Hi Lemmy, My HOA sent out a email saying dogs are no longer allowed on any grass in common areas or front yards including grass between sidewalk and curb which is… everywhere except our own tiny backyards. The reasoning is some dog urine effected dead spots. Honestly I didn’t even notice them, it’s 95° here and all the grass looks sad.
It’s a walking town and we are not a gated community, non-residents walk their dogs here all the time, so this rule can only punish those who live here and has no ability to effect others.
Anyway, this seems like a ‘we have tried nothing and we are all out of ideas!’ moment so I wanted to see if anyone here had any suggestions I can pass on to maintain a “good” curb appeal ground cover-wise while allowing dogs to do normal dog stuff.
I can converse with the HOA board in good faith, but this rule is basically banning dogs from the neighborhood - which I super did not sign up for.
Pertainent info: PA, USA - Town Home style homes - small central common grass - owned for 8y.
Edit: it seems like people may have glossed over the question part and skipped straight to HOA bashing (which is warranted at times!) so I will rephrase:
What ground covering or neighborhood solutions to similar (perceived) issues have other communities employed?
Find out when the next meeting is. Tell them you’re going to attend.
Organize all the other dog owners and all of you attend. Explain why the new rule is a burden on you all. Explain what you want. Listen to their reasoning. Come to an agreeable compromise.
So the AKC has this page that lists about half a dozen alternatives to outright banning dogs on grass.
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/home-living/dog-pee-killing-grass/
I agree this very much sounds like the HOA taking the laziest route possible at the expense of it’s residents.
But also, fuck HOAs. Get on the board and take that shit down from the inside, only reliable way to destroy those parasites.
Get on the board and take that shit down from the inside, only reliable way to destroy those parasites.
I live in an area where most houses predate HOAs and home values are too statically low for anyone to want one, but if I were in a position where an HOA started passing nonsensical rules like that I would 100% be reading every rules document and figuring out how to get in charge in order to dismantle every single rule until the only thing the HOA does is pay for necessary/agreed upon shared services
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There are usually voting rules and you’d need like 75% of residents to vote in favor of changing the covenants. Usually there are enough people who like the HOA rules. Also it’s hard to get 75% of any population to do anything.
Check to make sure that the HOA actually has the power to do this. As a land owner you are bound to follow the covenants that run with the land, but you are only actually bound to follow those covenants. You don’t have to do random stuff just because the HOA board or even a majority of the HOA voters say so, you only actually have to do what’s in the covenants.
Unless the covenants say that you agree to follow a bunch of dog-related rules to be defined later, you almost certainly are allowed to park your dog in your own front yard or in that of any consenting neighbor.
It doesn’t look like HOA is telling OP, they can’t have dog piss on their property and looks like at least residents are not interested in providing consent here.
I don’t think there is any legal right for dog owners to have their dogs piss in public or private areas accessible to public.
Many people are tired of the increased costs other people’s dogs impose due to piss damage.
Wtf are you talking about… a animal doesn’t have the right to piss in public?? I really hope you did drop a /s. I’m going to assume you did, because this is not reddit etc…
Strange as it sounds, it’s possible to stop animals pissing in public. Our HOA just installed laser turrets on every street to establish a no fly zone for birds, and birdshit has largely stopped.
There is a new problem of insect infesations and bird carcasses on people’s properties though. Several people have been fined for leaving them there for more than an hour, but on the plus side that’s helping pay for the turrets, which are EXTREMELY expensive to purchase, maintain and power.
There’s also been an uptick of plane crashes nearby caused by sudden pilot blindness, but we’re told that’s an issue of personal responsibility on the part of the pilots. They’ve been advised to take regular eye tests.
Our HOA just installed laser turrets on every street to establish a no fly zone for birds,
Wtf? Please tell me this is satire.
Yeah. There’s no way they’re serious. The FAA would come down on that HOA like the CIA on an off the reservation drug cartel.
Animal is property, it has no rights per se. Dog owner has no right to take their property ie dog to someone’s else property to piss and shit.
This rules limits members from having their own dogs pee on their own property. Literally you own a dog and now cannot allow that dog to go to the bathroom in the front yard you own and maintain.
If you told me this in person, I’d follow you home just to piss on your lawn.
Why is it parks that have dogs slashing all over them all the time still grow fine? What naff turf are these people using on their lawns that dies off due to a bit of wee?
In California, Arizona, and the like, dog pee will kill off grass at the park, too. Lots of places have grass that should have desert climate flora, and dog pee does damage there.
My inlaws have a herd of Chihuahuas and they’ve actually managed to kill big patches of lawn along with about half the shrubs bordering their yard with all the piss. I think this rule is stupid and HOAs are dog shit but this stuff can damage plants.
Uhh, dropped your /s?
