[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by village dreamer

i dont want my neighborhood looking like a dump. what you think looks good , may not look good to others. keep the rules.

Deed restrictions are a good thing. That is one reason we purchased in a master planned community that has deed restrictions to keep our properties looking nice.

Glad we don't have any of those Air B&Bs in our neighborhood. That surely is a deed restriction that needs to be looked into, IMHO.

[retiredguy123]

The courtyard villas have a deed restriction that prohibits homeowners from parking their vehicles in the visitor parking spaces. But, when I complained to the deed compliance office about a non-homeowner, a non-resident, and a non-visitor parked/stored a vehicle in a visitor space for almost a year, the answer I got was that he was not violating the deed restriction because he was not a homeowner. Go figure.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by village dreamer

i dont want my neighborhood looking like a dump. what you think looks good , may not look good to others. keep the rules.

Strange that you think the natural result of "no deed restrictions" must be "looking like a dump." Maybe that's how it was in the neighborhood you grew up in?

Where I grew up, we had no deed restrictions, no gated communities. Our neighborhood was a typical New England suburb, and no one's home ever looked like a dump. No one had junk cars on cement blocks in the driveway, or a broken refrigerator on the front lawn. Or broken windows, or bent-over antenna, or trash piled up outside the back door, or lawns that were overgrown or vines crawling up the side of the garage.

We took care of our properties because of a little thing called "pride in ownership." Again - maybe they didn't teach you that where you grew up but in my neck of the country, it was a thing. I would never expect that a non-gated, or non-deed-restricted community would "look like a dump" until I moved to Florida.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Personally I love the old section. I like seeing the different personalities of homeowners displayed on their yards, in the color schemes of their houses, in the painted designs on their driveways.

Although we don’t live in the historic section, we love it there also. We rented there long term during our search for a home and still visit there often to golf, bike ride, walk our dog around Paradise Lake, and use the outdoor exercise equipment. It’s probably the only area we visit where we just drive around in our golf cart with no particular place to go simply because it’s such a unique and beautiful section of the Villages.

[Pondboy]

I like the restrictions. As part of my job, I go to other retirement communities as well as “regular” housing developments.

I see some pretty tacky lawn ornaments, crazy color schemes on garage doors and driveways, brown gravel in place of lawns……shall I go on?

[Kelevision]

Originally Posted by JGibson

Deed restrictions are necessary so TV doesn't turn into a flop house but in your opinion do they take it a little TOO far and TOO restrictive.

Sometimes I feel like I'm renting opposed to being a homeowner in TV with not being able to put any small personal touches to my home.

I realize if I don't like it I can move or I should've not moved here if I didn't like the restrictions so I will save those opinions from a couple of key strokes.

I do talk to a lot of folks in nearby retirement communities and when I ask them why they didn't buy in TV they all have the same answer, "too many deed restrictions"

Thoughts?

I hardly know there are deed restrictions there are so few of them.

[shaw8700@outlook.com]

I like the deed restrictions. I mean, look at it from the other side. Most of them are to prevent lawn art from becoming projectiles in the case of a hurricane. And you know your neighborhood could look very bad if there wasn’t rules. There is a town called Fountain Hills, that sits right next to my neighborhood, and the street I had to drive down whenever going to town, had some pretty garish houses on it. There was one I swore had to be a payback for something the neighbors had done which was bad.

So, think about it whenever you start getting anxious about a rule.

[MrChip72]

Originally Posted by coffeebean

Glad we don't have any of those Air B&Bs in our neighborhood. That surely is a deed restriction that needs to be looked into, IMHO.

I seem to recall that a Florida law was passed not too long ago that prohibits them from being banned by any local government or HOA type thing.

[badkarma318]

Originally Posted by JGibson

I do talk to a lot of folks in nearby retirement communities and when I ask them why they didn't buy in TV they all have the same answer, "too many deed restrictions"

It would be interesting to know specifics, as pretty much any nearby retirement community is going to have restrictions, with many having much more restrictive HOAs.

That might just be what they tell people, with the real reason being something else (many who chose On Top of the World over The Villages seem to be much more reserved/introverted, some bordering on anti-social).

[SummerDays]

We all know what happens when there are no deed restrictions. Only need to leave TV boundary in any direction to see examples.

If there is a deed restricted community nearby that is less restrictive, might be informative to drive around that community and take a look.

There is nothing restricted at my home that causes the slightest bit of heartburn.

Are the restrictions the perfect type and amount? That discussion is a waste of time IMO. So many different opinions on the subject (which is why the restrictions are necessary in the first place).

[Challenger]

Originally Posted by JGibson

Deed restrictions are necessary so TV doesn't turn into a flop house but in your opinion do they take it a little TOO far and TOO restrictive.

Sometimes I feel like I'm renting opposed to being a homeowner in TV with not being able to put any small personal touches to my home.

I realize if I don't like it I can move or I should've not moved here if I didn't like the restrictions so I will save those opinions from a couple of key strokes.

I do talk to a lot of folks in nearby retirement communities and when I ask them why they didn't buy in TV they all have the same answer, "too many deed restrictions"

Thoughts?

The most significant problem with Deed Restrictions in The Villages is that they are not consistently" and firmly enforced. "Good Fences make Good Neighbors".

[westernrider75]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

First - deed restrictions vary from village to village. A lot of things people assume are "forbidden" aren't. They just have to submit the plan to ARC and wait for them to sign off on it before they start the work. Things like expanding a driveway, or selecting a new color for the house. In most cases you can do those things. But you have to select colors within a palate that already exists for the purpose, and the driveway has to fit within certain parameters after the work's completed.

Other things are restricted or forbidden - you can't remove your perimeter wall in a courtyard villa. You can't put up a fence around your designer home in the Village of Bonita. You can't put lawn decorations in /most/ of The Villages but there are some areas where that restriction doesn't exist - mostly in the "Historic Section."

If you WANT to live in a neighborhood where all your neighbors must conform to the same standard of care, design, color, scheme, then there are neighborhoods for you here. If you WANT to live in a neighborhood where you have lots of wiggle-room to exercise your creativity, imagination, and interests, there are neighborhoods for you here as well.

Personally I love the old section. I like seeing the different personalities of homeowners displayed on their yards, in the color schemes of their houses, in the painted designs on their driveways. It's not for everyone, but you couldn't pay me to live in a courtyard villa where you're basically a sardine living in a nicely-painted can, sitting on a bed of rocks. Some people like that cookie-cutter concept though.

We live in a courtyard villa south of 44. Every single home in here is different. Whether it is a different color or different landscaping, from beautiful rock/desert designs to lots of greenery and palm trees, they are all different. It’s one of the reasons we bought in the southern area, the villas have more personality and definitely are not “sardines in a nicely painted can on a bed of rocks.”

[Rwirish]

Quick answer, no.

[La lamy]

I don't mind deed restrictions, it keeps property values up IMB. But that said, I live in the historic section and I LOVE seeing all the quirky stuff on some people's lawns. But the point made about not having anything that could blow around during storms is a good one.

[Ellwoodrick]

Just for informational purposes

Certain states, including Florida, have adopted the 1956 Marketable Record Title Act, which says that deed restrictions expire within 30 years of inception. That means after 30 years, a homeowners’ association is technically unable to enforce the rules and can no longer collect monthly dues from community homeowners. However, Associations can take steps to “preserve” and protect covenants and restrictions from the operation of the Act.

Taken from

What You Need to Know Before Purchasing a Florida Home with Deed Restrictions - Munizzi Law Firm