I hate my HOA!!! - Long Vent

[Hannathy]

I would much rather live in a neighborhood with a purple house and a few unmowed lawns than live somewhere where I have to call up a bunch of busybodies and ask them what color I can paint my house - or ask them for permission to put a deck on my house - or get nagged about having my driveway door open.

My house, my castle.

I'm amazed at the number of people in the US who will voluntarily give up some of their liberty.

Amen. Until you make the payments, I get to pick the colors.

 

[Nana Annie]

as long as we are making a informed CHOICE to accept certain restrictions - I hardly call it giving up our liberties.....

and my HOA could care less whether or the garage door is open ...as I already said: many are very reasonable....

We choose to live here. And the good the HOA does far outweighs the inconveniences.

Let's just say that my house appreciating over 500% in the 10 years I have lived here far outweighs any "rights" I have given up. (And that is not a typo). Because our neighborhood is sought after as one of the most desireable, our houses are snapped up quickly in a relatively stagnant housing market. And this is because the place is beautiful and known to have a common sense HOA.

 

[KariC]

I would much rather live in a neighborhood with a purple house and a few unmowed lawns than live somewhere where I have to call up a bunch of busybodies and ask them what color I can paint my house - or ask them for permission to put a deck on my house - or get nagged about having my driveway door open.

My house, my castle.

I'm amazed at the number of people in the US who will voluntarily give up some of their liberty.

Jinkies...we'd have a lot of nagging over our garage door!

But, you do have to "ask permission" if you live in city limits on deck building, shed building, etc...... Wouldn't you need to go and check zoning, get permission from the city/county offices? I know our builders had to get "extra" county approval (nevermind our HOA) for our deck, and all of our neighbors had to for their sheds (and make sure they minded the HOA by-laws). Our county actually has restrictions, in addition to city, and individual neighborhoods. And we're still in the top 50-100 fastest growing counties in the US (not that that's a great thing....), but it shows that many don't feel these are awful restricitions.

Hmm...guess I don't see it as "liberty".....

 

[ChristmasElf]

In my neighborhood the HOA dues are to provide services such as a members clubhouse with activities, a pool, an excercise room, a tot lot, tennis courts, basketball courts, and a gated, guarded entrance. None of the people on any of the boards are paid, so I'm not sure why you would consider that a psuedo-government.

Bottom line, if you don't want to live in a community with a HOA, then don't. but don't malign everyone commuity with a HOA as if people were living in a police state, because that's just not the case.

Anne

Anne,

Although Legends is a nice community and I certainly don't want to come across as "personally attacking" (cuz that's just not my style) but please.

Legends is a gated community. That gate is OPEN all day long until 6 pm until Frank the guard comes on duty. Let's just also clarify that Lennar, US Homes and Rutenburg were the 3 original builders in there. All of which are production builders meaning that you and Joe Smith down about 5 house may very well have the same floor plan.
Yes, there is a golf course. We have one too. And so do many other communities here. Tot Lots are nothing more than a "jungle gym" on sand with a bench for Mommy or Daddy to sit on to watch Junior so he doesn't get hurt.
As far as the HOA goes, they are usually the first dozen or so people that move into the community that decide yay or nay to what the house colors should be and please don't put your sofa on the front lawn. We have a HOA as well, and I certainly am NOT a fan. Sentry Management manages us. They charge too much and do just an okay job. ( I would be happy if they would just manage to spell my last name right at the gate of our also "gated community")

I think if I may, post the real problem is that some of your posts come across as lah-dee-dah and that causes friction.

There is just no need for that. Life is too short and all should "play nice"

 

[salmoneous]

But, you do have to "ask permission" if you live in city limits on deck building, shed building, etc...... Wouldn't you need to go and check zoning, get permission from the city/county offices?

It's a fair point - we all agree to give up some degree of liberty in order to live in a community. But I believe liberty to be precious - we should hold on to as much as we can and give none up without a fight. I also see a difference between governments - which generally have to have a good reason to impose restrictions on us - and HOA's, which can impose them for aesthetic whims.

In general, governments will let me build a deck; however, they may make me prove the deck is safe. (Note - just writing that sentence makes me throw up a little - I should have an unalienable right to build a deck on my house in my yard - it's not something the government should "let" us do. We've turned far too many rights over to our governments already - no way will I give over more to an HOA. But I digress). An HOA can stop me from building a deck just because they don't like decks. As much as it pains me to let a government dictate what I can or can't do with my house for my safety - it's a heck of a lot better than letting my neighbors dictate what I can or cannot do based on what they think looks "acceptable".

 

[ducklite]

Anne,

Although Legends is a nice community and I certainly don't want to come across as "personally attacking" (cuz that's just not my style) but please.

