ALL THINGS REAL ESTATE HOA can make you move satellite dish if it doesn’t interfere with reception

Q: I live in an upscale, gated community. Several months ago I signed up for one of the satellite television ser vices. The company came out and installed two small sat ellite dishes on my roof. I’ve just received a notice from the homeowners association that I must remove the dishes because they are visible from the street and the association rules don’t allow any type of antennae to be seen from the street. It seems that everyone these days has this kind of dish on their homes. Is this just some attempt to make you buy cable television? What happens if I don’t remove them? Thanks.

A: Well, first of all: People still use satellite dishes?!? You know it’s 2023, right?

Anyway, communities built since the early to mid-1980s commonly have very comprehensive sets of rules that govern the development. The idea was and is to keep the quality of life and value of the homes as high as possible.

Called CC&Rs, these rules bind all homeowners in the development to, often, a long list of restrictions. For example, you may only be able to paint your house certain colors. A paint or architectural restriction is designed to make sure all of the homes fit together in a common architectural scheme.

If you remember back to the 1970s, you’ll recall that many people invested in the big, old-fashioned satellite dishes that were up to 12 feet in diameter. They would pick up the network feeds from the two or three satellites that supplied the local TV stations.

These dishes were unsightly and even dangerous when mounted on rooftops.

When I was a kid, we had a TV antenna that was so high and so wide it looked like we were trying to intercept Martian radio transmissions.

Of course, you still have HAM radio guys with their giant, talk-to-Japan antennas.

The attempt of the CC&Rs was to prevent that type of unsightliness in the neighborhood.

However, the FCC, which controls all radio and television broadcasting in the United States, has caused laws to be passed which put mandatory restrictions on the CC&Rs

Specifically, the homeowners association can put “reasonable” restrictions on your satellite dishes as long as installing the dishes under those restrictions still allows you to receive

In other words, if your dishes can be mounted out of sight and still receive a signal, the homeowners association has the power to make you move them.

CC&Rs often require dishes or antennae to be painted to blend into the design of the home. If the paint doesn’t ruin the reception, that restriction is legal.

You’ll need to talk to your installer and find out if the dishes can be mounted anywhere that isn’t visible from the street. If it can, then move it. If not, get a letter from the installer and take it to the homeowners association. The association may schedule, and may already have scheduled, a hearing. That’s the time to prove the dishes are where they need to be in order for you to get reception.

Even so, the painting requirement may apply so you will want to talk to your installer about what types of paints are safe to use on the dishes.

Tim Jones is a real estate attorney in Fairfield. If you have any real estate questions you would like to have answered in this column, you can send an email to AllThingsRealEstate@ TJones-Law.com.