Plan on making renovations? Check with your homeowner’s association before making these

Plan on making renovations? Check with your homeowner’s association before making these

When you buy a home and are finally ready to move into it, you often look forward to renovating it to your personal taste and preference. It’s now your home after all – you can do almost anything you want with it. That’s the key word: almost.

Certain home renovations can get you in hot soup with your neighborhood’s homeowners association (HOA), utility companies or even your local municipality so here’s a quick list of which ones you need to approach extra carefully.

1. Painting: Homeowners associations have the mandate of maintaining a certain order in the community, and this in some cases includes dictating what colors you are allowed to paint the exterior of your home, so hold your horses with that paint brush.
2. Landscaping: You often have to submit plans of new trees to the homeowners association, with neighbor’s signatures. Some homeowners associations even have a list of specifically approved shrubbery, trees and even flowers so make it a point to have a look at this beforehand or you may end up having to dig up those plants you just bought and planted.
3. Fencing: There are often specifications about fences; especially to do with how tall they can be and what materials you can use, so check with your homeowners association or even your county municipal government if you live in a small town.
4. Fireplaces: You should make the necessary consultations before you build a fireplace, or even tweak the one you have or else you could have everyone from the fire department down to the homeowners association coming down on you.
5. Digging: You ought to check with both your homeowners association and all your utility companies – electric, water, cable – before doing any serious digging, such as creating a swimming pool, just to make sure that you don’t mess up anything that might affect not only your home, but the whole neighborhood at large.
6. Decks: Building a deck also requires a permit from the homeowners association, and these are often quite expensive. Furthermore, usually you will find that the more elaborate the deck you want, the more expensive the permit for it.