I believe that restriction is the Beloved Leaders responsibilty, not that the rule ever seems to be enforced.

The developer doesn’t own these properties anymore that is what the cdd is for. The problem here is that is only one district so not all are changing.

A gentleman in Village of LaBelle took a picture of 2 women in a golf cart with a clip board. The women were taking a second look to see if their complaint about a ceramic turtle had been addressed

Heck, in Virginia our governor has a phone number to turn people in for things they don't like. Being a tatatail is the new norm.

I've witnessed this a few times in our village (Dunedin), got out of an suv with Lake County plates and wandered around with clipboard talking among themselves and pointing. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Thought perhaps they were looking for landscape ideas. Did this with my wife while considering driveway coatings.

The idea of people traveling our area looking for violations so they can turn in their neighbors makes my skin crawl.

I would suggest that everyone print out a copy of their deed restrictions and read them.

Then, walk around the house and remove any items that violate the restrictions.

A sign of your faith can go in the backyard I don’t need to see it. But then on the other hand if you really want to trash up the place let’s all put on our favorite little trinkets and treasures and statues in the front yard for all to see. How about Snow White and the seven dwarfs, goofy now there’s a good one how about a 6 foot statue of goofy. How about we all put statues and shrines to our faith in our front yard. We have Buddhism, Shintoism, atheism, and on and on and on. How about a swastika? That is a symbol of some peoples faith in this world! Your symbol is no more important than their symbol. Be careful what you wish for. The United States is a melting pot of all religions and Faith‘s .

I hope that all people realize that keeping our property to Community Standards makes The Villages nicely kept and beautiful. And reporting someone anonymously is a somewhat easier thing to do than telling them to their face, unless you have been raised to be outspoken.

If everyone were allowed to embellish and add and be creative and have their "individuality" shine, this place could be a mess in no time.

We came back to our new home in Hadley when we first lived here part time to find literally dozens of little "gookies and gee gaws and ceramic thingys " in the yard of a very near neighbor. I quickly phoned community standards and told them.

One of the reasons many of us chose the Villages is because of deed restrictions. I find that the anonymous reporting may be chicken to some but far easier for others. I don't see anything WRONG about someone seeing something in another neighborhood obviously not allowed and reporting it. That doesn't make my skin crawl at all.

Grace from Ohio.

The problem isn't with the complaints, it's with enforcement. As you may have noticed recently with all the riots going on, minor infractions aren't being prosecuted while major legal infractions are. Currently there is no means to evaluate the complaint to determine its effect on the neighborhood as a whole. Each district could establish a board of five or seven members (an odd number is important to avoid voting ties) to investigate the infraction. Those determined to be minor would be given a pass while more egregious infractions enforced. The name of the complainant would not have to be divulged.

Now if the complainant decided to press the issue beyond the district board to the ARC, their name would still be attached to the complaint and would become public knowledge.

Well said.

The troll is the reporter. The accuser is the Standards Committee.

We already have a workable and fair way of enforcing. Plus some things are allowed with ARC approval. You need to ask. The Villages do not consider every complaint an infringement. Only those that are not approved by ARC.

If Deed Compliance determine that the complaint is valid, and all complaints are not valid, then there will be a notice given the homeowner and time for them to comply and then if that is ignored than a fine is given until the non compliance changes. If the fine is ignored there will be a lien placed on the property.

It works just fine that way.

Here is a novel idea. We pay the Community Standards people to make sure the rules are enforced, why aren't they doing their
job to make sure the rules are followed. They drive around in their $50k white, 4x4 tucks all day ....what am I missing. DO YOUR JOB
or just get a person to answer the phone, run out and look for the violation. The complaint should only come from local residence!

I thing it may have been Bigfoot and the sister.

Their neighbor couldn't have been all that dear, if you weren't able to resolve it between yourself and them and had to resort to outside help.

I smell a fable. Or a not-so-dear neighbor. Maybe one of those "bless your heart" kinds of neighbors.

Mr. Ferlisi says that we all have a right to face our accuser. This is true. It's in the Constitution of the U.S. . However, legally, this is true ONLY in criminal cases...not civil cases.

That said, it is true that a deed violation is A DEED VIOLATION. If you want to talk about "entitlement", then you will be surprised at how many homeowners are entitled to decorate their lawns and "enhance" their property as they see fit.

So all I have to say is:

There goes the neighborhood.......

Evidence of the "trolls"?
 

Yet no one has photo evidence. Might be a rumor?

Not their job
 

Actually, this is not their job. We would have to pay for much more as they would have to stop at many houses, write down the details, possibly put a note on their doors, submit the paperwork back at the office. The current method works, the complaints are legitimate.

Florida Law makes every communication public. So no keeping a name secret for the first round of review you mentioned. This is why the anonymous system need to be around. Otherwise, forever, you could be targeted for rightly pointing out a violation.

