Neighbors? Who'd have 'em?

[Goin camping]

Another one of the many benefits of living in the Mojave desert. Our yard has two streams, two jeeps, two cars, two Harleys, a truck and an army ambulance.

My only neighbor who is 7 acres away likes to blast his 12 gauge into the air at night to shush the coyotes.

[Nuvite-F]

That's what I live about living in the country. My neighbor 5 acres away occasionally nails a groundhog in his back pasture with a 7 mm Remington.

I will never understand horses, though. He can shoot that 7 mm and the horses don't even look up. But when he took a backhoe back there to dig some drainage they freaked out. Had to get them calmed down and into the stable before he could do the job.
.

[LuvRVing]

Bob, I have about the same lot size as your brother and live in a city that only allows 24 hr street parking but you can get longer parking if you notify the PD. I have an unknown neighbor who calls the PD practically the first hr my RV is parked out front. It became so silly that the police wait 48 hrs before answering his complaint now and by then it is usually gone. Some people need a life with some real problems.
Myrna
TAC: CA-3

[withidl]

Here's my story: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f224...obs-70523.html post #8; or here it is pasted for those who would rather not click the link:

But i won !!!
I have battled "The Lakewood Forest Fund" for years. Following are two pieces of my correspondence concerning my Airstream which are the "meat" of the matter:

From: withidl
Sent:Thursday, September 25, 20035:37 PM
To:'lwffund@getus.com'
Subject:FURTHER REPLY - Account #0912025 - Trailers stored in
Backyard; ACC (Architectural Control Committee) approval is necessary


This e-mail is in response to your subject letter dated September 24, 2003 wherein you state: "The ACC has disapproved your request due to the height of your large trailer".

You letter completely ignores whether the travel trailer is "OBSCURED FROM GENERAL VIEW" and peripherally invokes "HEIGHT" as a declination rationale. Additionally, your letter completely ignores approval of my utility trailer which is completely "OBSCURED FROM GENERAL VIEW".

I require the ACC's PRECISE "LEGAL" definition of "GENERAL VIEW" contained within item #7 of my deed restrictions (the dictionary defines "GENERAL" in part as: "of, for, or from the whole or all; not particular or specialized, not precise; vague; without specific details).

Item #7 makes no reference to the "HEIGHT" of a travel trailer (they, and all motor homes are by definition "HIGH"), but DOES state that (a HIGH) one CAN be parked on a lot if "OBSCURED FROM GENERAL VIEW”, which again, REQUIRES the ACC's PRECISE "LEGAL" definition of "GENERAL VIEW".

I require the ACC's definition of "SCREENING" or "FENCING" as used within item #7 of the deed restrictions. Please SPECIFICALLY state what screening the item #7 deed restrictions require to make a HIGH travel trailer be "OBSCURED FROM GENERAL VIEW".

I require from the ACC the percentage, square footage, etc. of a travel trailer which can be IN "GENERAL VIEW", as being "OBSCURED FROM GENERAL VIEW" implies that some of the trailer can be IN "GENERAL VIEW", or is there something I (or the Fund) doesn't understand about "General View". If the travel trailer must be completely/entirely obscured from view, than item #7 should read OBSCURED FROM "ENTIRE" OR "SPECIFIC" VIEW, not "GENERAL VIEW"!

As I stated in my first letter to you, I have stored the travel trailer in it's present position for the last 2 1/4 years without the Fund becoming aware of it. If it had been WITHIN "GENERAL VIEW" I would surely think the Fund would have noticed it long, long, long ago; or are the Funds "drive through inspection(s) of section 9" only conducted every 2 1/4 years?

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT - I require the Fund's LEGAL clarification of the above because the Lakewood Forest Fund has in the past attempted to intimidate me into replacing my roof by MIS-using the "NUISANCES" clause of the deed restrictions to ILLEGALLY address perceived maintenance matters. You'll find in your files much communication on the matter. I sat in on your board's meeting of April 3, 2001, because of the roof matter, and heard your Treasurer, Kenneth A. Harlan, state that: "The Lakewood Forest Fund had no legal leverage to correct another home owners complaint about a neighbors cesspool, furniture piled in the back yard, dead vines growing on the outside of the home, etc.". He further stated that "in the matters taken to court the judge ruled against the Fund due to the deed restrictions not addressing maintenance matters". EVEN THOUGH THE COURTS HAD RULED AGAINST THE FUND, THE FUND WAS STILL TRYING TO INTIMIDATE ME INTO REPLACING MY ROOF BASIS THE NUISANCES CLAUSE. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!!! In a subsequent phone call to me from Michael Gainer, your fund lawyer, on April 4, 2001, he tried to persuade, cajole, etc. me into chemically treating my roof to make it more presentable. I told him not to send me any more threatening letters, just send me a court date. That ended the matter (the roof has since been replaced at a cost of $17,000 basis an insurance claim for hail damage, not basis the Fund's intimidation).

