OT Can an HOA do not approved a color scheme in official list?

[pinkflamingo]

Our HOA is nuts like that. I’m sure this is the only place where you will you lose your house if you paint it the wrong shade of Beige. I cannot wait to move away from here. With that said, this maybe an interesting anecdote.

Our neighbors some years ago redid their wood siding. He had the city approval with a licensed contractor. The HOA complained that the crack(space) between each wood siding was too tight. I kid you not. To this comment, our neighbor replied, I think maybe your crack is too tight … Then he threatened to sue the HOA for making him devalue his house. I think they left him be.

[kiki]

Thank so much for all the great advice ! I will call the legal service from work on monday and use the wording recommended.

I am from South America and although I have been blessed not to feel discriminated – I am pretty laid back so if people did I actually didn’t notice/care. I work for a Asian company so ethnicity diversity is in their DNA. I have strong supporters at work that are white. But you never know, they might not like our last name.

It is crazy (and funny) the stories I am reading from you – thank you for sharing!. Is common sense that hard??

I hope I don’t have to go to arbitration though. I just want to paint, i am not interested in ruining the HOA that at the end will increase the fees for everyone. I’ll keep you posted on my saga.

thank you!

[Coronita]

[quote=kiki]Thank so much for all the great advice ! I will call the legal service from work on monday and use the wording recommended.

I am from South America and although I have been blessed not to feel discriminated – I am pretty laid back so if people did I actually didn’t notice/care. I work for a Asian company so ethnicity diversity is in their DNA. I have strong supporters at work that are white. But you never know, they might not like our last name.

It is crazy (and funny) the stories I am reading from you – thank you for sharing!. Is common sense that hard??

I hope I don’t have to go to arbitration though. I just want to paint, i am not interested in ruining the HOA that at the end will increase the fees for everyone. I’ll keep you posted on my saga.

thank you![/quote]

Americans are stupid and has always been. However, when our country is led by a stupid leader that tells people that perhaps drinking hand sanitizer might cure covid, and some people actually try, all that means is our American stupidity has fallen to an all time low.

[svelte]

[quote=kiki]

I am from South America and although I have been blessed not to feel discriminated – I am pretty laid back so if people did I actually didn’t notice/care. I work for a Asian company so ethnicity diversity is in their DNA. I have strong supporters at work that are white. But you never know, they might not like our last name.

I hope I don’t have to go to arbitration though. I just want to paint, i am not interested in ruining the HOA that at the end will increase the fees for everyone. I’ll keep you posted on my saga.
[/quote]

I doubt you are being discriminated against based on your ethnicity or country of origin.

More likely the current HOA board or architectural committee probably has a few Barney Fifes and they constitute the majority at the moment. I’ve seen that happen and usually what happens next is at the next election, the homeowners vote them out because other homeowners have been subject to ridiculous decisions just like you.

So a passive way out is to just wait until the next election.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=svelte][quote=kiki]

I am from South America and although I have been blessed not to feel discriminated – I am pretty laid back so if people did I actually didn’t notice/care. I work for a Asian company so ethnicity diversity is in their DNA. I have strong supporters at work that are white. But you never know, they might not like our last name.

I hope I don’t have to go to arbitration though. I just want to paint, i am not interested in ruining the HOA that at the end will increase the fees for everyone. I’ll keep you posted on my saga.
[/quote]

I doubt you are being discriminated against based on your ethnicity or country of origin.

More likely the current HOA board or architectural committee probably has a few Barney Fifes and they constitute the majority at the moment. I’ve seen that happen and usually what happens next is at the next election, the homeowners vote them out because other homeowners have been subject to ridiculous decisions just like you.

So a passive way out is to just wait until the next election.[/quote]

6’3 inch handsome white injured war vet with 3 young kids and gorgeous white wife would not be treated that way.

[Coronita]

[quote=svelte][quote=kiki]

I am from South America and although I have been blessed not to feel discriminated – I am pretty laid back so if people did I actually didn’t notice/care. I work for a Asian company so ethnicity diversity is in their DNA. I have strong supporters at work that are white. But you never know, they might not like our last name.

