On Jul 21, 11:07 pm, wrote:
On Jul 17, 4:17 pm, KC4UAI wrote:

On Jul 16, 7:45 pm, wrote:
On Jul 16, 3:30 pm, Michael Coslo wrote:

(insert standard "not a lawyer" disclaimer HERE)

Same for me... I'm not a RE lawyer either...


The way deed restrictions & covenants work in the areas I know of is
that they are recorded when the property is first sold. And of course
one of the restrictions is that each owner has to pass the
restrictions on to the next owner.

But in some cases, the first buyer can say "NO!" to the developer, and
get restrictions removed *before* the sale. So while the rest of the
properties may be restricted, that one isn't.

Well, looking at the legal process that went on before I purchased my
house, this isn't going to work. The CC&R's are actually recorded for
the whole property before it was plated and sold to the developer. At
least in my case, these restrictions where already recorded before the
developer owned the lot. There are over 300 lots in my subdivision
and for the developer to except one of the lots, he would have to own
them all, remove the restrictions on them all and reapply them to all
but one. I got a feeling that they won't go to this much trouble.
Yea, they may give you a "The HOA will allow antennas on your lot"
letter, but that would only be good for as long as the developer owned
enough lots to retain control of the HOA and actually cared to live by
the agreement. After that, it would be worthless.

HOA rules are another issue completely, but the same approach may
work.

In my case the HOA rules are spelled out in the CC&R's (for the most
part). They have some latitude in some areas of appearance, but not a
lot. My CC&R's actually specify the maximum heigth of the grass in
you yard.


However, this is not something to try without expert RE legal counsel
to make absolutely sure you have airtight exemption *before* you sign
anything. Verbal assurances mean nothing; it's gotta be in clear
writing and properly recorded.


Very good advice. Get a lawyer BEFORE you need one. Having all the
"I's" dotted and "T's" crossed legally is the best way to proceed. By
the time you need one, it's going to be too late.


More and more land is becoming off limits to ham radio
antennas and
this is a bigger problem in areas that have been under active
development for the last 20-30 years such as Dallas.

The cure is for lots of people to write Congress and get them to order
FCC to expand the OTARD preemption. FCC has clearly said they will do
it when Congress tells them to.

We can also go to the City, County, and State and ask for preemptive
rules for Part 97 antennas. I get the impression that one might have
more luck in those venues than in Congress. I've seen more than one
antenna bill get introduced into congress with pretty good support
only to get buried in committee and never to be seen again. I don't
see that changing anytime soon.


Yes, I could drive 40 more miles a day and perhaps find
something that would work, but with the cost of driving these
days I’d
be moving into less of a house for sure to make ends meet.

40 miles a day in a small car is maybe $6 in gas....

Compared to my current 6 mile/day bill of $0.60 using that car is
pretty expensive. I'm also 6'7" so it's kind of hard to find a car I
can fit into and get good mileage.. But we are moving off track.

There are fundamental
problems with CC&R's and pesky HOA's under the current
law. Depending
on how they are drafted, they can end up causing some
seemingly very
unreasonable consequences for homeowners that may not be
obvious by reading them.

Such as?

For example... Say the HOA doesn't like the current color of your
fence. You live on a fixed income and cannot paint the fence but the
ACC changed the rules and now your fence is unacceptable. HOA
eventually assess fines, charging you for each day the fence is not
painted. They file leans on your property to secure the debt and you
could loose your house, all because the "rules" changed and you didn't
agree to the change.

Personally, I think they should be put under some
really strict legal limits and the powers of HOA's strictly limited.
But all that is another issue...

Not really. Part of the problem is that a lot of folks don't really
know what they're getting into when they buy.

Some do but the fine details about what can happen would be lost on
most of us. In Texas things get pretty crazy. I've read a case where
a guy got a lot with deed restrictions that didn't allow "mobile
homes". He started to have a pre-fab modular home built on the lot
and got hauled into court by the HOA for trying to install a "mobile
home". He ended up loosing the case after nearly 5 years of having a
half completed house he couldn't live in. Paid substantial fines
too. Crazy Texas courts where they attempt to take the most liberal
interpretation in favor of the HOA they can.

Friend of mine bought into such a place, and after some time
discovered that the upstairs windows leaked. The construction was
rather slipshod IMHO but caulk had worked for a couple of years. But
now he had a major job to fix the problem.


Oh, I know how that goes. My dad made the mistake of getting the
windows changed without consulting the HOA. Hooo Boy, what a mess
that was.

I got a letter from the HOA telling me to mow my lawn... OK, but I had
proof that my lawn was being mowed each week for the entire summer
(can you say cancelled checks to the lawn care guys) and I'm sure the
yard wasn't getting out of hand enough to warrant a nasty letter from
the HOA in a week. I figure it was a mistake, but I can just see some
guy hired by the HOA driving his Honda though the neighborhood looking
for "violations" scratching notes in a book. (In our case it's a lady
in a orange corvette that works for the management company. I know, I
spotted her a few times before I saw her at the last HOA meeting.)

Also, I don't dare try and "hide" a stealth antenna in plain sight.
It's like the SS is driving around looking for a justification for the
high fees the management company charges. For some reason they can see
18 gauge bare copper coming off the back of my house heading for the
back fence. (Oh yea, I got a letter on that one too.) I could barely
see it from the street, knowing it was there.

I wonder what the smallest gauge wire I could try for a 75M dipole
that would stay together for a reasonable length of time? I'm also
got a bit of ladder line I'm thinking I'll use to feed a loop antenna
running along the edge of the roof secured with Christmas light
holders.. I wonder if they will see that too?

Flagpoles are a highly touted option (Just hide a vertical in one) but
there are issues there too. In order to be safe, (and legal in some
cases) I'd need to consider RF exposure limits and take steps to keep
somebody from getting too close to the flagpole in the front yard. If
they allowed the flagpole to go up without comment a fence, or some
kind of screening, is going to get HOA attention.

I’ve considered trying to appeal to the HOA board for some minor
allowances. Like giving me the ability to put up things that are
hidden behind the house with perhaps just the top 20’ of a vertical
visible above my roof or allowing some antenna supports hidden behind
my house with just small wire visible from the street. The problem
with that is that I don’t know where to start with them. I’ve
considered running for the board to increase my pull, but I just don’t
have the time right now.

Has anybody had any success with getting an HOA to allow this kind of
thing, in spite of the clear restrictions in the CC&R’s?

-= Bob =-