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

[Kae]

Our are mainly bout the house themselves-you have to have at least a 2 car attached garage, ranches have to be at least 1300 sq ft, 2 or 1 1/2 stories have to be at least 1700sq ft. any lot that has not been built on must have the sidewalk completed. The rest are city rules.

Kae

 

[aprilgail2]

We try to steer clear of HOA's because we just don't like that kind of dictation.

I could never live anywhere with a HOA- I can't stand that kind of dictatorship over something that I own! I would rather deal with a neighbor with fake geese on her lawn than to have to bend to a bunch of power hungry peoples rules.
I can't believe that they can tell you what color flowers to plant or what color to paint your house and even have to give permission for a fence- that is insane! When I buy a house I buy the property and the house and can do as I please- If my neighbor wants to paint their house purple I don't care, its their right as a homeowner!

 

[DevilDuckie]

We were required to sod, not seed the front lawn.

Why only the front lawn I don't get.

Probably because a lawn growing from seed is "unsightly" but if it is tucked away in the back nobody else sees it and it doesn't impact your neighbors.

We are shopping for our first home and refuse to even consider any place with an HOA. I am NOT sinking 6 figures into a home so someone else can tell me what to do.

 

[DevilDuckie]

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??

Yes. Hanes or Fruit of the Loom crew neck only. If you wear a color or a different brand you may spend no more than 10 minutes visible on any given day. V necks are not permitted in visible areas at any time.

 

[laurie31]

When we were looking for a house, we ruled one out because of the incredibly restrictive rules in that neighborhood. (no gate, nothing special - just houses on a street).

All the mailboxes had to match. (umm....so when I come home from work at 1am, how the heck am I supposed to figure out which one is mine? )

There was a 2 dog limit (we own four...)

No chain link fence

No treehouses (and...we haven't ever gotten around to building one, but the idea that we COULDN'T have one ticked us off)

You couldn't leave your trash can at the street except for a certain number of hours before and after garbage collection was scheduled



However, I must say janey99's "flower color" one takes the cake!!! Someone needs to seriously get a life

 

[disney1990]

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!!!

I know that this is a rule at Disney's Celebration development.

 

[Rence]

We're not allowed to have above-ground pools, although I'm not sure why. It stinks because it's not like we have $30k just lying around to have a pool put in right now!

Oh well.

We have the same rule - I was told that it was because the metal sided pools tend to quickly fall into disrepair and can start to look pretty bad.

Our association rules were amended recently to allow the newer soft sided above ground pools - they are only allowed to be up during late spring, summer and early fall (the idea is that it allows temporary above ground pools but no semi-permanent ones). There are 99 lots in our subdivision and the change passed 93 to 6.

 

[KigerKat]

If we want to make any changes to the outside of our house, we have to take photos of our house and make notations where the changes will be made. Then, we have to have a letter of approval signed by 2 neighbors that share a property line. Kinda silly if you just want to add shutters or paint your rail caps...

 

[golfgal]

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.

So you can just throw up a white sheet and call it good??? Sorry, this is pretty dumb. Who cares what your drapes look like from the OUTSIDE???

 

[NotUrsula]

Many years ago, our neighborhood had a rule that any doghouse you had had to be made of the same materials as the house, with the same architectural style.

We didn't get a dog when we lived in that neigborhood because my father refused to build a red-brick colonial doghouse with white trim.

 

[Jpgirl]

We have to get permission from the HOA to paint our house-even if it's the exact same color!!! Our neighbor across the street painted hers the exact same color and the HOA wrote a letter saying she had to prove it was the same color-after she had painted it!!
We painted ours a week later and no letter yet
Also you're supposed to get the HOA's permission to replace faucets,fans and light fixtures-inside the house. OK, come to my house after I move out and try and accuse me of changing anything. Guess they would have a fit about the new tile floor in the family room and the new wood floor in the bedroom

 

[MomsOf2boys]

Sheds.

Our HOA requires approval of sheds and they must be made to look like your house in color and materials.

They also come by during spring/summer seasons on Tuesdays with a ruler to measure and ticket any grass that exceeds their magic number.

I can't complain too much as the subdivisions all around us have loose HOA's and their property values have dropped while ours has increased value. We aren't allowed to do anything other than keep our neighborhood looking much like the stepford wives.

I even had to sneak and put up a storm door when no one was home one holiday weekend as i just didn't have it in me to wait the month or more it would take to get approval the proper way.

 

[MomsOf2boys]

We are also not allowed to run any type of business from our homes. Do they not realize how many people actually work from home at least 30% of the time these days?

I think they are targeting in-home daycares... all i can say about that is

These are not really my children, come and get them... preferably before dinner and laundry.

 

[NMAmy]

Also you're supposed to get the HOA's permission to replace faucets,fans and light fixtures-inside the house.

Okay, that is INSANE. I'm glad I've never lived in a home with a HOA--just hearing the things on this thread is giving me hives.

 

[Momma Rabbit]

When I was doing property management I had to deal with HOA's all the time. Some of the worst ones I dealt with....all cars must be parked in garages by 8pm, if you had overnight guests the cars had to be registered with security. Garage doors couldn't be left open for more than an hour at a time, No basketball hoops in the drive ways, No Motorcycles ridden inside the gates, you had to push them to your house ( that one went to court and we moved before I found out how it went.)

Since, most of my property owners lived out of state I would have proxy to attend HOA meetings. I once saw a meeting come to blows over how many palm trees would be planted at the entrance

I would think long and hard before buying into an HOA.

 

[JR6ooo4]

No longer enforced...

but some subdivisions here, north of chicago, have restrictive covenants that include limiting ownership (or even occupancy) to the caucasion race..!!!!! Some included forfeiture of title as the penalty.

Mikeeee

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

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.

Ours is a gated community with houses on individual lots, just like any other neighborhood. The fees we pay cover the guards at the entrance, up keep of the common areas, the pool, roads, and any other stupid thing the board deems necessary, like planting a bunch of bushes that look really out of place.

 

[kbkids]

There's be nowhere to live if that were a popular rule in FL. Every other house in our neighborhood has one next to their driveway

I'm in Florida, and it's been a rule in 2 out of 3 neighborhoods that we've lived in. You can store them in the backyard, or you have to pay to store them offsight. We don't have a boat, so it doesn't affect us - but we know plenty of people who pay hefty storage bills every month.

 

[diznygirl]

Also you're supposed to get the HOA's permission to replace faucets,fans and light fixtures-inside the house. OK, come to my house after I move out and try and accuse me of changing anything. Guess they would have a fit about the new tile floor in the family room and the new wood floor in the bedroom

Good golly - that's insane! I'm glad we don't have anything like that here.

Back in California, there was a town that wouldn't allow any color that wasn't an earth tone. White and blue are not earth tones. Even the businesses had to follow the rules.

When you want to live someplace you have to do the research.

 

[aprilgail2]

Back in California, there was a town that wouldn't allow any color that wasn't an earth tone. White and blue are not earth tones. Even the businesses had to follow the rules.

When you want to live someplace you have to do the research.

wow, what a plain boring looking town that must be!!! No orginality!