In the fifth grade I was voted most likely to become an lawyer.
So I am sure it would come at no surprise to Mrs. Prockop, that when I recently received a violation notice from my HOA regarding a resin shed I had constructed in my backyard, I did not hesitate to ask for an official hearing with the Architectural Committee.
A hearing that, even to my own surprise, I came out of a ‘winner’ even though by the letter of the ordinance, I was clearly in violation. But as I reflect on it, I leveraged a clear framework that I believe can be applied widely when attempting to bring others around to your opinion.
To appreciate the circumstance I was in, it is important to share how I was in violation. In addition to getting pre-approval for any new structure, our HOA guidelines specifically calls out the banning of resin based structures.
“Storage buildings constructed of plastic, resin, aluminum or other non-standard residential building materials are strictly prohibited”
Trailwood Deisgn Guidelines section 2.8
Like I said – clearly guilty as charged.
So how did I manage to come out a winner?
I came in humble:
The first words out of my mouth during the hearing was “I realize that by the letter of the law, I am in violation and I am certainly willing to follow whatever the ruling of the committee is.” If I was going to get them to consider my side of the issue, I needed to be sure the hearing was not confrontational.
I came in empathetic:
As someone who has run multifamily properties, I have been on the other side of these violation conversations more times than I can count. Those that come in to ‘aggressively discuss’ their innocence were rarely actually innocent and even more rarely let off the hook. Those conversations are never fun and I am sure the committee has more of those than the conversation I wanted to facilitate.
I challenged the rule – not the ruling:
Again, I was guilty of violating the code….I wanted the committee to change the code. Simply driving around our neighborhood it is clear that the use of resin-based structures is widely accepted by the home owners themselves. But if they were unwilling to consider a change, I was prepared to take down the structure (see coming in humble).
I came in prepared:
My neighborhood a bit unique in that it is built with the concept of every house baking up to a greenbelt and every home is required to have a wrought iron back fence for the length of the backyard….which means you can see in everyone’s back yard. So, I spent a chilly morning walking the entire neighborhood and counting how many resin-based storage structures I could observe. Turns out about 10% of the total houses in the neighborhood have some type of resin based structure. And the denominator included all of the vacant lots and currently under construction homes. The reaction of the HOA Director when she heard that figure was worth the 4 miles walked.
The end result?
Turns out the specific call out of resin-based construction is not a part of the builder’s standard HOA covenants. It is only in place at our community due to the requirement for wrought iron fences. The committee, after being made aware of just how prolific these structures are across the neighborhood (homeowners voting with their dollars as I put it) has agreed to take this specific call out back to the board for consideration of removal.
Will I ultimately be able to keep the shed? Still to early to tell but at least we have gotten this far. A feat I am sure would not have been achieved if I had decided to approach the situation a different way.