High HOAs

[legion]

HOA's are the smallest form of government. As such, they can do unethical things and stick you with the bill.

My friend was fined by his HOA because they passed a rule that you weren't allowed to back into your garage. And by "passed", I mean the HOA president wrote the rule down, unilaterally, without telling anyone else, specifically because my friend backed into his garage, and his first notice of the new rule was the fine.

[billybek]

Originally Posted by legion

My friend was fined by his HOA because they passed a rule that you weren't allowed to back into your garage. And by "passed", I mean the HOA president wrote the rule down, unilaterally, without telling anyone else, specifically because my friend backed into his garage, and his first notice of the new rule was the fine.

Then the next week, president writes a new rule saying you cannot back out of your garage!

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

OK, I understand you are joking about it.

The HOA has no recourse, except to get the fees upon the selling of the property. One of my other friends was a real estate agent. He talked about a case where a home owner refused to pay the HOA for many years. Upon his eventual death, and then the kids selling the house, the HOA had a large (10s of thousands) lien on the property. All the former owner succeed in doing is reduce the inheritance of his kids by a lot.

The HOA has a lot of recourse to recover delinquent dues.

It can foreclose on its lien any time it wants.

That’s huge recourse. A house can be foreclosed on for a $100 delinquent payment. The owner has a choice: Pay the delinquency or lose the house in foreclosure.

Either way, the association gets paid.

[astrochex]

My HOA seems to have a powerwash fetish. I just got another notice when my sidewalks and parkway look far better than when the first notice was issued.

[ErVikingo]

my HOA just blocked the sale of my old house. They logged a violation which we were just told it relates to our mailbox being 1 inch too low....

Never an issue and I have been living there for 23 years and the mailbox was installed bu the HOA way back when. Now, I can't close until i pay an exuberant amount for a mailbox ($750) plus a $150 penalty. They say they notices this 14th January 2020....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Pretty simple problem to avoid...don't buy if it's in a HOA.

This.

Nobody wants to live in a neighborhood with obnoxious, redneck neighbors, next-door with a house that looks like hell and or who are staying up partying all the time, next to a meth house or anything like that but if you buy in a decent (not cheap) area those problems tend to take care of themselves.

The upside of higher costs is that it keeps the riffraff out - usually. IMHO it’s far more likely you’re going to encounter some busybody control freak type trying to get into your underwear all the time about the height of your grass or the color of your mailbox than it is that you’ll have the Beverly Hillbillies move in next door if you’re in a reasonably decent neighborhood, so I don’t see then need to pay for HOA dues to “protect” my property values.

The only exception would be for a strictly limited HOA to cover community costs like maintenance / landscaping or pool upkeep or whatever… If it’s limited to that I’d consider it because I don’t want to have to deal with those sorts of things.

[shadowjack1]

HOA can be a good thing. In my hood its not enforced. One of the homes on the main Blvd. have two boats, one trailer, two cars and a truck in the front yard. Not the street but the yard. Looks like sheit. What I don't get is we all live on the water. Put the boats in the water.

[legion]

Originally Posted by astrochex

My HOA seems to have a powerwash fetish. I just got another notice when my sidewalks and parkway look far better than when the first notice was issued.

HOAs are the vehicle by which a small group (or a single individual) can force their opinion of how a house should look on the whole neighborhood, with the force of law.

[biosurfer1]

I love living within my HOA.

I'd like to think a reasonable person wouldn't want three broken cars on jack stands parked on their lawn for years at a time, but clearly not everyone feels that way, so a HOA helps mitigate the risk of living next to that. Does it mean I'm limited to what color I can paint my house? Sure, but thats fine, I have 37 (!) colors to choose from which is way more than I would ever consider anyways.

The rules are clearly stated and you have to acknowledge you agree to them BEFORE you can ever buy, so I have no sympathy for morons who don't have the mental capacity to abide by the rules.

[McLovin]

Like most things HOAs are a risk.
If you have good, reasonable people on the Board, they can be a good thing.
If you have bad, unreasonable or downright crazy people on the Board, they can be a nightmare.
Also, generally the smaller the association, the more the risks are amplified.

[legion]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

I love living within my HOA.

I'd like to think a reasonable person wouldn't want three broken cars on jack stands parked on their lawn for years at a time, but clearly not everyone feels that way, so a HOA helps mitigate the risk of living next to that. Does it mean I'm limited to what color I can paint my house? Sure, but thats fine, I have 37 (!) colors to choose from which is way more than I would ever consider anyways.

