Hey Guys,

Need your advice.I'm selling. The house is an end-unit townhome in a Home Owners Association (HOA). Since it's a corner unit, I have a side fence which is pretty big in size for a townhome. It's about 24' by 60'.

We found a buyer, went under agreement, the appraisal was done, the inspection was done... everything was moving smoothly, up until now. Since there's an HOA, I had to get a Resale Certificate before the settlement. HOA sent out an inspector to make sure the property is according to HOA guidelines. When the inspection report came back, the inspector stated that the fence can only extend 17' from the house. Currently, it's 24' from the house.

My sellers bought this place in 2005 and the fence was already there. They did not install the fence. The resale certificate was issued and there weren't any problems. After they moved in, the HOA sent them a letter stating that since some of the planks were rutted and falling apart, they would need to fix the fence. They left the original posts in place and replaced all of the planks. Then they painted everything the same color. They did not change the dimensions of the fence. They only updated it.

Now the HOA is telling them that they need to reduce their yard in size. Well, obviously the buyers are not very happy with that. When they put an offer on this house, they were expecting a house with a large fenced yard, but now they're getting this house with a small fenced yard. The property is not too appealing anymore to them. So the buyers want to walk away.

Here's my question. Since the HOA did not find any issues with the dimensions back in 2006 when the place was last purchased, can they now request the sellers to change the size of the fence?

I will be contacting a real estate attorney regarding this issue and see if anything can be done. In the meantime, I want to run it by you guys and see if you can provide some advice.

Thanks for reading this long post.

My opinion, I am not an attorney.

Yes the HOA can enforce the rule an insist the seller change the size of the fence.

Are you only going by what people are saying or have you verified that these restrictions are actually in the HOA docs?


Is it possible that rules and regs were amended after 2006?

Without reviewing the documents it would be difficult to say. Definitely a consultation for review by a real estate litigation attorney would be good to do.

A few hundred might be able to solve the problem and get to closing. The fence moving back is huge and the deal would die.

Did the sellers have a survey completed when they purchased??

If not and they went off of HOA guidance they could be left with the consequences.

Yeah I agree, appreciate the quick response to post from everyone. I'll consult an attorney and head down from NYC to Townsend Village. Thanks again