The Libertarian and Restrictive Covenants

It used to be that restrictive covenants were mostly intended to control a neighborhood's ethnic, religious, or racial composition.  "Your kind are not welcome around here."  A property's deed prohibited any owner, current or future, from selling to someone in an undesirable class.

Nowadays, however, restrictive covenants are used by "planned communities" governed by homeowners' associations as a way of enforcing a set of rules. Accepting the deed to a property obligates you to abide by the association's bylaws and a set of rules, which may be quite lengthy and detailed.

The idea is to protect property values and avoid offending neighbors.  It might, for example, not only be hard on your eyes but also make it more difficult to sell your house if your neighbor across the street were to have the paint on his house changed from its current traditional white or subdued earth tones to purple with orange polka dots.  The same might be true if he routinely allowed the grass in his front yard to grow to 15 inches tall and accumulate a diverse crop of weeds, or if he used his front driveway as a place to rehabilitate junkers.

Three years ago my family moved to a new community.  Like our old neighborhood, the new one has restrictive covenants and a homeowners' association.  Now they are looking for folks to serve on a committee to make rules for the new clubhouse and swimming pool.  Count me out.

When I became aware that our old neighborhood had lots of rules, I was concerned.  You see, I am a libertarian, and I am innately suspicious of rules.  So I decided I should get involved.  If I was going to live in a place with lots of rules, I wanted to have a role in reviewing and amending them, adopting new ones, and making decisions about how they should be enforced.  I was especially interested in assuring that all rules were simple, clear, truly beneficial to the community, not burdensome to the individual homeowner, and - perhaps as important as anything else - readily enforceable.

So I sought election to the association's board of directors.  I ultimately served on that board for fifteen years, the latter thirteen as president.  I strove to assure that the rules were fair and fairly enforced and focused much attention on improving the community through careful expenditures of residents' dues dollars.  I wrote a monthly column in our newsletter to let everyone know what the board of directors was doing and why.

Serving on that association's board of directors had its rewards.  I got to see the improvements we were able to make in the community, spending dues dollars mostly on recreational facilities that were much used and appreciated by large subsets of the residents.  (No matter what you build, there will be people who ask, "Why did you waste money on that?")  And I made friends with others who were community leaders.  It was all volunteer work, and I contributed many, many hours each year to something I perceived as a very worthwhile endeavor.

So why do I say "count me out" when it comes to serving on a committee in my new neighborhood?  Partly it's just that I feel as though I've already done enough of that for one lifetime.  (Fifteen years is a long time!)  And part of it is that I have so many more rewarding things to do with my time that I am disinclined to take on what I know will be a thankless task.  While I believe a job well done is its own reward, it is nice to be appreciated, and in the fifteen years I devoted myself to governance of my old neighborhood, I did not receive as many as fifteen words of gratitude.

So if you live in a planned community with a homeowners' association, keep an eye on what the association is doing and make your opinions known.  Participate in governance if that is work that appeals to you.  But remember that the people doing that work are volunteers who got involved because they want to make the community a better place to live.  Once in a while, say thanks.