What is the DUMBEST / WORST HOA rule you have ever heard of?

[jennyl772003]

I thought of one! No for sale signs allowed on the yard. From what I understand this is a pretty common one. Our assoc has it, but it's not enforced.

 

[DMickey28]

we couldn't have patterned curtains in the windows..I remember that one because my son's room was Nemo and we couldn't use the nemo curtains...it seems like there were other strange ones too.

Was it that you couldn't use patterned curtains period or visible from the street? Our 'rule' is that any window treatment visable from the outside must be white. In other words whatever you use has to have a white backing. Wouldn't stop me from using curtains I wanted to use!!!

 

[lecach]

I love having an HOA. I've lived in neighborhoods without one and the neighbors did strange stuff.

We have one rule that a lot of people dont like but I Love it. If you have a dog in your yard, you have to be with it. No one is allowed to just leave their dog out in the yard. Since DH works from home this is great because at our other house the neighbors dogs were always outside and barked a LOT.

Other rules include having to get permission to put up a fence, a swingset, or major landscaping. You have to get your immediate next door neighbors to sign it and then it goes to the HOA. I can see how some wouldn't like that rule but I like it because it keeps the neighbors from doing strange stuff.

 

[Angelhalo]

We try to steer clear of HOA's because we just don't like that kind of dictation. It's easier here than it was in NC, because there are so many homes here that while they are all next door to each other, they aren't a subdivision. They have no relation to each other, people just bought the empty lots and built houses. So there's no HOA. Thank Goodness. Everyone in our neighborhoods has boats, and garbage cans in front of their homes, but it's very neat looking anod nothing has ever offended my eyes so horribly that I'd want someone to tell us what we could or couldn't do.

 

[diznygirl]

Was it that you couldn't use patterned curtains period or visible from the street? Our 'rule' is that any window treatment visable from the outside must be white. In other words whatever you use has to have a white backing. Wouldn't stop me from using curtains I wanted to use!!!

Yeah, that's a pretty standard one. And most drapes will have a white backing.

I can't think of any in ours (although I'm sure everyone thinks we are super-strict). I believe we can even put out a pink flamingo or two, although the number of yard decorations is limited.

In my aunt's neighborhood we couldn't park on the street past 9 pm. I'm not sure if that was HOA or town code. But we all dutifully went out and pulled onto the lawn at 9 pm.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

I have a question. Are these some kind of gate community or condo units you live in where you pay a fee to a corperation? These are just regular homes on a regular street are they?

I just can't see how a few people can dictate what you do in a home you bought and paid for.

In my area, it's not a gated community or condo, but the entire town is part of a homeowner's association. Like a condo complex, we pay dues each month, and that gives us access to the rec centers, swimming pools, etc. and we also agree to live by the covenants, even though most of the houses are just regular homes on regular streets.

There are gated communities and condo complexes within the town, where people are subject to more rules, and pay additional dues, and often have access to less busy pools intended for that neighborhood only.

Our covenants aren't too bad, though. I think our worst rule is the "garage doors shouldn't be left open" rule, but it really doesn't bother us, because it doesn't really apply to situations where we're doing yard work, or the kids are running around and playing, etc. It really only applies to situations where the door is open for hours on end with no people in sight, and we'd never do that anyway -- we value our bikes and golf clubs too much !

The Christmas light one would piss me off. I hate when everyone has clear lights -- it's so boring! I like colors so much better. But I love the "no long-term RV parking" and "no couches or rusted cars up on blocks on the front lawn" rules.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

Our 'rule' is that any window treatment visable from the outside must be white.

Can someone please explain this to me? Why would anyone care what colors your curtains were? Do people seriously go around looking into windows and checking out the colors of the curtains?

