[quote=CVnewbie]Our neighbor think we are invading their privacy because the playhouse is on the slope and the kids can see their house from the playhouse and they also think it affect their property value. While I don’t see how a beautiful playhouse from your neighbor’s yard can lower your property value, I understand where are they coming from and therefore I am not saying who’s right or wrong. However the privacy issue can be fixed by planting some trees.
If the table is turned, I would not mind the playhouse from my neighbor at all. After all it is just for kids and its not like someone is living in that playhouse. My kids only go out to play once in a while or when they have friends over. Childhood is so short and they will outgrow it in a few years anyway. My husband and me are just shocked how they destroy our relationship with no reserve. Who knows our kids may end up in the same class and they are only in the first grade now. We were so looking forward to invite their son to come over to play in the playhouse and now no way for it to happen. Feel so bummed since we are new to the neighborhood and we are planning to stay here for many many years.
Back to the HOA, the responsibility of HOA is to take care of the maintenance of the common area. So our biggest argument is that our backyard is not visible from any common area. Can the HOA still force us to take it down because our next door neighbor complain about it? We are the homeowner too and how can they protect the interest of one owner over the other? As for the CC&R, the wordings are ambiguous like ‘ include but not limited to’. So potentially we have to get an approval if we want to dig a hole in our yard !!
Just wish I know more about the decision making process of the Hoa board.[/quote]
Okay, this is exactly what I was thinking while reading through this thread. I figured this because we have a neighbor who’s built a playhouse on stilts on the hillside in their backyard (not even their property, but that’s another story). It looks **directly** into our bedroom, kitchen, family room, and is like a spy tower looking over our backyard — the tree/play house is about 15-20 feet above the level of our backyard and the windows are placed in a way that they are looking directly at us. We planted a few trees in front of it on our side of the fence, at a cost of around $2,000+ for the trees and installation, and it will probably take a few years before we get any real privacy. Their kids are now teens, and they go up there and smoke pot and watch us when we’re in our house and yard. They go up there to check us out if they hear we have company over, etc. Not cool.
So, having been “on the other side of the fence” on this issue, is there any way you could move the house to the flat part of the yard so that it doesn’t interfere with the neighbor’s privacy? It just seems like the considerate thing to do. Just my 2 cents.
