Kure Keys is a community with covenants, bylaws, and rules and regulations. Each owner has an opportunity to read and become familiar with these documents prior to purchase. The HOA Board governs the association on a volunteer basis to ensure that our community is in compliance with the covenants, bylaws, and rules and regulations and when challenged, that there is a fair and equitable process to reach a solution to the issue.
One of our residents has requested the installation of a hot tub on her deck. Currently this is not permitted according to covenants. The Board unanimously voted not to support her request for the following reasons:
- The covenants currently allow for hot tubs to be installed on the screened-in back porch.
- The covenants are in place to help to protect property values. It is the Board’s opinion that allowing hot tubs on decks could jeopardize those property values.
- Hot tub usage would be difficult to monitor:
- It would fall to the Board members to monitor usage and respond to complaints at all times of day and night.
- Noise from the back of homes radiate to all areas of the neighborhood.
- Residents of townhomes with the back master bedroom on the first floor may be affected even more by the presence of a hot tub and the noise created by its users because it is in close proximity to that bedroom.
- Residents with extended decks could place their hot tub directly next to their neighbor’s bedroom window. Again, adjacent neighbors could be impacted by the operation of the hot tub and the noise of its users.
- The Board cannot ensure that residents will properly maintain and operate a hot tub. This could create unsightly untidiness for neighbors and also create a need for a set of hot tub rules and regulations.
- While most residents will respect neighbors as far as time of hot tub use and noise generated from its users, there is no guarantee that this will continue with visitors or future owners.
As a point of information, the Board has approved a hot tub installed on an outside deck of one of the Kure Keys homeowners. It was approved based on legally required documented compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Upon sale of that residence, the current owner, at his own expense, must remove the hot tub and return the deck to the original configuration.
~Keys HOA Board