Port a Potty in front yard

I just had a homeowner tell me that he could not remove a port a potty from his front yard because FEMA requires it while a contractor is doing remodeling inside his house. Anyone ever heard of such a federal law?

First off, unless it's in a disaster zone, FEMA regs shouldn't be applicable. OSHA probably is who they are referring to. If so, I think this is the applicable regulation:

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10959

Probably the contractor just told the owner whatever to make it easy to dump the porta-pottie, so have the owner tell the contractor to provide the pertinent regulation of move it in "x" days.

Joe

I wish our pool contractor had provided a potty. We weren't home when the crew was here, but I found they had "borrowed" a plastic bucket sitting outside, and thankfully took it with them. However, the pool compnay offered a $50 store certificate when I wondered what happened to my missing bucket. Didn't bat an eye, so must happen often and maybe that's cheaper than renting a potty for every job.

I agree with you Robert about having the potty screened or whatever works for the community. But I can guarantee you that FEMA is not involved in this contractor and his remodel job.
I am from Florida, home of the FEMA blunders and screwups and this is not their jurisdiction for sure.

Gloria, I don't think it has anything to do with the homeowner's preference.

We had a house JUST outside our HOA limits have some work being done on their home all summer -- and the contractors had a porta potty out there the entire time.

We contacted our local Zoning people and were told that if the construction project is projected to last over a certain period of time (not sure what that was) then they are required to have such facilities available.

RogerB

Tell them the HOA Board says you can not go to the restroom and if you do there will be fines. I am just being smart...anyone with a brain knows that people need to go to the bathroom. What will HOA's try to control next, the kind of toilet paper people use?

Amazing Harold said:

"You don't have enough to do to control homes inside your HOA? Amazing."

Actually, the reason I worded it that way was because we received a ton of calls from homeowners in our subdivision who THOUGHT the house belonged within our boundaries. It does not. The house was a newly built one of similar construction and design to many in our neighborhood, but it not part of our HOA.

The lot used to belong to an owner of an older house at the edge of our subdivision, but not within our boundaries. After our neighborhood was built, the owner of that parcel subdivided his large lot into 3 parcels and sold them off. The house in question was built right next to the first house in our subdivision.

Every time that homeowner does something that is contrary to our deed restrictions, we start getting calls.

First was when he installed a brick-enclosed mailbox. Our CC&Rs allow only a black steel mailbox with a newspaper slot underneath.

The next was when he erected a detached garage. Our CC&Rs allow only attached garages.

Then he added a greenhouse. We can have greenhouses, but people were trying to make sure he got it approved through our Arch Committee.

Then we would get calls whenever he would park a car on the street overnight.

Then he added a basement, which is the renovation that required the contractors to place the porta-potty in his front yard.

Each time we get calls about him, we try to communicate to the homeowners that the house does not fall within our HOA boundaries and therefore he is NOT subject to any of our CC&Rs.

We even included that information in a newsletter because of the constant stream of complaints we get from HOA members.

It would crack me up if it weren't such a pain in the rear to clarify each and every time we get a call!

LOL

DJ1,
Not living in this kind of situation, the message I will take from these posts will be.

There seems to be a real need for all condos and HOA's to have on file a graphic surveyers map that clearly describes all property concerned. I would suggest of your survey may it not up to date and cclear, that the place to start looking for help in obtaining ssomething that establishs boundry lines, is the county Zoning office. Talk to them and I feel sure, if they don't have on file what you are looking for, they will direct you to the right county office. Relying on boundry stakes can pose a lot of problems unless you can locate this marker on a plat and follow it until you have the whole property identified. Something to think about.

LOL Michele - I suppose that owner is enjoying himself for causing you and your HOA so much pain. You wrote: "We contacted our local Zoning people..." even knowing that that home was not under your control. That's the amazement - that you have the energy to respond to all your homeowners, yet have the time to go after this non member. Good luck. Keep after him. Maybe some day you'll find something you can hang on him. Harold

Michelle:

Sounds like a memo should go out to your HO informing them that this home is not in your HOA, does not fall under your governing documents and the HO should stop bothering the BOD about a non HOA member that you can do nothing about.

He is bound only by state and local ordinances. The BOD has no jurisdiction over him.

Michelle:

Isn't HOA management fun! Owners feel if they get a letter then they are being singled out, little do they know 20 other letters went out. So they become vindictive and drive around reporting everyone else.

This is one big reason I have such respect for Board Members to volunteer to serve and put up with nonsense like that is a prime example. Sometimes you have to shake the dust off of you and just move on. Good luck Michelle.

Gloria, how the heck is the homeowner supposed to know they aren't the target of selective enforcement? Trust? I don't think so! We've seen plenty of examples here where selective enforcment does occur.

20 letters may have gone out, OR NOT. People's perceptions may be right or wrong about selective enforcement so maybe the Board could assure the HO that they aren't the only ones instead of leaving the HO guessing.

In conversations I had with some HOA members who owned boats, in violation of the CCR's, several said they had no issue moving the boat out of the HOA SO LONG AS OTHER HO's were also made to correct their different CCR violations, otherwise these HO's would feel like they were being targeted.

It's all about fair treatment and if HO'S feel they are being treated fairly they might be more compliant. That isn't being vindictive.

I doubt many of these 'vindictive' homeowners would have bothered looking for violations if not but for receiving the letter, and they are within their rights to raise other violations.

DJ said: "The BOD should thank the person for helping to identify any violations!"

Oh, we do.

And we are very open about our enforcement.

We post a document called a complaint tracking database.

It's available for any resi dent to review.

It contains the date the complaint came in, the format the complaint came in (email, phone, in person), the address of the alleged violation, the board member assigned to investigate, the confirmation of violation date, the BOD response (letter, phone call, both, etc), date of follow up inspection, whether further notification was required, date further notification went out, date of second follow up inspection, whether matter needs to be forwarded to attorney or date of compliance/correction, etc.

The name of the person reporting the alleged violation is not included.

We then produce reports for the monthly meetings. The reports include types of violations, whether 1st or 2nd notification/violation, etc.

We can get as detailed as a resident wants.

But it still never fails. People who receive a notification, EVEN WHEN IT'S JUST A REMINDER NOTIFICATION AS THE FIRST NOTICE ALWAYS IS, they get their nose out of joint and want to go through the neighborhood with a fine-tooth comb and make sure EVERYONE else is in compliance.

More power to them. No skin off my nose. And we do very much thank them for taking the time and reporting to us.

We just had a resident call and threaten to get their lawyer after us. She had been parking on the street in front of her house for about a week. We received a complaint and sent her a reminder regarding on-street parking and the CC&Rs.

Not sure what her lawyer will do. I asked her if she could provide his fax number so we could fax him a copy of the CC&Rs. She hung up on me.

Oh well.

Since we're not in Arizona, we're not inclined to list them.

If it were a legal requirement, we would.

We aren't so obligated here in Kentucky, but thanks for the heads up.

However, our goal is not to limit reports or discourage people from coming forward with a notification of a potential violation of the CC&Rs.

Our goal is to encourage compliance with the governing documents in order to maintain their integrity.

Since we don't have a 24/7 BOD that can go and patrol, we rely heavily on residents' notifications.

Our reporting system has served us well over the years and has held up well in court on the handful of cases where we've relied on it to show we do not engage in selective enforcement. In none of the cases were we compelled to provide the names of the people reporting the violation. Every notification is verified by a Board member and the board member is the one who testifies regarding the violation in question.

But again, thanks for the heads up.