While it may be easy to criticize the attorney who drafted this provision in this manner, in 1976 anticipating a puppy mill could be a bit farfetched.Įven more detailed “pet” provisions drafted since 1976 may not be able to anticipate every possibility. It is obvious to everyone, that allowing a puppy mill in this residential HOA with twenty dogs was not the original intent of the drafter of the CC&Rs, but that was the result. So, how an attorney would read that back in court is: “With the exception of dogs, breeding is not allowed.” As a matter of fact, according to one HOA property management company, that is exactly how the HOA member’s attorney read that “pet” provision back in court. Reading the “pet” provision pay special attention to the underlined words: No animals, livestock, or poultry shall be raised, bred, or maintained on any Lot, with the exception of dogs and cats. It was estimated that the member had close to twenty dogs in her home and yard. One top HOA property management company stated that this was far from the case when the HOA board of directors attempted to end a member’s dog breeding business. While this provision may appear to be straightforward and clear. No animals, livestock, or poultry shall be raised, bred, or maintained on any Lot, with the exception of dogs and cats. The following “pet” provision example is from a CC&R recorded for a single-family HOA established in 1976. For example, the CC&R’s may state: “Dogs have to be curbed.” The HOA’s rules and regulations could expand on this and state: “Dogs must be walked in the common area designated as a dog run.” Pet provisions or pet language may be mentioned in the “nuisance” section of the CC&Rs as well.īrevity of “pet” provisions in CC&Rs cannot only be detrimental to enforcement, brevity can even aid individual members in circumventing the original intent of the provision. The rules and regulations typically have “pet” provisions that are more refined from what is located within the HOA’s CC&Rs. The governing document that the “pet” section is typically located in are the covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&R). A good HOA property management company can assist you with this sensitive topic. Predicting what HOA members will do with regard to their pets can be akin to accurately predicting earthquakes. This is even considering the more detail placed within, and the attempts at covering every eventuality, that have been drafted into governing documents within the last ten years. The second confounding issue is the difficulty in adequately drafting “pet” provisions in the HOA’s governing documents. Today, it is not uncommon to find an entire page, or even two pages, solely dedicated to HOA members and their pets. Property management companies say that it is more common than not to find older HOA governing documents with only a paragraph dedicated to pets within the HOA. Commonly, HOA’s established in the 60s, 70s, or earlier, have “pet” provisions that tend to be very brief, or even fail to address this topic. First, the details drafted into the “pet” provision of the HOA’s governing documents. With this being said, there is probably no provision in almost all homeowner association (HOA) governing documents more confounding than the provision on “pets” within the HOA.Ĭonfounding in two primary ways. Of course, this point can be argued with all the thousands of attorneys drafting HOA governing documents with varying levels of competence. Generally speaking, a HOA property management company will tell you that homeowner association (HOA) governing documents are straightforward on the workings and responsibilities of the HOA and the individual HOA members.
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