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Check Before You Build or Make Exterior Changes
Posted on Aug 2nd, 2021

CHECK BEFORE YOU BUILD
 
Porches, decks, landscape water falls, path lighting, window sheds, swimming pools, skylights, mailboxes, exterior light fixtures, hot tubs, and additions costing in the tens of thousands of dollars all have one thing in common. Each and every one has been installed in contradiction to an association’s governing documents and each and every one was subsequently removed.

Association living is a choice that purchasers make. When an owner chooses association living, they are also choosing a lifestyle where individual desires must give way to community restrictions. Most associations have a restriction prohibiting any modification to the exterior of the home unless prior written approval of the board is obtained.

Before starting construction, put your intention in writing to your association’s board and obtain written approval. Better to get prior approval than to waste hundreds or thousands of dollars installing and then removing an item. In the Georgetown Arms v. Super case, the Ohio Appeals Court stated that “individual owners cannot be permitted to disrupt the integrity of the common scheme through their desire for change.”
 
*(The law firm of Kaman & Cusimano represents our Association)