I hate my HOA!!! - Long Vent

[Mrs.Reese]

Here is the deal. DH and I bought an older home that needed some yard work. We have been really working hard to clear it out. There's probably about 15 years of overgrowth going on. Our grabage company will clean up any debris as long as its near the curb. You would think these people would be happy that
1. The house is not sitting vacant as most houses for sale here are.
2. We obviously take care of the place. (ie. New paint, landscaping)

but NO! I get some nasty call that I am violation of some HOA rule. The HOA is VOLUNTARY!! If the debris is not removed within 24 hours, they will give me a fine. It has been like this for any thing we do. I'm starting to think it's because we're not retired and this was a retirement area for quite some time.

I have people stop and yell out their windows things like "hey are you going to clean this yard up." I wonder if they said these same things to elderly woman we purchased the house from.

 

[brasswillow]

HOAs can be so much trouble.

I had a friend get a notice, after midnight, about the weeds in their yard.

 

[binny]

nice. I hated our HOA so much that we left.


Check your HOA and see what the rules are. MOST of them have no teeth and are just big into threats.


In Idaho they passed a law that said they cant post a lien against the house.


Im sorry youre going through that.

 

[dmslush]

When we were looking to buy our house, I flatly refused to purchase anything in an area where there was an HOA. I am not going to work my butt off to buy a house, only to pay someone to tell me how my property has to look. If I work for it and I pay for it, I can paint the dang thing pink and purple!

 

[Hannathy]

dmslush ITA with you there is no way I would ever buy a house with a HOA! It would have to get to the point that every house in America was in a HOA before I did. If I want a clothesline I put one up, if I want a vegetable garden as long as I can dig it I'm putting one in. Pink and Purple that sounds kinda nice, I do need to paint the door this summer.

 

[jmskinner]

I remember a lady in Virginia that was having problems with her HOA and if I remember right, she was trying to sell her house. She ended up putting signs all over the yard and doing a really crazy paint job on the house. It's been awhile, but I think it was more grafitti than just painting it.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Stay away from my area. Whole towns have appearance commissions. Can't change the color of your house without asking. Others will not let you build a house with the same style brick within 1 mile!!!

Mikeeee

 

[MoniqueU]

We used to live where there was a homeowners association. We made absolutely sure there was none when we bought our second house. That HOA was EVIL.

 

[dreamcometrue]

omg, some HOH's can be such a pain! We looked at houses a while back and some HOH's are just ridiculous...the one gave you a list of flowers/bushes/trees you can plant in your front yard, and it wasn't very long. You could ONLY plant what was on that list. You were not allowed to park your car in the driveway past 8pm, it had to be parked in the garage. You were not allowed to park in the street at all, and if you had guests, they had to park in the guest parking lot, which, depending on where your house was located was quite a walk! You were not allowed to have a shed in the backyard either, even if your neighbor couldn't see it. If your grass was over a certain height, you'd get fined. It really was ridiculous. This was a new development, with $800,000 homes! If I pay that much for a house, by God, I want to decide what to plant in my front yard!!!

 

[aprilgail2]

When we were looking to buy our house, I flatly refused to purchase anything in an area where there was an HOA. I am not going to work my butt off to buy a house, only to pay someone to tell me how my property has to look. If I work for it and I pay for it, I can paint the dang thing pink and purple!

I agree!! No way would I buy a home in any area that had a HOA. I don't need a bunch of power hungry people with to much time on their hands telling me what I can or can't do with a place I just spent 500,000 on!!

 

[ducklite]

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.

I think some HOA's are crazy, but others are common sense. We have a rule that grass can't be more than a certain height--but it's taller than most people would ever allow thier grass to get anyhow. You can't change your color without approval, but they allow pretty much any shade or brown, taupe, cream, white, yellow, coral, and a lot more. You need approval to change the trees in your yard, but part of that is because the county requires a certain number of hardwood trees in each yard. It's common sense stuff that keeps everyone's property values up.

Frankly I don't want the type of people who would paint their house purple, store four parts cars in the side yard, breed beagles, or allow their lawn to get knee-high living next to me.

Anne

 

[stczt]

We would not look at a house that had a HOA, Dh has a work van that wont fit in the garage and most HOA's wont allow it so it made things easy for us.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

My community doesn't have a HOA. All the houses are a very nice color, the trees and yards are all kept up very nicely. And I don't have any broken down cars in the anyones yard covered in tarps.

