Buyer stuck with convicts next door

Q: I live in a gated community of upscale, luxury homes. I bought my house directly from the builder, brand-new about two years ago. Our homeowners association (HOA) is just getting up and running, as the development gets close to being sold out.

Recently, my neighbor discovered on the Web that a sex offender was registered as living in the house next door to me. We did some research with the county and found out that the house has been converted into something similar to a halfway house for convicted sex and other violent offenders! So, now there are 10 men living there who all have criminal records (it's a five-bedroom house).

I'm retired, so I feel like I'm trapped behind the gates with these guys all day every day, plus there are kids in a lot of these houses, and I'm fearful something very bad might happen. It's very scary, and I always feel like I have to keep my doors and windows on lockdown when I'm at home. And when I'm gone I'm almost scared to come inside.

The HOA says there's nothing they can do about it, but I just feel like that can't be true. Was there anything I could have done when I bought my house to prevent this?

A: Unfortunately, there probably wasn't anything you could have done during your transaction to avoid being in this situation right now. Many HOA documents have some restriction on commercial activity "inside the gates," but these can often be wielded to stop arguably reasonable home-office activity (i.e., the omission of such a clause is not necessarily a negative) and, even if the clause is there, it might not exclude a homeowner from using his or her home to operate a residential facility like the one you're describing.

Many states require that homebuyers be advised of "Megan's Law"; their right to know whether and where registered sex offenders live vis-à-vis the address of the property they are buying. My experience is that there are registered offenders -- and offenders who are not, but should be, required to register -- in almost every neighborhood, so the presence or absence of hits on the Megan's Law map of your potential home's surroundings can be misleadingly fear-provoking or fear-eliminating.

Plus, as you found out, registrants can move in at any time. Most states limit sex offenders' residential possibilities only to the extent necessary to keep offenders outside of a certain radius surrounding schools, parks and playgrounds. Other than that, any home is fair game, and as you also found, the larger the home, the more attractive it might be to a facility or halfway house.

And, while I understand your not wanting to hear this right now, the fact is that these folks do need to live somewhere, and no one wants it to be next door to them. ...CONTINUED

All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.