Oh yes. I definately agree and happy to see them making their rounds.:)

Let's be honest
 

I am sure I am speaking for most of us. When you buy a home in The Villages you do so partly because of the well maintained properties and common areas. This keeps property values up and when we sell we get a return on our investment. Deed restrictions are just part of living here. The other part is respect for your neighbor. Letting your yard get overgrown and not keeping up with general maintenance whether by restriction or not just shows what type of person you are. Be proud to live here as this is a special place. If it makes you mad that others complain about your yard then you are clearly living in the wrong community. I own 2 properties here and have never received a single complaint because I love it here and I love The Villages. PLEASE MAINTAIN YOUR YARD :22yikes:

Just out of curiosity, and not out of vindictiveness or whatnot, I wandered my neighborhood examining the nice homes, from the street. I noticed that technically, the majority of homes were in violation of one or more community standards. But, in my opinion the violations are in good or tolerable taste. We have a neighborhood email system that keeps us up to date with the local goings-ons. Some of the older/senior residents that have lived here since the homes were originally built have been quite adamant about "no change." Yet, they have established their small deviations to the rules and have no problem with it. I am referring to driveway changes, yard ornaments, etc. They have been quite vocal about any "new" residents making subtle changes to their homes. Every time I hear of someone complaining about a change, shortly after, it seems I get an email saying that the compliance board has changed their position on the issue, such as door color, home color, driveway color, back wall color (CYV) etc. It seems that once someone in "the clique" wants a change, someone takes action. A petition went around about a year ago to allow home color changes in our one color neighborhood. It was passed by the majority and a color pallet was posted. One our fairly new neighbors, wanting to comply and be accepted in the neighborhood, was first to change their home color. The next door neighbor walked over and examined the newly painted color and declared it to be ugly. Of course, that was from a senior neighbor that was an original owner. The home owner that had the newly painted exterior, also received numerous/many compliments from neighbors throughout the community. Now, others are starting to change their color. Doors are changing from the once standard white to more individually preferred colors, personalizing their homes. A new neighbor moved in recently and installed an interesting, small yard ornament of painted cast iron. It appears to be vintage or antique. I found it interesting, but I heard of a few rumors of disgruntled neighbors making slight of it. Those same complainers have violations in their yards, in form of yard ornaments. Although, I don't find their yard "art" to be ugly or offensive, and don't care.
I hear many of you state "rules are rules" with no semblance of tolerance suggested. I wonder how many of you are "tolerated" by your neighbors, even though they may not "condone."
Neighborhood rules are NOT laws. Yes, we need rules to motivate some folks to comply with majority set standards. But, some rules should have a certain amount of flexibility and tolerance. I see a neighbor's landscaping or lawn ornament that I would not have in my yard. Since I don't like it, does that mean I should find a violation and report it?
Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting the blatant violation of community standards, rather a certain amount of tolerance. The ones complaining about violations of community standards seem to be violating the most important Villages standard: "America's Friendliest Town."
But, rules are after all, rules. :police:

It sounds to me that you do NOT live south of 466. In the historic area and in areas near Morse above 466 those kinds of things are allowed. They are not restricted. Is that the area you speak of?

All I can say is this. We all signed the Deed Restrictions BUT did we all read them and follow them or is it a if someone turns me in then I'll worry about it ?
Did we read them before we had work done? Don't rely on the Contractor you hire to tell you what's right or wrong. I got turned in however what I had done turned out to not be a violation. I'll guarantee if you truly read your restrictions and drive around your neighborhood over 1/2 your neighbors have violations. Especially those rear yard border bushes that are planted, or the front yard decorations or how much of your yard is no longer grass etc. Asking for someone to be hired by TV to enforce is a dangerous request trust me. Hell even TV is in Violation of their own rules if you truly read them. JMO

A deed or covenant violation is in essence breaking a contract with every other homeowner in the community, whether they object or not.

If one does not want to abide by the covenants and restrictions ,then he is fair game for any legal remedy that is brought by any other (others) who are parties to that(those) contracts.

You are correct, I reside North of Rt466. But, we too have covenants. I mean no offense to those that believe in stern reprisals for yard conformance violators. My pet peeve is toward those violators that speed past me on the golf cart trails and blatantly run through stop signs without even slowing down. Oh, the second one IS a law and not just a rule.

Heaven help you if someone's dog urinates on your yard and causes a brown spot. I am sure that some observant neighbor will be quick notice this distracting deviation in the green and report it. :cryin2: Just being facetious.

I guess for a conservative (and former law enforcement) I am pretty tolerant.

If you read your deed restrictions, none of this would happened

Perhaps their job is more in line with keeping us safe, rather than keeping us pretty and happy?

Perhaps you are right. And then again, if I was peeved with my neighbors for some perceived slight, I am sure that I could initiate complaints against quite a few, if not the majority of them. And perhaps a bit of empathy wouldn't hurt toward the obvious embarrassment this originator of the posting has endured?

I am not disagreeing with any of the posts above, just making an observation.

Compliance
 

The villages needs to keep up on the compliance issues.I have visited many neighborhoods to purchase a home. I refused to buy because of plastic flowers and junk in the yards in a neighborhood.I have seen the prices on theses houses and it is as high as the ones were the lawns and shrubs look amazing.I have eliminated certain villages because the condition of some of the homes. So neighbors if you want your value to remain up it does matter

Haven't really seen any instances of them keeping us safe. I do believe their driving around could be a slight deterrent to thieves but not all that much. About the only time I've seen them truly being helpful is when they are guiding traffic around an accident. I do wish they could be more pro-active both in compliance enforcement and as a true deterrent in being able to stop people when necessary, such as solicitors.

As to the individual turning folks in Pennecamp, it sounds like this is her only activity in TV. She seems to do this every few months. A pain in the neck to her neighbors, a royal pain in the tush to compliance and, I think, a very unhappy person all around.

Personally, I don't plan to sell and move from my home, so all the value does to my home is manipulate the rate of my taxes. My point is not to encourage one to violate the rules, but to think about one's glass house before casting stones. I have some very close friends/neighbors that have color schemes or ornaments that I consider quite ugly or contrasting to the rest of the neighborhood. Would I complain? Never happen, because these old folks are dear friends and it is easy for me to overlook what they find to be pleasing, and what makes them happy in their later years. Maybe if someone else had the same taste and I didn't know them or like them, I could be easier offended by their lack of taste...:icon_wink:

I try to keep my home above set standards so that I can encourage others to bring theirs up to a higher level. If this country was so concerned about laws, then we wouldn't have the illegal immigration problem, or lack of enforcement for federal drug laws, etc.

Just my opinion, and not meant as a slight towards anyone that may perceive that I disagree with them.

Seems like a lot of TV people are violating deed restrictions and covenants. Why?