This is how taxes go up. Add a level of responsibility that requires more time and work. I like that how we do it is not adding cost to anything. Add a little here and a little there and SOMEBODY has to pay for it.

The Villages Watch is doing their job and they aren't paid much for it but watching and reporting unusual happenings to the police and telling folks they left their garage door up and coming when they are called to be a "connector" to other services is very helpful. They are our not expensive but appreciated neighbors and they are not appreciated ENOUGH until you live here for several years.

To the best of our knowledge we have no violations and plan to keep it that way.

If I saw a neighbor with what I thought was a violation would mention it nicely to them. I do not think I would report them unless they were offensive but thats me.

To ride around the villages to look for people to report think those people have two have much time on their hands.

Will they also write down when we have grandchildren visiting to make sure they are gone within 30 days?

What else will they be watching us for?

It is a resident complaint driven system according to the Standards filed by the developer at the clerk of the court

Rules
 

That seems to be the trend lately the people who break the rules are getting more and more rights

Did you buy that bridge?

Sounds good to me

Give the community watch the power to report violations....Problem solved...How many tips received by the police department are anonymous!!!!!!

Many people do this for landscape ideas. Maybe MYOB.

I am a big fan of deed restrictions, they keep our neighborhoods looking like the neighborhood we committed our retirement savings to. But then again, do they really matter? Your neighbor can’t put a little white cross in her garden, but it’s perfectly fine to have a high density apartment complex built right across the street. Something doesn’t add up?

cdd5
 

When we first moved to the Villages in 2000 the men in neighborhood watch would note any compliance items on there drives around the villages they turned it in and you received a visit or a letter.

Complaints
 

NUTS.
It’s a big pain to deal with but is a necessary inconvenience.
If you get ratted out by Mrs CRAVITS then deal with it or move to Spanish Springs. EVERYONE will not comply with what we ALL SIGNED UP FOR. THERE WILL BE HATE CONFLICTS

We all know your neighbors’ cherry picking the standards invalidates the intent. WIND CHIMES outside your bedroom window! Cars months on end in driveways with flat tires! TRASH by the curb days in advance of pick up. LAWN JOCKEYS.

IF A NUT CASE MAKES REPEATED UNWARRANTED COMPLAINTS then enact a policy to pursue harassment charges in court.
LIKE THE COLOR WHEEL LIST ACCEPTABLE YARD OR HOUSE DECORATIONS.
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR

I agree wholeheartedly. In our former neighborhood, we had a very volatile guy across the street who allowed weeds to take over, never trimmed shrubs and rarely had his lawn mowed. Do you think I’d go over and tell him to abide by the rules? Hell, no! The current system worked perfectly and no one needed to live in fear of retaliation.

Do we not have enough Hate in this world .. Why not turn neighbor against neighbor

This is just the committee passing responsibility and pitting neighbor against neighbor. Horrible idea.

You could have a system that is not anonymous without having to reveal who actually complained, except under certain circumstances. That is the way it should have always been, IMHO. No one should be able to file an anonymous complaint about anything. That way the system can track who is complaining and how often, etc. and possibly even restricting access for a time if necessary to avoid someone making a career out of it, or to stop frivolous complaints. But that does not mean the system has to reveal the complainer to the complainee. That is not a good idea, except possibly under certain circumstances (if some type of legal action is taken for example). Again, IMHO.

Perhaps a better way to handle complaints would be:

1) Reporter must live in the same village - no outsiders reporting

2) Reporter must provide their name, address, and phone number

3) When compliance goes out, the inspector inspects BOTH properties.

:bigbow::bigbow::bigbow: Ain't it amazin that two old women riding around in a golf cart, with a clip board, in a senior community where homeowners are out and about all day long and keep an eye out for suspicious activity have never been questioned, photographed or spoken to by even one of the thousands of people in the community. They must be better at disguises than Tom Hanks in Mission Impossible.

Follow the rules and your neighbors will stop reporting you.

NO.....Its not two women riding around in a golf cart......that's a rumor.

What I HAVE SEEN is Sasquatch riding around with a pen and clipboard in a souped up golf cart.

Huge question why do you need to face your accuser? If you have broken the rules to which you have agreed to follow, facing your accuser means nothing other than to create animosity and retributions. Does it matter how the offender is reported? Whether there is an official reporter or not, the fact of the matter is if an investigation shows an infraction of the deed compliance rules you are guilty and are required to remedy the infraction to meet the deed compliance. Any other discussion is mute.

Agree. Besides, the accuser is actually deed enforcement. The complainer just notifies deed enforcement of a possible violation. Deed enforcement checks it out and if vaild they contact the home owner. So the homeowner actually does face his/her accuser. There is no valid reason the conplainee needs to know who complained.