that it is established that deed restrictions are in place,you need to look at the realities of them. If your housing development DOES NOT have an HOA, deed restrictions are useless. The local building department DOES NOT enforce deed restrictions. Deed restrictions are enforced by the HOA and this enforcement is paid for by an assessment to ALL homeowners. If you do not have monthly assessment payments going to an HOA, you do not have one and there is no money available for legal enforcement.
Basically without an HOA, the deed restrictions become unenforceable and you can basically tell the little old lady, and any other neighbors, to pound salt.
Now, forgetting deed restrictions, you need to find out if there are any CITY ordinances that prohibits parking an RV out front of your house, etc. Some cities do have such restrictions and those are enforceable by the building code enforcement folks.
If there are no CITY ordinances restricting your RV, or flag pole, then enjoy yourself and forget about others.

This post makes sense, if you don't pay a HOA then who enforces it's "rules" ? Anyone could go type up a list, call themselves the HOA and make your life miserable.

Even if the HOA is non-existant, I still wouldn't live in a place with catty, gossipy neighbors who have nothing better to do than hide behind Facebook!

Best of luck!

[Dog_Folks]

Usmcsousa wrote:

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.

BS. Call a Lawyer. The restrictions were a material fact that was not disclosed effecting your property and use of same.