Homeowner's Association

[Jodi1980]

If people get upset over the rules of the Homeowner's Association in their community, why did they ever move to that area?

 

[annemariec]

Well, I don't belong to one. Personally, I wouldn't be interested in belonging to one either. Just not for me. Funny thing is, I'd probably be well suited for one. I like a nice, neat presentation for our house. I'm just not the sort that would want people telling me what to do with my property, in any way, shape or form. (Not that there is anything wrong with that option for someone else.)

I'd hazard a guess that those that do generally agree with the principles put forth by the association they have chosen. I've read where there are some "fuzzy" guidelines that people interpret differently and that's where the rub comes into play.

Annemarie

 

[DonnaS]

I agree with you Jodi. I live in a townhome development and I suspect some people move in without reading the rules or for some reason think they won't be enforced. All of the rules in our association are there for a reason and are very reasonable.

Additionally, if people don't like the rules they can get involved and run for board member or just attend board meetings and speak their minds.

 

[Penny2]

I live in a condo and we weren't given a choice....I don't mind that they want to keep the place nice and I don't even mind when they make rules that make sense but our association is run by people with small minds and too much time on their hands.

We regularly get nasty newsletters (these go to everyone) that lecture about people having too many guests at the pool, toys in the pool....all kinds of moronic things. I haven't been in our pool yet this summer, so why waste my time with this dreck. Go to the people who are breaking the rules and talk with them.

We have been called by various association officers for really silly things:

Your car is parked too close to the dumpster
Your car is parked too far into the driveway
Do you have a dog? NO but we had a dog visit....well we would appreciate it if you didn't have a dog..we don't have a dog it was just visiting...well, okay.
Will you donate for flowers...well what do we pay dues for?

I don't think they realize how petty all this sounds. My goodness, we had to do a petition to be able to do wash after 9:00 PM. It took months for them to decide!

 

[DocRafiki]

I've wondered how people form a homeowner's association in a neighborhood that is already established? I think some rules are good for a community, but I'd be pretty peeved if I bought a house and THEN a bunch of my neighbors tried to get together and tell me I couldn't have dogs or something (time to sell the house if that happened).

 

[4greatboys]

Its very hard to find a neighborhood these days without one. We dont have one in our current neighborhood. Oddly enough no one has tried to pain their house purple, or any other offensive acts.
We are looking for new home and the HOA's are ruling out many a neighborhood. I dont want someone telling me stupid little things with regards to the house I paid lots of money for.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I don't think you can Doc, at least not one that you are required to listen too. If you buy a house or condo in a developement that has a home owners association it is in your contract that you agree to follow the rules. I don't think they can make you do that retroactively unless you agree.

 

[Mskanga]

We bought into a comunity with an association, the problem started when they added stupid rules and regulations after the fact. I agree that there must be some rules and regulations, but the township takes care of the big ones, our association has no power over the rest.
A good example is I have two propane tanks that I use for my furnace, they are behind the steps coming down from the back deck, thee insist on enclosing them with lattice, shrubbs or ( get this ) bury them underground leaving the top uncovered , according to them it's for safety. I took their letters and book of rules and regulations to the local fire marshall and he laughed, his words were, if you do any of that , they will be more of a hazzard than if you leave them the way they are now, especially buried underground.
I contacted the state propane association and they gave me information coming from the federal agency showing the proper maintenance for propane tanks in homes, it clearly states tanks must be clear of any obstacles except for places with big comercial tanks, those should be inside of a fenced in area. Once I gave the association a copy of the information , they left me alone, but they are still doing the same thing to other people.
Another example....we can't have clothes lines anywhere, but we can have dog runners, what's the point?
I can't cut my own trees without their consent, but when I had my neighbor's tree ( from the empty lot next to me ) leaning on my tree and ready to fall on my driveway or my cars, I called the association and they told me they couldn't do anything without the owners consent. Hello? when I wanted to cut mine, why did I have to get your consent?
It's the stupid little rules that they added what makes us crazy, the funny thing is the same board of directors have been caught in violations, made known publicly and they did not like it.
Next time I'm buying 10 acres in the middle of nowhere with no association.

 

[Mskanga]

Originally posted by DocRafiki
I've wondered how people form a homeowner's association in a neighborhood that is already established? I think some rules are good for a community, but I'd be pretty peeved if I bought a house and THEN a bunch of my neighbors tried to get together and tell me I couldn't have dogs or something (time to sell the house if that happened).