When the town I live in was first created you were not allowed fences and you weren't allowed to hang clothes out on Sundays. Thankfully those rules are now long gone. There is no HOA here and the town doesn't have many rules.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

Other rules include having to get permission to put up a fence, a swingset, or major landscaping. You have to get your immediate next door neighbors to sign it and then it goes to the HOA. I can see how some wouldn't like that rule but I like it because it keeps the neighbors from doing strange stuff.

Ooh! I understand what you're saying about preventing people from doing strange things, but fences and swing sets aren't strange! That one would drive me nuts! I don't think individuals should have that much say over their neighbors yards.

 

[diznygirl]

Can someone please explain this to me? Why would anyone care what colors your curtains were? Do people seriously go around looking into windows and checking out the colors of the curtains?

Nobody really needs to go around "looking into windows." It's pretty noticeable from just driving by quickly on the street. And I guess the rule is there like many of them - just to keep people from going crazy. There was one house in the town I grew up in that would paint purple with lime green trim - really crazy stuff. Very eclectic and fine for some people. But not so fine for others, and those are the people who choose to live someplace where purple and lime green on a house is a no-no.


Me? I don't care - knock yourself out. I'm more concerned with my neighbors being considerate than caring what color their drapes are.

 

[janey99]

My parents had friends whose HOA dictated only certain foundation landscaping plants, and every year they would release that year's approved annual flowers colors - anyone who had annuals in the wrong color had to rip them out! Also, no perennials - if they came up in "last year's colors," that would be a no-no!

Jane

 

[Mrs.Toad]

Oh, I just thought of our dumbest rule. The front yard has to be at least a certain percentage grass. I think it's about 60-75%. I like grass in front yards, but the stupid thing is that we live in a very dry area, and we can't even plant native grasses that require less water. It has to be Kentucky bluegrass or something like that. Every year, they get on our cases about conserving water. Well, I could conserve a lot more water if I could just xeriscape our front yard! Duh!

 

[Angelhalo]

Can someone please explain this to me? Why would anyone care what colors your curtains were? Do people seriously go around looking into windows and checking out the colors of the curtains?

When the town I live in was first created you were not allowed fences and you weren't allowed to hang clothes out on Sundays. Thankfully those rules are now long gone. There is no HOA here and the town doesn't have many rules.

I can only understand it for like kids window treatments where there are some people who can't afford real curtain or whatever and they basically throw a "Nemo" or "Toy Story" etc sheet up in the window. It is sooooooooo trashy looking. It doesn't make me angry or anything though, I just shake my head and move along, but I can see where the rule came from.

 

[Chicago526]

When I lived in my condo, it wasn't the rules so much as every building seemed to have at least one person that reported their neighbors for every little thing. I'm not talking major viloations, just little stuff, often temporary situations, and they'd turn you in at the drop of a hat.

My across the hall neighbor was like this. One of the rules was you couldn't work on your car in the driveway, except for emergency repairs required to get the car operational. DH was changing a flat tire and my neighbor threatened to call the HOA if he didn't stop ASAP. In not so polite language, he told her A) go ahead and B) mind her own blankity blank buisness. I don't know if she called or not, we never heard anything. I hope she did and the HOA told her where to put her complaint!

The kicker is that she was violating rules herself. You were allowed a max of two pets. She had three, two pugs and a cat. I took the high road and never reported her. Not because of her but because I didn't want to cause a pet to become homeless.

Now I live in a regular house with no HOA, but I still have an across the way neighbor that calls the city code people on everyone on the street, she's called at least three or four times on us. The city has never fined us.

I swear, I can't win for losing!

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I can only understand it for like kids window treatments where there are some people who can't afford real curtain or whatever and they basically throw a "Nemo" or "Toy Story" etc sheet up in the window. It is sooooooooo trashy looking. It doesn't make me angry or anything though, I just shake my head and move along, but I can see where the rule came from.

Hey, at least they threw something over the windows! I had neighbors who had floor to ceiling sliding glass doors in their bedroom and they had no curtains and didn't even bother to throw a sheet over it. Really innapropriate. I'd rather see any window covering in a bedroom than none.