The rules are clearly stated and you have to acknowledge you agree to them BEFORE you can ever buy, so I have no sympathy for morons who don't have the mental capacity to abide by the rules.

That's not too bad. When I lived with an HOA in Georgia, the HOA had a 400 page "manual". The gist of it was that any changes to the exterior of your house had to be pre-approved by the HOA. There were no "pre-approved" changes.

[GH85Carrera]

Our neighborhood is pretty small. All it would take is a slight suggestion that I want to be on the board, and I would be. I have enough to do already, and I do help out with some projects, but I don't want to be on another volunteer board.

We have a great HOA, and I like the people in the neighborhood. We did have one M.D. that was from a different country. He simply did not have understand the concept of keeping a yard and the house maintained. The board had to call the city to have his yard mowed front and back, and they had the power to shut off his water if he did not pay. With enough letters, and one from the HOA and county DA letter he had enough and sold the place and left. The new owner has a yard to make a groundskeeper at a park jealous. They had to have the house gutted, and a new roof put on before they could live there. They got a great deal on a house in need of some love.

[stomachmonkey]

My HOA and I have a love hate relationship.

It's a strong HOA and most of the rules are reasonable.

My community is 15+ years old with 4,000 ish homes and it's still being built out today.

An outsider would only be able to tell the original parts from the new sections based on the size of trees / maturity of the landscaping.

Otherwise the place is immaculately maintained which I like because it maintains my property value.

But we also have our share or legacy rules that really don't work as intended any longer and they really are nothing but a source of aggravation for residents.

Moral of the story, investigate any potential HOA as diligently as any other aspect of a home purchase.

[biosurfer1]

The problem I see is there would be no need for HOA's if everyone had "common sense".

Having a rule that says something like "Grass must not be more than 4" tall" may seem strict and unreasonable, especially if your's happens to be 4.5" tall. The problem lies with if 4.5" is ok, why not 5"? What about 6" etc, etc, etc.

If everyone had common sense, you could simply say "Keep your lawn and a presentable height" and everyone would understand the spirit of the rule. But sadly, there are those who think "Above the roof of my 1974 Gremlin is 'presentable'!" so we end up with very specific HOA rules. I don't agree with all of them but I do with the vast majority.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by biosurfer1

The problem I see is there would be no need for HOA's if everyone had "common sense".

Having a rule that says something like "Grass must not be more than 4" tall" may seem strict and unreasonable, especially if your's happens to be 4.5" tall. The problem lies with if 4.5" is ok, why not 5"? What about 6" etc, etc, etc.

If everyone had common sense, you could simply say "Keep your lawn and a presentable height" and everyone would understand the spirit of the rule. But sadly, there are those who think "Above the roof of my 1974 Gremlin is 'presentable'!" so we end up with very specific HOA rules. I don't agree with all of them but I do with the vast majority.

And many people think it is very reasonable to have a few project cars parked on the street for years at a time.

There is one city in the OKC metro area that took it the HOA to a new height. They, the city themselves enforce the LAW that no pickups are allowed to be parked overnight, even in the driveway. Pickups have to be parked in the garage. Same for any commercial vehicle. The speed limit is 25 MPH in that entire city, and 26 MPH will get you a ticket if you are not a resident. Don't even think of rolling a stop sign.

[RWebb]

I don't have a HOA. I have "neighbors."

solves a lot of problems

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Hmmm, topic title changed. Probably due to parfiness, imho.

kind of, but my choice.

[T77911S]

my friend is Chinese
her mom bought the house and her English is pretty bad.
my friends is good but not being from here I don't think they (especially mom) really understood what an HOA was and certainly did not ever consider something like a basketball goal in the driveway.
I refuse to live in an HOA. the thought of paying some Ahole to tell ME what I can and cant do to my house is NOT going to happen.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by ErVikingo

my HOA just blocked the sale of my old house. They logged a violation which we were just told it relates to our mailbox being 1 inch too low....

Never an issue and I have been living there for 23 years and the mailbox was installed bu the HOA way back when. Now, I can't close until i pay an exuberant amount for a mailbox ($750) plus a $150 penalty. They say they notices this 14th January 2020....

One inch too low from what? Can you dig the dirt around the mail box and presto, it’s an inch higher, or do they measure from the street? Sounds crazy

[john70t]

I'd stick a piece of 2x4 under it and call it a day.
If they are purposefully interfering in your sale, and denying you profit, that is an issue.

Have to wonder if someone else thinks your house will sell before theirs..