Remember reading in history books about how people actually owned their land & could do whatever they wanted with it long ago? I wish that kind of sh*t would return, tbh.

Well...within reason. We recently had someone come up here and buy 50 acres and then calmly announce he was going to cut EVERY SINGLE TREE down. Some places this would have been fine, but this is the great American North Woods and that kind of would have destroyed a good piece of the allure of the area. I admit it is a very sensitive and debatable (spell) subject so I will try to refine from being too bull headed on the matter. :)

Well of course I meant within reason. :)

Best man speech to be given tomorrow in front of over 200 people...and i don't know what to say

How about something like this?

Thanks, matt

(Just kidding, btw......if you say something like this I dunno what might happen. I can guarantee it won't be pleasant, though.)

Been there. Best of luck my friend.

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. Not the court thing since it is a covenant tied to the land, but by appealing directly to the homeowners who live there now. We could also go directly to the developer and say, "Look, this is what my business entails. Howzabout an amendment where the business itself should be considered instead of a one-size-fits-none approach? You'll get two lots sold in one deal." This may turn out to be the best approach since, as owners of the lots, the developer is part of the HOA and thus has access to the rest of the small number of members.

In this particular subdivision, there are 13 total lots and 7 are open at this time (it's not some crazy-exclusive thing - it's merely a geological / topographical matter that keeps it small). The two we're considering directly border only one other lot, and that one has a residence established on it. Looks like it's been there for quite a while (this development has been around since 2003). So it's not like we'd be affecting the whole community, even if I were to go all crazy with the noise. Worst case, one might hear my air compressor kick on for 5-10 minutes twice in a day once per month. As it is now, you have to be inside our house, or within a few feet of it, to hear it. But it's definitely less noticeable than a lawnmower, and happens much less often - I've used it once so far this year.

Without owning the land now, all we can do is ask since we aren't members of the HOA. The legalese is kinda iffy on the remedial / punitive measures that could be taken against us if we went ahead and broke the covenant anyway. In a civil court one needs to show damage, and that would be the sticking point for any claim against: what harm has been caused to you by the presence of my business, the one you didn't know about until I told you of its existence? But I'd rather do it the right way and get it changed / waived beforehand

Well, yeah, but I certainly understand the point of these things. It's not much different than city planners, deciding what can go where with zoning, tax incentives, etc. I guess my biggest gripe is that they don't consider the details of the matter. That's why I point out the garage sale, Girl Scouts, etc. That is also business, and nobody is going to raise a fuss about those even though they're more "intrusive" or public to the neighborhood than what I do.

Anyway, you and tinyE have inspired the wife and I to get in touch with the HOA and developer and plead our case. All they can say is "no", and then we're simply back in the hunt for that perfect piece o' land. Thanks for the different perspective.

Don't ever underestimate the hell a HOA can put you through even if you "win" on one matter. They can probably find 500 different pretexts to fine you under the contract you signed when you bought the property, even for things literally everybody else is doing.

Whatever they tell you, get it in writing.

It would have to be in writing since the restrictions are registered with the county clerk. One advantage is that it's just twelve other property owners at most, and eleven if we bought two lots.

Other than this one stupid clause, the rest of it is perfectly agreeable - the HOA fee is $5 per month, there aren't any architectural restrictions except that any buildings on any one property need to sort of match (we'll have only the one building), minimum size requirement, minimum build cost requirement (pretty low, really, at around entry-level for this area), and a generic "don't be obnoxious or do illegal stuff" clause (the one you're talking about). Certainly less obnoxious than most others we've seen. Changes are made at a 75% "yes" vote.

But yeah, I've heard some horror stories. We'll be careful and will opt for an unrestricted property over these two lots if we can find something better. We're in no particular hurry at this point.

Pretend you're having a seizure.

I forgot to mention when I gave my best man speech a) it was before I quit drinking and b) it was in front of 200 people that lived 1700 miles from me so even if I screwed up screw it, I was never going to see any of them again! :D

Got my mystery cramp again. My latest theory is that it's caused by sudden temperature drops, and sure enough, the outside temperature dropped almost 15 degrees Celsius last night. There have been similar temperature drops every time I've got this cramp this year. It's only been a few times, but seems like I'm on to something here, finally.

I was talking more about the insane restrictions placed on plots of land by the gov't/previous owners/etc. I am not against gov't/etc setting guidelines/limits(for safety reasons, etc) on what one can do with their land.....within reason.
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Good luck, then. :)


So if I wanted to build a small shack-style cabin in the middle of such a property and design the outside to look like something M.C. Escher would create i'd be out of luck? 0.o

DID you screw it up? :B

Australia... hot..

my balls... melting....

:(