Casa Chocolate

About a week ago, I recieved word that there was a homeowner in the neighborhood who dared to paint his house without approval from our Architectural Control Committee (the ACC). This is usually the most feared and loathed committee of any HOAs -- they're basically the people that tell you you can't have pink flamingos on your yard, nor can you contruct a 1:2 scale model of Godzilla. Fascists.

Anyway, as the story goes, there was a homeowner who wanted to paint her house "applesauce," whatever color that is. The ACC ixnayed that idea. This was two years ago.

Today, this same scorned homeowner noticed that someone in our neighborhood had painted his house "chocolate," whatever color that is. She was peeved enough to report it in, complaining about her own rejection for what she felt was a much more delicious color.

The chocolate homeowner, naturally, is unresponsive to requests from the ACC to maybe go ahead and repaint his house something acceptable.

So now it's to the board. The choices presented to me are:

a) Continue sending letters, or
b) Get the attorney involved.

Since neither option seems very likely to fix things, I think we should just let the original complaintant paint her house whatever color or foodstuff she wants. I've seen the chocolate house, and though I knew the address, it took several seconds for me to pick out the offender. So the color itself, I think, is no big deal.

But of course, there's a larger issue here. Who is the ACC to say what color anyone's house is?

Turns out, they can't -- at least, not according to anything I could find. Here's an excerpt from what I send to the rest of the board:

I've reviewed all the documents I could find that I'd expect paint colors to be discussed (those are cited at the end of this message). Surprisingly, I don't really see any authority for the ACC spelled out regarding painting one's home. I do find plenty of references to "construction," but I'm unconvinced that exterior paint would be considered by a normal person as a "constuction" activity, nor is the term "construction" defined in the Declaration to include exterior (or interor) paint.

Dictionary.com's definition seems to agree -- painting may not be considered an element of construction.

So that's my take. You can paint the front of your house with a mural depicting the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, if you want. You can't construct a replica of said patriotic scene on your roof for Memorial day without consulting the ACC. One involves driving screws and nails. One involves paint. One is construction, the other is not.

It's been at least seven hours since I wrote this opinion back to the rest of the board, and the ACC chair. The Chair's e-mail bounced, so she's out of the loop. The board has remained silent. I assume they are pondering this to a point of understandingness.

The simple solution, of course, is to let the applesauce lady paint her house. The whole problem goes away, then. Of course, it completely destroys any shred of credibility the ACC may have had, but it's a small price to pay for neighborhood placidity.

The complicated solution, on the other hand, is to try it in court. Let a judge decide if the HOA deserves an injunction to force the homeowner to repaint his house. Judges are, in general, a fairly sober bunch, and when you point out that such-and-such isn't in a contract, they tend to rest on that. But what do I know, I'm not an attorney.