Legends is a gated community. That gate is OPEN all day long until 6 pm until Frank the guard comes on duty. Let's just also clarify that Lennar, US Homes and Rutenburg were the 3 original builders in there. All of which are production builders meaning that you and Joe Smith down about 5 house may very well have the same floor plan.

You've missed one. Lawson Estate Homes built 37 homes--mine being one of them Lawson builds custom, and is not a production builder. No two homes in my section of Legends are the same. I'm not sure that Ruttenburg ever ended up building in Legends--they were supposed to, but I think that David Weekly ended up taking over the lots that were supposed to go to Ruttenburg. Not sure--that's all in the second phase. The first phase was all Lennar, Engle, and Lawson.

Yes, there is a golf course. We have one too. And so do many other communities here. Tot Lots are nothing more than a "jungle gym" on sand with a bench for Mommy or Daddy to sit on to watch Junior so he doesn't get hurt.

I'm not sure what your point is.

As far as the HOA goes, they are usually the first dozen or so people that move into the community that decide yay or nay to what the house colors should be and please don't put your sofa on the front lawn. We have a HOA as well, and I certainly am NOT a fan. Sentry Management manages us. They charge too much and do just an okay job. ( I would be happy if they would just manage to spell my last name right at the gate of our also "gated community")

I think if I may, post the real problem is that some of your posts come across as lah-dee-dah and that causes friction.

There is just no need for that. Life is too short and all should "play nice"

I don't mean for my posts to come across that way, and apologize if anyone has miscontrued my intention.

Anne

 

[grlpwrd]

Anne,

Although Legends is a nice community and I certainly don't want to come across as "personally attacking" (cuz that's just not my style) but please.

Legends is a gated community. That gate is OPEN all day long until 6 pm until Frank the guard comes on duty. Let's just also clarify that Lennar, US Homes and Rutenburg were the 3 original builders in there. All of which are production builders meaning that you and Joe Smith down about 5 house may very well have the same floor plan.
Yes, there is a golf course. We have one too. And so do many other communities here. Tot Lots are nothing more than a "jungle gym" on sand with a bench for Mommy or Daddy to sit on to watch Junior so he doesn't get hurt.
As far as the HOA goes, they are usually the first dozen or so people that move into the community that decide yay or nay to what the house colors should be and please don't put your sofa on the front lawn. We have a HOA as well, and I certainly am NOT a fan. Sentry Management manages us. They charge too much and do just an okay job. ( I would be happy if they would just manage to spell my last name right at the gate of our also "gated community")

I think if I may, post the real problem is that some of your posts come across as lah-dee-dah and that causes friction.

There is just no need for that. Life is too short and all should "play nice"

I was wondering who was going to be bold enough to say it. Thanks. My sister is a realtor in the Tampa area and she said the same thing. She and some of her neighbors also managed to remove their HOA president from office and she replaced him because he was a dictator.

Here in Virginia we have a HOA and I hate it. Even if we agreed to all the covenants, I feel like we are forced to conform and have a board choose what is best for us sometimes. It sucks.

PS I just realized I don't talk enough about my twin sister who lives in the Tampa area and I rarely talk about my kids. Just thinking outloud lol...

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I would much rather live in a neighborhood with a purple house and a few unmowed lawns than live somewhere where I have to call up a bunch of busybodies and ask them what color I can paint my house - or ask them for permission to put a deck on my house - or get nagged about having my driveway door open.

My house, my castle.

I'm amazed at the number of people in the US who will voluntarily give up some of their liberty.

Liberty? I knew what I was getting into. Prior to building our home, I was able to read the covenants and it seemed reasonable to me. Sorry, but our home is our biggest investment, I don't want crap bringing that value down. Sure I have to put in requests to the Architectural Review Committee, but it's pretty much a rubber-stamp process. Reading the minutes, it seems very few get turned down.

So I guess you wouldn't need a permit from you local government for that deck?

 

[perdidobay]

I would much rather live in a neighborhood with a purple house and a few unmowed lawns than live somewhere where I have to call up a bunch of busybodies and ask them what color I can paint my house - or ask them for permission to put a deck on my house - or get nagged about having my driveway door open.

My house, my castle.

I'm amazed at the number of people in the US who will voluntarily give up some of their liberty.

I agree!

 

[MushyMushy]

I think it depends on the HOA. I live in a community with a HOA, and I like that my neighbor won't be allowed to paint their house purple, and people aren't allowed to leave rusted parts cars under blue tarps leaking oil all over the driveway.

We live in a neighborhood with two pink houses. One actually looks nice, a big old Victorian with beautiful trim and accents. The other one, you can tell they tried to make it look nice, but it misses the mark. Anyway, it doesn't bother me much. We're kind of hodge podge ourselves, and I don't think we could ever live in a strict HOA neighborhood -- maybe one with more relaxed rules, but even then I'm not sure.