I perceive that the above declination of approval basis "height" is just more of the same tactic as used with my roof. My deed restrictions specifically state that I CAN HAVE A HOUSE TRAILER ON MY LOT IF OBSCURED FROM GENERAL VIEW, "HEIGHT" is not a part of that equation! LET ME REPEAT, "HEIGHT" IS NOT A PART OF THAT EQUATION!

NOW HOW DO WE GET THERE FROM HERE without getting in a legal hassle, which I am more than prepared to do???

VERY SINCERELY
withidl


February 4, 2004
Mr. withidl
Houston, TX
Re: ACC visit to your property, January 23, 2004.

Dear Mr. withidl
:
The ACC report of the referenced visit was presented to the Fund's Board of Trustees at our regular monthly meeting of February 2, 2004.

The consensus of the Board was that your parking place of the trailer shown to the ACC during this visit—in the back yard, backed into the space between two wings of the house—meets the requirement of the Section 9 Deed Restriction by obscuring the trailer from general view. In the interests of neighborhood harmony, we also request that you plant some shrubbery inside your side fence in the vicinity of the play structure. This will serve to preclude any future complaints.

As we have asked other trailer owners in your section, please note the limitation on parking of these vehicles in any street or drive way specified in paragraph 7 of your Section 9 Deed Restriction.

Thank you for your cooperation in resolving this matter.

Sincerely,

President

Lakewood Forest Fund, Inc.

[Gene]

Before I retired I took on some HOA's for clients and really enjoyed it. The covenants are often badly worded and vague. They may contradict state law—some states have been adopting statutes to control the worst HOA abuses. The board or their employee often don't understand the covenants, but usually interpret them broadly. When you stand up to them, they tend to back off. The last person they want to see at a board meeting is your lawyer. Their bluster disappears very fast.

Many years ago one client brought me to an HOA board meeting over a parking issue—not an RV, a commercial truck—and they caved pretty fast. This was in a very snobbish subdivision. About a month later (this guy was always calling me and was usually in some sort of trouble) he told me that he paint balled their houses. I said "why are you telling me this?" Since he told me after the fact I had no obligation to turn him in, but it did make me nervous about representing him. What if I angered him? I do know they left him alone.

When we move, we will definitely look for a house without covenants, or at least ones that are easy to challenge. Municipal ordinances (bylaws in Canada) are usually better written and it is harder to get city, town or county employees to back off, so we will especially avoid those places if they have anti-RV ordinances. Several years ago there was a story about a town that tried to ban pickup trucks in driveways, so this stuff can go pretty far.

I can understand how people don't like to look at RV's. Maybe it is the bad reputation trailer parks have for "trailer park trash". Some RV's are pretty ugly too. Some people want to live in manicured plasticized subdivisions where everything looks the same—they probably hope the grey flannel suit will come back. But where RV's are permitted in some fashion and someone gives you grief over it, and they do it passively aggressively (telling your neighbor, for ex.), then trouble is coming. It's especially bad if it is your next door neighbor—we've had bad neighbors and that is not fun. Now we live on 37 acres and our house and RV cannot be seen from the road or any house. No restrictions here either. But we want to move—if we can ever sell our house—closer to a fair sized city and will have to check out any restrictions. Having to store a trailer means—rental fees, difficulty fixing things, difficulty packing and unpacking, more chances for theft. That's not for us.

I think it is very possible you can live somewhere with an RV and no problems and then the municipality bans or severely restricts RV's. There may be a grandfather clause, maybe not. That's a situation I hope to never be in.

Gene

[LJH]

I love life in the country! I can do what I want and not annoy anyone else. Remember, if you can see your neighbors, they are too #### close.

[3 Dog Nite]

I'm with LJH. Right now I'm living in my AS MH. I've got a 74 Tradewind, a 76 S.O.B., 3 '69 datsun pickups partially parted out, a utility trailer & my minivan. Theres also a 8x10 metal storage shed & a washer/dryer setup right outside. Luckily the recent tornados didn't take any of it. I might be a redneck if..........

Ricky

[Gene]

Originally Posted by 3 Dog Nite

I might be a redneck if..........

Ricky

Ricky, you'd fit right in around here.

Gene

[MrUKToad]

Wonderful replies from my fellow Airstreamers, they certainly made me smile.

I shouldn't really make light of the issue, though, because many of you have hard a really hard time compared to my little spat where the guy wouldn't even talk to me directly. Good luck to all those engaged in battles with officious administrations; may the force (of common sense) be with you.

I'm off to see how feasible it'll be to have a rally in our street :~)

[greatlakes]

My city allows me to bring my AS/boat/etc into my driveway for three days by simply calling them and they issuing a permit number over the phone. That gives me plenty of time to load/unload and do any cleaning or minor fixes at my house.

