Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal

[monster]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Did the fence have an effect on any neighbouring property?

Over here if you build a fence above 6 Foot high, or you wish to build anything that will have an effect on neighbouring properties you need planning permission. If you seek planning permission, notices are then posted around the area so that any neighbours who feel they have a reasonable case for objecting can do so.

On new estates (neighborhoods), gardens (yards) here are generally one large continuum of lawn, with no boundary markers between properties. No hedges no fences etc not even a flower bed. Most such estates have many rules about what you can and can't do to the outside of the property, to keep a sense of uniformity about the place. They are referred to as "cookie cutter neighborhood" I live in one. We killed our residents association who enforced the rules and they came back as zombies, enforcing long-dead style rules! I need out! Oh, did I digress?

Anyway, it's pretty standard that fences, sheds, satelite dishes, anything over 10' including flagpoles require permission from the association. Unless you have a dog in which case you are required to have a fence and people put these nasty metal chainlink things in..... oops off I went again...

Some of the very expensive cookie cutter neighborhoods, filled with what are known as McMansions go even further, with regulations dictating what colours (colors) you can paint your house. Really.

And yet you still hear comments about this being "the land of the free" and how people wouldn't like to live in a socialist dictatorship country like Europe.


To avoid these neighborhoods, you generally have to choose to live in a smaller, older property with maintenance issues. When we bought here, we were told the association was disbanded and could not be revived and no-one would ever do that anyway.... we were told wrong......