Maybe it's not clearly understood this has already been tried three times. Last one was this one: All Info - H.R.555 - 115th Congress (2017-2018): Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2017 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress It passed in the House, went to the Senate, was tossed to the Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation and died there. No floor vote. Like the previous two tries, it died. This one will also die, but first it must be written as a resolution by a member of Congress. That could happen! But then it would die in committe again.
I certainly wouldn't sign it. When you moved into an HOA you agreed to abide by the HOA rules. Now you want to change the game just to suit you?
I am sorry but my feelings on this is Caveat Emptor. Somehow all my life HOA's were always on the bottom of my list. Yes I know so many places it is next to impossible to avoid but that's only because so many bought into the scam. In the big scheme of things I guess it doesn't matter because no one actually owns property in this country and were all renters but be damned if I want a bunch of puds in my neighborhood deciding what I can do. Bad enough town/city councils can. And before any of the so called reasoned here question what I said look up allodial title. If you cannot grasp the concept don't bother questioning.
Sorry, I was going to ignore this thread, but I feel compelled to add my input on this (repeat) thread (again). This thread (again) demonstrates the basic growing issue we *all* seem to be at odds with each other over because I see some vitriolic responses which elicit other vitriolic responses--and the cycle continues, which is the reason for one of the latest rules on posting. I'll try not to break the latest rules on posting. The basic issue is this: either you want to continue to build a centralized powerful government where you have a "one stop shop" to get all your problems fixed (thus causing others to have problems, but that's not your problem) or to stop centralizing power and head in the other direction and do some decentralizing of power which gives the people (over all) more choices that they can freely make; thus, making more people (over all) happy. I live in an HOA. The last thing I did before making an offer on my QTH was ask the realtor for a copy of the CC&R's so I could make sure I could abide by them. He called the selling realtor and asked for it. I heard her say, "What does he need those for?" And I thought to myself, "What kind of stupid question is that?" "Is she afraid if she's totally honest with me, she might not get her 3% commission?" My CC&R's say, "no antennae higher than 15 feet above the apex of the roof." I said "OK" and made an offer, which was accepted. My question is, "Why doesn't everyone do this?" That was a WIN for all involved! By the way, I'm a "NO" on this petition.
Last I heard, it wasn't amateur radio operators telling other people what they are allowed to do on their own property.
The last time this was discussed here, I was surprised to be told that HOAs in the US could change the rules by a majority vote - that seems wrong to me. Houses in England can come with a range of restrictions - some of which can be fairly extreme - but they are written into the deeds and cannot be changed without the agreement of the owner. I would agree that if you buy a property knowing the rules, then you should not be able to change them to the detriment of others but equally if you buy a property that has no restrictions on antennae, you should be able to have confidence that that will continue to be the case into the indefinite future... Martin (G8FXC)
Actually, states, counties, municipalities, zoning rules, building codes, insurance requirements, wetlands rules, setback requirement, easements plus a bunch of other stuff I won’t bother listing all tell homeowners what we/they can or cannot do. HOA rules provide anyone a choice -if you don’t like it, go elsewhere. Not so true about all the others but let’s not let common sense interfere with a good bogeyman rant about HOA property rights.
How many here have watched the Movie "Don't Look Up"? It is a satire of course....but presents the political and media priority systems accurately! Ham radio is not on the radar screen for anyone but ham radio operators and a couple of crackpots wearing tin full.
That's basically what an HOA is... you and your neighbors voting on what you all can do with your properties. Or, more precisely, you elect board members who then vote on what you can do with your property.
That's absolutely the way of going about it. Unfortunately, the CC&Rs can and often do change. When I lived in an HOA, the CC&Rs when I moved in were very similar to yours. You can do anything you want (including antennas) in your backyard, as long as it wasn't visible from the front street. I put up a fairly low HF vertical and VHF/UHF vertical that were completely hidden from the front of the house, and worked great. A couple years later, the CC&Rs were changed to disallow all antennas. Because mine were visible from the side and back of my house, I was in violation. It took me being elected to the Board to fix that and several other idiotic rules, which were simply changed by a vote of the Board. The same exact thing happened with satellite dishes. They were allowed/disallowed on probably 5 different occassions. Imagine using DirecTV or something for years, and literally overnight, your dish is banned. Paint? Same thing. All of the sudden, only certain paint schemes and colors would be allowed on the houses. People not in compliance were given 6 months to repaint their houses to be in compliance. That is the problem I have with HOAs. I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who moves into a house knowing full well that antenans are prohibited. But I do have sympathy for those who live under constantly changing rules. They still agreed to move somewhere knowing that the rules could be modified though. At the end of the day, I don't support the petition either. If you want freedom to practice your hobby, don't move in to an HOA. Your commute may be longer. You might not live exactly where you want to live. But if you want to enjoy ham radio, that's the option you need to exercise.
Perhaps this varies by state, but here, an HOA Board cannot change CC&Rs because they want to. They are filed with the county and go with the land, whether an HOA exists or not, and will continue to go with the land even if the HOA dissolves -- unless there's a specific expiration date written into them; and "changing" them would generally require an attorney who drafts a change and has to re-record it with the county -- which can be a really expensive process that (at least around here) virtually nobody ever does. What the Board can change is the HOA By-Laws. Most By-Laws stipulate they follow the CC&Rs but can add lots of stuff including additional "rules" and typically spend several pages discussing delegation of responsibilities, how to elect officers, explanation of dues and how they're collected, ad nauseum. I've read literally hundreds of CC&Rs and HOA By-Laws by now (started back in about 1985). CC&Rs can obviously exist without an HOA, and often do. The ones I find insidious are usually very long documents that spend lots of ink explaining the penalties for not abiding by the rules; these often use a lot of ink describing in amazing detail the responsibilities of the Board and all its members. I've come across "nice" documents, also: Those are usually very, very brief. Some are just 3 or 4 pages in total. They make more sense.
