Please tell me your experiences with Home Owner's Associations

[NFS4]

I was talking to my GF on the phone last night and she said that the HOA sent her dad a warning letter in the mail saying that they would fine him $20 if he left his trash can (the big black one one wheels that the automated trash truck lifts up and dumps) out in front of the house again. WTF? Her dad was doing work at home that day and didn't get around to taking the trash can around to the side of the house until the next morning. He had a letter in the mailbox the next day.

BTW, I'd say that the neighborhood they live in has $200-300k homes. Regardless, I just don't like the idea of being told what and what I can't do in my own home. She said that the "rules book" is about 3 inches thick on things you can and cannot do.

If I were her dad, I would have sent them a nice letter saying "%&$ off"

 

[gopunk]

he agreed to live by their rules when he purchased the house... so he made the choice of being what he can or can't do...

that said, how often do they impose the fine? if it's just a one-time thing he can just pay it and then just leave the trash can out there

 

[iamwiz82]

I refuse to even look at houses in subdivisions.

 

[DorkBoy]

In my neighborhood we can only leave the trash cans out after 7PM the night before trash day and remove it from the round by 7PM the day of trash day, so it can be out no more than 24 hours. Fines can be applied and liens placed on homes if home owners do not pay fines.
Maybe it strict but living in a nice clean neighborhood is nice to the value of your home.
I don't want to see cars parked in the street, boats or campers in drive ways,........

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: gopunk
he agreed to live by their rules when he purchased the house... so he made the choice of being what he can or can't do...

that said, how often do they impose the fine? if it's just a one-time thing he can just pay it and then just leave the trash can out there

Hey, I can understand if he was shooting squirrels out of trees from his front porch or if he had a dirty-a$$, rusting Pinto sitting on his front lawn, but to be sent a letter b/c a trash can was left sitting in his driveway for 24 hours seems a bit much.

 

[Pepsei]

I put up a shed/storage room and it turned out that we're not allow to have metal storage room as well as ones that have different color than your house.

They wanted me to take it down.

I had to appeal that at the home owner's associations meeting. I turn in the paper work and since they didn't have time to bring that up at the meeting within 60 days, I get to keep my storage room. I was even willing to go as far as painting my storage room to the same color as my house.

 

[slick230]

Originally posted by: NFS4

Originally posted by: gopunk
he agreed to live by their rules when he purchased the house... so he made the choice of being what he can or can't do...

that said, how often do they impose the fine? if it's just a one-time thing he can just pay it and then just leave the trash can out there

Hey, I can understand if he was shooting squirrels out of trees from his front porch or if he had a dirty-a$$, rusting Pinto sitting on his front lawn, but to be sent a letter b/c a trash can was left sitting in his driveway for 24 hours seems a bit much.

Rules are rules. What don't you understand? He chose to buy his house in a nice community with cookie cutter homes and manicured lawns. The association wants to keep the place looking nice, and as a result they have bylaws and a nice thick book with regulations. If he didn't want to live by THEIR rules, he should have bought a house somewhere else. He has nothing to complain about, and neither do you. STFU.

 

[IGBT]

...and they won't let you put up antennas..flag poles..diffrent color blinds or window shades..or work on your car in the driveway..clothesline in the backyard..CC&R's should be illegal and a violation of property rights..some places won't even let you have a BBQ in the back yard..they want the place graveyard dead..

 

[allisolm]

I live in a subdivision with covenants and restrictions. Thank goodness none of them are as quite as anal as getting fined for leaving the trash can out overnight, but they do exist and you do have to follow them or - depending on which rules get broken and how unwilling you are to remedy the situation - the association can fix the problem and bill you for the cost, they can slap a lien on your house, they can take you to court. The going to court thing is a last resort, but the association has never lost in court because the rules are in a book that you get before you buy and agree to when you buy. If you don't wish to follow them, you don't have to buy. We don't allow freestanding sheds or any other outbuildings; all structural modifications have to be approved by the architectural committee; fences that face the street can't be chain link; no fences can be over 6 feet and all fences must be approved before erecting them; no motorcycles are allowed; boats and RVs have to be parked behind the house and not in the driveway. Those are some that I can remember off the top of my head.

