Deed compliance
 

I have never understood why so many people are against someone filing a lawful compliant for a deed compliance issue. If you read the papers you legally were required to sign it is what you must do to be a good villager. Years ago it was the job of neighborhood watch not sure why they stopped. Guess to much for them to do. I myself don't want this to become a community of anything someone puts in front of their house to be okay. I'm sure many of the loudest of you would soon change your mind when your next door neighbor started to fix up junk cars.

If talking about lawn ornaments, each district has different rules, and if out of compliance they can easily be removed. IMO the underline problem is construction or landscaping improvements that been done that wasn’t approved or followed. Then, few years later the new owners come along buying property that’s out of compliance not knowing it. 6 months, 6 years, or 30 years later complaint reported and now the owners that didn’t do it or knew the property was out of compliance stuck with $$$$$ repair. Now ask yourself is that type of community you want to live in? Not so clear cut is it?

Yes, unfortunately the BUYERS did not do their due diligence it is the BUYERS responsibility to check this. I do feel sorry for them, and I really would expect the title company to actually complete this as part of their services.

Sadly nobody looking for them on resales. My house had hot tube, luckily I got rid of it. But to find out the property was out of compliance due to no permit Nowhere in closing paper work or it even mentioned hot tube. But, it was selling point.

Luckily my resale had no construction or landscaping changes which IMO most new owner’s of resales wouldn’t know what to check anyway cause the trust (not good word) things are in order due to tittle search and closing requirements.

Like I said my opinion seems like few times year these problems come up in news. Latest one the sidewalk on historic side that been down down for 20 plus years and now all sudden out of compliance?

What are you asking the buyers to do? Someone from out of the area is presented with an acceptable inspection report and a completed title search as part of a large stack of papers to sign. They don't know the area, they don't know what a CDD is or how they are put together, they don't know about ARC, they don't know about Community Standards, and they don't know about the complaint process. To me, it is asking too much of them to know to read the deed restrictions in detail and research what has or has not been approved for their house.

What I would like to see:
- Prior to closing, realtors advise buyers of the deed restrictions and the need to ensure there are no violations on the property they are purchasing
- Home inspections include a section covering deed compliance for the particular District
- Community Standards review the exterior of homes being sold and alert the seller, buyer, and realtor of any compliance issues
- Anything that exists when the home is sold is grandfathered as if approved and not subject to a complaint in the future.

Yes, there are problems with this, but it seems more reasonable than asking an unsuspecting buyer to do in-depth research or ask an owner to spend thousands to fix a violation that was present when they purchased the home 20 years ago.

My pet peeve is that every courtyard villa section has 5 parking spaces designated in the deed compliance document for visitor parking only. These spaces are quickly occupied by people who want to store their vehicles for months at a time, some of whom don't even live in the area. Neither The Villages nor the police will do anything to remove the vehicles, so they just sit there forever.

The Historic side is eclectic. There are many aging trailers, multiple new home designs, pre-fab homes and older stick homes. The villages builder no longer builds; it’s not profitable. Cars, SUV’S, trucks with trailers, and large rv’s and golf carts are parked on front lawns. Paint colors are grand fathered in before 2014. Now you must use only 2 colors from the same color pallet from the color chart at Sumter.
So why isn’t there grandfathering in for driveways! And etc.
I would be fine to follow all the rules if the builder stayed and continued to be an example of uniformity resulting in deed compliance uniformity.
I have to remove several tasteful colors of trim off of my exterior home. There are so many homes out of compliance with their home colors. So, I have to report all the vehicles on lawns, all homes out of compliance, creating a no pay part time job for me to get everyone angry so change occurs. The builder can leave creating more diversity with new builders building new different homes and I can’t use several paint colors like Sumter and down south. No one polices the yard art of cars and etc on them. I will report back to community standards regarding every home on the historic out of compliance anonymously.
It should be the village builders setting a deed compliance example by not abandoning ship because of t not enough profit margin ... to further continuity they had replaced the old trailers with a village home to create the ultimate sameness in the neighborhood, now that will never happen!!!
Community standards should be checking every home for deed compliance fairly, then I wouldn’t be offended and I would agree amicably to change my paint colors. We the little guys have to obey changing rules set by the Morris whom
can change zoning with their high powered attorney’s anytime. ie .
6 apartments in Spanish springs to start and they said at a town meeting
No reserved parking requested for the apartment dwellers
Now they are getting about 17 parking spots
Can you see how money talks!!!!
We are known for STD’s and we are not the Friendliest HomeTown!
We are an illusion just like we are not a gated community..anyone can get in by pressing the red button!
In summary, only Morris ‘s are grandfathered in to break or bend rules. There style is threatening to sue like they did to the Lady Lake Board.
They are grandfathered in indirectly and they don’t Care about us! They probably are trying to sell since the next generation wasn’t schooled in real estate.