I hope I don’t have to go to arbitration though. I just want to paint, i am not interested in ruining the HOA that at the end will increase the fees for everyone. I’ll keep you posted on my saga.
[/quote]

I doubt you are being discriminated against based on your ethnicity or country of origin.

More likely the current HOA board or architectural committee probably has a few Barney Fifes and they constitute the majority at the moment. I’ve seen that happen and usually what happens next is at the next election, the homeowners vote them out because other homeowners have been subject to ridiculous decisions just like you.

So a passive way out is to just wait until the next election.[/quote]

the problem I see with HOA’s many times is homeowners don’t give hoot about the elections until something affects them. So if you aren’t lucky , and the HOa Board singled you out for something , you could very well be on your ownnfor a long time. A lot of the rule enforcements are totally inconsistent and many of the board members themselves don’t follow all the rules. Lawyer letters are great for situations like this.

I found that most of the time, anal retententive HOA Board members tend to be the stay at home Karens and Karls that have nothing better to do.

[svelte]

[quote=Coronita]
the problem I see with HOA’s many times is homeowners don’t give hoot about the elections until something affects them. So if you aren’t lucky , and the HOa Board singled you out for something , you could very well be on your own for a long time. [/quote]

That is kind of the opposite situation – the board isn’t full of Barney Fifes but instead people with a grudge against a particular homeowner. What I’ve seen happen here is that both the grudgee and grudger end up on the board and it is clash of the titans for years! So kiki…have you considered running for the board? 🙂

[kiki]

In my head yes. I have thought to run and bring some sense to this nonsense.
But I work 60-70 a week. I have to homeschool a kindergartener that cannot stay on a zoom for 2min and make sure that my 3rd grader is not watching you tube or Netflix while on her 8am-3pm zoom.
My husband also works crazy hours and cooks and takes care of handyman issues at home and feeds the kids. Weekends are cleaning and homework catch up.

We are blessed we have a good jobs that we could outsource our needs gardener, nanny,cleaning lady but now with covid-19 we are is full lock down. We stopped contact with anyone except essential.

I lost my wonderful father to covid in the early stages of the pandemic. We don’t know where he got it. he only had fever, we did not know it was covid-19 until day 10. He did not have any preexisting condition. His fever started the day of stay at home. He went to the hospital (only with fever) in my home country to get checked due to his age. They called us the next day saying he was in icu and the following day that he was on a ventilator. 9 days and he passed. It was devastating not being able to travel. To have to tell my mom via zoom my dad died. He was 70 no heart problems, no blood pressure not even even cholesterol.

We are taking this stay home seriously so no more outsourcing of anything. We do it all. Cook, clean, teach, work.
Sorry for the long explanation but although I wish to be part of the board I just can’t.
Also I so busy I don’t even know my neighbors much beyond the friendly wave on my way to school or work. I usually came home late from work and weekends we used to go out. And now we don’t leave the inside of the house.

Besides, I often think how selfish of me for just worrying of something as trivial as color painting when people are dying, have no jobs or kids are abused at home and cannot escape at school. I thank God for being blessed with work and health.
I miss my dad a lot though.

I still have to continue with life and house needs to be painted else a violation will come my way and I will fight until is just not worth it.
That is what I came here for some perspective and got great advice.

[svelte]

Wow.

I am so sorry to hear about your dad. And I totally understand how you’d increase your precautions after that.

I’ve been working from home since mid March and have been able to spend much more time with my grandkids (they remote school from my house) and have the opportunity to know our house cleaners and gardeners also. We’ve had the same house cleaner for over 20 years and same gardener for 13. These folks get to see parts of our lives that no one else sees. Not once in all of those years have any of them raised their rates…in all those years!

Back to the colors: if there are already homes in your HOA painted the colors that you selected (and are on the approved list!), I would think there is no way they could dis-approve. How could they stop you from doing what your neighbor is already doing? That would be clear discrimination.

