I hate my HOA...another corrupt HOA

[OutHouse]

HOAs are just another layer of government( that people willingly pay to part of) like control with a free rein operate like a high school clique of the popular kids and bully everyone else.

FTFY

 

[John Connor]

HOAs are nothing more than a communist organization. They take your money and tell YOU what to do. That by definition is communism. I think HOAs should by federal law only be used in gated communities and nothing more. A lot of people hate their HOA, and with good reason. Here in my town there was a home owner that got in trouble from his HOA for having an American flag decoration on the outside of his yard. I think it was attached to his house. Then my sister where she lives has an HOA and they complained about a few weeds in the rocks out front. They cleaned it up and the HOA STILL! complained. My sister's landlord said if they continued he get his lawyer involved.

I can't tell you the countless asinine stories I've heard in the news about HOAs. And it's getting to the point where you practically can't find a decent house without an HOA anymore. All of your new subdivisions have them. It's truly pathetic. So to those that say you have a choice whether you live in a HOA or not are wrong. You almost can't find a nice home without one.

 

[highland145]

Oh, snap, shit just got real. John Conner showed up.

 

[lxskllr]

And it's getting to the point where you practically can't find a decent house without an HOA anymore. All of your new subdivisions have them. It's truly pathetic. So to those that say you have a choice whether you live in a HOA or not are wrong. You almost can't find a nice home without one.

There's a new subdivision near me that has a sign advertising new houses, and in huge letters, NO HOA

:^D

edit:
BTW, good to see you JC

 

[John Connor]

There's a new subdivision near me that has a sign advertising new houses, and in huge letters, NO HOA

WOW! I bet they sell like hot cakes!

 

[BudAshes]

I have a great HOA's suck story. My neighbor who is a young parent had her kid out in the driveway playing on her bigwheel. The garage door is open and the neighbor is drinking a glass of wine in the evening. She walks out in the driveway to grab her kid and big wheel while she is still holding the glass and this lady from the HOA takes a picture of her and reports her for drinking in her driveway. She then gets a letter from the HOA saying she will get fined if she repeats this offense.

The even better part is we aren't actually in the developed area of the HOA, we are on a public road on the edge of the community where we get 0 benefit from the HOA. So we get to pay into it and get nothing back outside of repeated letters saying we are going to get fined for ticky tack violations.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Curious, does your HOA board outsource the actual enforcement to a third party? Mine has for almost a decade. Last weekend I got a piece of mail from them with two actions. The first one was to accuse me of having dead bushes on my property and directing me to remove or replace them. They were not dead, but they were of a variety of tiny, wiry bush that flowers 3-4 a season and was between flowering--and immediately followed Irma coming through town (which knock down trees, etc.). Jeez. I accosted them in return for being blind. Then they complained about my garden hose, which is on a wheeled reel by the spigot on the front of the house and sitting on the drive way pavement by the garage door. Apparently garden hoses can no longer be seen from the street.

My neighbor said that if I am getting notices then she is running scared as I always have a nearly pristine property. But this is more to do with the outsource company and someone's menses than anything else.

 

[Riverhound777]

I think most of the HoA troubles come from the larger ones it seems. When you get enough people together, there is bound to be a few power hungry assholes in the bunch. I live in a 9 unit condo complex and our biggest problem is that nobody cares enough to participate. We have to ask people to be on the board, and to come to the meetings. At most we have 5 or 6 show up. I am the president because no one else wanted to be.

Things work out ok for the most part, though it's hard to get things done sometimes. Not many complaints, except when people are being dumb and leave crap around the shared area. But no one is going to complain about flags or decorations.

So I guess i'm saying HoAs aren't all that bad. I only pay $250/m and for that I don't have to deal with water, trash, landscaping, or building maintenance. Not a bad deal to me.

 

[AdamK47]

My condo HOA goes through a 3rd party. The problem with that is the condo association president is pals with the owner of the 3rd party company. It takes forever to get anything fixed on the outside of the property. I question where my HOA money is actually going. Luckily, my house does not have an HOA. Any house I buy in the future is most likely going to be HOA-less.

 

[MaxDepth]

Did not see if this person lives in a condo/apt or a house. Personally, I hate HOAs because they tend to supersede city and state laws with no assistance for the accused. We had issues with HOAs in our state near the army base because they HOA dues were not being paid and then they short sale'd the house on the courthouse steps as a way of paying off the debt. We now have a law in place to prevent that.

Basically, I want HOA's dismantled and left in the Nevada desert to die.

