Do you have an HOA at home?

[bwvBound]

Walking around the block last night ... and preparing for our Home Owner's Association Annual Meeting ... I got to thinking about how many neighborhood benefits are covered by HOAs. In some respects, I might consider that I enjoy "resort living" all year round. I wondered how things were elsewhere ...

How many of you live, have lived, or plan to live under an HOA? What is covered by your HOA -- and if I may ask what are the charges?

I'll start. I live in a "townhouse-style condo" (multiple floors per unit) with 118 units in the association. Our fees are just ~$165/month and cover:

• Pool, Spa (jetted tub), Sauna
• Pool area bathrooms, shower
• Two tennis courts (one lighted)
• Covered recreation area with gas BBQs, tables, kitchen
• Building insurance (fire, earthquake, etc)
• All external building maint (paint, roof, etc.)
• Landscaping
• Property Mgt "on call" service
• Weekly trash pickup
• Water
• Sewer
• General grounds maint (common area lighting, driveway repair, etc.)

I'm thinking I'm pretty fortunate with respect to fees paid vs services offered -- especially for the earthquake coverage and paid water in SoCal!

Anyone else?

 

[JimC]

Other. We don't now, except for our timeshares ))

But we will when we downsize into a condo. I prefer a condo setup over a townhome. In the condo arrangement I believe the HOA has more control since ownership of the exterior is common rather than individual.

What I like is that exterior maintenance and refurbishment is handled for you and there are reserves set aside. What I don't like is the difficulties that can arise if the HOA is not properly run, or when some owners do not pay their assessments on time or when one must compromise certain individual homeowner rights to the benefit of the common benefit.

In our view those tradeoffs will be worth it when we want to travel more and tend less to upkeep of a residence.

 

[lllovell]

I voted other because I live in a neighborhood that is older so there once WAS an HOA, but no longer. I wish it was still in effect, but I have discovered that most things get taken care of with a call or two to the local inspectors. (only for things like 2 feet tall grass...abandoned cars....RVs...ok - maybe I am a grumpy old woman lol oh well!)

 

[AFMom]

We're currently moving out of a rental that was part of a HOA - the fees are about $350 a year. These are houses, not apartments or condos. The fees don't cover much! Supposedly they cover security for the devlopment - but I've only ever seen a car once in 9 months! We still had to buy a $100 pass to use the pool (which would have been $150 if we had paid for my DH). The covenants are supposed to help keep up on things like weeds, extra cars in driveways, etc - but our neighbors (who own their home) have horrible weeds in thier yard!!! I have to say - I'm glad we rented under a HOA - we just bought our house in FL and I was pretty sure I didn't want to deal with one after our experience here! Not worth it here - although the OP sure sounds like they have a good deal!

 

[Muushka]

We have had HOA since 1986 in 3 different houses. Currently our HOA dues are $35 a month which included:

Greenway up-keep
community pool and tennis courts
common areas maintained

Not too $$

 

[CarolA]

I have had three HOA. ALl of the them were fine and did what they were supposed to. For the freestanding homes they ranged from $15 a month to $35 a month and covered the pool, the landscaping stuff like that.

For the Condo (all of which all two story townhouse style units) the fee is $200 a month. That includes

water
exterior maintenace
Insurance on the building, but not interior
Pool
Termite
common area maintenance
reserve fund increase

This is a small complex (24 units) so there aren't as many of us to spread the cost around.

 

[Divamomto3]

We have a HOA. It costs $15 a month. We are free standing homes. We have a HOA because our development has "open space" and the dues cover the mowing of that space and the insurance on it. That's about it.

 

[DVC-Don]

Before we lived here we were in a development with a very active HOA. There was some sort of scandel and an officer (a homewoner) went to jail for stealing some money. Then they hired an outside company to run it and someone there went to jail also for stealing some money. We have not lived there for 14 years now.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We have a log lodge on 10.5 acres, so everything is up to us, and I like it that way.

 

[riggins]

We live in a community of single family homes and pay $500/year in HOA dues. This gets us:

- Tennis courts
- Playground
- Basketball court
- Olympic swimming pool
- Kiddie Pool
- Clubhouse
- Regular activities for kids, adults, and families
- Landscaping of the entrance to the neighborhood

With a 2 and 4 year old, we use the ammenities regularly and see the $500 as a bargain.

 

[Mickmse2002]

We live in a small private subdivision (11 lots between 5-10 acres each). We pay $20 per month which covers road maintenance, insurance for a 10 acre common area on the lakefront and other stuff as needed.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Our current home (been here 17+ years) has a HOA with annual dues of $50. There are 48 homesites total. Dues cover maintenance costs for our stormwater detention area, streetlights, and insurance. Rather minimal, but we're in an "unincorporated" area of the county so the local government (known as a township here) minimizes the services it provides to non-municipal areas. The HOA picks up the cost of services provided for the direct benefit of the homeowners within the association area rather than have the township tax everyone in its area while providing services to a subset of residents. The HOA has architectural approval for certain types of exterior modifications to homes within the subdivision (need approval to add a deck, for example) and there are some deed restrictions limiting choices of material for exteriors of homes.

Prior to this home, we lived in a nearby subdivision with its own HOA (about 400 single family homes and perhaps 48 condos). Annual dues were about $200 (now up to about $400, I believe) and cover the same stuff we get (they're part of the same unincorporated area of the county) plus there is a pool and tennis courts, clubhouse which provides various recreational activities, and other common areas. Condo owners pay two association due, one to the subdivision HOA and a separate one to their condo association.

Ralph

 

[vascubaguy]

I don't live in a HOA neighborhood; however, the neighborhood one street over is a HOA. I don't know what the fees are, but I'm sure they are up there. The houses are all free-standing and run $600K and up. Around a million for the ones on the water. They have the pool, community center, 4 tennis courts, and beautiful landscaping.

I personally don't like the idea of having to get approval for anything I do to the outside of my home (aside from the building inspectors). I've had friends that wanted to stain their deck, but the HOA wouldn't let them because then it wouldn't match everyone else's. I do like that they enforce the upkeep of the property, and it really helps increase the property values of the surrounding neighborhoods... mine doubled in 1 year. although... the taxes have now double too...

 

[malibuconlee]

My house was built in 1890, so I don't think there were any HOA's back then.

I see the benefits of having a HOA, but I'd prefer not to live in one. If I want to buy an RV and have room on my property for it, I think I should be able to put it on my property.

We'll actually probably look for a different house in a few years when I'm done with college and can afford things like the RV and a used boat for weekends on the river. We'll need a bigger place to put a garage, or have yard space and canapies for the toys.

 

[LIFERBABE]

We don't have an HOA.

When my neighbors get out of hand (1 incident in 10 yrs) we called City Zoning and they rectified the situation immediately.

All the new subdivisions being built in our area have them because they all have community pools, greenbelts and common areas.

I guess the Texan in me doesnt like being told what color we can paint our house or other property rights.

There was a story in our local paper where an HOA told an Homeowner he could not stain his fence, so he painted his very nice 2 story Home HOT PINK!
This was a few years ago and since then the HOA's have added exterior paint colors to their bylaws. It is still pink today (although faded) and every time I drive pass I chuckle.

 

[MelCald]

I live in a neighborhood with a HOA. We have about 160 single family homes. Our association dues are only $125 a year and that pays for upkeep and insurance on two lake beaches, volleyball court, baseball field, tennis courts and horse stables.

Melissa