HOA requires me to change blind color

11 years ago

Hello,

I moved in to our house about 1.5 years ago. About 6 weeks ago, I received a notice saying that our blinds have violated the CC&C rules. I digged out the 300+ pages documents and did saw that it is mentioned blinds or curtains can only be white, off white or beige. I think I may have read that before moving in, but unfortunately never crossed my mind when I ordered our custom blinds. My blinds are dark maple, 2 inch real wood. They are beautiful, both from inside and from outside. But the management office claimed in their 2nd notice that it is to protect the house value. The house price here has dropped 30-40% since it was first built in '05-06. (Of course not because of blinds!) I can explain more, and my thoughts about all these, but I am mainly asking for creative ideas here to have some peace and not deal with the HOA again.

I have 7 pieces of blinds facing outside from 2nd and 3rd floor. It's a 3-story house. They claimed only blinds from 2nd floor in their notice. But I don't want them to come back later and point to the blinds on the 3rd floor just because they didn't notice the first time. Maybe the blinds were opened when they came to see the first time.

I have also 3 pieces of blinds facing the side of the house, and the side is facing another house which is only about 10 feet away. There is no window on my neighbor house that face this side. So I don't think I want to do anything about it if possible.

Besides taking apart all the blinds pieces and paint them, what else can I do? (and if I were to paint some of them, I would have to all the blinds on the side to make them all look the same from inside.

There is only 1/2 inch of space between the blinds mount and the window so I don't know if I can easily mount anything in between.

Thanks in advance.

...

ling

Comments (6)

PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
11 years ago
The HOA usually only care about the windows facing the street.

Do you have an architectural review committee/board? Can you take your case before them?

In the meantime, you can probably pick up some cheap vertical blinds to install in their place for next to nothing.

Do not paint your blinds until you have tried every course of action to get them approved because you can't go backwards.

Most HOA standards are carryovers from older regulations. A well drafted argument to the ARB might get your nicer blinds approved.
lkbum_gw
11 years ago
Home depot carries Paper Temporary Blinds (I used them while waiting on a order for custiom blinds. The things are great, they are white and cheap (about $2.50 per window) and from a few feet away look like horizontal blinds.
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ratflinger
11 years ago
HOAs - and we think the government is out of control! You'll have to make them happy or they'll make your life miserable. Next time you move you'll know what to look out for.
aliko
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for your comments.

We have written and called the management office manager, who wrote us the first notice. We nicely asked for suggestions, and he asked us not to make any change and wait for him to get back to us. After 6 weeks, we received the 2nd notice, while he never got back to us. My wife called this morning and got into a fight with him.

Yes, HOA is a nightmare. There are so many things they cannot police, like people not picking up after their dogs, or people coming to walk and jogs on the trails in our community and left behind all the garbage. Worse, they are 3 HOAs in the same community; one for single family, one for townhome and one for condo and when we complain about the more visible stuffs, they said they can't do anything because they don't belongs under their control, and points to the other HOAs.

Back to the blinds. My wife asked about using the temporary blinds and he said no. That's what made my wife very angry because our next door neighbor has been using those blinds every since we moved in, and according to the manager, he didn't see it.

We found however some sheer and hanging rod that would fit the tiny space between the blinds and window from Walmart. Totaled to about $8 a set. Will put it up tomorrow, and ask him to come back while we are here to see for himself. Hope that would work.

I agree about not painting the blinds. THey really don't go too well with light color wall inside my house.
PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
11 years ago
Sorry to hear the HOA is so nightmarish.

Sounds like you have them outsmarted though.
Jumpilotmdm
11 years ago
BE CAREFUL on that 2nd floor/3rd floor thing. Maybe make them agree that you'll fix one if they'll forget the other. Gov't agencies of all kinds are famous for the make-work tactic of continuous requirements on a project that could have been fixed ONCE.