Parking Class B in your driveway/street & HOAs

[Lennie]

As one of my Coaches emphasized "There are two kinds of people, those that are humble & those that are a moment away from being humbled ..."

That made me remember a coworker once called me humble, I must have looked horrified, he assured me it was a good thing. He was definitely not humble.

[MsNomer]

This weekend, I visited a friend who lives in an HOA community. She lives on an inside corner and I parked on a pad by her side fence. I slept two nights in the van. She got a call about the contractor van in her yard. (I have max windows all around, plus fan and solar.). When she told them I was sleeping in it, they were fine. Go figure.

[Davydd]

I liked my old house in a 1-1/2 acre of old growth woods, brush, weeds, wildflowers and no grass needing to mow where I had an annual all-day recreational burn with family and neighbors of downed branches and many whole trees. Maintenance in retirement in taking out 75 foot tall overgrown cottonwood trees, branches and such was costing me more than my now HOA fees annually, but it didn't dawn on me until after the fact. I did like the old-fashion freedom of living without interference and rules.



Now I've further retired to a private 16 home cul-de-sac HOA where vehicles have to be garaged but all exterior maintenance including gutter cleaning, mowing, driveway plowing, etc. is done by others but I still have an adjacent unmaintained county woods where I have cut a shortcut path through to a bike/hiking trail plus a 1-1/2 acre city storm water retainment which I am planting wildflowers. An adjacent 3,700 acre regional park with 10 small lakes was adequate compensation formerly living in the middle a 14,000 acre Lake Minnetonka since I long ago sold my boat and down sized to kayaks.

This is the location of old house, new house and condo garage.



I was kind of worried about where I would park my Class B until it dawned on me I didn't have to rent storage but I could buy into another HOA, a condo garage development that is turning out to be a pretty convenient and lucrative investment according to the property tax assessor after 3 years, man cave and wood shop with community bathroom, water, RV dump station, huge wash stall and WiFi. It is kind of interesting with garage neighbors of small businesses, classic car collections, boats, and RVs. I bought the smallest unit available at 18' x 45' mucho adequate for a Class B.



HOA's I'm saying are not all that bad if you can get advantages out of them.

[coss370]

This is an excellent post. I have a question. I really should get a 22'. With the 19', I can get away parking on the street. Would you guys put one a 22' on the street or just pay the man and park it at some storage? My neighborhood is excellent, but I do live off a main street and there has been people breaking into cars from out of the area.

My HOA docs specifically calls for no cars over 18', I think I can cheat and be okay with 19'. 22' is pushing it.

[Lennie]

22' looks a lot longer than 19'. I would have considered 19' except I had 3 dogs and 2 people.

[themexicandoctor]

Originally Posted by coss370

This is an excellent post. I have a question. I really should get a 22'. With the 19', I can get away parking on the street. Would you guys put one a 22' on the street or just pay the man and park it at some storage? My neighborhood is excellent, but I do live off a main street and there has been people breaking into cars from out of the area.

My HOA docs specifically calls for no cars over 18', I think I can cheat and be okay with 19'. 22' is pushing it.

HOA's are made of Human Beings.

Human Beings are both a disruptive & harmonious lot, sometimes you can get the same variety in one single specimen.

Don't chance it unless you have the option of a Desist Letter & a quick place to store it.

Your RV might actually discourage theft.

[themexicandoctor]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I liked my old house in a 1-1/2 acre of old growth woods, brush, weeds, wildflowers and no grass needing to mow where I had an annual all-day recreational burn with family and neighbors of downed branches and many whole trees. Maintenance in retirement in taking out 75 foot tall overgrown cottonwood trees, branches and such was costing me more than my now HOA fees annually, but it didn't dawn on me until after the fact. I did like the old-fashion freedom of living without interference and rules.



Now I've further retired to a private 16 home cul-de-sac HOA where vehicles have to be garaged but all exterior maintenance including gutter cleaning, mowing, driveway plowing, etc. is done by others but I still have an adjacent unmaintained county woods where I have cut a shortcut path through to a bike/hiking trail plus a 1-1/2 acre city storm water retainment which I am planting wildflowers. An adjacent 3,700 acre regional park with 10 small lakes was adequate compensation formerly living in the middle a 14,000 acre Lake Minnetonka since I long ago sold my boat and down sized to kayaks.

This is the location of old house, new house and condo garage.



I was kind of worried about where I would park my Class B until it dawned on me I didn't have to rent storage but I could buy into another HOA, a condo garage development that is turning out to be a pretty convenient and lucrative investment according to the property tax assessor after 3 years, man cave and wood shop with community bathroom, water, RV dump station, huge wash stall and WiFi. It is kind of interesting with garage neighbors of small businesses, classic car collections, boats, and RVs. I bought the smallest unit available at 18' x 45' mucho adequate for a Class B.



HOA's I'm saying are not all that bad if you can get advantages out of them.

Dayvdd is living the Good Life ...

[wny-pat]

Originally Posted by themexicandoctor

Dayvdd is living the Good Life ...