Doesn't your 4th item negate the need for the other 3? And, I think Item 1 already exists, and also, Item 2 to some extent. A good home inspector should cover these items. I think a Community Standards inspection is a good idea, but it is contrary to the current, complaint driven system, and would also be expensive.

Home inspectors may be missing an opportunity, offer to also inspect the property for compliance issues for an extra charge to cover their time to review the restrictions on the property.

It's perfectly clear cut to me. If it's not in compliance, regardless of when it happened, it has to be brought into compliance. If a Buyer is dumb enough not to check, shame on them.

Item 4: I meant my fourth item to be the final word in case 1-3 did not happen. Perhaps it should state something to the effect that any compliance issues not documented in the sale are grandfathered. Community Standards gets their shot at the time of sale to list compliance issues, they don't get to come back 20 years later.

Item 1: I am sure I was told what the Declaration of Restrictions was and I am sure it was explained in about one minute. What was not made clear was that the deed compliance process was complaint driven and there could currently be violations on my property that had not *yet* been complained about. I do not believe I was provided with the restrictions before the date of closing and I am sure I was not advised to perform my own inspection to determine if there were any non-approved changes. But even if I had been, I would not know where to start to determine what had or had not been previously approved for my property.

Item 2: "A good home inspector should cover these items."(emphasis added) Perhaps I did not have a good home inspection because under General Inspection Limitations I see:

CONSTRUCTION REGULATIONS - Building codes and construction standards vary regionally. A standard home inspection does not include evaluation of a property for compliance with building or health codes, zoning regulations or other local codes or ordinances. No assessments are made regarding acceptability or approval of any element or component by any agency, or compliance with any specific code or standard. Codes are revised on a periodic basis; consequently, existing structures generally do not meet current code standards, nor is such compliance usually required. Any questions regarding code compliance should be addressed to the appropriate local officials.

This is why Item 3 is important.

Item 3: The Community Standards inspection or review would only come into play as a house was changing hands; It would not replace the complaint-driven process. Everyone would benefit from this: the buyer would be protected, the neighborhood would be rid of any existing violations on that property, and it would reduce the need to exercise "the process" in the future. It shouldn't be too expensive on an individual basis and might be offered as optional with the added benefit of the grandfathering if the inspection was accepted. Plus, it could open employment opportunities for clipboard ladies :)

Just my thoughts. There certainly could be problems with implementation. But there are problems today with owners being surprised with notices of violations after owning the home for years.

A long winded rant with a lot of misinformation.

Guess what----you don't even have to press the red button to leave

When you buy anything one of the first things you need to do is check the history, If you don't anything that turns up is yours and only your fault. That is so very CLEAR.

Original Question
 

First question in this series. Don't understand why some are against people who file a valid complaint against those who are violating deed restrictions! I totally agree with this point. There are no excuses as everyone is or should be aware of the deed restrictions in their area can and should be called out if they ignore them. The rules are the rules. If you don't like them then move. These are the same ones who when stopped by the police blame the policeman and are asserting they are the victim. The victim is really the cop who must listen to your mental unbalance reason as your violation was because of some issue when you were a child. There are no rewards for trying to beat the rules, only disgrace. :ho: