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What You Can Do, Legally [Was: Re: Of course I'm serious.]

Posted by Vinyl Rules! (R) on January 6, 2007 at 17:31:30

In Reply to: Of course I'm serious. posted by meisterkleef on January 5, 2007 at 07:37:15:

meisterkleef wrote, "And sure I guess I could bring in a lawyer to fight the association rules regarding external antennas but that's not an engagement that interests me at this point."

I understand and respect your position.

This issue always boils down to who is responsible for maintaining the roof of your dwelling. If you are responsible, then numerous FCC rulings and court cases say Federal Law from the 1996 Telecom Act trumps ANY HOA rules regarding the installation of antennas on your roof.

If the HOA is responsible for maintaining and re-roofing your dwelling, then it's their roof and they can legally tell you not to put an antenna on their roof. However, you ARE allowed to put a small DBS dish less than 3' in diameter AND a small antenna for either a burglar alarm service AND a small antenna for a broadband wireless Internet connection, on either the rail of your porch or on one of your outside windows. There have been no cases that I can find referenced that involve installation of an FM or TV antenna (other than a whip) on your porch railing or window.

I just wanted to make you aware of this because many HOA's where the HOA members own their roofs are aware of the Federal Law but still try and bully their members into not erecting anything on their roof.

I know you do not plan to fight your HOA, but if you own your roof, you have the right to install an FM antenna, a 3' or smaller dish, an antenna for a burglar alarm service, an antenna for a wireless broadband service, AND a big HAM antenna on your roof.

One friend of mine who faced a similar situation in a gated community with really restrictive rules got his HOA to back down by simply showing up at an HOA meeting with a copy of some of the FCC rulings and several court cases backing his decision.

But the clincher was that he also showed up with handouts of what his roof would look like if he installed all of the antenna referenced above on his roof (he PhotoShopped them into a picture of his roof) and he had a second handout of what his roof would look like with just an FM antenna on it. He then told the board they had two choices: We can fight this in court and you will lose (and you'll also have to pay all my legal expenses when you lose), and then I will exercise my right to put up ALL the antennas on the first handout, or we can behave like adults, you can follow the Federal law and I'll just put up the FM antenna (he called it a TV antenna) and we'll behave like gentlemen and avoid litigation that you will lose.

The HOA took the sensible route and let him put up his antenna, but they would not change their written policy.

And they watched him like a hawk ever after and if his grass was even 1/8 higher than allowed by the HOA he got a notice about it, so that is the downside of winning :-(

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