Doc, tha happened to us, a bunch of new rules and regulations came out after we bought into the comunity and they tried to make us abide by them, but we fall into the Grandfather law category, we were here before the rule was established, now it applies to all people that came after that, but not to those who fall under the grandfather law, which it can be really messy , because how do you explain resident A can have a clothes line and resident B can't? Oh well, let the association explain to them!

 

[DonnaS]

I remember hearing when we were buying that it is good to have an HOA that uses a management company to help with its day to day operations. At meetings I've been to, they advise the board on what must be voted on by the entire association and what the board can decide. They also advise on what they should get legal advice on. I bet that helps keep the stupid rules to a minimum. I can't think of one rule that has been added since we moved in 8 years ago. DH did serve on the board for an interim term when a board member resigned. It was a lot of work.

The biggest issues our HOA has are residents parking in guest parking. It is a big issue because we have limited on site parking so you can get your car towed if you park in a guest spot. They usually won't do it until you've been warned three times though.

The other big issue is that people use the emergency shut off on the jacuzzi. It is right below the regular shut off and using it requires a service call. This ends up costing the association money which essentially costs us all money and also makes the jacuzzi unusable in between.

 

[Poohnatic]

My community has an HOA. When it was run by the management company, it was extremely restrictive...you can only use these two types of storm doors, townhomes can only have one type of fence.

Now that it is run by a community run Board of Directors, it has become less restrictive. However, the management company still manages the HOA fees. I don't understand why I pay 20 more a month than the single family homes when I am in a smaller piece of property.

I also had the neighbor from hell who would call on any petty infraction anyone on our block made, but she defied many of them. We'd get nasty grams because our garbage wasn't in a can (one little bag), and of course, hers would only be in a can from the time she'd called to complain. She also commandeered a portion of the common area behind our houses to landscape to her liking.

Now that she's gone, the neighbors are all talking again. Thank God her house sold so quick...and the new neighbors are absolute dolls. Figures that we'd get nice neighbors with kids now that we're looking to move!

Suzanne

 

[Mskanga]

We don't have any amenities but in the beginning the roads were not owned by the township, so the HOA was basically for road maintenance. Now the roads are owned by the township , so why do we still have a HOA? No amenities, no road maintenance....but we have a HOA, we pay them for nothing.

 

[Pin Wizard]

We have some pretty ridiculous rules even with the HOA having a property management company. My favorite? We can only have plants in terra cotta colored planters outside. What the heck is wrong with neutural colors...white for example? The HOA recently wanted to pass a new one. I'm not sure if it's going to go through or not...no backing vehicles in to the driveways! Since then, I've seen more backed in than not. LOL!

 

[Mskanga]

I wonder why don't they decide to pay people's mortgages and taxes since they are the ones deciding what to do on their properties...

 

[DonnaS]

I guess we're lucky. I do think if I lived in a single family home, I'd have a harder time with rules and regulations-- but being in a townhome where we have no actual land we can garden, etc. We do have decks and the only rules is that potted plants should have "saucers" or whatever you call them under them to protect the deck (since the HOA maintains the decks). and that if you hang window boxes, etc. from the side of the deck they need to hang over the inside so that they aren't a hazard to people walking below if they are to fall.

If my HOA was passing lots of stupid rules, I'd be at every meeting and raising a stink and trying to get my neighbors to attend and voting out the current board.

 

[Kermit]

I'm the VP on our HOA. Ours is run by a management company, which really eliminates a lot of headaches. Letters about rule violations come from her, rather than those of us on the board, so people get mad at us less often. Also, since she runs other neighborhoods as well, she gives us a good idea of which rules we should have and which we shouldn't. She also gets us good deals on landscaping services and pool maintenance.

Our biggest problem here is people not being involved. They complain about stuff, but they never show up at meetings or even respond to emails to give us feedback. We have to have a quorum (defined as 25% of homeowners in our neighborhood) to vote new people onto the board when people's terms are over, but we can't get that many voters, even when we put the ballots in people's mailboxes and give them multiple ways to turn them in.

The rules in our neighborhood were clearly defined when we moved in. Though I know they can change, we were able to determine the spirit of the rules to see how closely our HOA ruled things and what types of rules were likely. If we didn't like it, we wouldn't have moved here. I just don't get why someone would move into a neighborhood if they weren't willing to live by the rules. We're actually about to start foreclosing on 2 people's homes next week because they haven't paid their dues (or other fines they've both incurred because they don't do things like mow their lawns) for a few years. If you can't pay the dues, which really aren't that bad, you shouldn't buy a house here.

 

[DonnaS]

Your HOA sounds a lot like ours Kermit. We've had to go knocking on doors during the annual meeting when officers are elected in order to get a quorum-- and that shouldn't have to happen once we lowered the quorum to 25%.