Legal Question in Real Estate Law in North Carolina
Three years ago I purchased property in a subdivision under the conditions that I could operate my seasonal home based business. Prior to purchasing the property I received a letter approving the business. The HOA has recently decided they made a mistake and no longer wishes for me to operate the business, and said they only approved it three years ago because they needed to sell property in the area. Since we have a letter of approval, we continued to operate. Since then they have asked the county to help them close our business under a zoning violation issue. Simpathetically the county sent out zoning violation letters for two years, but did not enforce the letters. Needless to say, this is already an established business but the county says that we will most likely get fined this year if we open. The business is an 11 week Deer Processing business, which is a very short season. The HOA was told we did not want to purchase this property if we could not operate the business. What is our options legally? The county blames the HOA and are very simpathetic with us, but their hands are tied as there is a zoning issue. The HOA has been doing all kinds of illegal things to other people as well, but some how seem to get away with it. Any legal advise you can give me will be most appreicated. Angela
1 Answer from Attorneys
The HOA issue has been a big topic as of late concerning their rapidly growing powers. The problem is that very likel the HOA has a clause in their restrictive covenants that are int he public record and chain of title of your property, specifically state no business enterprises on the property.
Here's the turn: they agreed to let you do this for years. There is caselaw in ther states that says the HOA is out of luck. Then you have two problems, individual property owners subject to the restrictive covenants sometimes have the right to sue to enforce them and they didn't agree to allow the busines...so they could cause problems.
Ultimately the biggest problem is the city. The city blaming the HOA seems like a cop out. The HOA doesn't bind the city. If there is a zoning violation, an agreement between two private parties (you and the HOA) can't absolve the zoning issue, that is completey separate from the HOA issue and the HOA did not have a duty to inform you of or address the zoning laws...as a business owner the law would elave that to you.
You need to speak to a real estate lawyer in your area. You need to first deal with the zoning issue, as if that is not resolved, the HOA matter becomes irrelevant as the City will continue to fine you and likely have the business closed at some point.
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