Villa question
 

We are thinking of buying a new Villa for a number of reasons but mostly health and they now have the walk in showers. My question about the Villas is, if I can make sense, is the fence door and walkway from your driveway seems to lead to your neighbors side and back yards. Is this correct. This would mean your neighbor would be cutting through your property and I would have to go up my other neighbors driveway to get to the walkway and gate. This just does not seem right but I wanted to check on it. Thanks

The gate leads to your yard, not the neighbors in every case. .There is no way to access adjoining yard, because of the lateral wall of your neighbor and the fencing. Have lived in two CYVs over 8 years . Never a problem.

It depends on your specific covenant document. But, first, your description is of a courtyard villa, not just any villa. Typically, the property line runs midway between the adjacent houses. The gate located near your front door, is controlled by your neighbor, but you control the property outside that gate all the way to your neighbor's house. So, you can landscape that area up to the neighbor's house, but you need to maintain the area and provide access to the gate, even though you do not own the land. The property inside the gate is controlled by your neighbor, and he/she must maintain that property, but can landscape it any way they want. They also must provide access to your property as needed for you to inspect and maintain the side of your house located inside the gate. Typically, that side of your house will not have any windows or doors, and will not require much maintenance. On the other side of your house, the opposite situation applies, where you control the gate. This is just a basic description of how it works, and the covenant document contains a very detailed description of each courtyard villa development.

You are correct, normally your one neighbor will enter their back yard through the side where your driveway is and you will do likewise on the other side with the other neighbors. This is due to the narrow distance between the homes (10-15 ft normally) and limited property on each side. Most villas only have beneficial use of the property on one side of the home and easement access on the other for maintenance purposes. In fact because of the typical curved driveway configuration about a third of the driveway you think is yours is actually on your neighbor’s propertty.

You are responsible for the maintenance of the side yard (but not the actual house itself) that belongs to your neighbor that you have beneficial use of. All of this is clearly explained in the closing paperwork at the time of purchase.

It’s an unusual situation but generally not a problem as everyone is aware of the conditions. It really helps to know and like your neighbors in the villa communities. Yes there have been and are still situations between neighbors that the access issues are a problem, when push comes to shove, normally the less cordial neighbor is in the wrong based on the agreement signed at closing.

In all, it’s a minor issue for most and far outweighed by the added privacy of the courtyard villas.

All villas have walk in showers?
 

All of the villas that I have been in have had a walk in shower, including North of 466.

You are correct. Your neighbor will walk up your driveway to enter his gate. You will walk up your other neighbor's driveway to enter your gate.

https://www.districtgov.org/departme.../CourtYard.pdf

The way I read it Landscaping can't touch you're neighbors house nor any vines touching and you're landscaping can't touch neighbors house that you are responsible for. I maintain at least 12", I don't know it there is limit but, I do know you're neighbor can't let landscape touch side of house in there yard. If they do and it causes damage they could be liable?

Rent before you buy

I live in a patio villa in Alhambra. I have my own entrance and my neighbor has her own entrance. We don't need to be on each others property to enter our respective houses.

Maybe I'm missing something as I don't understand the OP question.

They are talking about courtyard villas that are completely fenced in. The new Veranda designers are the same way.

Thanks for the clarification.

Thank you all, just wanted to be sure I was seeing the pictures correctly. We have looked at many designers homes but now feel the smaller lot and square footage will be better for us to maintain.

I hope you looked at the "LINK" in post 6. Great explanation with pictures.:ho:

Thanks for the link.The design doesn't make much sense.The blank wall should have been on the other side with rooms reversed and leave garage the same.

Makes me wonder too why they weren’t designed the say you just described.

:ohdear:After selling thousands...... we find out they are doing it wrong!:faint:

I like the end unit. We have property all around the CYV, windows on all sides, and 2 gates. :)

I live in a CYV in Southern Star Villas, we have 80 in our community. The only negative to the setup is if your neighbor decides to put in a pool. I've seen two go in our community and basically they take the gate down on your driveway side and go in and out with all kinds of equipment, it's real mess. If you backyard is fairly small, then you won't see the problem, it's usually those with big lots.

They have walk-in showers in every CYV master BR I've been in. There are two kinds, we have the fiberglass prefab which I hate. Some others have a regular tile shower, looks much nicer.

No, you have a private gate to your back area, it just happens to be on the other side of your house. It looks weird but it’s totally private.

Villas
 

[QUOTE=Garywt;1576801]We are thinking of buying a new Villa for a number of reasons but mostly health and they now have the walk in showers. My question about the Villas is, if I can
make sense, is the fence door and walkway from your


Hi, not sure of all Villas. Any we have seen, and ours, yes, the neighbors gate is close to our driveway, but that gate has a fence, all the way to the back. Our gate is over by our other neighbor, we have to unlock it when our other neighbor is having her siding washed, but no problem So we do have a totally private back yard and so, IF the villa is different you need to look into that. The great thing about our villa and many like it is ,,,,,,, A VERY PRIVATE BACK YARD. I even made some small wooden plasticized blocks to glue at the bottom openings, to prevent rats from getting in, yep, they are around. You can Private mail us and we can show you this if you like.

bbbbbb :a040:

Why do you say that.

