"John Cochran" wrote in message
...
I don't have a copy of the convenant, but according to the news article
the phrasing is "a ban on any commercial use of the property name" then
immediately following there's a statement that the guy is violating this
by "trying to see an idea". Frankly that's a rather long stretch.

"a ban on any commercial use of the property name"
"trying to sell an idea"

How much profit does he expect to get selling his idea?
How much revenue does he expect to get selling his idea?

If no profit and no revenue, how can this be considered commercial use?

I don't know all the laws - maybe the HOA can write into the covenant
something about residents not being allowed to say unkind things about the
HOA on their website. But it appears that the best argument they were able
to come up with was the one about commercial use.

He might be able to go to his insurance company with the fire issue and try
to get them to cancel his policy or raise the premiums because of the risk.
Presumably when they do this to him, they and other companies will follow
suit and do the same for everyone else in the community. That might be
legally possible but it doesn't do anything to move things closer to a
harmonious state.

The real issue is what the members of the HOA want. When he bought the
house, he must have known there was an HOA, and he should have known that
HOAs function, more or less, as a democracy and can make whatever rules they
want within whatever restrictions the law applies. If the members are well
informed about the dangers of the gas lights and a majority of them agree to
keep them and no law is being violated, then the HOA can keep that rule in
place. If he believes the members are not properly informed or are just
being apathetic, then he can start his website or use other legal means to
keep them informed and interested. If he decides to go off on a crusade and
find legal means or get an insurance company to take action (and apparently
he has not done this), this is probably legal, but then he really is
"stirring the pot" and would make life a lot better for everyone, including
himself, if he just moved. But given that a simple move, including selling a
house and buying another, can cost tens of thousands of dollars, it's not
such a simple solution.

I would really like to know how such a moronic idea as putting gas lights in
front of every house ever got implemented, much less written into the HOA
bylaws. I kind of imagine that during the construction phase, someone
happened to watch a movie about olde England that showed houses with gas
lights, and they thought that was so romantic and decided their community
had to have that too. Now they don't want to accept the realization that it
was a stupid idea, so they're using the HOA to block any reconsideration.