CCR'S restrictions

william watts

Member
Messages
114
Location
Central valley, calif.
Wife and I are getting older every day. Now we are talking about moving closer to family in West Sacramento Ca. That would only be about a 50 mile move. Their doesn't seem to be a lot of houses for sale in that area and the few for sale are in newer sub divisions. I've only lived in 3 houses in my life and they were all built before ccr's were invented. I am wondering If folks here, living with ccr's, find them very restrictive, especially for for garage style wood working? I feel their may be restrictions about the noise, dust, and whatever else comes up. I do not work after 5:00 PM or before 10:00 AM trying to avoid complaints, and never had any. It's strictly a hobby for me maybe 4-5 days a week with periods of inactivity between projects. I am trying scope this out before doing something I regret.

Step daughter-in- law lives in in West Sac. Wife wants to move there, but any area close by may be ok. It could be be an older neighborhood with no CCR's I like older better.

Bill
 
From ones I've lived in and know others that have, they are all different as far as how "Active" they are. I had my shop in my garage and never got complaints, nor was there any covenants that stated I couldn't do otherwise. There were city ordinances for noise and storage of stuff outside, but that was it.

The biggest complaints I heard about in ours was folks that had boats/trailers and left them on the street for more than a few days. Those that would bring them home from the lake and then leave them parked on the street until the next weekend. But at the same time the folks that complained had teens leaving their car parked on the streets overnight, which was also against the rules.

On the flip side, I've lived in one that had covenants, but no active HOA to enforce the rules, so no one abides by them. Doesn't mean that one neighbor couldn't sue another to enforce it, but with and HOA, the dues allow budgeting of legal help to make them more effective.

Then you have the ones that are like my friend that just had a new roof put on. They made him tear it off and go with another color as the one he picked wasn't an "approved" color. :doh:

Not trying to scare you, like I said, they are all different. I'd check online to see if they have an active HOA and see if they have bulletin boards or meeting notes to see what type of "activity" they are doing and types of things are being enforced. Can also check with the Recorder of deeds or realtor to see if they have a copy of the covenants you can gander at.
 
The realtors in CA must give you a copy of the CCR's. It's required. However, as Darren said, they all differ in action from what is on the paper and it depends on who is doing the interpreting and enforcing. When you find a neighborhood you like, talk to at least 3 neighbors on your own about what really happens and who and how. Be upfront and honest about what you want to do. No house is nice enough to put up with bad neighbors. You have to go into this knowing there are no guarantees and nearly every neighborhood has them, old and new. Old is better because the neighborhood is usually settled and the status quo is the real deal regardless of what the paper says. But you do need to know what the paper say because horse's patooties come along each day to rain on someone's parade.
 
Wife and I are getting older every day. Now we are talking about moving closer to family in West Sacramento Ca. That would only be about a 50 mile move. Their doesn't seem to be a lot of houses for sale in that area and the few for sale are in newer sub divisions. I've only lived in 3 houses in my life and they were all built before ccr's were invented. I am wondering If folks here, living with ccr's, find them very restrictive, especially for for garage style wood working? I feel their may be restrictions about the noise, dust, and whatever else comes up. I do not work after 5:00 PM or before 10:00 AM trying to avoid complaints, and never had any. It's strictly a hobby for me maybe 4-5 days a week with periods of inactivity between projects. I am trying scope this out before doing something I regret.

Step daughter-in- law lives in in West Sac. Wife wants to move there, but any area close by may be ok. It could be be an older neighborhood with no CCR's I like older better.

Bill

You said it doesn't have to be West Sac - i'd look into Pocket or the Tahoe Park area, Land park, Elmhurst or even some parts of Oak Park -- that's all basically along Broadway. I live in Tahoe Park and quite like the area. There's also Tahoe Terrace as well - on the north side of broadway that's pretty secluded and low traffic, close to everything.

Personally, I won't live in an area 'governed' by such a thing. There are plenty of areas that don't have them.
 
Just the idea of living somewhere that has restrictions like that is giving me a headache. That is a big part of why I choose to live in the woods in a rural part of the Arkansas Ozarks. I can let the dogs run, take a whiz or go shooting without being concerned about a complaint from neighbors.
 
