homeowners association

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Squisher
We pay $500/yr. but that takes care of snow removal, street maintenance, street lighting, landscaping the commons areas, and the ongoing lawsuits against the builder/developer.

I don't get it. The first three should be taken care of by the city

They should be but aren't. When a development is first proposed these services are divvied up between the developer and the the township. I had just asked at the last HOA meeting if the city would be willing to take over these services, but at this point, they tell me, it is up to the city if they're willing to take over the services and you have to dangle some incentive to make them want to. This is a problem for the HOA, because it is not easy for our assoc. to collect dues and with many people in arrears they had to raise dues from $375/yr. to $500/yr. to cover the shortfall. It is only after people are in arrears for an entire year that you can start the litigation to put liens on their property and chances are you will never get the money out of them until they decide to sell.

So people who don't have those services provided by the city get a corresponding reduction in their real estate taxes?

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Do you actually own the house? Or are you paying a mortgage. No one really owns a house unless it's paid off.

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Squisher
We pay $500/yr. but that takes care of snow removal, street maintenance, street lighting, landscaping the commons areas, and the ongoing lawsuits against the builder/developer.

I don't get it. The first three should be taken care of by the city

They should be but aren't. When a development is first proposed these services are divvied up between the developer and the the township. I had just asked at the last HOA meeting if the city would be willing to take over these services, but at this point, they tell me, it is up to the city if they're willing to take over the services and you have to dangle some incentive to make them want to. This is a problem for the HOA, because it is not easy for our assoc. to collect dues and with many people in arrears they had to raise dues from $375/yr. to $500/yr. to cover the shortfall. It is only after people are in arrears for an entire year that you can start the litigation to put liens on their property and chances are you will never get the money out of them until they decide to sell.

So people who don't have those services provided by the city get a corresponding reduction in their real estate taxes?

You would think so, but I imagine this isn't the case. How this is determined when a development is first proposed, I can only guess.

 

[Exterous]

I have only had one experience with a HOA and it wasn't a pleasant one

Where to begin... well they spend thousands of dollars to put in speed bumps that were too wide to be accommodating to emergency vehicles (long fire engines) and had to spend thousands of dollars taking them all out. They told my neighbor with a mint condition pink cadillac that no one wanted to see his 'junk car' and would have to store it else where (he garage was full and he used a car cover when it wasn't nice outside). All landscaping decisions larger than flowers or the addition of 2 bushes need to be approved. And we got letters constantly telling us we should have our drive way re-tarred every year to match everyone else's.

One way around it for us was to threaten them with legal action should they continue putting notices in our mailbox (IIRC it is illegal for anyone but the mailman to do so) and take down our newspaper box. The notices inevitable ended up on the door at which point we complained about people littering on our property which, as covered by the HOA, would result in a $100 fine per incident. The notices stopped

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Squisher
We pay $500/yr. but that takes care of snow removal, street maintenance, street lighting, landscaping the commons areas, and the ongoing lawsuits against the builder/developer.

I don't get it. The first three should be taken care of by the city

They should be but aren't. When a development is first proposed these services are divvied up between the developer and the the township. I had just asked at the last HOA meeting if the city would be willing to take over these services, but at this point, they tell me, it is up to the city if they're willing to take over the services and you have to dangle some incentive to make them want to. This is a problem for the HOA, because it is not easy for our assoc. to collect dues and with many people in arrears they had to raise dues from $375/yr. to $500/yr. to cover the shortfall. It is only after people are in arrears for an entire year that you can start the litigation to put liens on their property and chances are you will never get the money out of them until they decide to sell.

So people who don't have those services provided by the city get a corresponding reduction in their real estate taxes?

You would think so, but I imagine this isn't the case. How this is determined when a development is first proposed, I can only guess.

The way that works here is that if the streets are maintained by the city, county, or state then anything to do with the maintenance and snow removal is up to VDOT. That is typical in single family housing developments. Townhouse communities sometimes own their street and it is part of the common area. In that case the snow removal and street maintenance come out of the HOA dues.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Oh sweet Jesus don't do it. HOA's were a good idea, but they seem to inevitably become corrupted and vile.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Citrix

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: BillGates
There is one in our neighborhood but I don't think we have to pay to be in it - I never pay attention to the mailings. Supposedly there is a rule in our neighborhood that fences aren't allowed - what would happen if I decided I wanted to build one? We never signed any form about this type of thing when we closed on the house last year... What would happen?

they would bitch and complain

you would tell them to go fuck themselfs and build your fence

They then sue him in court and most liekly win. He then has a lein put on house for fines, court cost, lawyers fees, HOA fees, etc... and then they, HOA, sell house fro what is owed to a "private party" and he has nothing to show.


Most states give HOAs powers that even most goveremnts don;t have.