 

[whm1974]

Did not see if this person lives in a condo/apt or a house. Personally, I hate HOAs because they tend to supersede city and state laws with no assistance for the accused. We had issues with HOAs in our state near the army base because they HOA dues were not being paid and then they short sale'd the house on the courthouse steps as a way of paying off the debt. We now have a law in place to prevent that.

Basically, I want HOA's dismantled and left in the Nevada desert to die.

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea not to allow HOAs outright or at least put in some reasonable protections for people living under them.

 

[John Connor]

I have a great HOA's suck story. My neighbor who is a young parent had her kid out in the driveway playing on her bigwheel. The garage door is open and the neighbor is drinking a glass of wine in the evening. She walks out in the driveway to grab her kid and big wheel while she is still holding the glass and this lady from the HOA takes a picture of her and reports her for drinking in her driveway. She then gets a letter from the HOA saying she will get fined if she repeats this offense.

The even better part is we aren't actually in the developed area of the HOA, we are on a public road on the edge of the community where we get 0 benefit from the HOA. So we get to pay into it and get nothing back outside of repeated letters saying we are going to get fined for ticky tack violations.

That pisses me off and makes me want to seek the protection of the mafia. Straight up FUCK HOAs!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea not to allow HOAs outright or at least put in some reasonable protections for people living under them.

I think the only place I could MAYBE see them being valid is in condo complexes. Though their purpose should not be to dictate every little thing people do on their property, but rather to pay for communal things like roofing etc. But I think what happens is when they need more money they then start to come up with ridiculous rules so they can fine people.

For residential houses, there is absolutely no reason for HOAs, it's a completely stupid concept. The only "reason" which is a dumb one, is that it's people who want to keep the house value up by making all the houses in the area look cookie cutter and perfect. They see a house only as an investment, and not as a place to live.

 

[1sikbITCH]

i have to say that tonight's HOA meeting had me fuming. Two months ago the HOA president stepped down. The next meeting, which I did not attend, one of the new board members was removed for not being at the meeting in person. He was on the phone and several other board have done this in the past.

The last months HOA meeting was canceled since not enough board members could attend the meeting. We were down to 3.

Tonight just after the board meeting started the ex-president of the board asked to be reinstated as president. It was quickly nominated by one board member and seconded by another. The odd man out on the board protested and I also chimed in about it. Next month we are going to vote on new board members anyway what difference does it make if we vote for two or three. This year the president slot and the secretary slot are up and the then the ousted board member would also be open. Once the ex-president was voted to back onto the HOA board she asked another homeowner if he wanted to fill the spot the ousted board member. He agreed. The odd man out voted no and the other board members voted the homeowner on the board and he would be on it for the next year.

I hate my HOA.

Well you stuck your dick in the blender when you bought into that fascist bullshit. Can't really complain when they hit the grind button.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

My best friend had his house painted because his paint was getting old/faded. He it painted in the exact same color it already was. He got fined $2,000 for failing to get approval from the HOA before painting the house. That is some aggressive authoritarianism on display right there.

 

[BurnItDwn]

My best friend had his house painted because his paint was getting old/faded. He it painted in the exact same color it already was. He got fined $2,000 for failing to get approval from the HOA before painting the house. That is some aggressive authoritarianism on display right there.

Imagine the kind of fines he would have to pay if he painted it a different color!

 

[skull]

HOAs are nothing more than a communist organization. They take your money and tell YOU what to do. That by definition is communism. I think HOAs should by federal law only be used in gated communities and nothing more. A lot of people hate their HOA, and with good reason. Here in my town there was a home owner that got in trouble from his HOA for having an American flag decoration on the outside of his yard. I think it was attached to his house. Then my sister where she lives has an HOA and they complained about a few weeds in the rocks out front. They cleaned it up and the HOA STILL! complained. My sister's landlord said if they continued he get his lawyer involved.

I can't tell you the countless asinine stories I've heard in the news about HOAs. And it's getting to the point where you practically can't find a decent house without an HOA anymore. All of your new subdivisions have them. It's truly pathetic. So to those that say you have a choice whether you live in a HOA or not are wrong. You almost can't find a nice home without one.

HOAs are freaking terrible but if people like you would stop thinking they need one to have a nice house we wouldn't have them. I don't a need a nice pretty house with a lawn cut meticulously with scissors. Hell I barely even cut my grass, I compete with my next door neighbor on how long we can go til someone calls the cops. He always wins by default, the cop across the street comes and cuts his after a while. Anyway if you want a nice house make a nice house you don't have to buy in an HOA, no body is making you so go by a house in a non HOA neighborhood and make it pretty if thats your thing.

