Thursday, December 1, 2016

Omaha man refuses to remove golf amenities from backyard

An Omaha resident who lost a lawsuit over outdoor amenities he added to his suburban property, including a putting green, has refused to abide by a court order to remove some of them.

Eric Marsh spent about $350,000 eight years to install tee boxes, boulders, fire cauldrons, the putting green, a sport court and an infinity-edge pool. The Fire Ridge homeowners association sued Marsh four years ago, saying his development strayed from approved plans.

Marsh said he will continue to fight the case.

"I plan to do what I absolutely have to do," he said. "I'll stand my ground as long as I can."

According to Marsh's appeal, Fire Ridge officials haven't bothered to enforce neighborhood covenants on other homeowners.

Via AP tweet: http://bigstory.ap.org/2c30c96d65bb441e8f2773184d24e3ce?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Oddities

17 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"Better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission."

Sometimes that's pretty bad advice.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Can't a guy just play a little golf in his own backyard?

Make golf great again

deborah said...

Let this be a lesson to home owner associations. Once you let someone paint their house an unapproved color, even if it looks nice, you open yourself to people using questionable colors.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Never buy a home with a HOA.

Sort of like, if you are rich, make sure you have a prenup.

Methadras said...

Evi, I'd love to be in a non-HOA development.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The tyranny of equality.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Meth, you are stuck buying an older home. If you can't find one, at least ask a good sample of neighbors how the HOA is before you buy. Then make sure you run to be on the board of the HOA, just to make sure it stays sane.

ndspinelli said...

We lived in regular houses in KC, Chicago and Wisconsin. Three weeks ago we move to the Twin Cities area. Our townhouse community has a HOA. The rules are over 50 pages. I balked when we got the rules prior to finalizing the deal. But, we decided to to go w/ the property. I have already started rebelling which should shock no one. Just small shit so far like putting out my garbage and recycling early and bringing the empty cans in late. Christmas decorations could be put up on Thanksgiving, must be taken down by Jan 1, and "must be tasteful." I am thinking about going Clark "Sparky" Griswold. But, that would be too much work. I do have a few cousins on the Irish side like Cousin Eddie. And one actually does have an RV.

On the flip side, when we were looking @ places to buy we saw a place online. Photos looked good, price was quite good. So, we went to take a look. Before entering we saw the backyard of the neighbor on the next street. There was no HOA on that street, although the property for sale had an HOA. The neighbor house looked like Fred Sanford's house. The real estate agent looked @ the property as we said, "No need to unlock the door." She agreed. What a horrible situation to be trying to sell a house and have trash living next door.

The Dude said...

I wish you had said something - I could have cleaned up a bit...

ndspinelli said...

Sixty, I know it couldn't have been you. It's north of the Mason Dixon line.

Methadras said...

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Meth, you are stuck buying an older home. If you can't find one, at least ask a good sample of neighbors how the HOA is before you buy. Then make sure you run to be on the board of the HOA, just to make sure it stays sane.


So far the HOA i live in is not to bad. I wish it wasn't so expensive, but housing in San Diego County is really tight and it's getting worse. Shit, if I got on an HOA board, it would be a massacre.

ndspinelli said...

Meth would have to pass out Depends prior to presiding over an HOA meeting. They would be shittin' their pants. He is a force of nature.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Availability bias.

Maybe someday there will be one of those sensationalistic reality shows aimed at the cheap seats.

"Homeowners' Associations Gone Bad!!!"

Might not be sufficiently visual, though.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Meth: Make HOAs Great Again

You should go for it. Like Patton's 3rd Army went for it.

Dad Bones said...

If old age and/or ill health ever force me to sell my little crib and move into a HUD apartment with their rules and inspections I guess there's a small amount of cold comfort in knowing that a nice place with an HOA has its drawbacks too.

The Dude said...

I built some sheds in my yard over at my old place. Painted the first on red. Second one, bright blue. You can see the trend. Well, my neighbor left an anonymous note in my mailbox about the garish colors (unpatriotic twit!) and so for my third shed, just as I was about to paint it like the Zulu buildings in South Africa he stopped by and admitted that he had written the nasty-gram and said he was just concerned about resale values.

So I repainted the blue shed a nice green color that all would agree was low key, but because me giving in to a badword would upset the balance of the universe I took my sofa out of my house and put it in my front yard. Mess with me, you skin head and I will show you some stuff!

In the immortal words of Jeff Foxworthy "If your outdoor furniture used to be indoor furniture, you may be..."

ndspinelli said...

Sixty, I grew up near Litchfield, CT. A wealthy, old town. I don't know if it's still the case, but when I still lived in CT. your house in Litchfield had to be painted white. No exceptions.