I just think it's crazy to dictate how people should decorate the inside of their house. I understand that some people want to live in a community where homeowners can't go "wild" with their property. Personally, I like living in a place where I can do just about anything I want. I can understand wanting to avoid the "trashy" houses. We have a handful or so around here and I wish there was something we could do about it but no such luck.

 

[AmazingGrace]

A friend of mine lived in a subdivision where you had to have your shades/blinds at a certain level in your window during the day. And they all had to be at the same level.

 

[Jockaroo]

Papa D, you might find this article interesting:

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=LOCALNEWS&ID=60934

This happened near where my mother works. It involves the white lights only HOA regulation.

This is one of the very "high-end" restricted neighborhoods with the over-priced, tiny yard, everything looks the same vibe. And in past months a huge number of places have been listed for sale--and are NOT selling. When we visited my mom at Christmas, I would much rather have seen a colored light than the "gentleman" who didn't have curtains in his bathroom!

 

[AmberDaClown]

OMG! You have a rotating light up inflatable dreidel? Seriously? No joke? If so, where did you get it?

I am Jewish and I want one.

Five years ago for $8.99 on clearance at Garden Ridge Pottery. It still works.

 

[Northstar]

My parents had friends whose HOA dictated only certain foundation landscaping plants, and every year they would release that year's approved annual flowers colors - anyone who had annuals in the wrong color had to rip them out! Also, no perennials - if they came up in "last year's colors," that would be a no-no!

Jane

Jane, yours wins the prize as far as I'm concerned!

Is this HOA by any chance called something like, "The Obsessive-compulsive Control Freaks and Busybodies Association"? Seriously, you know that's who is going to end up living there... who else would put up with that?

 

[Papa Deuce]

Papa D, you might find this article interesting:

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=LOCALNEWS&ID=60934

This happened near where my mother works. It involves the white lights only HOA regulation.

This is one of the very "high-end" restricted neighborhoods with the over-priced, tiny yard, everything looks the same vibe. And in past months a huge number of places have been listed for sale--and are NOT selling. When we visited my mom at Christmas, I would much rather have seen a colored light than the "gentleman" who didn't have curtains in his bathroom!

The difference is that they wanted my wife to have white lights INSIDE her home on the tree...

 

[sk8ingmom]

When I lived in FL, I drafted a spectacular response to an HOA nasty-gram for not asking "them" for permission to display my American flag. This was a single-family home with a decent sized yard in a HOA neighborhood & we are talking a standard, 3x4, porch-rail-mounted American flag, not a 20 foot flag pole. I told them that I am the great granddaughter, granddaughter, and daughter or war veterans & an active duty service member (DH) owns the house. I was not going to seek their permission to display a flag. I also mentioned that I was a SAHM with some spare time and professional public relations experience, so "game on".

Incidentally, "they" didn't seem to mind the lady who dress up her 3' plastic goose statue in her yard in festive holiday ponchos or the older couple with lawn jockeys at the end of their driveway.

There was a neighborhood near us in Alaska that had what we referred to as "Beware of HOA" signs at every entrance. Big signs that said if you buy a house here, or even just visit, you have to abide by their rules. Scary. I hate HOAs.

Yeah, that's a pretty standard one. And most drapes will have a white backing.

Seriously?? My drapes don't.

Then again, I have to buy a whole houseful of new curtains every three years when we move, so I don't have custom-made 'window treatments'. It gets obnoxiously expensive even if I'm only going for Target special curtains.

It is INSIDE the house. It is bad enough to own an house and have no say on the outside...but inside?? Seriously?

The difference is that they wanted my wife to have white lights INSIDE her home on the tree...

So curtains, lights inside...my kitchen window is in the front of my house. I spend a lot of thime there. Would they have an opinion on what I need to wear? White t-shirt only, maybe??