HOA banning dogs on grass - suggestions?
Hi Lemmy, My HOA sent out a email saying dogs are no longer allowed on any grass in common areas or front yards including grass between sidewalk and curb which is.... everywhere except our own tiny backyards. The reasoning is some dog urine effected dead spots. Honestly I didn't even notice them, it's 95° here and all the grass looks sad.
It's a walking town and we are not a gated community, non-residents walk their dogs here all the time, so this rule can only punish those who live here and has no ability to effect others.
Anyway, this seems like a 'we have tried nothing and we are all out of ideas!' moment so I wanted to see if anyone here had any suggestions I can pass on to maintain a "good" curb appeal ground cover-wise while allowing dogs to do normal dog stuff.
I can converse with the HOA board in good faith, but this rule is basically banning dogs from the neighborhood - which I super did not sign up for.
Pertainent info: PA, USA - Town Home style homes - small central common grass - owned for 8y.
Edit: it seems like people may have glossed over the question part and skipped straight to HOA bashing (which is warranted at times!) so I will rephrase:
What ground covering or neighborhood solutions to similar (perceived) issues have other communities employed?
A complicating factor: I would say ~50% of the houses are rented and only the homeowners have a say in HOA matters. So, assuming any owners without dogs (including the whole board) and any landlord would logically vote to ban all use of the grass, while all dog-owning homeowners would vote to allow dogs near the grass.
Obviously that's generalizing what the votes would be - even though the majority of the houses have dogs, I would say the minority are homeowners with dogs.
The reason I bring this up is a petition-style response may be dismissed as "well those dog owners have no say as they are not homeowners"
If any of the home owners are happy with their dog-owning current renters, it would be in their interest to support the dog owners.
I actually don't know if a landlord has to do anything to keep a renter happy these days? Or if there is enough demand that they would not care? Not sure, perhaps I am approaching that question pessimistically.
Most landlords would be more than happy if their renters dog died... You tried to get a lease with a dog lately? Unless you have something like a teacup poodle a vast majority of landlords don't want to lease to you.
i don't even understand why this is the case, why would they care if i have a dog? like why would they bother?
They can damage property. People let their dogs chew on stuff, pee on the floor etc. Dogs are also an insurance issue. When I bought my house several insurance companies didn't want to insure me because I had a German Shepard.
Because dogs tend to cause damage to rental properties. I was looking recently, and at least 80% of the rentals in my area had chew marks, claw marks, etc on doors and walls.
In a vacuum, yes. But what if some of them have been there for a few years and are paying below-market rent? Or are generally dicks but not egregious enough to go to the trouble of evicting?