Tell me about HOAs

[TheOtherVillainess]

Oh god..you don't want to hear the horror stories I have about our HOA. I wish we'd moved into a community without one. I really do. It's been the most horrible experience of my life.

1. Trashcans and trashcan placement--City ordinance says cans must be behind front line of your house if you choose to store them outside. However, HOA rules stae you must store them out of common sight, which for us (because of how the side yard is sloped) means that our formerly 2 car garage is now a 1 car, 3 trashcan and 1 giant recycle bin garage.
2. The pool--this could go on forever. There is no effective way for us to keep unwanteds out of our private (community) pool. Plus..for the amount we've paid in repairs over the last 4 years, you could buy 4 NEW pool and hire lifeguards for the summer, I'm sure of it.
3. Two words--Grass Nazi

TOV

 

[ducklite]

i have to laugh at the concept of "the purple house" there was a planned community in a nearby town that had a hoa from day one with very strickt guidelines on how houses could be landscaped, exterior ornamentation, paint colors....a resident went and painted their house PURPLE (not a variation, but crayola crayon purple). the residents were up in arms, the hoa threw a fit and had their lawyers demand the homeowner repaint to the "earthtone" exterior paint mandate in the hoa contract...ended up in court and the homeowner's lawyer won the case based on the wording of the hoa contract- it only specified "earthtones"-purple is the color of grapes, grapes come from the earth-therefore "purple is an earthtone".

it was on the local news for months

Oh. My. God.

We have an "architectural review committee". Any changes, even adding landscaping, must be approved by the ARC. So we're covered there. Like I said, in my little slice of the community we don't have an ARC in place, it's more like you say to your neighbor--"How would it look if I..." and the neighbor says, "Well, might be better if you..." But you can bet if someone painted their house purple... LOL! Mine is a soft coral, and it's about as "dramatic" as they let things get around here. (It's the same color as the clubhouse, so there wasn't much they could say) One that was painted super bright yellow the ARC of the master community made them repaint it.

We don't have a "grass nazi" problem, because all but I think three people have a lawn service, and most of us use the same guy who's great. DH told me to choose a cleaning service or lawn service, but not both. I took the lawn service. No way I'm mowing a half acre when it's 90 out at 8:00am.

Anne

 

[Tanuki]

Tanuki,

whereabouts in Atlanta do you live?

EAST COBB! (can believe it?)

In that triangular area bordered by Lower Roswell Road, Powers Ferry, and Terrell Mill. The houses are 40 year old ranch burgers on half acre lots, close in (you would exit at Delk Road and go east).

It seems to be in that transition that happened a few years back in the Lakeside HS area where developers bought out a few older homes on large lots and built smaller cluster subdivisions for a big profit. New homes don't go up around here for less than around 600K.

But individually the older houses are about a third of that.
And I suspect a lot of the older ones are rentals.

 

[Melrosgirl]

I have friends who bought a house in a neighborhood with strict HOA rules.Well the realtor for the neighborhood forgot to have them sign the acknowledgement of HOA paper. Right after they closed on their house, they got a call from the realtor asking them to sign it. My friends refused to sign it, lol. They don't have to abide by the rules now. They built a huge (but nice looking) shed out back that the HOA was upset by, but couldn't do a single thing about it. Hilarious!

 

[Melrosgirl]

I don't live in a neighborhood with a HOA, but sometimes I wish I did. My neighborhood hood is older (50 years old), so for the most part I don't think HOA's were known back then. I have a couple of neighbors (ironically they are related) who live the next block over and they just make me ill. One of them built a huge carport out in his backyard. It's huge. It still has the Home Depot insultation sticking out of it. Been like that for a year. Big ol' advertisment for Home Depot. How it got approved (I'm assuming) by the township is beyond me. It's so ugly. If my neighborhood played "the weakest link," he'd be the first voted off our street, for sure!

 

[Southern4sure]

Our HOA does some fun things as well
Neighborhood parties, newsletters, all the kids go to the club house before trick or treating and get their pics made together.
We have a neighborhood directory and a welcome wagon. The Covenants can be a pain -but the neighborhood looks good and the neighborhood is very desirable.

Same here. We have a hired staff that works the lodge and the HOA does a fantastic job. IMHO, I think HOA's help to keep the value of your home up and make your community desirable. When all the houses are built, we will have over 960 homes so HOA is a necessity I think.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

HOAs are a mixed blessing. I am glad they are there and for what it means for the up keep, look, value....however, it is all in how they enforce. If the enforcement is done in a petty or power trip/power hungry manner - or is done unfairly where some people are made to comply while others can do whatever they want it is frustrating - combine the two and you have a nightmare. In our community, we have a bunch of blue hair nazis who have nothing better to do than drive around and write their neighbors up for the most petty things - luckily it does not involve not mowing your lawn every four days (or we would be in biggggg trouble) - mostly it involves what you can and can't have decoratively in your yard...or things like those pools that are between a kiddie pool and an above ground pool. My biggest problem is there is no consistancy - if you don't make EVERYONE comply, you have no right to only ask some to.

Also, people need to understand that covenants do not supercede law. For example, our HOA words the section on sat. dishes such that it makes you believe that you can not have one if you can not put it where they say you must. However, there is a Fed. Comm. Act that states a landlord, HOA, or whatever can not tell you that you can't have a dish. Therefore, if you can not pick up reception in the locations your HOA tries to restrict you to - you can place the dish where you need to. The Federal law here trumps the HOA covenant.

Outside the compliance issue - we have some really great neighborhood programs - holiday kids parties, summer concerts and parties, summer rec programs, wine group...that aspect is wonderful.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

pan--the petty little powertrips that the mgmt company was on is the reason DH and our next door neighbor are now on the homeowner's board of the HOA. That way we can sort of keep the mgmt company in line, because the ot her board members don't seem to care much and it's up to DH and the neighbor.

TOV

 

[SC Minnie]

if a hoa is not established for a subdivision also check to see if there are any existing CC&R's (covenants, codes and restrictions). our subdivision finished up construction around 5 years ago and alot of the houses have sold over and over-i doubt many of the new owners are aware of the cc&r's that were present (and still legaly enforcable in civil court) when the neighborhood was established.
.

The first house we bought was 20 years old and had several owners through the years. We weren't given in CC&R's when we bought the house. Didn't know any existed until we tore down our delapidated out building and tried to build a nicer one. Our next door neighbor didn't like where we were putting it and brought over a copy of the CC&R's.

Our current neighborhood also has CC&R's but people don't abide by them. Everyone keeps their houses and yard nice on the main road and our street (the other street there are a few 'problem' houses but you have to drive down there to even see them) We have a very loose HOA and mainly pay dues to keep the grass cut around the entrance.

One development here the HOA is so strict. You have to pay into it a couple hundred $$ when you buy a house in there plus the monthly dues. If you sell your house you have to pay the HOA to allow you to move even if you are buying in the same development. My coworker is doing this and it is going to cost them over $1000 to the HOA to move within the development.