Home Owners Association - Going Ballistic

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You have to remember that you actually have the deck stacked against you on at least one front that no one has mentioned: as a renter in a neighborhood with an active HOA, there will likely be a good bit of latent hostility toward you and the owner. The perception is that once the neighborhood begins to have a significant number of rental properties, the home values will begin to drop. Perception and prejudice is reality, and conventional wisdom is that "renters don't take care of homes the way that owners do" and there may be some fear on the part of the HOA that letting you get away with any violation of the covenants will speed the downhill slide.

Putting in an appearance at the HOA meeting and making the effort to get to know and befriending a few of them will help your cause immensely - especially if you can ease their fears by letting them know that you care about the community and consider yourself a participating member.

Just a thought...
 
There are a number of cases where the HOA basicly made up, complaints so they could fine someone they forclose on the property. All the time the person was unawares this was going on, then the Board members purchase it. So don't just blow this off, replay to her letter and advise here that SCUBA cylinders are not HAZMAT, and make her prove it. Very often the Code Violation person has no Idea what they are doing. If it gets nasty run for the board, it usually only takes 3 people to vote for you to get on, attend all the meetings and shut her down.
 
The way the rental market is, I would guess that the landlord would go to great lengths to keep you happy.

As a landlord in this economy, I wholeheartedly agree!

My advice is that if you haven't notified your landlord yet of this "violation", do so ASAP.

Next obvious step is to ask for clarification on the violation - wouldn't hurt for this to be in writing; going to a scheduled Board meeting wouldn't hurt (especially if the written request had been submitted at least a week beforehand - - you should be then able to make a motion to put it on *their* meeting agenda).

BTW, if your LL doesn't generally attend meetings, a Board could be smart enough to try various Parlimentary Procedures to deny you from speaking. The ammunition to have in your back pocket in case this happens is to ask your Landlord (in advance) for an email that assigns you as their "Proxy" to speak to the board for this issue (and only this issue). If the LL trusts you, this shouldn't be a problem. Don't volunteer this Proxy unless someone on the Board tries to make a stink out of how you (being a mere renter, not a homeowner) don't have the right to challenge the board's authority.


-hh
 
To me it sounds like you first need to educate the HOA to me.

If that doesn’t work:
"Cans of compressed air"? Technically speaking a scuba tank is a cylinder, not a can. According to IMDG (the international maritime standard used to ship products) (the tanks fall under Class 2.2: (non-flammable, non-toxic gases)

Dangerous Goods

Additionally there are packaging requirements for class 2.2's they basically state that they must be in a "cylinder".

Hope this helps
 
I don't think that I'd ignore them...nasty legal action can sneak up on you in these situations. I would ask why they think you have air in those cylinders. Don't most divers get their fills on the way to the dive, use up the air on the dive, and then come home empty? I'll bet there's no covenant against storing empty containers.

I'd also tell them to stay off my lawn.
 
I still have no idea why anyone would want to pay money so someone can tell them what they can or cannot do to thier house. I avoided HOAs like the plague when I was purchasing my house. I found some good deals in HOA areas, but scratched those locations right off the list once I found out there was a HOA along with the deal.

In my eyes, this case would be a perfect example of why you should sell your house and buy a new one. I'll take a loss...i'll probably make up the difference in the HOA fees anyways.
 
This is why I will never never ever live in a place with a HOA! The people that get elected are nuts.

Gee, thanks... I'm president of my HOA and have been for several years. Of course there are only four units in the development so every unit owner has to be an officer. I sent a letter to the other owners mandating that they all have "cylinders of compressed air" on their decks for me to borrow when mine are empty.

Last year I did have the burst disc go on a cylinder stored out on my deck. My housemate heard it and saw it spinning around on the deck until it emptied. Strange thing was the cylinder valve had just been rebuilt and the cylinder was not in the sun.

If there is indeed a restriction, I guess that rules out common household cleaning items that are in cans with a compressed gas. As someone pointed out, propane tanks for outdoor barbecues are far more likely to cause a problem.
 
I have had family members on O2. Anyways at any point in time we had 20 to 30 cylinders in the house, with weekly exchanges drawing some interesting looks from the neighbors.

We were asked a couple times, and gladly showed how they were secured, stored etc... Most of the time it is an education thing. I personally would be more worried about the guy quietly reloading ammo in his basement with lbs of explosive powder. Mind you a few pure O2 cylinders would have made for a good fire had they gone up.

My advice would be to invite the whole boad to your house, or bring a cylinder and explain it right then and there in the meeting. Include everything like mandatory inspections, the fact that they are usually stored empty lest the air go stale, burst disks to prevent explosion etc... Include how you store it, your training on the matter etc... and the fact that it is not an explosive gas like propane.

Hopefully some knowledge knocks some sense into them.
 

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