Lots of HOAs in my neck of the woods too. I lived in 3 different HOA communities over the last 25 years. The first worked very hard to ensure we were all equally miserable - all HOA horror stories were covered there. The last two were not really all that intrusive though I felt like we were overpaying for what we got.

That all said the resale/equity upside for HOA vs non is indisputable around here. The gated community we left 7 years ago keeps aging better and better. Night and day difference from the non HOA communities you drive through to get there. We are talking $1M+ homes compared to $700K for close to same home.

Funny story. My parents bought a brand-new house in Naperville in 1990. 7th house in the subdivision. There was no mention of an HOA when they bought the house. None. About 2 years later, the developer established an HOA. My parents refused to join. A few years later, the developer turned the HOA over to the residents. The HOA tried to force my parents to join and pay dues. They tried to force my family to follow the covenants (like we weren't allowed to have a satellite dish). They tried to levy fines and put a lien on the house. My parents fought it in court and won because the builder had neglected to mention that the developer had intended to establish a HOA. My parents simply said that they would not have purchased the house if they were made aware of the HOA and showed that none of the purchase paperwork mentioned a HOA.

fixed it for you.

So, what now for Brando ?

Print some flyers and run for president ?

For those of you that do not have an HOA, here is a notice from mine that I just received (house is a rental). There are 27 homes in this small, gated subdivision. Each is valued at about $580K and sits on 1/2 acre. There are no amenities that they maintain other than the electric gate, the 2 1/2 blocks of pavement that they have swept now and then, and some shrubs at the entrance. Here is the notice...(you can see from their photo that it is a literal pigsty):

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601952897.JPG

Note the catchall "neat and attractive" which can be anything they say it is. The $20,328 that I have paid them in fees on time every month ($121 a month for over 14 years) gets me one or more of these almost every month most years that I have to get fixed long distance. Sometimes I get them fixed...like "paint fading on fascia" and spend a grand...to find out they really wanted the window trim painted and they write me up again and fine me because I did not paint the window trim. Then I still have to hire a painter for that..

I don't think I could avoid prison if I had to follow most HOA rules.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601961529.jpg

I am in the position of having tje HOA enforce the CCR's or i drop a rock on them with the state of NV.

NV HOA's are notorious for their blantant over reach. But there are remedies.

I dont know what kind of people you are that live in hoods that look like Tobbacco Road. Everywhere i have lived the homes were well maintained without the nanny HOA arm twisters.

The only time a home might fall into a bit of disrepair was when the owner was older and became sick.

Not sure an HOA would be able to help much here.

The HOA can't do much with a crazy person if the police can't or won't respond. We don't have those problems here. In the 21 years we have lived in this house I have had the police here twice. Once was a bad sensor on my alarm system. The cop was waiting for me to get there when I pulled up. I opened the house and he did a quick visual clearing of the house to look for intruders. The alarm said what the tiger point was, and I shut off the system until I fixed it that evening.

One other time some kids trenched up my front yard with a 4x4 of some sort. The only real damages was one sprinkler head, and some ruts in the grass. I wanted a police report of the incident. He came out took some note, and said he would file a report. He said most likely some high school kids thought some rival high school football team member lived here. The football player kid lived across the street.

So they will come out for petty incidents. and promptly. We have no homeless problems out here in the suburbs.

Wait till your "desert rock" landscape conflicts with the requirement for a "well maintained" yard. (aka a grass lawn)

You don't even have to have an HOA to harass you. Here in LA, we're only allowed to use automated sprinklers on certain days (M-W-F, or T-T-Sat). Knowing that but also wanting my water use to be most efficient ecologically, I set my sprinkler system to water on the appropriate day at 10 pm. Runs for 5 or 10 minutes, and done.

But every few months, I'd get a flyer from the utility on the windshield of my car (parked in my driveway, BTW), that threatened to fine me if I was watering on the wrong day. WTF? It's not my fault that my grass is still wet in the middle of the night when the water patrol comes by.

There was a story in the LA Times many years ago about some homeowner who ran into that problem. This was maybe 15-20 years ago, so before everyone was so super water-conscious due to drought. He made a very nicely landscaped desert yard (and the parkway, too, between the sidewalk and the street), and kept getting fined for not having enough greenery. :rolleyes:

My old house (sold in April!) had the crazies HOA. There was a rule about not having boats or trailers unless they were inside the garage which had to remain closed overnight.

Days before races I would bring my enclosed trailer and park it on my backyard. The fences and hedges were higher than the top of the trailer.

I would still get penalties ($50/day). I confronted my neighbor (snitch) about it and after that they would fly a drone taking pics of everyone's backyards. Funny since I had to put up with his blasting music Fridays to Sundays.

My favorite penalty letter "your mailbox is dirty". WTF, they were referring to the bottom where the line trimmer would scrape some of the paint.

Where I am now I spent 4 years between permitting and HOA approval of my drawings. One of the main issues was the ratio of garage to residential space and, I was forced to sign a notarized document that would not be doing oil changes for profit....

It was awesome when Hurricane Irma came by and various neighbors came knocking asking to store their cars inside my "excessive garage space". Sorry........

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Man that is super tempting. Our current board president is a serious jagoff - all but like 3 owners hate him. I am just super limited on time between all my obligations.