At least I hope so
Former real estate agent here
All you can do is talk to the hoa board. That is it. If they won’t listen then you have no options. Other then pointing out this wont solve the problem and only punish members. Good luck.
no LEGAL options
FTFY
You can get on the board and change it from the inside.
Well assuming such a position is open Some hoa I know were set up that the head is 20 year position. One hoa had it so 1 guy had complete veto power and the way to get rid of him was to wait for every plot of land in the hoa to sell. This was out in west Texas and 10 years ago. They have not sold all of them and he is still in charge.
shit like this is the reason I will never ever participate in an HOA
I am still confused how these “home owner associations” have any legal right to tell you to do anything…
When you buy the house you sign a contract giving them authority over certain things. You’re bound by the terms of the contract.
Is it not possible to just not sign that contract? All contracts can be changed and if part of selling the house is that you are not beholden to the HOA, why is it forced on you?
Why does the HOA have any authority in the sale of a house? The contract is between the buyer, seller, and their financial institutions. Anyone else is unnecessary.
It’s not, not if you want to buy the house. The way it works is this:
I’m a property developer and I want to put in a new area of housing. Well that’s gonna be expensive up front, roads have to be paved, utilities like power and sewage ran, and houses and common areas built. That’s all very expensive, my incentive for doing so is that the property values will remain high. So before I sell a house to anyone, I establish an HOA and require anyone who wishes to buy a house to sign the contract for it. You don’t want to sign the contract, you don’t buy the house. That contract also includes a stipulation that if you sell the house you have to include the provision for the HOA.
Now HOAs can be dissolved. Once enough people own houses that they can form their own HOA board they are free to do so, and usually do. That board then takes over the control of the content of those contracts including the provision requiring their signing. So if you want to dissolve an HOA you get on the board or lobby your neighbors to do so, call a meeting, and dissolve it. If you can get enough of your neighbors to agree, the HOA is gone.
There’s usually some bullshit to allow the developer to retain control indefinitely. There will be provisions for the turnover, but the stipulations will involve something that won’t happen for sixty years.
But HOAs are communities right? Doesn’t a HOA meeting have super authority, to remove bylaws like that?
No community I know of in Dutch legislation can block a community (‘vereniging’) from dissolving itself. Moreso since there’s always a law above it on how to disband a community, which cannot be bypassed.
Any HOA can dissolve itself, it merely requires the consent and vote of the board. The rules on how that happens are in the HOA’s bylaws. There’s nothing in law preventing them from doing so.
This is mostly governed under American contract law.
No, I don’t believe we have that kind of protection here. I don’t know enough details to say what kind of protections (if any) we do have.
It’s possible to not buy the house, but the covenant/contract comes with it. Can’t do one without the other. When it’s formed the owner and the HOA have an agreement that no sale of an HOA’d property can take place without the buyer also agreeing to be in the HOA. The HOA has authority given to them by the owner of the property.
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Hard to find one without an HOA these days. And HOAs are usually full of people who want to exert power over other people but don’t have the intelligence or ambition to climb any higher.
I’ve read some folks being a bottle of water on walks to dilute the pee so it’s less likely to ruin grass. But in fairness if some dog pee is ruining grass, owners are not watering their lawns enough. There are plenty of dogs in my neighborhood that are walked and I don’t think there are many pee spot issues.
But even better would be to not use grass :) uses too much water in the first place hehe
Pour used oil on the head of the how’s lawn. Then have every dog owner complain about it.
Is this legal? My understanding is that the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street is “semi-private”, in that the homeowner has to maintain it, but that the city actually owns it.
I’d check local laws and see if the HOA has any right to restrict dogs there.
Try to get the rule changed so it reads "no UNLEASHED dogs allowed on… " And try to get them to add some kind of punishment for those who don’t clean up after their dogs (i.e. a $50 fine or something like that). Sure people can bash HOAs (and I totally agree with why they are hated so much), but the rule was probably not enacted because of one incident. It was probably put into place after many issues with owners not cleaning up after their dogs, so they felt they had to do something.
As with all HOA issues, the solution is to be in on it… be part of the HOA. Run for office and get on the board. Being part of the process makes it that much easier to control what rules get put up.
We don’t have issues with unleashed dogs, or even with people not cleaning up dog crap, it’s just too much dog pee causes dead grass.
So it’s not directed at members for the states of their lawns (they are maintained by a common landscape company) it’s directed at people who have dogs who urinate - which is all of them.
It seems like all the retired people in the neighborhood have a excellent reason to be on the board but with a full time job and a kid I just don’t have the time to put towards good faith governance of the neighborhood. Maybe that’s the idea though - to get on the board and reduce their scope to paying the lawn care guys and collecting dues to pay the lawn care guys.
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Move to a place that is not in an HOA because fuck HOAs.
In before you get a fine for someone else’s dog being on your lawn.
And this is reason 4779637, never to buy a home in a HOA…