I don't mean for my posts to come across that way, and apologize if anyone has miscontrued my intention.

Oh come on. There are some who make it a hobby to purposely misread your posts. Don't apologize -- it'll take away all their fun.

 

[marlasmom]

I have two issues here. The first is I am an officer for the HOA in my very small subdivision - 35 houses. Our dues are $143 a year. That pays for street lights and maintenance of three ponds and the front entrance. We do have some restrictions - i.e. no sheds (but we have one and some of our neighbors do as well, but they are not visible from the street), no overnight parking on the street, no parking on the lawns (enforced by the city) and no clotheslines. We do not restrict paint colors, but no one has used any obnoxious colors. We have the ability to step in if someone doesn't cut their grass, but have never had to. If someone has overnight guests for a week or so we won't say anything about street parking. That being said, one individual was selling used cars, washing machines and tires from his driveway. We tried talking to him time and time again but finally had to use the city's code enforcement to put a stop to it. He has moved (thank God). I don't think anyone would want a junk shop operating in their neighborhood.

We have postponed collection of dues because of family illness or hardship. We don't infringe on anyone's civil liberties. People have the right (and as far as I am concerned, the obligation, to read the rules before purchase.

Now let me speak for a few minutes about Anne. She is one of the kindest, most generous people I have ever met and I have been the recipient of some amazing offers of help from her. She has a lovely house and she makes no bones about how hard she has worked to achieve that. She is extremely knowledgeable and intelligent. When she talks about things I do know something about (i.e. mortgages) she is right on. She is not the least bit pretentious. I suspect she is a bit more egalitarian than those who scorn someone who is the least bit different than themselves. I suggest that some of you examine their feelings and motives carefully and objectively.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

I would much rather live in a neighborhood with a purple house and a few unmowed lawns than live somewhere where I have to call up a bunch of busybodies and ask them what color I can paint my house - or ask them for permission to put a deck on my house - or get nagged about having my driveway door open.

My house, my castle.

I'm amazed at the number of people in the US who will voluntarily give up some of their liberty.

I agree. If I'm making the mortage payments and own the house NO ONE is telling what I should do to it.

It makes me little happy I live in a big crowed city now.

 

[babytrees]

I agree. It's all about your neighbors and how much of a PITA they care to be.

My only problem with our HOA is that they blindly went with a management company to run the business side of things that proceeded to rob us blind, so we had to pay extra to replace the funds the company stole.

We are in our first house and first HOA....haven't decided whether I like them or not. But I do like the fact that my neighbor is now on the board because when he moved in a year ago they kept getting increases in fees and nothing was being done. We now have a new management company (what little we had to do with the other scared us) and I expect that we will see a decrease in fees soon.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

DH and I were looking for a house in a nice gated community with a HOA. We looked at a FSBO where the owner was actually the HOA president. He told us that he went out looking for "covenant violations" every morning because he was retired and had "nothing better to do". He actually said those words We decided that we'd rather not live in that neighborhood after that. I think that the HOA's full of retired people are the worst. A lot of them really do have nothing better to do than to look for "violations"

 

[marlasmom]

OMG generalize much?

 

[KirstenB]

Ducklite/Anne, I've never felt your posts were snooty. You are opinionated, and that does come across, but so are many here, including me!

 

[Hannathy]

The first is I am an officer for the HOA in my very small subdivision - 35 houses. We do have some restrictions - no clotheslines.

See for this very reason I couldn't live there!

Please explain why, especially in the day and age of going green and conserving energy and resources, this should be enforced?

 

[Bob Slydell]

We are in our first house and first HOA....haven't decided whether I like them or not. But I do like the fact that my neighbor is now on the board because when he moved in a year ago they kept getting increases in fees and nothing was being done. We now have a new management company (what little we had to do with the other scared us) and I expect that we will see a decrease in fees soon.

Coming from first hand experience with this -- make sure your board is very diligent about knowing everything the management company is doing!! Our first board (the HOA was just turned over to the residents in the past year or so) trusted the management company too much, IMO, and as a result, it took a fraud investigation by the FBI to uncover the amount of funds (hundreds of thousands from our community alone) that was missing.

 

[RitaZ.]

Please explain why, especially in the day and age of going green and conserving energy and resources, this should be enforced?

Surely, you must know that would not be aesthetically pleasing.

Our city doesn't allow them either. They don't allow sheds. Actually, they don't allow many things. Our city has an active code enforcement. I can tolerate them, but I can't tolerate a HOA. We avoided communities like that when we were looking for a house here. Our neighborhood doesn't have a problem with abandoned cars, trash outside, ugly house colors, etc.

 

[nuke]

See for this very reason I couldn't live there!

Please explain why, especially in the day and age of going green and conserving energy and resources, this should be enforced?

Because seeing Mrs. Smith's bloomers blowing in the breeze is lowering property values.