Pot may be legal, but homeowner agreements can ban

[bentom187]

Pot may be legal, but homeowner agreements can ban

DENVER (AP) — Pot may be legal in some states — but the neighbors don't have to like it.

Marijuana and hemp have joined wacky paint colors and unsightly fences as common neighborhood disputes facing homeowners' associations. Though a few HOAs have willingly changed their rules to accommodate for legal marijuana use or home-growing, many more are banning home pot smoking.

Homeowners' associations can't ban members from using marijuana in their homes when it's legal. But if neighbors can see or smell weed, the law is clear — HOAs have every right to regulate the drug as a nuisance, or a threat to children along the lines of a swimming pool with no fence.

"The fact that people may be legally entitled to smoke doesn't mean they can do it wherever they want, any more than they could walk into a restaurant and light up a cigarette," said Richard Thompson, who owns a management consulting company that specializes in condominium and homeowner associations.

Thompson said his home condo development in Portland, Oregon, is a prime example of how marijuana's growing acceptance has sparked neighbor conflicts.

"As soon as spring and summer come around, we hear complaints about marijuana smoke because people are out on their patios and they have the windows down," he said.



It's not clear how many homeowners' associations have confronted marijuana conflicts in the 23 states with some form of legal marijuana. But lawyers who specialize in HOA disputes, as well as a Colorado regulatory agency that advises HOAs, say there are growing conflicts among neighbors who want to smoke pot and others who don't want to see it or smell it.

"What we're really seeing more now is regulating the associations' common areas," such as smoke wafting onto playgrounds or others' porches, said Erin McManis, an attorney in Phoenix whose firm represents hundreds of Arizona HOAs.

The Carrillo Ranch homeowners association in Chandler, Arizona, earlier this year took the rare step of withdrawing a proposed ban on residents smoking medical marijuana in their front and backyards and on their patios.

The HOA planned a meeting on the topic in March, but withdrew the proposal after many residents opposed the ban as too harsh.

"This is a personal-freedom issue where people were going to dictate how other people should live," Carrillo Ranch resident Tom LaBonte told The Arizona Republic in February, when the HOA dropped its proposal.

HOA lawyers say the Carrillo Ranch case illustrates the value of HOAs when the law changes, as with marijuana.

"Coming together and working on issues is something associations have been doing for a long time," McManis said. "We're hopeful that's how it's going to go forward now with medical marijuana."

Smoke isn't the only neighbor complaint posed by loosening marijuana laws. Growing pot and hemp is prompting neighbor disputes, too.

A suburban Denver retiree learned the hard way this spring that he needed neighbors' permission before growing hemp. Jim Denny, of Brighton, Colorado, learned about marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin and decided to try the crop on a 75-by-100-foot plot in his yard.

But Denny's hemp plot ran afoul of his homeowners' association, which ruled the hemp experiment unacceptable.

"As soon as they heard about it, they said, 'We're not going to let anyone grow marijuana here,'" Denny said. "I explained to them that hemp is not marijuana, but they were dead-set against it."

So with his hemp plants about 2 feet tall, Denny invited hemp activists to come transplant them to somewhere without opposition from a homeowner association. Denny sold the plants for about $3 each, a good price for a plant whose seeds can cost up to $10 each because it can't be imported.

Hemp activists volunteered to pay Denny's fines for flouting the HOA, which could have run to $600 a day. But Denny decided that living peacefully with his neighbors trumped making a political point.

"I had people calling up and saying, 'It's just a shame; we'll pay your fines all the way through to the end.' But I decided in the end not to fight it," said Denny, a technical writer and former software engineer. "At the end of the day, I live here."

The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me. This guy ( Richard Thompson) does not see the difference between a public restaurant and a private home. I'll never be involved in a HOA, EVARRR.

 

[dabking]

Gotta love how the "man" is always trying to find a way to control everything and everyone.

 

[shaggyballs]

If it is legal?.... how can they take someone to jail for it???
Sound shady!
Can homeowners ass. tell you where you can drink beer too?

 

[shaggyballs]

Gotta love how the "man" is always trying to find a way to control everything and everyone.

Wait till they get a hold on all the seeds!

 

[Bulldog420]

Why would anybody live in a home owners association? Sounds kind of like agenda 21, sticking everybody in a combine. Don't waste a second of your life living under some home owners association, if everybody follows suit, no more home owners associations.

 

[shaggyballs]

Why would anybody live in a home owners association? Sounds kind of like agenda 21, sticking everybody in a combine. Don't waste a second of your life living under some home owners association, if everybody follows suit, no more home owners associations.

I agree freedom for all(regardless)

 

[theJointedOne]

folks have a problem with the smell of herb in the wind, yet they are happy to inhale billlows of smoke from their bbq where they burn flesh...

yumm...burning flesh smell...