The problem with not having any covenants or restrictions is with that one individual who wants to turn the whole subdivision into his own dump yard. Those who don't care to abide by restrictions eventually gravitate to lots with acreage and everyone is happy. There's room for everybody out there.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Party Hardy but do it legal!!

[Shacksman]

When the neighbours asked why so many trailers, I said that somebody has to be the trailer trash people " living down by the river in a trailer"

[Fly at Night]

Originally Posted by Shacksman

Want to borrow one, that needs a lot of work, for the summer.

Didn't someone here turn an Airstream into a chicken coop? Add a few hens and a really loud rooster - perfect!

[rideair]

Doug,

I thought you kept all those trailers for us Americans that want to sneak into Canada and live there illegally.

[Skater]

My city has a rule that RVs have to be on a solid surface. Recently I heard that they're also supposed to be alongside the house instead of in front - news to me, I couldn't find it when I checked the laws a couple years ago.

I want to start the Bowie Campers Association for two purposes - one, to have some fun camping as a group, and two to keep track of this stuff in our town. There are plenty of RV owners here but we're not organized - dangerous.

[Schools Out]

WOW, after reading the above I think we have really wonderful neighbors! We also live in a private neighborhood with an HOA & by-laws that state no RV vehicles parked outside of garages unless the board ok's. We were approved to park in our driveway, but we said we would add a pad & tuck it out of sight, as best we could. We could park it 365 days a year if we wanted...but that's not why we got a mh. Most of our neighbors have stopped over to tour the mh & offer positive comments. I think many would like to do the same thing...carve out a little spot for their boat or camper. And, I would be the first to encourage them.

[casa3805]

Originally Posted by MrUKToad

A neighbor from up the street stopped to talk to my immediate neighbor and inquired if I was going to keep my Airstream on my driveway. My immediate neighbor, a trailer man himself, said that he didn't know but asked why the question was being raised. The far neighbor said that he thought there was a Zoning By-Law that prohibited having any RV on a driveway. He added, as a kind of threat, that the City don't normally worry unless a complaint is made. That wasn't nice!

Now this conversation is probably quite standard in neighborhoods such as mine except that the far neighbour and the near neighbor have known each other for years and he clearly knows the near neighbor stores his own trailer on his driveway in summer and his back yard in winter. So why the question about my Airstream? If he was right about the by-law then I might have to move my trailer but so would my near neighbor (as well as all the other RVs in the surrounding streets); so much for friends, eh?

Fortunately, my near neighbor high tailed it down to City Hall and found the relevant by-law. Apparently we can't store RVs on our drives in the winter months, but we can store TWO on our driveways in the summer, so the far neighbor was wrong.

I can't understand, though, why the far neighbor was moved to think about a complaint when he knew it would impact the near neighbor as well. Some people are just mean, I think. Fortunately, everyone else in the street thinks that Airstreams enhance the neighborhood; they've all been to have a look and approve, of course.

Near neighbor has his SOB on the drive now and even though it's not an Airstream, I kind of like it now!

If I had the money I'd get a second Airstream, just so the far neighbor has something to look at when we are away travelling.

Now Mr Toad, I think you may have this all wrong. Perhaps instead of being a meanie, Mr Far Neighbor was simply waiting for his brand new High Def, super honkin' mega pixel camera to show up in the mail so he could get some great urban Airstream shots for our forums. He may have been worried that you would move it out of your driveway before his camera arrived.

OK I admit it is a stretch. But what the heck, it could happen...
Ahhh the power of positive thinking

And for real life...I live in a little neighborhood with 1 acre or larger lots. We all have boats, rv's etc and one of the first things we did after all the lots were sold was to disband the homeowners association. No more meetings, no more complaining, and we all seem to understand the need to respect each other. For now, it works for us. (My Airstream is quite visible from the road)

[Caryl]

I think we must be really lucky. In my community you can park trailers and boats at the back of your property. Our driveway (the back of our property) is positioned to be at the front of our neighbors and is very exposed to all the front yards of the block. Several of the neighbors have said that they love to have an icon of mid century design to look at everyday. Many have stopped for a look and one asked to rent it for a trip. The sanitation folks and the post lady have peeked in for a look.

The only downside is when we are gone, everyone knows and worries that the bad guys will know too. I think they keep a closer eye on the house.

Caryl

[xonvldz]

we can park ours in the driveway as long as the trailer is on the side of the house.imho i think the airstream in the driveway makes the developement look classier.if the neighbors arent happy with this none have commented to me about it.most neighbors that would complain are usually the jealous types.

[newroswell]

Pickups cause property values to drop?

City Doesn't Want Parked Pickups at Night - PickupTrucks.com News