Apparently my homeowner's association has put forth a more or less direct challenge to my display of a Ron Paul for President campaign sign in my yard.
Yesterday in the mail I received the quarterly homeowners newsletter which contained a section that read as follows:
SIGNS
Please be reminded of Paragraph 6.8, a portion of which reads:
"6.8.1 No signs whatsoever (including but not limited to commercial and similar signs) shll, withouth the architectural commitee's prior written approval of plans and specifications therefore, be installed, altered or maintained on any lLot, or on any portion of a Structure visible from the exterior thereof."
The Board, and previous Boards, think that this prohibition includes political signs, so please do not place political signs in your yards."
First, my yard is the ONLY yard in my 96 lot subdivision that has a political sign of any type. So it is fairly obvious who this section is directed against.
Second, I cannot base any counter argument to this based on federal or state constitutional law regarding free speech or violation of public policy as every home owner association covenant agreement forcibly removes all remedy to the covenants via a constitutional path. (yes I'm a dummy, but go read your home owner covenants and 99% chance yours does the same thing. The next house I purchase will either not be in a subdivision or I will explicitly not sign or partially sign the next set) Please see (BRYAN v. MBC PARTNERS, L.P.)
Third, there have been numerous commercial signs placed on lots throughout the neighborhood in the past without homeowner policy enforcement. However enforcement seems to be highly subjective and at the whim of the Homeowners Association. Once again please see (BRYAN v. MBC PARTNERS, L.P.)
However, as pre-law student at one time, the statement of "including but no limited to" is a phrase/term of "limited expansion". Which can be defined that as the term “expansion” applies to things that are already generally described in the definition of whatever is being defined, even if a thing is not specifically named in the definition. For example, in the context of "dinner", dinner will be defined as including but not limited to apples, pears, peaches, and bananas. Therefore one can bring in additional items such as mangos, kiwis, grapes etc... as those items are similar in nature to the list, however, broccili, steak, potato's etc.. cannot due to their nature being manifestly different that the stated list of terms.
Ok given this, the Homeowners Association can only restrict signs of a commercial nature so I plan on writing a brief and polite rebuttal inquiring to the legal definition of the statement "commercial and similar signs" with regards to the afore mentioned definition of the term.
If this path is less than fruitful, I can always put up a flag hanging off my house with Ron Paul < whatever > as it seems that people can adorn their lots with american, state, seasonal, or alma mater flags about their houses.
However, I cannot find a single vendor that sells Ron Paul flags of any substantial size. Any help here would be appreciated.
Anyone else encounter these types of Home Owner issues, actions, etc..??
I will at this time refrain from giving out the Home Owner Associations email address for Paul'er comments unless a remedy of some sort cannot be achieved.
Thoughts? Comments?
