Do I have to remove reflectors on my property if they’ve been there for 3 years because someone new is on the homeowners assocation and wants them removed?

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Do I have to remove reflectors on my property if they’ve been there for 3 years because someone new is on the homeowners assocation and wants them removed?

We have a homeowners’ association. I installed reflectors on my property 3 years ago by the street because it is dark and people were driving over my lawn or parking on it and destroying my property, which is illegal. Now someone new is on the association and wants me to remove my reflectors. Since they have been up for 3 years I feel a precedent has been set and I do not want to remove them. I have cancer and I don’t have the energy to fill in holes.

Asked on May 18, 2016 under Real Estate Law, Illinois

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 7 years ago | Contributor

Does the HOA agreement give the association the right or power to require you to take the reflectors down? Or do the association rules limit what you can put on your property or changes you can make to your property? If the answer to either question is "yes," then you have to take them down: the fact that they protect your property or that you've had them for three years is irrelevant in the face of rules banning the reflectors or authority given to the HOA to require you to remove them.
On the other hand, if the answer to both questions is "no"--you are not violating any rules about how you maintain, build on, modify, etc. your property, and the HOA does not have authority in the agreement to tell you how to keep your property--then you should be able to keep them.


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