Crossing the Ts

IMO, no, the board cannot waive the sign rule. that would be "inconsistent" with the intents of the authors of the covenants.

however, a board could waive the sign rules on a case by case basis, with petition, etc., to allow a temporary sign be placed for no more than X hours, in Y location, no larger than Z, etc.. this would not be a permanent change like a complete waiver of the rule, just a temporary one.

JohnK3... one way that your owners can get around the rule is to place their signs on city property, not HOA common area. I used to remove all the signs on our property, but i wouldn't touch a sign placed on the sidewalk.

Now, the city may have something to say, but that's a different kettle of fish.

John it would be helpful if you would post the entire sections of your CC&R's instead of just summarizing them. Do your documents truly require a vote of the homeowners for something like this? Ours for instance prohibit any sign without the BOD's approval: Signs. No signs of any kind shall be displayed to the public view of the properties except those on the Common Elements and approved in advance by the Board of Trustees, those regarding and regulating the use of the Common Elements and approved in advance by the Board of Trustees and those used
by the Declarant to advertise any unit for sale or rent or to identify the financing agent during the sales period. This section shall specifically preclude, among other, signs situated on the Common Elements or upon any unit advertising certain premises as being for sale or for rent, other than as
permitted to be used by the Declarant to advertise any unit for sale or rent or to identify the financing agent.

And realistically if someone puts up a sign advertising a yard sale on a Friday and the BOD receives a complaint. You go out and verify that indeed homeowner X has a sign up advertising a yard sale and you send him a violation notice. Most violation notices give the homeowner a certain number of days to cure the violation i.e. take down the sign or be fined. Monday the sign comes down probably before the homeowner gets the violation notice. They have had their yard
sale and you have upheld your covenants and as long as they do not do it again within a year (usual period for automatic fine for a repeat violation) everybody's happy.

Sorry, I mis-stated it. What I meant was that the sidewalks adjacent to your common areas are on HOA property. You are correct that the sidewalks adjacent to homes are on that homeowner's property.

However, the basic concept still stands. If your rules say no signs on common or private property, then you should be enforcing the rule even if the signs are on the sidewalks. You would follow the same procedures that you would for signs posted elsewhere.

If the signs are on the sidewalks adjacent to a home, then you would follow your procedure for homeowner violations. In our case we would send the homeowner a reminder letter about the rule. That is often enough to give the homeowner the "authority" to remove any signs that somebody else plants on their property.

If the signs are on the sidewalks adjacent to common areas, it would be kind of silly for the board to send a reminder letter to that owner, so since you have stated that you would remove signs posted in common areas, you should follow the same procedure and remove the signs from the sidewalks adjacent to the common areas also.

Typically for garage sales people want to put a big sign at the entrance to the community, and the entrance is often common area. So even if the no-signs rule only covers common areas, those garage sale signs at the entrance would need to be removed.

Dwight, you and i are in agreement pretty much. My city had some weird signage ordinances, but i agree entirely with how you would handle them in your post.

JohnK3, you ask a tough question. A good board SHOULD adjust the rules to allow for special cases. the problem with doing that, and not simply following the rules as written, ever time, no exception, is remaining a GOOD board.

If the board allows an exemption, documents it, the reasons for it, and allows it to be exempted for the same reasons evermore, that's not bad. however, if the board allows Jane do do a communion sign, and jessie to do a mary kay sign, but fines terri for doing an avon sign, that causes problems. Perhaps the REASONS were valid for each: Communion is not for profit, the mary kay sign was notice for a single event hosted by someone who is NOT the mary kay consultant, and the avon was for an owner running a business from their home. But, unless the exact reasons for exemption are recorded, granting breaks to the rules leads to everything being an exemption, and the rules are not enforced fairly, etc. So, if your board is going to lax a rule, DOCUMENT IT THOUROUGHLY, so future boards know why, how, for how long, etc..

John - it's an even more slippery slope than you can imagine. If you allow that Communion sign, are you also going to allow signs for the Esbat rituals that the Wiccan around the corner wants to hold? Neither sign benefits the entire community, but if you are going to allow one, you have to allow the other. And then what about the atheist who would rather not see any reminders of any religion. By allowing either of those signs, you are offending his beliefs.

Plus once you allow one type of sign, you pretty much have to allow all other types. The courts have ruled that sign restrictions based on content are not allowed. You either have to prohibit all signs or you can't prohibit any.

It's not about being "nit-picking pricks" as you put it, but it is about protecting your ability to enforce your rules and restrictions in general.

I would agree with Brian on this one. If you decide to follow the path and get a lot of flack, then you can change course.

What most people seem to miss is that you are very unlikely to get sued without a buildup before hand. And if the buildup starts, then the time to try and deal with it is before the lawsuit occurs.

All that said, you may want to consider taking on a change to the CC&Rs to give the board the wiggle room you seek. Of course that will require a lot of work to collect the needed proxies since it is doubtful that the required number of people are not likely to simply show up or respond.

John - the INTENT is always something to look at. A sign directing party guests to a home probably is not the kind of "sign" the original HOA documents meant to prevent. However, a real estate sign that would be up for months probably is. The board must be discerning, for sure, in its decisions! Tough job.

As for the variances, again - the shed in the middle of the yard is probably what the CCR wants to prevent. The other example is workable, with little damage done to the overall HOA.

Your questions are samples of what we all go thru on the Board. That's why we hope the best and the brightest are on the Boards.

along with intent and rule changing, a different tactic to use would be to set up a set of "definitions" for terms used, if they don't exist.

For instance: a sign is defined as any freestanding notice, ad, banner, sticker, or placard made of any material placed on a sidewalk or property with the intent to attract attention, announce, communicate a service or item, ...yadda yadda. Items similar to this but temporarily placed (visible for no more than one day in a month) and removed within 8 hours of placement shall not be considered signs for purposes of this definition. Such items cannot, however, be placed on HOA common property or in violation of city sign codes, etc..

That helps some, but it also opens doors to others, so think it over carefully.

this would allow the communion signs, welcome home baby signs, a garage sale sign once a month, etc.. as well as others you might not care about so much.