 

[destrekor]

My condo HOA goes through a 3rd party. The problem with that is the condo association president is pals with the owner of the 3rd party company. It takes forever to get anything fixed on the outside of the property. I question where my HOA money is actually going. Luckily, my house does not have an HOA. Any house I buy in the future is most likely going to be HOA-less.

I moved into an HOA of sorts, technically a Condo association (townhouse-style condo community). I'd prefer to do without them, but I couldn't pass up buying at the price I did: $40k, and this is actually a beautiful and quiet part of town in a township on the edge of the city, and the place is in great shape, just a little outdated (40+ year old AC and electric furnace - to be replaced soon*, aka who knows when, with a heat pump + aux electric heat + modern blower - excited for that, but not the $6000+ up front for it).

But for what it's worth, they are actually more useful than an HOA. The condo association is responsible for basically everything exterior, like the exterior structure, roof, common walls, as well as all common grounds, driveway/parking spots, sidewalks, and lawn (they shovel/plow, and also mow and whatnot). But we have our own patios (that is fully ours) and the area in front of the home to use for planting/decoration.

Gotta say though, it's been interesting. They've always had management handled by a third party, but after a long-standing developer group one got out of the market and went commercial-only, the next company they went with started off promising. But it's utter shit, and we're pretty sure ripped us off. And the last board president seemed incompetent and basically let it all happen. My very first full homeowners meeting, everyone voted to fire the management company and essentially had a vote of no confidence to get rid of the then current board. We established a new one and the first vote was to go the self-management route instead. I was convinced to give it a go as was the majority present (we had been talking about it for a few months at that point). That was wild lol. But things have been better since we went that route, they've saved a ton of money by finding cheaper and better contracts, and there is a lot planned to boost the value of the property. A few of the older owners, some who have been either since the beginning or otherwise a long time, are looking at the current sale prices versus what they paid (likely far more than current worth for the vast majority), and finally realizing that not doing anything for so long isn't helping matters.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I think most of the HoA troubles come from the larger ones it seems. When you get enough people together, there is bound to be a few power hungry assholes in the bunch. I live in a 9 unit condo complex and our biggest problem is that nobody cares enough to participate. We have to ask people to be on the board, and to come to the meetings. At most we have 5 or 6 show up. I am the president because no one else wanted to be.

Enjoy that while it lasts. Eventually someone is going to move in that wants to be president and that's the person that cannot be allowed to be president. And that's the problem with HOAs of any size. It just takes longer in smaller ones to get the kind of turnover necessary for the turds to float to the top of the bowl. Somewhere down the road a new person the neighborhood is going to say "hey, you've dealt with this crap for a while now, I'll take a turn" and you'll be screwed.

 

[highland145]

HOAs are freaking terrible but if people like you would stop thinking they need one to have a nice house we wouldn't have them. I don't a need a nice pretty house with a lawn cut meticulously with scissors. Hell I barely even cut my grass, I compete with my next door neighbor on how long we can go til someone calls the cops. He always wins by default, the cop across the street comes and cuts his after a while. Anyway if you want a nice house make a nice house you don't have to buy in an HOA, no body is making you so go by a house in a non HOA neighborhood and make it pretty if thats your thing.

This is why we have HOAs and @BoomerD...but he's gotten a bit long in the tooth and shirked his doodies. Well, maybe not but he's not wiping.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

Enjoy that while it lasts. Eventually someone is going to move in that wants to be president and that's the person that cannot be allowed to be president. And that's the problem with HOAs of any size. It just takes longer in smaller ones to get the kind of turnover necessary for the turds to float to the top of the bowl. Somewhere down the road a new person the neighborhood is going to say "hey, you've dealt with this crap for a while now, I'll take a turn" and you'll be screwed.

THIS is the money quote right here. I've always thought the exact same thing. If someone wants to do it then they are probably the asshole and they must be disallowed.

 

[John Connor]

Imagine the kind of fines he would have to pay if he painted it a different color!

"Purple rain, purple rain...♫♪♫♪♫♪"

 

[John Connor]

but if people like you would stop thinking they need one to have a nice house we wouldn't have them.

What?! Why are you putting words in my mouth? I never said I supported HOAs at all! Didn't the overall context of my post convey I hated the fuckitry that is HOAs?