What Are Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs)?

The CC&Rs are the rules of your neighborhood. The goal of the CC&Rs is to protect, preserve, and enhance property values in the community. Most of the time, the rules make sense and are easy to accept. (For example, it is pretty easy to agree with a covenant that requires you to mow your lawn and keep it weed-free.)

However, other rules might interfere with your plans or seem downright unreasonable to you. For example, perhaps you want to park your car in the street and store your extra belongings in the garage. However, an HOA might require you to park your car in the garage. Or, perhaps you are counting on the fact that you will be able to fence the yard to contain your dog, but after reading the CC&Rs, you find out that the community doesn’t allow fences. Not to mention the fact that some HOA communities don’t allow certain sizes or particular breeds of dogs, which means that if you have a 120-pound Rottweiler, you might need to look at buying a home in a different neighborhood since changing the rules is usually difficult.

Likewise, if you’re planning a big project later on down the line (say painting your house a new color), you’ll need to check with the CC&Rs to make sure that the paint color you have chosen isn’t prohibited.

Penalties for Violating the CC&Rs

When you close escrow on a home in a covenanted community, you will sign a series of papers, one of which states that you have read the CC&R's and agreed to abide by them. (The HOA enforces the CC&Rs.) If you violate the CC&Rs, the penalties can include:

fines
forced compliance, or
the HOA may file a lawsuit.

For example, suppose you try to sneak your large Rottweiler into a community despite the rule limiting the maximum weight for pets to 30 pounds. In addition to fines, you could be forced to give up the dog or find a new place to live. For this reason, you really should read the CC&Rs before purchasing a home in a covenanted community.