If you value you life fight tooth and nail to keep HOAs out of your area.

if he isnt in the HOA and never agreed to it they cant do shit

Bingo.. he never signed anything saying he was in the HOA. Just because they are in the neighborhood does not mean that you have to sign up and participate. You own the house, you do not belong to the HOA, so any "benefits" they provide should not be received by you and their influence should have no bearing on what you want to do either.

wrong. this happened to my parents. two years after they bought their house a HOA was voted in my parents didn't know at thing about it until he got a letter to move his little 4X8 utility trailer from the driveway and to fork over 120 bucks for the year.

dad researched it and in Texas it is totally legal for a community to vote in by a majority for a HOA and they were SOL.

The only acceptable solution to that sort of thing is for people to start killing others until it's such a nightmare the government steps in and bans hoa's completely. No, I'm not kidding. When the law fails it's time for war.

 

[Triumph]

Anyone else see alot of similarities between HOA's and unions in the descriptions in this thread?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Triumph
Anyone else see alot of similarities between HOA's and unions in the descriptions in this thread?

WHAT??


Unions protect the people in the union, HOAs attack the people in their own neighborhood.

That is comig form me a HR person that is NOT union and has to deal with the union as I am in the executive part of the Fed Gov. (State Dept)

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Exterous
I have only had one experience with a HOA and it wasn't a pleasant one

Where to begin... well they spend thousands of dollars to put in speed bumps that were too wide to be accommodating to emergency vehicles (long fire engines) and had to spend thousands of dollars taking them all out. They told my neighbor with a mint condition pink cadillac that no one wanted to see his 'junk car' and would have to store it else where (he garage was full and he used a car cover when it wasn't nice outside). All landscaping decisions larger than flowers or the addition of 2 bushes need to be approved. And we got letters constantly telling us we should have our drive way re-tarred every year to match everyone else's.

One way around it for us was to threaten them with legal action should they continue putting notices in our mailbox (IIRC it is illegal for anyone but the mailman to do so) and take down our newspaper box. The notices inevitable ended up on the door at which point we complained about people littering on our property which, as covered by the HOA, would result in a $100 fine per incident. The notices stopped

Now that's pretty great.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: Triumph
Anyone else see alot of similarities between HOA's and unions in the descriptions in this thread?

WHAT??


Unions protect the people in the union, HOAs attack the people in their own neighborhood.

That is comig form me a HR person that is NOT union and has to deal with the union as I am in the executive part of the Fed Gov. (State Dept)

Both are formed to protect something (property values or wages), in both you are forced to pay dues to receive benefits of dubious value, you may be forced to join against your will, and if you cross them they enact strong arm tactics to subvert you to their will. Both start off as a good idea and end up corrupt and out of control. I dunno, just thinking out loud here.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: XMan

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: xochi

My dues are 350 per year. They cover community pool, tennis courts, club house, landscaping common areas and entrance and various social activities which are actually quite fun.

Octoberfest/Halloween party coming up WHOOT!

my dues are 350 PER MONTH!

Good grief, that's almost half my mortgage . . .

I would never live in a neighborhood with an HOA . . . I've got two acres of grass, and it's all mine, baby. If I want a bonfire party in the backyard . . . no problem. Wanna burn some trash? No problem. Wanna shoot skeet? No sweat.

Good grief, that's more than my mortgage . . . And I too enjoy having the occasional bonfire. (I don't burn trash though, other than cardboard boxes/paper/all the pre-approved credit card crap, checks that I only need to cash to have a loan, etc.)

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Semidevil
do they do anything that actually benifiets you directly?

HOA's dont do anything that benifiets anyone

Well, in theory they keep property values up by preventing someone from doing something that creates an eyesore. For instance, I'd be ticked if I bought a nice house and then my neighbor started running car repair out of his garage, then started parking leaky cars all over his lawn. Or if the guy next to me builds a giant do-it-yourself shed out of left over plywood and sticks it in the middle of his yard. When people do stuff like this, it takes money out of your pocket.

I do agree though- the organized ones are awful. The lax hoa's (like we have) actually work pretty well.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Fritzo

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Semidevil
do they do anything that actually benifiets you directly?

HOA's dont do anything that benifiets anyone

Well, in theory they keep property values up by preventing someone from doing something that creates an eyesore. For instance, I'd be ticked if I bought a nice house and then my neighbor started running car repair out of his garage, then started parking leaky cars all over his lawn. Or if the guy next to me builds a giant do-it-yourself shed out of left over plywood and sticks it in the middle of his yard. When people do stuff like this, it takes money out of your pocket.

I do agree though- the organized ones are awful. The lax hoa's (like we have) actually work pretty well.

It's only money out of your pocket if you plan on selling immediately. I also think the affect is a little exaggerated. If your neighbor has an idiotic looking shed, but the rest of the neighborhood is nice, I really don't think it'll affect property values as much as most people think it would. Oh, and in the first case: car repair business out of the garage - that might be a code issue.