Florida’s Clothesline Law Trumps HOA Ban by Melanie Payne, Gannett Florida 8:40 p.m. EST December 7, 2015
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In the upscale community of Cross Creek Estates, Fort Myers, Terri Krass’ sheets are flapping on the clothesline in her backyard.

While spending the summer in Maine, Krass found out that Florida statues override the clothesline ban in homeowners’ association rules. So when she came back to Florida the 62-year-old Krass put a pipe in the ground, stuck an umbrella clothesline into it and started using sunshine to dry her laundry.

Just as she wasn’t aware of Florida’s right-to-dry legislation, she thought others might not know about the law either.

“I think you would be doing many homeowners a favor if you shared this information in your column,” the former school superintendent wrote. “Clotheslines have a major impact on energy usage and are environmentally sound.”

Krass said some of her neighbors have expressed an interest in putting up clotheslines and others have expressed consternation.

“They acted like I was white trash and I was going to ruin the community,” Krass said.

Indeed, there are people who don’t like clotheslines. And many HOAs’ rules state that clothesline are verboten. Cross Creek’s rules and regulations, too, state that clotheslines are prohibited.

But those were written prior to the state law, said David DeLaMater, who is a community association manager for Suitor, Middleton, Cox & Associates, the management company for the gated community where Krass lives.

“I think a few people were surprised there was a Florida Statute (163.04) on that,” DeLaMater said. “And they weren’t aware they were allowed.”

Still, DeLaMater said, very few of Cross Creek Estate’s 501 single-family homes will have clotheslines in the yard. “It’s been a statute for six years. But you can drive all around Fort Myers and still can count on one hand the number of clotheslines.”

Alexander Lee would like to see that change. Lee is the founder of Project Laundry List, a nonprofit group with the mission of “making air-drying and cold-water washing laundry acceptable and desirable as simple and effective ways to save energy.”

Florida was the first state to pass a right-to-dry law, Lee said. The statute makes invalid any ordinance, covenant or deed restriction “which prohibits or has the effect of prohibiting the installation of solar collectors, clotheslines, or other energy devices based on renewable resources ...”

Electric clothes dryers are power guzzlers accounting for 6 to 10 percent of residential household electric use, Lee said. Because 80 percent of American households own dryers, a lot of the country’s energy resources go into drying laundry. It’s a lot of energy and a lot of money. Project Laundry List provides a calculator that lets people know how much they will save line-drying.

The dryer is not going away, Lee acknowledges. It will be hard to get people in the North to use clotheslines in the winter, for example. But he believes we need to cut the use of the dryer as much as possible.

“We were never preaching this for everybody,” Lee said. “But we don’t all need as a society to depend on something that requires multinuclear power plants.”

Laundry on a line is considered unattractive, said Marlene Kirtland, attorney and managing partner for the Community Association Law Group in Winter Park. That’s the reason nearly all homeowners’ associations will have in their rules and regulations a prohibition on the practice.

Even though those prohibitions are unenforceable in Florida, communities can place some restrictions on clothesline use. Things such as not allowing clothes to hang overnight or not allowing them in the front yard, for example. But there can’t be an outright ban, Kirtland said.

Realtor Patty Chafatelli doesn’t think clotheslines are unsightly or a poverty indicator. She used to live in a fairly affluent county in New Jersey where in good weather people always hung their sheets outside to dry “because it makes them fresh and smell pretty,” she said. “To me it’s not a lowbrow thing.”

House hunters considering gated communities might not agree. These buyers tend to like rules about what their neighbors can do with their property. “They like that the next door neighbor will have to keep his lawn a certain way or that the house across the street will be painted only certain colors,” Chafatelli said.

One Cross Creek Estates resident, Earl Kennedy, said he had no objection to clotheslines. He would, however, like to see some rules to make sure the lines aren’t a safety hazard. And he’s seen Krass’ umbrella clothesline and doesn’t consider it an eyesore.

“It looks fine,” he said. “I wouldn’t see where anyone would have a problem with it.”

Then why did she move there? To cause trouble it seems. She could have easily and less expensively lived outside such a community, but chose to live within one and then force her views on others. Vindictive bitch isn't she?

Originally Posted by Guest

Then why did she move there? To cause trouble it seems. She could have easily and less expensively lived outside such a community, but chose to live within one and then force her views on others. Vindictive bitch isn't she?

Are you kidding, or are you really being a d..k?

Originally Posted by Guest

Then why did she move there? To cause trouble it seems. She could have easily and less expensively lived outside such a community, but chose to live within one and then force her views on others. Vindictive bitch isn't she?

Originally Posted by Guest

Are you kidding, or are you really being a d..k?

DUCK?

I certainly hope my neighbors don't start putting up clotheslines

Instead of posting this on the Political Forum, it should go to the General Discussion forum.

Just imagine the number of comments that would be posted there!

Originally Posted by Guest

Instead of posting this on the Political Forum, it should go to the General Discussion forum.

Just imagine the number of comments that would be posted there!

If not an outright mistake then one wonders what the thinking was to put it here.

Could it be that some feel the only place an opposing or potential disagreeing subject is here in political.

Let us hope not!

I live in a courtyard villa so I don't care what a person does in their back yard. But, even if it is legal to install a clothesline in your back yard in the villages, I bet your clothesline doesn't last long, in other yards, outside of CYV's. I believe you signed a compliance document when you purchased here and that means you can be sued for non-compliance, regardless of the law. Add to that the fact that irate neighbors can make your stay in the villages very uncomfortable.

You can make a political issue of this, but I really don't think it belongs here.

Originally Posted by Guest

Instead of posting this on the Political Forum, it should go to the General Discussion forum.

Just imagine the number of comments that would be posted there!

Why

Started this yesterday.

It occurs to me that this thread poses something of a conundrum to our liberal progressive friends on the left. On the one hand, the mechanical clothes dryer was perfected in the '50s to help alleviate some of the drudgery of housework. Free of this drudgery, women were able to pursue better and more rewarding careers than running a household and raising children.

On the other hand, in the name of saving the planet, our liberal progressive friends are encouraging us to eschew the mechanical dryer and let nature do the drying for us. So essentially they want to re-shackle women to the drudgery of housework as I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be the man of the house hanging the laundry.

And say, what about that washing machine, it also uses quite a bit of electricity. In the name of saving the planet, shouldn't we trade it in for a washboard and tub. I mean, as long as the little lady is home hanging the laundry, she might as well hand wash the laundry in the tub and save those watts for the health of the planet. We could also get rid of the dish washer, trash compacter, garbage disposal, hair dryer and vacuum cleaner. After all whats more important, saving the planet or a little extra housework.

So the question is:
Is the clothes line Democrat or Republican?
Is it being subsidized, unionized or minimum waged?

This could be a serious issue. I wonder how much Obama has granted for the pursuit of the development of this solar/wind operated device. This could be a windfall! It's a combination using both solar and wind to operate. What an ingenious device. We should see if we can get in on the ground floor.