 

[Capt.Ahab]

Home owner's associations suck. That is all there is to it. Some are better than others but all it takes is a change of the board and all of a sudden you have problems.
I have lived in places with HOA's. NEVER AGAIN. Most neighbors back then didnt mess with us because they thought we were all nuts but who wants to live like that? The dues inevitably go up. Sooner or later some busy body decides to be the local storm trooper, ratting everyone out. Ive got friends who deal with HOA. They need to make sure their shades are all up at the same height during the day, keep a light on outside at night, no trash cans visible from the road, mow the lawn once a week whether it needs it or not, blah blah blah blah. Who the hell wants to live in a place where some a-hole can whine about your frickin' shades or if you didnt turn on your exterior light? Wow. Bite me.

 

[Capt.Ahab]

Yeah well I think cauliflower smells like shit. Go cook that crap somewhere else.

folks have a problem with the smell of herb in the wind, yet they are happy to inhale billlows of smoke from their bbq where they burn flesh...

yumm...burning flesh smell...

 

[shaggyballs]

Home owner's associations suck. That is all there is to it. Some are better than others but all it takes is a change of the board and all of a sudden you have problems.
I have lived in places with HOA's. NEVER AGAIN. Most neighbors back then didnt mess with us because they thought we were all nuts but who wants to live like that? The dues inevitably go up. Sooner or later some busy body decides to be the local storm trooper, ratting everyone out. Ive got friends who deal with HOA. They need to make sure their shades are all up at the same height during the day, keep a light on outside at night, no trash cans visible from the road, mow the lawn once a week whether it needs it or not, blah blah blah blah. Who the hell wants to live in a place where some a-hole can whine about your frickin' shades or if you didnt turn on your exterior light? Wow. Bite me.

Ahh freedom at it's best!
shag

 

[armedoldhippy]

Why would anybody live in a home owners association? Sounds kind of like agenda 21, sticking everybody in a combine. Don't waste a second of your life living under some home owners association, if everybody follows suit, no more home owners associations.

10X what the dog said! "SIC 'EM! good boy..."

 

[Bulldog420]

folks have a problem with the smell of herb in the wind, yet they are happy to inhale billlows of smoke from their bbq where they burn flesh...

yumm...burning flesh smell...

This is exactly why the mob can't rule. I would disagree with your distaste for meat smell, but I respect your right to have that opinion. However I have a problem when somebody tells me what is and isn't allowed. My neighbors here have horses and they have stacks of shit on their property that stinks up the area. Now is that person hurting me in anyway? No. Should I or would I be able to make them sell their horses because I don't like the smell? No. Why should they be able to say anything in return? In life you have to live by the golden rule IMO, Treat others how you wish to be treated. If somebody is doing no harm to you, you should do no harm to them.

 

[armedoldhippy]

"I must spread some rep around before giving any of it to Bulldog420 again" stupid computer! i'll be back, bulldog!

 

[monsoon]

The thing about HOA's is that living in one is a choice. Nobody enters such a situation by force and anyone doing so should realize that there are going to be restrictions on things like trash, junk cars on blocks and more.

What I find ironic about it/think sucks about it is that one side of the law "supposedly" gives every property owner the right to say "Yes" or "No" to cannabis growing/involvements on their private property, yet the folks who OWN a home or condo in an HOA seem to lose that right? Doesn't make sense/isn't right...

Thankfully my HOA doesn't care/has paint colors to approve and other important issues. to deal with..

 

[Doobie Ninja]

The thing about HOA's is that living in one is a choice. Nobody enters such a situation by force and anyone doing so should realize that there are going to be restrictions on things like trash, junk cars on blocks and more.

This statement is totally incorrect, HOA companies come into established neighborhoods all the time, and put forth a vote on whether to form an HOA or not with a majority vote. They can incorporate you into an HOA against your will, and they even can force foreclosure on your house for not following the set rules.

 

[armedoldhippy]

This statement is totally incorrect, HOA companies come into established neighborhoods all the time, and put forth a vote on whether to form an HOA or not with a majority vote. They can incorporate you into an HOA against your will, and they even can force foreclosure on your house for not following the set rules.

not true everywhere. if there were no HOA when you bought, & no CC&R on your deed, in most places they CANNOT force you to join/follow the rules. READ the DEED carefully before you buy. in some cases a city will have a law mandating them. if you are annexed, you are fucked. luckily, in TN you may NOT be forcibly annexed anymore.

 

[monsoon]

Yeah...dunno where you live....but it doesn't happen that way here in CO from my knowledge. This page defines it all/spells it out... and says NOPE...you can't be forced in if your house wasn't in an HOA when you purchased it...

New HOAs


"Occasionally a subdivision or planned development organizes an HOA retroactively, rather than creating one from the neighborhood's inception. Homeowners might want to enforce rules on existing properties or band together to create and maintain shared playgrounds or green spaces. In this case, if you bought your home before the HOA formed, you cannot be forced to join. An HOA must exist before you purchase for required membership."

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/can-forced-join-homeowners-association-26261.html

 

[Bulldog420]

This statement is totally incorrect, HOA companies come into established neighborhoods all the time, and put forth a vote on whether to form an HOA or not with a majority vote. They can incorporate you into an HOA against your will, and they even can force foreclosure on your house for not following the set rules.

Yup. Nazi rule I say.