I don't want anyone telling me what I can do with my property. For the most part people tend to use common sense when it comes to their homes.

 

[ndelaware]

"For the most part" is the catch. I have seen the nightmare houses in an old nieghborhood we lived in. I"ll take a HOA run by the people who live in the community any day.

 

[Pam]

Frankly I don't want the type of people who would paint their house purple, store four parts cars in the side yard, breed beagles, or allow their lawn to get knee-high living next to me.

Anne

Well I guess asking you to pet sit my beagle is out, huh??

Don't be shy, Anne -- tell us how you REALLY feel!

For the record - my beagle is not a breeder -- but he would love for the opportunity to "go forth and multiply!" He lives inside, sleeps on the couch, loves to go for rides in the convertible, and his favorite meal is a filet mignon. He's potty trained and knows 4 languages. I personally think he's gifted.

(And our house isn't purple, our grass is not even ankle-high, and we do have 4 cars parked in our driveways - but only because our 21 yr. old DD and 19 yr. old son bought and maintain their own cars. We do like to barbecue in the winter and there's currently 2 pairs of rubber boots on the front porch.)

 

[ducklite]

"For the most part" is the catch. I has seen the night mare houses in an old nieghborhood we lived in. I"ll take a HOA run by the people who live in the community any day.

Exactly! There's a neighborhood near mine that obviously doesn't have an association. The houses are painted all sorts of crazy colors (hot pink for one!), lawns aren't maintained, junk cars are parked in driveways and on lawns. Of course many of the homes are attractive and neatly kept, but those folks that do keep their homes nicely are having their values dragged down by some of the people who don't care about the appearance of their home.

Like I said in my previous post, some HOA's are WAY over the top with their rules and regs. But a HOA with common sense rules will help to keep property values up.

Anne

 

[ducklite]

Well I guess asking you to pet sit my beagle is out, huh??

Don't be shy, Anne -- tell us how you REALLY feel!

For the record - my beagle is not a breeder -- but he would love for the opportunity to "go forth and multiply!" He lives inside, sleeps on the couch, loves to go for rides in the convertible, and his favorite meal is a filet mignon. He's potty trained and knows 4 languages. I personally think he's gifted.

I've got neighbors who own a beagle. There's a difference between owning a beagle and breeding them. The people a couple doors down from my in-laws are breeding them, they must have about 10 of them right now, and the racket is unbelievable. I think beagles are great dogs, but I wouldn't want 10 of them living next to me.

(And our house isn't purple, our grass is not even ankle-high, and we do have 4 cars parked in our driveways - but only because our 21 yr. old DD and 19 yr. old son bought and maintain their own cars. We do like to barbecue in the winter and there's currently 2 pairs of rubber boots on the front porch.)

Um, I said PARTS (junk) cars covered in blue tarps. Big difference. Not sure if you're trying to pick a fight, or if you just need to go back and reread what I said.

Anne

 

[binny]

My community doesn't have a HOA. All the houses are a very nice color, the trees and yards are all kept up very nicely. And I don't have any broken down cars in the anyones yard covered in tarps.

I don't want anyone telling me what I can do with my property.

exactly!

We live in a very nice older neighbourhood It was built in the late 60's the homes are classic architecture Colonials, Capes, Ranchers, etc. They are painted nice colours and some are brick. They are not the all the same cookie cutter house which was a HUGE selling point for me! The yards are maintained, no one has leaking cars in the yard, driveway or street. People actually CARE what their neighbourhood looks like. If someones garbage cans blow away, someone brings them back to their owner. There ARE still places in the world where people excercise common sense.



I wouldnt live in a HOA neighbourhood ever again!

 

[Toby'sFriend]

my neighborhood doesn't have a HOA either. Most of our houses are brick so painting them really isn't an issue. Everybody mows their lawns or hires a service to do it for them. We even have 3 doctors.

Personally, hell would freeze over before I moved into such a community. I really don't see a need to pay extra money to some pseudo government wanna be organization to control the masses. We have plenty of government and taxes around here as it is without adding another layer.

 

[ducklite]

my neighborhood doesn't have a HOA either. Most of our houses are brick so painting them really isn't an issue. Everybody mows their lawns or hires a service to do it for them. We even have 3 doctors.

Personally, hell would freeze over before I moved into such a community. I really don't see a need to pay extra money to some pseudo government wanna be organization to control the masses. We have plenty of government and taxes around here as it is without adding another layer.

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