[QUOTE=bbbbbb;1578082]So I believe this is the setup we are looking at. Do most lock the gate? My guess is I would mostly us the sliders from the house and that the landscaper would use the gate mostly and the neighbor if they needed to do something to their Villa.

The Verandas are fenced in like the CYV's yes. But there are some differences. First of all, your driveway may be on the left side or the right side, but the gate to access your fenced in yard is going to be on the same side of your house regardless of the driveway. On mine, it's on the left when facing the house. I'm responsible for the lawn behind the fence, even though part of it technically belongs to the neighbor. But then my other neighbor is responsible for the part of my yard that is behind his fence. It appears some, or even all, of the corner lot Verandas get 2 gates, 1 on either side, to access their fenced back yard.

All that said, and I expect this is the same for most CYV owners as well, I almost NEVER access my back yard through the gate, unless it's when I'm mowing my lawn. Other than that, I walk out the back door of the house.

Yes I did, thanks

:welcome: Also wanted to say I gave my nextdoor neighbor a key to the gate. They only need to get in for "House cleaning" and "Pest control" on that side of their home and they always call first or knock on the door. The key is for when I'm not home.:coolsmiley:

I guess my description of walk in is off, I consider the tiled floor and walls as walk in, the prefab showers with the glass doors are what we want to avoid. Going to a Villa we are giving up the larger garage, the breakfast nook, the third bedroom and many other things just in case my wife ends up there along but we do not want to give up the walk in (or roll in) shower as that might be the most necessary. I know we can get some of those things in a Villa but for cost and cleaning we have decided to go this route.

Enclosed courtyard Villas
 

The ownership of these properties are definitely weird. I turn onto what would appear to be my property to get to my garage.. It is about 2/3 ways up to the garage door that the property becomes mine. The side of my home without windows borders on the sidewalk which runs down the windowed side of their house. If that driveway was mine, their lanai, etc would open on to my courtyard. That would not leave me with much privacy.
If you are questioning whether to buy one,don't let this somewhat of a none issue change your mind. Come here and enjoy your home.:a040:

For what it's worth, if you are looking at new CYV's, it appears that they are now building more of them with garages that face straight out the front rather than at an angle to the street, and many of those are 2 car garages instead of 1.5. I rode through a CYV area under construction yesterday evening, in DeSoto, and every one of them has the garages that face the street directly. You'd still have part of your property in your neighbor's courtyard and part of the other neighbor's property in yours, but it removes some of the vagueness about property lines elsewhere and access to your gate won't appear to actually be on someone else's property. And I am almost positive they will all have true walk in, tiled showers.

You may not think you need the extra room especially the garage (cause the 1.5 garage on curved driveway hard to get in and out of if you have garage full of stuff). I had the same opinion, But after you in small two bed 1.5 garage you'll realize NOT enough room and you really have to manage space.

Now if you have small car and no golf cart and bring very little with you roominess shouldn't be problem. I doubt you will find 2 bed room entry level model with tiled walk in shower. Usually the higher end 3 bed two car garage styles offer that for 285k plus? If I move will only look at two car garage styles. One thing that I like I'm in end unit and my back yard private cause the neighbor two car garage length of my property.

Our neighbor does NOT walk up our driveway to his fence nor does our driveway lead to anything other than our garage. That being said, we have a corner courtyard, so I believe that may be different with the driveway set up. :) Neighbors are usually nice and respectful. We have never had a problem.

I found myself included, most will remove the grass from the front and backyard making the home basically maintenance free. Yes, you'll have some trimming or weed pulling now and then, you can do it yourself or hire someone. I keep my gate locked and do all my yard work, that's one of the big advantages of a villa and not having grass. I'd say out of 80 villas in our community, after 7 years maybe 25 still have some grass in the front, the backyard even less.

From what I've seen, the newer CYV's walkin showers have been all tile. It's only if you get into a resale, you'll need to watch. The prefab shower is a complete walkin, but the walls are molded with built in soap dish, and hand hold. The problem is they are harder to keep clean. Our CYV's were built in 2011 and we have villas with both fiberglass and tile, it can be either.

Thanks again all. The Villas under $200000 seem to have the tub enclosure type of bath and over $200000 seem to have the tile baths. That said we will keep looking. As for a 2 bedroom Villa vs a designer home, we are looking at $50,000 less and will be bring very little from home as we are not selling the house. We hope to keep things simple. The reason for going with the Villa is my wife will be more comfortable there along if my cancer takes me away from her, she does not want a big empty place.

Just hoping it all works out for us soon but we will continue to look and visit.

Also hoping it all works out for you and your wife.

Tears to my eyes. Praying for you both.

We moved from a 5000 sq ft home with 2 car garage and basement. We now live in 1500sq Ft CYV with 1 and half garage. Trust me, you just don’t REALLY need all that STUFF especially if you may be facing health problems. We love our home and have found it to be perfect for us. Some people just seem to have a lot of trouble letting go of their STUFF but we have found it very liberating. Only you can decide what will work for you.