How an HOA Can Affect Choice of a Home Garage

Having a professional install a new garage in San Luis Obispo can make a big difference in your home’s value. It can up your curb appeal and make your life more convenient every day. You’ll have a lot of choices to make, and if you belong to a homeowners’ association, you’ll need to make those selections within the parameters set forth by the HOA. They often have rules that govern color along with a wide range of other characteristics.

Choosing a Color

The main goal with color regulations is to ensure that homeowners don’t choose something garish for their garage doors. You’ll often be preapproved for your current shade. You may also be preapproved for a range of other pre-cleared colors as well. However, an HOA often wants to make sure that siding color and garage door color complement or contrast each other in an appropriate way, so you may need to seek approval through an official process.

Selecting a Style

Style choices may be affected as well. Rules won’t generally extend to the internal makeup, so you should be free to choose that three-layer door over two- or single-layer options. Nevertheless, your bylaws may require wood, a certain panel size or orientation and so forth.

Consider Ease of Cleaning

Many HOAs have rules governing how often garage doors and other aspects of a home need to be cleaned. If your agreement has particularly strict rules in this regard, then you may want to prioritize surfaces known to clean easily.

Read the Fine Print

Avoid presumptions about what is and isn’t in an HOA contract. One California HOA recently advised all homeowners to leave their garage doors open during standard business hours. Many of the homeowners involved were shocked to find that the agreement they had entered gave the HOA the right to do what otherwise seemed like overstepping their bounds.