Ask Lemmy

Check to make sure that the HOA actually has the power to do this. As a land owner you are bound to follow the covenants that run with the land, but you are only actually bound to follow those covenants. You don't have to do random stuff just because the HOA board or even a majority of the HOA voters say so, you only actually have to do what's in the covenants.

Unless the covenants say that you agree to follow a bunch of dog-related rules to be defined later, you almost certainly are allowed to park your dog in your own front yard or in that of any consenting neighbor.

Move to a place that is not in an HOA because fuck HOAs.

I've read some folks being a bottle of water on walks to dilute the pee so it's less likely to ruin grass. But in fairness if some dog pee is ruining grass, owners are not watering their lawns enough. There are plenty of dogs in my neighborhood that are walked and I don't think there are many pee spot issues.

But even better would be to not use grass :) uses too much water in the first place hehe

So the AKC has this page that lists about half a dozen alternatives to outright banning dogs on grass.

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/home-living/dog-pee-killing-grass/

I agree this very much sounds like the HOA taking the laziest route possible at the expense of it's residents.

But also, fuck HOAs. Get on the board and take that shit down from the inside, only reliable way to destroy those parasites.

Is this legal? My understanding is that the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street is "semi-private", in that the homeowner has to maintain it, but that the city actually owns it.

I'd check local laws and see if the HOA has any right to restrict dogs there.

Ban HOA's. I really don't understand why there allowed to exist.

A complicating factor: I would say ~50% of the houses are rented and only the homeowners have a say in HOA matters. So, assuming any owners without dogs (including the whole board) and any landlord would logically vote to ban all use of the grass, while all dog-owning homeowners would vote to allow dogs near the grass.

Obviously that's generalizing what the votes would be - even though the majority of the houses have dogs, I would say the minority are homeowners with dogs.

The reason I bring this up is a petition-style response may be dismissed as "well those dog owners have no say as they are not homeowners"

Can the dog owning houses replace their grass with wood chips or something?