Again, my condolences. Peace and love.

[Coronita]

I’m sorry for your loss Kiki.

Lawyer letter. I think is still best option, given that you already submitted an architecture change form.

It’s too bad your neighbor is on the board and you already submitted the forms. Because in My old HOA, I know people would fill out the forms just so the neighbors would sign and approve but never submit the forms to the HOA. Afterall, no one from the Board of this HOA really does a walkthrough..And even if they did, they wouldn’t remember which color scheme is suppose to be for which house provided you stayed within the set of color schemes.

Your neighbor who is on the Board sounds like a bitchy Karen.

[kiki]

Svelte, Coronita. Thank you for your kind words.

The neighbors that have to sign the form (immediate front and back) did sign it. One even, one year ago, painted white that is no even on the scheme list. We signed so he can paint what he wanted. No hoa issue. Or maybe because white did match the roof warm color

[Coronita]

[quote=kiki]Svelte, Coronita. Thank you for your kind words.

The neighbors that have to sign the form (immediate front and back) did sign it. One even, one year ago, painted white that is no even on the scheme list. We signed so he can paint what he wanted. No hoa issue. Or maybe because white did match the roof warm color[/quote]

Interesting..So basically there are a bunch of houses that technically are out of compliance?

That (and photo evidence of it) should be included in your lawyer letter to suggest arbitrary enforcement and discrimination. In other words, if they are going to enforce you to pick a color scheme, even one in the list of approved.ones, then they better go through the neighborhood and may every house that doesn’t follow any of the schemes repaint…

Also, what sort paint scheme is currently on Bitch Karen Board lady’s house? Is she in compliance too? If not, I would report her house as being out of compliance.and force her to repaint. Also, what other rules is Bitchy Karen Lady out of compliance with? For example, is she parking her cars outside and using her garage for storage? If so, many HOAs specifically state that cars must be parked inside the garage unless there are more cars that parking spots inside the garage. It’s a dumb rule and in my old HOA never enforced (and it doesn’t apply to me because do use all spots inside my garage and have 4 other cars to park outside), but for many Americans, they don’t park their cars inside.. So if she’s one of them , I would report her ass too.

[Coronita]

[quote=kiki]Svelte, Coronita. Thank you for your kind words.

The neighbors that have to sign the form (immediate front and back) did sign it. One even, one year ago, painted white that is no even on the scheme list. We signed so he can paint what he wanted. No hoa issue. Or maybe because white did match the roof warm color[/quote]

Interesting..So basically there are a bunch of houses that technically are out of compliance?

That (and photo evidence of it) should be included in your lawyer letter to suggest arbitrary enforcement and discrimination. In other words, if they are going to enforce you to pick a color scheme, even one in the list of approved.ones, then they better go through the neighborhood and may every house that doesn’t follow any of the schemes repaint…

Also, what sort paint scheme is currently on Bitchy Karen Board lady’s house? Is she in compliance too? If not, I would report her house as being out of compliance.and force her to repaint.

[scaredyclassic]

Yes. Get the rules. Study them! Find all her violations!

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic]Yes. Get the rules. Study them! Find all her violations![/quote]

Oh, you don’t even need to study the rules. I bet she’s already out of compliance with some of these basic rules that probably exist in common HOAs but either aren’t enforced or people don’t know about….

My favorite one is the HOa rules that says you aren’t allowed to park your car outside and use your garage.for storage. You can only park your car outside if you have more cars than spaces inside your garage.

That rule will get most American families that use their garage for storage versus parking cars, and yet it’s a pretty common rule on most HOAs.

And if this want to enforce this rule on someone, wow what a pain in the ass for the the poor victim that has to clear.out their garage to park their cars… I mean,enforcing this rule, is just downright one of the most disruptive thing you could do to someone….

I never had this problem because I always have somewhere between 4-6 cars, lol.

Like I always said… Don’t get mad, get even. Revenge is best served freezing cold ..

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