HOA in push for color change painted 'big white square' on my house without my permission

1217 condo column

Live in a home governed by a condominium, co-op or homeowner's association? Have questions about what they can and cannot do? Ryan Poliakoff, an attorney and author based in Boca Raton, has answers. 

Question: The paint committee in my HOA is telling me to change the color of my house to white because I have a gray roof. My house is now cream with gray trim. It's been that way for the last seven years. I want to keep that color. They picked the color, and I don't have a choice.

Now they painted a big white square on the front of my house, and they won't cover it up with my paint. What can I do? Signed, A.K.

Dear A.K.,

In the vast majority of HOAs, the board of directors, or sometimes a committee of the board, has broad authority to promulgate architectural controls that govern the appearance of the community. That usually includes regulations on the colors of people’s homes. The board can likely change the palette of the community and establish a new color scheme; so, they could reasonably rescind approval for your cream color and limit your options (or even mandate that the entire community must be a single color).

What I have difficulty with here is the idea that they are forcing you to change the color of your home before it’s ready to be painted.

It could be that your home is in disrepair, and you are due for a fresh paint job; and the association has told you that you must pick a new color when you repaint. That would be possible.

But if your existing paint is in good condition and you are not in need of a repaint, and assuming that you are responsible for painting your home and not the HOA, I’m having a hard time determining where the board would get the authority to force you to repaint your home. I’m particularly confused as to how the board could touch the exterior of your home in any way.

What may be going on here, if I’m reading between the lines, is that the board is not asking you to repaint your home. Instead, I’m wondering if, in your HOA, it is the association that is responsible for periodically repainting the homes (that is fairly common). If so, the board could very well have the authority to both change the paint scheme of the community and to forcibly paint your home. You would not have the ability to refuse and tell the board that they are not allowed to paint your home a different color—the painting would be their responsibility and under their authority.

But, if that’s not the situation, and if there’s not an obvious reason the board has the right to forcibly paint your home (and there very well may be, as I’m providing this answer in a vacuum), I think you must reach out to a lawyer to discuss your options, as what the association did could even be construed as vandalism.

Question: Can my condominium board insist that dogs or cats be carried or wheeled in a cart when in a common area?  Signed, B.M.

Dear B.M.,

Most governing documents give a board of directors broad latitude to pass reasonable rules governing the use of the property, including the common elements, and so long as those rules do not conflict with a right otherwise established by those documents. Rules such as you describe are extremely common.

If someone were to challenge a rule like this, the primary question would be whether the rule is reasonably related to a legitimate association interest and problem. I can think of a lot of reasons the board may want to prohibit animals from walking through the common areas, with pet messes being the top choice, but also avoiding fights between animals and simply preventing animals from becoming a nuisance to owners who prefer not to be around them.

Now, if a disabled owner were to need an accommodation of this rule (a visually impaired person who needs their dog to guide them, for example, or a physically disabled person who cannot lift their dog), I do think the association would likely have to grant that accommodation.

And I can see situations where a judge might not support such a rule—for example, let’s assume that an association declaration allows pets of all kinds, with no weight limitation at all. If a person owned a 150-pound giant breed dog, it would likely not be reasonable to force them to carry the animal or to wheel it in a cart (there is almost certainly no such cart available for purchase—you’d have to put the dog on some kind of construction dolly).

But overall, most community associations govern how pets may be kept in the common areas, including requiring them to be on leash, and sometimes to be carried or limited to the service elevator.

Ryan Poliakoff, a partner at Poliakoff Backer, LLP, is a Board Certified specialist in condominium and planned development law. This column is dedicated to the memory of Gary Poliakoff. Ryan Poliakoff and Gary Poliakoff are co-authors of "New Neighborhoods — The Consumer’s Guide to Condominium, Co-Op and HOA Living." Email your questions to condocolumn@gmail.com. Please be sure to include your location.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Can my HOA forcibly paint a new color on my house? Expert weighs in