I lived in a small community next to Asbury Park and was asked to leave after 6 months. You couldn't operate a car in the town on Sunday , you were not allowed to have beer in the fridge on Sunday no music , these are the extremes. As Carol said your realtor will get you the copy of the restrictions.
 
Never paid much attention to the CCR's in most of the neighborhoods I've lived in, but like Frank, my preference is living in the sticks where the dogs can run free, I don't but could shoot if I wanted, my shop sits behind the house, but in plain view of the road and the neighbors and has wood piled all around it, no complaints and more often than not, the neighbors will drop off wood....

I did live in two different neighborhoods in Texas, around Houston that had pretty active HOA's... I inherited my stepfather's old '71 Chevy pick up that sat in my driveway for a few weeks when the battery was dead... got a letter about "abandoned" vehicles... so I put a new battery in it, and moved it to the other side of the drive, then about once a week would move it from one side to the other... I wasn't using it as I had a company car and with the hours I worked, didn't need it... no problems after I started moving it.

And in another neighborhood I lived in across the lake, I had a few yards of dirt delivered and dumped in the driveway up by the house and in front of the garage (which actually sat behind the house, but slightly off to the side).... to see up my drive way, which curved from the street, you had to park right at the end of the drive way and look between two huge evergreens that almost blocked the driveway...just enough space to pull through.... the dirt was dumped on Thursday, I started Saturday morning hauling it by wheelbarrow to fill the flower beds I was building around the house and worked all weekend on the pile of dirt.. by the Sunday night about 2/3 had been hauled around the yard... Monday morning I got a letter telling me I had a pile of dirt in my driveway that needed to be moved.
 
CCRs? HOA? :huh:

Codes, Covenants & Restrictions

Home Owners' Association.

I owned and ran an HOA Management Company for about five years, and had to listen to all the whining and complaining, as well as write all the complaint enforcement letters. What a PITA! One of the happiest days of my life was when I sold that company!
 
Codes, Covenants & Restrictions

Home Owners' Association.

I owned and ran an HOA Management Company for about five years, and had to listen to all the whining and complaining, as well as write all the complaint enforcement letters. What a PITA! One of the happiest days of my life was when I sold that company!

Sounds like stuff my sone has in his townhouse development. I don't know what he calls them. I live in a detached home in a suburb. Only the Zoning Clerk can tell me what to do, and he's my nephew.
 
Thanks for the info I diffently got some good information here. It seems Dave really stepped into a load of trouble, ask to leave after 6 months, and no beer in the fridge on Sunday! The fridge police surly must need a search warrant. Just make sure it's all gone on Sunday. What ever happened to the pursuit of happiness. Carrols suggestion of talking to the neighbors is a good we're just not sure how to approach them. " Hi I would like to be your new neighbor can I make a lot of noise with wood working machines" might not be the right way. We will think of something.

We've started checking the real estate web sites and it looks like there are not a lot of HOA's in the area. Looking at Jasons suggestions, and further away, from West Sac there are some possibilities. Thats now, but it will be some time before we can move. We need to spruce up the house we're in and get it ready for market, find nursing care for my mother in the Sac area, mom just had her 99 birthday, and get our ducks in a row. The real estate agent comes on Friday to look our place over and get some comparables in our area. We are looking forward to the move, but not the process.

Bill
 
Well, Bill,why not do this.

Hi. we're house shopping in this area and would like to ask you your experience with the HOA/CCR's. Then listen.

Then ask, "Who is the person around here to talk to about this?"

Hit at least three households. Check their driveways/garages to look for situations you expect your driveway to look like after you move there. Abandoned vehicles tell you something. Open garage doors that reveal tools, etc. will tell you something. Stand alone buildings in the yard will tell you something. You get the idea. Look for a neighborhood that looks like people like you live there. Good luck.
 
...Look for a neighborhood that looks like people like you live there. Good luck.

That there , Ladies and Gentlemen, may be the wisest thing I have ever heard anybody say about choosing where to live.