I built a barn for my collector tractor , a Quadractor, which I no longer have. My biggest regret is I did not build it high enough to get the RT210 in. Guess I could raise the roof and buy a higher door or move to a condo with good storage. But no condos anywhere near me that would fit the bill. And I have no love for HOAs! Found that out in military housng!

[coss370]

I have control of the HOA, it's not half so bad. I do hate annoying neighbors. We have brand new houses, some treat theirs like they are run down trailer trash. It's annoying

[themexicandoctor]

Originally Posted by parmm@atlanticbb.net

I built a barn for my collector tractor , a Quadractor, which I no longer have. My biggest regret is I did not build it high enough to get the RT210 in. Guess I could raise the roof and buy a higher door or move to a condo with good storage. But no condos anywhere near me that would fit the bill. And I have no love for HOAs! Found that out in military housng!

Can you go down, lower the floor?

How many inches too short are you?

[wny-pat]

Originally Posted by themexicandoctor

Can you go down, lower the floor?

How many inches too short are you?

Concrete floor, so my only option would be raise the roof and install wider and taller door. She is going to live out in the snow, like it or not.

[jeffh]

A key thing is that they can't enforce this only against you. That's illegal.

[wny-pat]

Originally Posted by jeffh

A key thing is that they can't enforce this only against you. That's illegal.

What and who?

[booster]

Originally Posted by wny-pat

I built a barn for my collector tractor , a Quadractor, which I no longer have. My biggest regret is I did not build it high enough to get the RT210 in. Guess I could raise the roof and buy a higher door or move to a condo with good storage. But no condos anywhere near me that would fit the bill. And I have no love for HOAs! Found that out in military housng!

Depending on the building and foundation style it is often easier to raise the entire building wall and all. You then add the height to the bottom of the walls and drop the building back down on them. I have been in on helping on a couple of garages doing that and it worked out well for them. The big benefit is the door gets taller without ripping out the wall.

[wny-pat]

Originally Posted by booster

Depending on the building and foundation style it is often easier to raise the entire building wall and all. You then add the height to the bottom of the walls and drop the building back down on them. I have been in on helping on a couple of garages doing that and it worked out well for them. The big benefit is the door gets taller without ripping out the wall.

But if I raise the roof trusses, I have less problem with attaching new metal siding and the new siding would overlap the old metal siding. If I were to raise it from the bottom, I would have to somehow place the new metal siding under the existing metal siding. As for the door, I have trusses. I would be just raising the trusses and setting them back down on the 4" x 4" extensions on the poles extensions. Would need a wider door and new header for it. It is barely wide enough for my Honda CR-V. Never figured on using it for anything other that a small garden tractor and my wife's gardening stuff. But it is really overbuilt for a pole barn. 4x4 and 4x6 pressure treated poles, including two in the center. Front and rear roll up doors, and one man door in front.

[booster]

If it is a pole building, you can't lift it anyway as you would need to lift the foundation, in essence.



You will run into the fact that the poles will be too short, so you will probably have to build conventional knee wall construction on the top and make sure it is all tied in very stable. Pole building often have very widely spaced trusses and the metal roofs often don't supply much stability unless they are sheeted. Roof racking will have to be carefully handled.


Do you plan to have the original builders do the work?

[wny-pat]

Originally Posted by booster

If it is a pole building, you can't lift it anyway as you would need to lift the foundation, in essence.



You will run into the fact that the poles will be too short, so you will probably have to build conventional knee wall construction on the top and make sure it is all tied in very stable. Pole building often have very widely spaced trusses and the metal roofs often don't supply much stability unless they are sheeted. Roof racking will have to be carefully handled.


Do you plan to have the original builders do the work?

I'm the original builder, but at my age I would have to contract it out. As I said, it is over built, the trusses are every 3 feet. I'm sure it would stay together while being jacked up. I've seen crazier stunts pulled off.

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by jeffh

A key thing is that they can't enforce this only against you. That's illegal.

Welcome to the forum jeffh!

I suppose you refer to HOA rules being enforced uniformly or else that would be illegal. But in reality it would only be fair. Fairness is not the prime reason HOA's exist and uniformity is not a strong suit. Although I agree is should be.

Most likely it would only be illegal if enforced on a "prohibitive basis" such as discrimination.

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by rowiebowie

Welcome to the forum jeffh!

I suppose you refer to HOA rules being enforced uniformly or else that would be illegal. But in reality it would only be fair. Fairness is not the prime reason HOA's exist and uniformity is not a strong suit. Although I agree is should be.

Most likely it would only be illegal if enforced on a "prohibitive basis" such as discrimination.

In many states failure to enforce an HOA rule renders it unenforceable in the future. In other words, if RV parking is banned, but the association declines to enforce the rule for three years when the treasurer happened to own one, they cannot turn around and start enforcing it against another resident. That is true even if the treasurer no longer has the RV.

Proving a history of non-enforcement is hard if you just joined the association or didn't think to gather evidence of the non-enforcement in the past. Add the trouble and expense of hiring a lawyer to level the ground against the HOA lawyer, and it becomes an uphill battle. HOAs know that most people will cave.

Selective enforcement based on membership in a protected class (race, gender, religion...) is a whole different matter, and you have resources in civil rights agencies and organizations.