I live in a deed restricted community in Florida and have had my share of runins with what I call the communazi's of the homeowners association. You know the people with to much time on their hand looking over the fences and in your yards for violations of our by-laws ie having a truck on your driveway during the day. No less a beautiful classic El Camino included in this discription at least by the state of Fla DMV registration.

Well today I open my mailbox to find a envelope marked " Fellow El :) Camino Owner" to my suprise I find a hand written note" FYI!! call me if you have any questions and his number along with a FINAL JUDGMENT from the County Court of Manatee County Florida Case No. 2003-CC3260 finding the defendants Chevrolet El Camino motor vehicle is a "non commercial private automobile" and not a "truck" as defined by plaintiffs (homeowners association). I looked up the case and it dragged out 16 monthes thru the courts. I called them and we had a great conversation they have a 1977 Elky thats be restored and are now going to join NECOA. They were happy to make my day and parked their Elky on the driveway. Mine sleeps inside but it's good to know I can if I need to park on my owe driveway. Hope this helps anyone else dealing with these kind of moronic people in their neck of the woods or deed restricted communities.

Good for you! I had a similar situation with a group of busy bodies many years ago. Luckily I sold my townhouse for a tidy profit and bought a new house in an unrestricted community. People like that need to get a life.

I guess in some cases that deed restrictions are beneficial to the neighborhood. But I agree they are taken to extremes many times.

I was a county deputy sheriff until last year and will probably go back within another year. I had several calls with deed issues. One guy was putting a fence down the middle of a road. The old deed called for the property to go to the middle of the road and that it was a private road and not a county controlled road. I could not stop him even though his neighbor disagreed on the fence. Guy was not a good neighbor or member of the community. That road had been used like that for 50 years to serve two families.

I too have property restrictions, no outdoor toilet and no tar paper siding. I guess I'll just have to live with it though......................jim

I hate being hassled like that. I had one neighbor that would flip out when I was using my grinder too much. I had one friend with a farm that we use to cut firewood at 3am with our chainsaws. the kind of place you could fire up a top fueler and no one would care! :D

First I read caspiantiger's post about the car inspection failure, and now this one! What the hell is wrong with this country! Dont elected officials, and "busy bodies" have a damn clue?!?! What the hell happend to ones rights and freedoms?!?! You guys cant have a truck in your driveway durring the day??? What kind of crap is that????? It's your damn driveway!!!! Who the crap lets "homeowner associations" set these kinds of rules??? Bullsh*t! :evil: Theres no way I'd live somewhere with rules like that!!!!! OK, rant over...

That's gotta be one of the dumbest rules I've ever heard of.. no truck in the driveway during daylight hours? Uhhhhhhhh... wow. I can't think of anything to say to that. That's a really dumb rule.

I live in a neighborhood with a homeowner's association. There are some restrictions I don't care for but overall I can live with it because it does help to maintain property values in the neighborhood. I can park trucks in my driveway as long as they're not commercial vehicles, and I have to do all the work on my vehicles inside the garage. I'll have to agree the restriction on parking an El Camino in the driveway is a bit harsh. I don't consider them trucks. Hopefully I'll never have a run-in with the types who live in your neighborhood. Most of my neighbors seem to be reasonable people.

There's one other guy up the road that I know of who's building a muscle car. He's got a GTO in his garage. I guess we'll see how the neighbors react as we get these things finished and out on the road.

As in anything envolving realestate, LOCATION...LOCATION...LOCATION. My wife and I recently looked into some of the newer "restrictive" neighborhoods. After seeing all of the rules and regulations, we've decided to find some land (at least an acre) and either build a house or find land with an existing house that suits our needs. One requirement, of course, a nice, big workshop/garage for working on the Elky. 8)

I live in a neighborhood right now and I'm kinda tired of the whole "neighbor" thing. I know I'll always have neighbors, but I'd rather not be right on top of them...ya know? :roll:

SarasotaSpeeder ,
I moved to my house 9 yrs ago, after 6 yrs in a condo, I could not change a tire without getting a notice from the Gestapo.
My house now has a two car+, with over head apartment for MotherInLaw.
I was surprise when I registered my elcamino here in st pete and they titled it as a car not a truck. I have owned several trucks here and when I said I wanted to register my "truck" they set me straight something about the letter in the VIN says car, not truck.
What did I know?
L8R allanova

SarasotaSpeeder ,
I said I wanted to register my "truck" they set me straight something about the letter in the VIN says car, not truck.
What did I know?
L8R allanova

Mine is registered as a truck here in MI., truck on the title, and a truck plate.

mine is regestered as a truck

I lived in a "Planned community" in Illinois a while back.

I wanted Sattellite TV, so I called the city about putting up a sattellite dish and was told that there were no regulations.

Great! So I put up a 10 foot solid dish.

The NEXT DAY the city enginneering department flunky was on my doorstep demanding that I pull a permit for the dish. I told him to take a hike.

TWO days later there is a warning on my door that if I DIDN'T get a permit they would cite me.

So, I called the National Sattelite Owners Association and asked thier opinion. They overnighted me a 3" thick binder with the answers to ALL the objections a city could raise, and the correct interpetations according to Federal or State laws neatly indexed and referenced.

Armed with this wealth of data I went to city hall and asked to see the boss there. He was aware of the "problem". He said I needed a permit because the dish was considered an outbuilding. I opened my trusty manual and looked up the page about classiffications and read it to him.

Oh ....well it needs a permit because it has electricity.

More manual page turning brought the question .. Do I needed a permit to run a phone line? No he says. Well then this doesn't either. I quoted him chapter and verse of the proper interpetation of the law.

Well its an antennea. Permit required for a TV antennea? NO! Special rules for Satellite dishes? NO. Sorry, pal. Next?

This went on for about 45 minutes with him making more similar assertians and me disproving each one thanks to my manual. When he asked where I got my information I showed him the cover, with the Association name resplendently embossed on the cover. I told him that I had joined the group and that their researchers would be supporting me in any legal disputes. I also told him that I was NOT going to pull a permit and that I was NOT taking it down, so he could go ahead and cite me and we would let the judge decide who was right.

At that point he realized he was out numbered and so he surrendered and said that it was OK to keep the dish.

I never heard from them again about the dish for the 8 years I lived there.

The bottom line is twofold:
1. There is POWER in numbers.
2. You have to do your homework have ALL your ducks in a row and then meet these idiots head on and YOU must be in full charge. Back them off to where they are too embarrassed to deal with you again!!! And do it BEFORE it goes to the judge!

I have lived in Florida before, and yes, they do register Elkies as cars. But here in Texas, they consider them trucks, and it even says so on the license plate. You can even register and use them as farm trucks if you are employed in agriculture.

That is absolutely ridiculous that people have nothing better but report your camino being parked in your garage. Although Im sure you knew the rules when you moved into the neighborhood, Im sorry you have neighbors with nothing better to do but bust your balls... and not even to your face at that.

On another note, I live on an Air Force Base.... I cant do anything more than change a tired or air filter legally. Anything else I have to go and rent a booth at the "hobby shop"

Heck we have a whole city like that, Weston Fl. No fruit trees, basketball hoops, no boats or conoe's left out over night, mandatory cable tv. Cops cant even leave their car outside. The whole place looks like a Stepford Wives movie yea all the houses look and are painted alike. Too many rules. Land of the free, not there.

trying to figure out what my camino's called. on the title, under 'type of vehicle' it says 'pass'. under 'body' it says 'pk'. ????