Jim, I understand your objections, but yes, they can. You sign away some of your property rights when you buy (rent) a house in a neighborhood that has deed restrictions/covenants. You have to be told up front that you are buying such a property, and that you will adhere to the deed restrictions. The problem comes in when these little people think that they have more juice than they really do. Obviously, there is no deed restriction about storing sporting goods in your house, or "cans of compressed air" or medical supplies or many other things a scuba cylinder could be. There are certainly restrictions about storing work-related items, performing commercial work, or operating a business out of your house. This little woman who has nothing better to do than drive around spying on her neighbors (and there are lots of them in the world) doesn't know a scuba cylinder from a chop saw.
It's a two edged sword. My neighborhood in Texas had covenants, not deed restrictions. The covenants expired sometime in the '80's when the HOA members didn't bother renewing them (which takes a vote of the HOA, which was defunct). The covenants were renewed sometime in the late '90's, after I had bought my house, which means I'm not covered by them, so I can do anything any other landowner can do. My next door neighbor is in the same position. He operates his carpenter shop in his garage. He has his Mexican laborers (illegals) parking in front of my house, and in front of his house, and in my driveway when I'm not there (which is all the time, now), and the saws start at 0700 and go till midnight, and he has hundreds of gallons of paint stored in the shed behind his garage, and the list goes on. When my house was on the market last year, the common question the prospective home buyer would ask is if those cars parked there all the time. My property value has dropped significantly in part due to the covenants having expired. If a new buyer were to buy my house, they would be bound by the covenants of the neighborhood assn..
