HOA Threatening Fines Over
Your Landscaping?
HOA property managers drive through neighborhoods handing out landscaping violations based on their own opinions. Here is how to use your CC&Rs to shut them down.
The Translation
"Your yard doesn't look the way we want it to look. Fix it or we will fine you."
That your yard specifically violates a written, objective standard in the community's Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs) or published architectural guidelines.
Top 3 Procedural Loopholes
Subjective Enforcement
If the CC&Rs say yards must be "neat and attractive," that is legally subjective. Unless there are specific, published guidelines (e.g., "grass cannot exceed 6 inches"), subjective rules are incredibly difficult for an HOA to enforce in a hearing.
Selective Enforcement
If your HOA cites you for dead grass, but three of your neighbors also have dead grass and weren't cited, you have a strong defense of "selective enforcement." HOAs legally must enforce rules equally across the entire community.
Missing the "Cure Period"
State laws and your CC&Rs almost always require the HOA to give you a written warning and a specific number of days (a "cure period," usually 14 to 30 days) to fix the issue before they can levy a fine. If they jumped straight to a fine, it is procedurally invalid.
Did you get a notice like this?
Don't just pay the fine. Paste the text of your notice into our free scanner to check for procedural errors.
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