On my way home every day, I pass by this house. A crazy religious person lives there. Hung on the porch are all these hand-painted, wooden signs commanding everyone to PRAY AND REPEAT. JESUS LIVES! REJOICE IN THE LORD! I’d say there are about a dozen of them on the porch, and then several in the yard. I’m always just a little fearful when I walk past. I think Carrie’s mother lives there.
Today I was thinking, I’d be really angry if I owned any of the houses next to it. Or even just on the block. If I ever had to sell, I’d be afraid that it would drive away buyers. The display is so in your face it’s impossible not to know it’s there. The houses in this area are very expensive, too. The neighborhood attracts professional people who want the cache of a hip, urban environment. Not crazy Christians with a thing for wooden signs.
Hope there is a homeowners association. Not sure how common they are - I think they are a newer thing (I assume they didn’t exist in the 40s for example, but don’t know). In MD, most areas I know with new developments have homeowners associations - and there are rules about these things (usually). You could get fined and then a lien put on your house if you don’t pay it.
Around here, they complain to the city, which passes an ordinance to ban yard signs, which immediately gets declared unconstitutional by every judge up to and including the Supreme Court. Seriously.
A city might be able to place restrictions on a sign’s size, or perhaps say it can’t be lit up and flashing all night, but the case law on signs is pretty settled.
And I’ll bet the crazy Christian knows exactly what the local law says.
I fail to see why I would care. It’s my home. I don’t give a crap about property values, but, even if I did, I don’t think I should have the right to tell someone what to do on their property. Valuing money so much that you think you ought to be able to stop someone’s free speech is rather assholish, in my opinion.
And that’s precisely why I and a lot of other people hate homeowners associations.
Seriously, I don’t get why it bothers you, let alone why you feel afraid. That, in my opinion, is your problem.
Fuck a homeowner’s association! :mad: I can’t even put up a fence over 4 feet high in my backyard due to my homeowner’s association’s rules. The backyard area is like one big, connected backyard shared by six or seven households. Privacy is non-existent.
Yeah, the neighbors should not be able to trample free speech in this way, so its a good thing that this person can express herself. The law really needs to limit the reach of homeowners’ associations.
There is a difference between free speech and creating a public eyesore. Nobody wants to see over a dozen homemade signs across the street, regardless of the message.
As to free speech, suppose instead of a Christian message, the signs said, “Bring jihad to the shores of the U.S.!” Or “Satan is calling me to take vengeance on you!” Let’s see how long people would wrap themselves in the First Amendment then.
When you buy a house the contract is generally contingent on buyer’s approval after review of the HOA docs. They include all the rules. Nobody was ever forced to buy a home in a homeowner’s association. Sorry that your HOA sucks. But as a homeowner, you can try to get the rules changed–they’re not chiseled in stone. There may be other folks who feel the same way. An HOA isn’t a thing, it’s a bunch of people like you. You can even run for the Board of Directors, or volunteer for the Review Board Committee. FWIW my HOA has no limit on the height of a fence, other than it must not block the front of someone else’s house.
No ones free speech rights are being trampled by a homeowners association. I’m more than willing to give up the “right” to post some obnoxious sign on my lawn in exchange for my neighbors not being able to do the same. And personally the attempted “decorating” my neighbors have tried in the past leaves something to be desired. I specifically wanted an HOA - and am happy to have one.
It really shouldn’t matter what people want to see.
I don’t know about anyone else, but those messages offend me no more and no less than the Jesus ones.
Yeah, that ignores a lot of the other crap that squeezes most people—like distance to commute, consideration of schools, consideration of neighborhood safety, consideration of cost of real estate, etc.
A homeowners’ association really is nothing less than a local government—just dressed up in the form of contractual relationships—and it should be subject to the same restrictions as any other form of government, including the First Amendment.
Yea, I don’t get the hate for HOAs. They are there for a reason.
Sure, they can be annoying when they send you a nastygram telling you to trim the trees. But 95% of the time, they’re right - the trees do need to be trimmed because they’re blocking the sidewalk.
I can’t find the article now, but there was an article about two neighborhoods, one on each side of the street, and by some quirk, once side of the street had an HOA and the other didn’t. The side with the HOA all had good property values, homes in good repair, mowed lawns, etc. The side without had more broken windows than not, no lawns had been mowed in years, and property values were in the pits. That hit home for me the value of an HOA.
As said above, you knew what you were getting into when you bought the house. The HOA is not some mystic deity with edicts from on high - it’s your neighbors. If you don’t like the rules, run for the board or try to get them changed.
Sure, some HOAs have little lawn care nazis - but those people can be voted out and are a minority of HOAs out there.
One of my good friends is president of his HOA. Seriously, he finds it more of a hassle than anything else but nobody else is willing to do it, and someone has to pay the electric bill for the streetlights.
I’ve got a neighbor up the street whose entire front yard is a homage to Disney. It’s the most garish, insane eyesore I’ve ever seen. And I fully support the homeowner’s right to do it, even if it may somehow negatively influence my ability to sell my house later on. I’d prefer this situation to the horror stories I hear about HOAs. My co-worker is currently battling her HOA over some flowers she planted–apparently they weren’t an “approved” variety or some such nonsense for the overall landscaping theme of the neighborhood. I prefer a situation where people can mostly do what they want to their own property.