Yet Another HOA Battle Over the American Flag
You may remember last year we shared a blog post, “A Condo HOA Versus Old Glory,” in which we detailed a contentious battle between a condo owner in Jacksonville, Florida, and the HOA who told him he was disallowed from displaying a small American flag in a flower pot outside his condo.
It’s hard to say why these things tend to keep happening in Jacksonville, but a similar struggle is underway at another condo complex, where a woman is being told to remove the Stars and Stripes from her sixth-floor balcony.
Once again, the condo association is claiming that it violates the rule against hanging banners in common areas, which is a very common by-law of most associations, both for safety and aesthetic reasons.
While the previous scenario was being handled strictly by the courts, this one is turning ugly in the real world. There’s video footage of a teenager attempting to destroy the flag. The police have been called to the complex over the issue 11 times so far, and the woman has been receiving anti-Semitic messages on her doorstep.
The condo association insists that while the other residents are “fed up” with the flag, their only point of contention with it is the placement. An attorney for the HOA has submitted paperwork demanding that the flag be removed by today.
What do you think? HOAs have every right to enforce their rules when it comes to decorations and their placement, but if it’s not a safety issue, should the American flag get a pass?
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