What kind of covenants does your home and suburb have?

Question

Which ones do you hate, which ones do you appreciate?

Answer 1

We live in a subdiv. with covenants and also were developers for another subdiv. for which we drafted covenants. Interestingly we patterned the latter after the former, eliminating a few items that seemed "overkill" for a subdivision that was much smaller than the one we live in.

I don't really "hate" any of the provisions. What I dislike more are covenant provisions that sound nice on paper, but enforcing them can turn into a headache. Or they aren't enforced or (worse) are selectively enforced so they turn out to be "suggestions". A lot depends on how your owner's association enforces them.

It's important when considering property purchase, to look closely at covenants before making purchase decisions so if you think they're too restrictive (or not restrictive enough) you can find out sooner rather than later.

The good thing about covenants is that they can serve to keep a neighborhood up to a certain standard and can help maintain if not increase property values. I'm all for restrictions about RV storage, fences, pets, sq. footage of new construction, mowing, etc.. Arch review committees are generally a good thing for new subdivisions. Although it seems ridiculous to include restrictions about house color and material, I can also see where that may be useful. Some people really have no taste!