Homeowner wins right to park truck in own driveway

[GH85Carrera]

Homeowner wins right to park truck in own driveway

[craigster59]

Man, that is one fugly house!

[Jim Richards]

It just needs a wall that the neighbor can paint.

[PorscheGAL]

Good for him. I hate Homeowners Assoc

[john70t]

The rules against trucks were either in the original by-laws the homeowner signed and agreed to at the time of closing....or they weren't.

If the by-laws were subsequently ammended(and registered) properly, then that would change the terms and conditions surrounding the homeowner's original purchase.
The association should then have allowed a grandfather clause, but they didn't.

Justice costs $300K these days? Geesh.

[masraum]

It seems like all too often HOA are run by power hungry neandethals with control issues. This is freakin' ridiculous.

[Scuba Steve]

Fugly barely begins to describe that place.

[crustychief]

PorscheGAL nailed it, HOA's suck. I don't know why anyone would buy a house only to have to rent it at the same time and try to live with stifling rules. The only way a HOA would be good is for very old people. I do not live in concentration camp with a HOA, the hag down the street from me tried to have my 944 towed out of my driveway... when I was in Iraq!! She needs a HOA.

[Mr.Puff]

I'm having a similar issue with my apartment complex. We have covered parking and visitor parking here. I have two motorcycles under a tarp in an uncovered "visitor" spot, which is really just open parking for the apartment complex because there are not enough covered spots for all of the tenants. Nowhere in the lease does it say that I cannot park in a spot for more than three days. It just has a clause about current registration and non-working vehicles. However, today I had a note on my door telling me to move the motorcycles or they will be towed. There is nothing about abandoned vehicles in the lease either, but since they put the notice on my door they know that the motorcycles are not abandoned.

This is not public parking. There is a sign when you enter the complex stating that it is tenant, private, parking only. So the laws that apply on the street, three days notice and then a tow, do not apply in here. I am a tenant. How do they know I have not moved one anyways? Why do I have to move my vehicles from space to space just because I prefer to ride my bicycle for exercise? The manager just has something out for me...

She also said that I am not allowed to park my bicycle in front of my door or under the stairs. It has to stay in the "bike parking" area where the sprinklers spray. Earlier this year I had to pay $161 to have the bike repaired because of rust and water damage (it's kind of sad, I know).

On another note, she has been charging me a $50 late fee after the third day of the month. I get paid on the first weekday of every month, and it does not matter if the third day is the first weekday. I will still owe a late fee on the fourth even if the money has not cleared (pay by money order). The lease does say this, but according to California Civil Code 1671c and d the lease cannot specify that I pay "liquidated damages."

She charged me a late fee on the 4th of July! THE FOURTH OF JULY! The third was a Saturday... Every other apartment I have lived at would not charge a late fee on the weekend.

[Joeaksa]

Absolutely hate HOA's as well. They are usually worthless and do nothing.

Sad thing about this is that the homeowners who pay the HOA dues are the ones who are paying this legal cost. Hope that the people on the board of the HOA are sacked and replaced with people who can learn to read the CC&R's a bit better.

Had never lived in a place with an HOA before this one. It will be the first and last time...

[MotoSook]

Our HOA recently tried to pass new By Laws and update the covenant. They also tried to slip in some general clauses that would have given them unspecified power. The e-mails went flying to which the president told folks he didn't have time to reply to the e-mailed concerns and that they will only be addressed at the board meeting where folks had to vote "yes" or "no." The 'hood was hot, and the board got nothing passed. Then one of them goes on the yahoo group to whine about it, to which people told them they didn't address any of the concerns while given folks a "take it or leave it" vote. Lol. What a bunch of clowns.

The board president is still pissed off from when I told them to fuch off when they tried to block the construction of my second garage and driveway. They didn't have any say and the village backed me on it. Heck the village gave me a variance. Then they complained the village didn't represent them and didn't deserve their tax dollars. Ha! What a bunch of clowns.

The president has been the only president of the board for as long as I have been in my house. I'm thinking about replacing him myself just to really piss him off.

ETA: I bought the house we live in after a reveiw of the covenant. It strictly limits the power of the board to care of the common area. For years the board has been trying to expand their power while stating that they will be reasonable in using their power, without explicitly stating what exactly they will have the power to regulate. Who in their right mind will give them a unregualted power? They ***** that there is no reason for a board if all they do is care for the common area. Well, yeah you arse clowns....that's why folks moved to that subdivision!