Sending them a letter saying %&$ off would probably not be a wise idea for him. He agreed to the restrictions so he might want to study up on them in case there are some other ones just laying in wait for him.

People who "don't like the idea of being told what and what I can't do in my own home" should consider buying in an area that doesn't have the rules police.

 

[slick230]

Originally posted by: IGBT
...and they won't let you put up antennas..flag poles..diffrent color blinds or window shades..or work on your car in the driveway..clothesline in the backyard..CC&R's should be illegal and a violation of property rights..some places won't even let you have a BBQ in the back yard..they want the place graveyard dead..

You don't have to live there. Simple solution. Go live somewhere else where you can leave broken kid's toys all over the front lawn, a broken down car in the driveway leaking fluids all over, garbage cans knocked over and rolling around in the street, etc. if you don't like the rulse, you don't have to live there. Got it? No on puts a gun to your head and forces you to buy a house in any particular area. And these bylaws or CC&R's don't get sprung on you 9 months after you move in. They are clearly defined and you are made aware of them during the buying process. So everyone who want's to cry about this, can STFU. Bunch of goddamned whiney morons in here. :|

 

[Bulk Beef]

My HOA had MY pickup truck (a clean Mazda B2000) towed from MY driveway. I responded by borrowing a friend's '77 Econoline that had been painted flat black with a roller, and had holes in the body patched with roofing tar. The van was perfectly within the rules. Unfortunately, the people I really started offending were my immediate neighbors, which wasn't my intention, so I bailed on the van idea.

They have since changed the rule to allow pickups IF you have a cap, but the cap must follow the contours of the cab, and it has to be color-matched. Pretty asinine.

You can try going to court over this stuff, but you'll probably lose.

 

[Uppsala9496]

HOA's are a joke.
Some towns however have trash laws. The one I live in has a law about when you can take your trash out (a suburban chicago town). It keeps racoons from making a mess of things.

 

[NascarFool]

Originally posted by: sward666
My HOA had MY pickup truck (a clean Mazda B2000) towed from MY driveway. I responded by borrowing a friend's '77 Econoline that had been painted flat black with a roller, and had holes in the body patched with roofing tar. The van was perfectly within the rules. Unfortunately, the people I really started offending were my immediate neighbors, which wasn't my intention, so I bailed on the van idea.
They have since changed the rule to allow pickups IF you have a cap, but the cap must follow the contours of the cab, and it has to be color-matched. Pretty asinine.
You can try going to court over this stuff, but you'll probably lose.

That is wrong. HOA's piss me off. I drive a 2001 Ford van with a company name & logo on it. The HOA does not allow you to park a vehicle like that in your driveway or on the street.

 

[loup garou]

I would never live in that suburban hell, but hey, that's what he wants, he has to live by their rules. It sucks.

 

[DeadByDawn]

Things like this are why I built my house out in the woods. Sure I don't have broadband access yet, but I can do what I want with my house & land, and I can't see my nearest neighbor.

 

[Red]

I would agree that you really need to think about moving into one of these neighborhoods before you actually do. It's an extremely, non-programmable decision that will require a lot of thought because of HOAs. My fiancees family moved from a neighborhood to the country because they were sick of their neighbors bad habits (unkept yards / trash in yards / late night partying / disregard for other neighbors) so they made the easy to decision to move out to the country.

Now, after 7 or 8 years they are moving back to a neighborhood, but they are looking for strict HOA neighborhoods that have to do with keeping things clean (no cars on the streets, etc).

 

[TheGameIs21]

I think that people that move into these types of neighborhoods and don't read the rules are crazy!! I don't think that the HOA's are stupid but I choose to not live in one.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Things like this are why I built my house out in the woods. Sure I don't have broadband access yet, but I can do what I want with my house & land, and I can't see my nearest neighbor.

That's exactly what I want.

