In my current neighborhood (where we are renting while we build a new house) I built two short "wing" fences to either side of the back of the house that were 8' long and were just for privacy and as a windblock. They were far from any property border. The HOA complained to my landlord, and I had to remove them.
Next, I left two garbage cans on my driveway up by my garage door. The HOA complained to my landlord. I opened the garage door and pulled them inside.
After this insanity, I asked my landlord for a copy of the HOA CR&R's. The document was 75 pages long. I've lived for the last 24 years in Southern California in a very nice HOA and have never seen anything like it. You can get in trouble if you plant a rose bush in your front yard. You can even get in trouble if you install "invisible" things like an invisible dog fence or in-ground sprinklers. I can understand things like fencing that runs along a property line needing to be approved, or no overnight parking on streets, but this document was insane. Good thing we will only be here another six months. The landlord was very apologetic because we are great tenants. This is NOT a particularly expensive neighborhood, either. Mostly starter homes.