[teenerted1]

i have heard way too many horror stories about the HOA Gestapo to ever want to move into a house covered by one

mr puff...you need to pay by the third or you are late. if that is what the lease says that is what you need to do. holidays dont count. and july 4th was a sunday this year....the 1st was a thursday, the banks were still open.
of you get paid after rent is due maybe you should budget to have the money at the end of the month...

nobody said you couldnt pay early.

if i know i will be out of town when rent is due i send the check early. maybe they can set up automatic payment form an account so you will never have to worry about this. my rent check is the only one i write every month, it will be going in the mail tomorrow. three days before it is due. i have never had a late check charge for rent in my life.

[Mr.Puff]

1671. (a) This section does not apply in any case where another
statute expressly applicable to the contract prescribes the rules or
standard for determining the validity of a provision in the contract
liquidating the damages for the breach of the contract.
(b) Except as provided in subdivision (c), a provision in a
contract liquidating the damages for the breach of the contract is
valid unless the party seeking to invalidate the provision
establishes that the provision was unreasonable under the
circumstances existing at the time the contract was made.
(c) The validity of a liquidated damages provision shall be
determined under subdivision (d) and not under subdivision (b) where
the liquidated damages are sought to be recovered from either:
(1) A party to a contract for the retail purchase, or rental, by
such party of personal property or services, primarily for the party'
s personal, family, or household purposes; or
(2) A party to a lease of real property for use as a dwelling by
the party or those dependent upon the party for support.
(d) In the cases described in subdivision (c), a provision in a
contract liquidating damages for the breach of the contract is void
except that the parties to such a contract may agree therein upon an
amount which shall be presumed to be the amount of damage sustained
by a breach thereof, when, from the nature of the case, it would be
impracticable or extremely difficult to fix the actual damage.

I refuse to pay their BS late fees. They are going to refund the money I have paid, three months worth of being late, in my security deposit. It's a done deal .

Only one more month and I can get out of this horrible financial nightmare. Saving up enough money to have a one month rent buffer would take me two years. The recession hit me very hard.

[widebody911]

And to think you get to pay for the privilege of an HOA!

[john70t]

Soukus, the owners at our building were ready to riot at our Prez, and voted me in to replace him (unanimously). We set up an escrow account, and then we took him to court after three years of the same nonsence.
The guy was/is not simply not being rational, and all the evidence against him indicated gross negligence at best, criminal embezellment at worst.

The lawsuit failed because the paperwork and proceedures were completely bungled, and the friggin evidence never even argued. He was indemnified as a volunteer director, and te building had to repay his defense costs.
We got a new management company, though, and the place is finally getting fixed and cleaned now. What a difference.

After that most either foreclosed or went incognito, and he got back into his old ways.

There was no association meeting or even elections this last round. He just "revoted" himself president, and promptly charged me personally with ALL the legal fees. He was also able to scare the other two(who were even more involved with the suit) into charging me also.

Now, our association is broke again.
All these "undiscovered bills" from "years ago" began showing up from the old management/maintinence company in the many thousands of dollars. This was the same company who was putting holes in our flat roof causing extensive damage.

Not a peep from the other owners......I just shake my head, and prep for the next trial.
Alone this time.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by Mr.Puff

She also said that I am not allowed to park my bicycle in front of my door or under the stairs.

I used to own some apartments. Fire code prohibits anything blocking doors, stairways, hallways, yada yada.

Several times we had people move their bikes out of the covered entry ways, or we would have been fined by the fire department.

[MotoSook]

John - that sucks. Guys like that are overdue for a karma boomerang. Good luck.

[Brando]

Stories like these remind me why I will never live in a place where there are HOAs.

Private property is just that... And mine to do as I wish with. Why would anyone be dumb enough to sign away some rights for the privilege of living in an area.

[mattdavis11]

The HOA in the subdivision I used to live in informed us that we could not park our ratty, 1969, Ouachita aluminum flat bottom boat, with a 18 hp mercury outboard and trailer in our driveway for more than 48 hours. It had been there for months. We obliged and moved it to the side yard where it would be an even bigger eyesore.

We never heard from them again.

[peppy]

It is not just HOA doing things like this. I have a home in a small town and they keep passing ordinances banning everything from old cars and boats to burning lawn debris. They can tell you what color you can paint your house and the landscaping that you can do. All of this with no grandfathering of homes.