Actually what I really want is a couple thousand acres out in the middle of Montana or Wyoming. I'll build my house in the center, make it accessible only by helicopter, & dig a trench all the way around with a 1000 yard diameter. Post signs around it saying "If you can read this sign, I can touch you." .50 BMG on the roof makes good on that promise. Oh, a decom missile silo would be a bonus too.

Viper GTS

 

[Thegonagle]

I can understand some rules, but that no pick-ups one is super lame. Why the hell shouldn't I have a pick-up, especially if it's kept clean and rust-free? (What should I tow a boat with, a freaking Chrysler Town and Country? Oh, I get it, I'm supposed to buy an overpriced full-size SUV that I don't want, or at least make my truck look like an SUV by putting a stupid topper on it. Yeah, really makes sense to me!)

And no BBQs? Well, I sure as hell couldn't live in a 'hood where I wasn't allowed to fire up some charcoal in my own back yard. I love BBQing. When I lived in my 1st floor apt. and my townhouse, they had patios, and I was firing up coals a few times per week in the summers. Since I moved into my 3rd floor apt., I've missed my BBQ a lot, and I will be firing up the grill when I finally buy my house.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

My dad's a president of our local home owners association. Once someone asked for the CnR's and the reply was: "I don't know, I guess anything is okay as long as it isn't fugly". All they do is maintain the roads. Anal HOAs suck.

The other extreme:
There's a set of town houses near my work:
You cannot park in the driveway.
You cannot park in the street.
Your garage door cannot stay open for more than two minutes.
You must keep your blinds down.
You cannot change your blinds.
The entire place looks like it's deserted because the rules basically forbid activity.

Another place near my home:
All 3-5 acre lots.
The ONLY fencing allowed is white plank fences.
Any carpentry type stuff must be in an enclosed garage. (no projects like making a shed)
There was a long list of stupidly anal rules that I was told about, it was basically a yuppie community that honestly wanted to shoot all the deer because they ate thier roses.

 

[Bulk Beef]

I should also add that when I had a neighbor (fvcking renters) that had a habit of pissing off his porch in broad daylight, the HOA wasn't interested.

They've also hired a security contractor, ostensibly for security, but they seem to spend most of their time slapping big orange stickers on residents' cars.

 

[allisolm]

I should also add that when I had a neighbor (fvcking renters) that had a habit of pissing off his porch in broad daylight, the HOA wasn't interested.

I guess there wasn't a rule against that.

 

[JEDI]

install a satallite dish on your front porch in full view. hoa's can't stop you. federal law allows you to put up a dish anywhere on your property as long as it doesnt break the roof line

 

[TGregg]

A lot of HOA rules are obnoxious. But the main problem (at least with my HOA) is that about 80% of folks do nothing to improve the HOA. They just sit back, let the 20% of the folks do 100% of the work, then whine like the lazy people they are if something doesn't go their way. They can't even be bothered to walk down to the end of the street once a year for a couple hours for the annual meeting. But then they see somebody with a lot of toys in their yard, and call up the HOA to b!tch. And we get plenty of people complaining about trash cans being left out front - even though there are no rules concerning them.

So the real problem is that people are idiots. We recently had our HOA get approval from a majority of members to spend a relatively large amount of money (we're a tiny sub) because we had it saved up, so "it didn't really cost us anything." I swear to God I am not making any of this up.

You get what you deserve, IMO. HOA rules are amendable, but it takes more than one phone call. If you want to make your HOA better, get involved. Experience has shown however, that most people would rather whine about their HOA than actually do anything about it.

 

[DeadByDawn]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: DeadByDawn
Things like this are why I built my house out in the woods. Sure I don't have broadband access yet, but I can do what I want with my house & land, and I can't see my nearest neighbor.

That's exactly what I want.

Actually what I really want is a couple thousand acres out in the middle of Montana or Wyoming. I'll build my house in the center, make it accessible only by helicopter, & dig a trench all the way around with a 1000 yard diameter. Post signs around it saying "If you can read this sign, I can touch you." .50 BMG on the roof makes good on that promise. Oh, a decom missile silo would be a bonus too.

Viper GTS

That's what I wanted, but due to a limitation of funds I had to settle for 6.5 acres minus the trench, missle silo, and the machine gun.