Covenants popular, despite drawbacks

Homeownership has long been a symbol of independence. Many consider the financial wherewithal to buy property where their family members can live as they please a central part of the American Dream.

But as new subdivisions sprout all over the Inland Northwest, the keys to most new homes now come with restrictive covenants.

Formerly the province of condominiums and high-end subdivisions, the region has followed a national trend toward housing in which homeowners agree to a contractual tradeoff: some of their property rights in exchange for shared amenities and the assurance that the neighborhood will look largely the same in years to come.

“Almost all of them include a homeowners’ association right up front,” Valerie Rongey said of new developments in the area.

Rongey, an agent for Tomlinson Black in Spokane Valley, helps manage 21 homeowners’ associations. All of them were created by developers before people even moved in as a way to care for things like landscaping in common areas. Later, the associations, with Rongey’s help, also enforce neighborhood rules aimed at keeping property values up.

More than half of the covenants on record in Spokane County have been filed since 1990, and the trend toward subdivision governance doesn’t stop at the state line.

Kootenai County Planning Director Rand Wichman said most subdivisions with at least 10 homes have homeowners’ associations.

“They’ve really become ubiquitous,” Wichman said. “I think they are becoming more and more prevalent just because people are more interested in aesthetics.”

Conformity seems to be both the upside and the downside to covenants.

Real estate professionals and association presidents say most people enjoy the common areas a homeowners’ association provides for, and the rules governing property appearance can help ensure a tidy neighborhood stays that way.

“(Homeowners) get to have some say as to what happens in their part of the neighborhood,” said Cate Moye, owner of Windermere Real Estate in Spokane Valley.

An association is regulated by state laws similar to those governing a non-profit corporation. It’s democratic in that board members are chosen and community rules changed by a vote of its members.

But they can also be more controlling than any city government or planning board would dare to be, with the ability to impose aesthetic guidelines as strict as what color a homeowner can paint his or her house.

Often, rules are enforced with fines that can be backed up by costly lawsuits or liens on the offending property.

“It would be like joining any organization that you would take interest in,” Moye said, advising home buyers to look carefully at an association’s fees, services and structure for decision making.

Unlike a city government, association boards are all-volunteer and often filled with individuals who have limited experience managing other people.

“It’s a political group of people. In any situation that can become difficult,” Moye said.

In one Spokane Valley subdivision, rows of spotless houses and nearly identical yards fit neatly behind a large gate that separates the enclave from the outside world.

“As far as private, we’ve got it made,” said Terry Reed, 63.

He is part of a growing number of people sizing down, buying smaller houses after the children move out that are easier to maintain.

Reed bought his house before most of the other lots were developed. Although he’s friendly and quick to say hi to his neighbors, he says he’s a bit of a “rebel” when it comes to the homeowners’ association.

“Anything you do around here, you’ve got to ask,” he said, walking to the back yard to point out a small, arc-shaped flower garden that could have gotten him into trouble because he didn’t seek board approval before it was built.

It would also be nice, he said, if he weren’t forbidden to mow his own lawn on days when he is expecting company but the mowing service hasn’t come for a few days.

Associations vary greatly. Some meet regularly and take on expensive capital facilities projects, while others are formed specifically to fund maintenance on a private road that local governments can’t take care of.

“The association just pays for the upkeep of the yards and the streets,” said Ella Denny, vice president of the association for a single block of houses on a private, dead-end road tucked behind a school.

Her street, like many in Spokane Valley, is built on strips of undeveloped land in existing neighborhoods as housing in previously rural areas becomes more dense.

There are no between-house fences, and the neat grass is all the same height thanks to a mowing service employed by the association.

The board’s role is also aesthetic, Denny explains. Clever decorations adorn the front of most of the houses. A new backyard deck, though, would need association approval, as would a number of changes to the outside of the houses.

“We do not allow any outbuildings,” Denny said.

In other places, some of the strictest community rules have raised the attention of legislators in Olympia.

In 2004, Washington followed several states that have made it illegal for homeowners’ associations to ban displays of the American flag.

Similar legislation protecting political yard signs before an election passed last year, and some legislators are trying to clarify legal issues that fall between laws governing homeowners’ associations and laws governing corporations.

“I’d like there to be consistency,” said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, who is sponsoring legislation that would make several changes to the group of laws governing the associations.

Last year, the Idaho Legislature killed a bill that would have allowed homeowners’ associations to put liens on property of members who failed to pay penalties, after many lawmakers voiced fears the bill could intrude on private property rights.

Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said she doesn’t plan to resurrect the liens bill. But she will propose a plan to require homeowners’ associations to have a capital reserve account for unexpected expenses that would otherwise be divided among the members all at once in a special assessment.

Whatever changes state legislatures impose on homeowners’ associations, the associations’ popularity shows semi-private governance will likely continue to grow.

Nationally, one out of every six Americans now lives in a development governed by a homeowners’ association. It’s also estimated that four out of every five housing starts come under the control of one, according to the Community Association Institute.