I agree, but have you seen me? :eek: I'm not sure I'd want to live in a neighborhood filled with a bunch of people like me, lol. :rofl:

Actually, the most crime-free neighborhood I've ever lived in was in Tujunga, CA. Despite being a relatively low-income part of Los Angeles, we had very few gang problems. The bikers ran them all off. :thumb: And ff you went by looks alone, most of them made me look like a choir boy. :D
 
Carol mentioned something, that made me think of my brothers old neighborhood; open garage doors. In my brothers old neighborhood, that was a big restriction. They had just moved in and his wife thought she hit the garage door button, to close the door. A neighbor saw the open garage door and called the cops.
My brother awoke laying on the bed in his underwear, with several officers with drawn weapons around.
They were allowed to pull out some dying bushes, but had to get approved, replacement bushes.

Another person that used to come into where I worked, painted his house an off shade from one of the approved colors. The homeowners association made him repaint, so he got the approved colors list, and striped his house with approved colors. The homeowners association tried to fight him on that, and ended up repainting his house, back to the color he started with.
I have heard enough horror stories about the busy body person in the neighborhood, being the one that ruined the associations for people.
 
Randals paint story reminds me of a fellow I worked with who ended up in a lawsuit with his HOA over the ivy on his house (why he wanted ivy on his house I don't understand but he did anyway - it was kind of a hoity toity old school brick looking place). There was nothing in the rules forbidding it but none of the other neighbours had it so they sued him for "disrupting the common character of the neighbourhood" (or something to that effect). He eventually prevailed because his house was one of the model homes and he had documentation to show that it had been sold with the ivy in place and was thus "part of the original character of the neighbourhood".

Another was a manager at one place in HI apparently didn't have the "approved minimum number of trees" in his yard. He figured out that the guy who had complained lived directly uphill from him and ended up spending a small fortune to put in enough strategically placed (and large!) trees to completely obliterate that persons ocean view. Of course there was the follow on complaint about the ocean view being blocked, but there was nothing in the rules that said that vegetation had to be pruned to maintain neighbouring ocean views so the busy body lost something like $200k worth of property value due to his complaint.

The amount of effort some people will spend to make other peoples lives difficult for no gain of their own boggles my mind.

Personally I'd prefer some place without any building codes or neighbours for that matter :)wave: Brent).

Carols suggestion of looking for a neighbourhood of like minded people is a really good one. Meeting the old owners can also prove useful, if they're your sort of people that's a good start unless they're escaping because no one else is their sort of people :)
 
My wife and I found a place in Sacramento, a neighborhood called the "pocket", a very friendly neighborhood. We are just getting moved in and and we have already met our neighbors and several people from the neighborhood. We still have many boxes to unpack and a garage shop to get set up and organized. I will need to get a electrician to have 220 volt installed in the garage and I need to install the lighting. I can do that myself. Its looking like it will be some time before I am back to woodworking. This neighborhood does have ccr's, but very limited and nobody pays any attention to them as far as I can tell.

I used Carols advice and talked to both adjacent neighbors before we bought and they seem to be fine folks and very friendly. Jason's advice on the areas around the city was much appreciated, and in fact we did end up in The Pocket area he mentioned. Checking the google, there is a woodworking club in this area and I will look into that when we get settled some. Thanks to all.
 
We lived in the same place in Lancaster County for 33 years. It was large lot in the country and had a large farm across the road that dumped pig manure 2-3 times a year. The road beside us was only used by us and the old farm house 1/8 mile behind us. The township decided to enforce all zoning restrictions on all houses that weren't zoned agriculture. Actually hired a firm to drive around and proactively look for violations. What a nightmare my last summer was, as were were in the process of cleaning out and moving out of state. They were trying to claim the private drive was public. I was setting small objects out for free from time to time, Usually gone in a couple of hours as it was worth while stuff. They harassed me over that, and I sold a boat trailer and a snowmobile trailer. It was as bad as any HOA and changed overnight after some realtors got them elected to township supervisors. Had a couple of rural townships that went this way. I knew one guy they cost 8000 dollars and another that they actually broke as he tried to fight them. Don't get comfortable and feel safe anywhere. If I wasn't grandfathered I couldn't have parked my RV on the 220 yard private drive as it was at the side of the house and not totally hidden by it. And without getting political this was in an area that solidly votes for the party that claims to not want the government in peoples private lives. As I said there is no where that is really safe.
 
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