What first world problem did you have today?

[Red Squirrel]

I don't think you understand how condos can work. Also good luck finding fully detached homes in cities where many people want to live.

It's the only way to live in many desirable areas.

If I couldn't find a detached house and one that is not controlled by some kind of corporation (ex: HOA), that, by definition would make that area undesirable to live and I'd be looking at moving.

 

[Red Squirrel]

As I say, the whole system is a bit weird. Interesting that it also applies in Canada, because they also have the monarchy...

This Land Ain't Your Land (Part 1) - Highland Titles

The Queen, which we call ‘The Crown’, owns about one sixth of the planet’s surface, and is the largest legal land owner in the World. Of the 60 million acre

www.highlandtitles.com

Yeah "technically" you never really get to own land, and in most cities you're still subjected to bylaws, some of which can be pretty petty now days, but owning (at least what we typically call owning) is usually still better than the alternative. The best situation is unorganized townships then you don't even have a city telling you what to do, but such land is getting rarer now.

Actual crown land is different, and is basically public land. There's actually a lot that you're allowed to do on there for recreation or personal use, you can even camp there. In theory you could live off grid on crown land but you need to move your camp every 21 days and can't build any permanent structures.

Eminent Domain is something that blows hard though. It's basically a way for government or corporations to seize land that you actually paid for.

 

[MrSquished]

If I couldn't find a detached house and one that is not controlled by some kind of corporation (ex: HOA), that, by definition would make that area undesirable to live and I'd be looking at moving.

As I explained, condos here are generally not controlled by corporations, the units are owned by individual owners, who owe their individual lender for it until it is paid off, and the owners are collectively are responsible for the maintenance, and amenities, if any, of the building. I could care less if it is desirable to you. It's a fantastic way to own a place to live in in so many areas of this nation.

Yeah "technically" you never really get to own land, and in most cities you're still subjected to bylaws, some of which can be pretty petty now days, but owning (at least what we typically call owning) is usually still better than the alternative. The best situation is unorganized townships then you don't even have a city telling you what to do, but such land is getting rarer now.

Some zoning laws are good and some are bad. I like that the person next door to me can't open up a strip club or buy three lots and put up a 10 story building. On the other hand, strict single family zoning in many areas has caused many of the housing issues we have now in this country. Like anything, rules can be good and bad.

 

[Torn Mind]

Yeah "technically" you never really get to own land, and in most cities you're still subjected to bylaws, some of which can be pretty petty now days, but owning (at least what we typically call owning) is usually still better than the alternative. The best situation is unorganized townships then you don't even have a city telling you what to do, but such land is getting rarer now.

Actual crown land is different, and is basically public land. There's actually a lot that you're allowed to do on there for recreation or personal use, you can even camp there. In theory you could live off grid on crown land but you need to move your camp every 21 days and can't build any permanent structures.

Eminent Domain is something that blows hard though. It's basically a way for government or corporations to seize land that you actually paid for.

Well then, those concepts still exist in America, just that it is local county that is the ultimate "owner" of land in that failure to pay property tax grants the ability to foreclose the property.

The American federal government does not have control of the land for the most part.

Some locales have "ground rent", like certain properties in Baltimore, MD.

 

[BoomerD]

We don't have any "single residence HOA's" in this town, although the condo owners do have maintenance/management fees to pay...but what we DO have is a community club that, by an order of a US Bankruptcy Court decision, is mandatory for nearly everyone in town. IF your property has ever opted in, (about 95% of the town is "in" the club) it's in for perpetuity. (dues are only $152/year) Members get access to the clubhouse with a basketball court, pool/sauna, limited exercise equipment, a couple of outdoor pools, and several parks. (Anyone can use the parks, members or not) I don't mind having the opportunity to use the facilities, but I DO object to being forced to belong and pay for something we almost never use. We would opt OUT if we could.

 

[Torn Mind]

Yes talking about corporate owned buildings that are not rentals or corporate-owned suburban developments - is completely different than what people around here understand to be a condo.

The vast majority of condo buildings in this area are two to three units, then like four to six to eight units, and then downtown you have large buildings with hundred plus condos.

There are a few bigger buildings that have reputations for being very poorly managed but they are in the minority.

I mean if you can't afford a single-family home in an expensive and very desirable dense urban area, the condo is the best solution as we have it now. They're quite equitable.

People are very surprised sometimes when they want to buy into one of these two to three unit condo buildings that you tell them they're going to be in a condo association. They don't think that's possible with anything but a big building. But that's technically what you are. Two or more owners in one building that own your property and together are responsible for the common areas.

The condo association is generally your address as an LLC. This way the reserves and various functions like the master insurance are controlled by the LLC and not one of the two or more owners.

It is not that the corporation owns an individual unit, but rather the community units are part of a corporation, with all the logistics and power disparity of being a "individual shareholder" being subordinate to a Board of Directors and misconduct protected by a paywall into the legal system.

HOAs where I'm at are corporations proper, with the "INC" present, and they are filed as nonstock corporations in Maryland's state databases. Unit owners are essentially shareholders, there is a Board of Directors. There is a Declaration, bylaws.

The one HOA community where the roof issues are amended their bylaws to fine in the 90s but in the mid-2000s, they attempted to enforce an action against a homeowner who built up some retaining wall and wound up with a declaratory judgment that amending the bylaws to fine was not adequate or legal; the declaration had to have spelled out the ability to fine to grant that power.

 

[Torn Mind]

As I explained, condos here are generally not controlled by corporations, the units are owned by individual owners, who owe their individual lender for it until it is paid off, and the owners are collectively are responsible for the maintenance, and amenities, if any, of the building. I could care less if it is desirable to you. It's a fantastic way to own a place to live in in so many areas of this nation.

Condos should be cheaper than the rest of the market because they are more difficult to defend against in situations of legal misconduct. That they provide economic benefits does not remove the greater legal threat they pose to non-Board members.

 

[MrSquished]

Condos should be cheaper than the rest of the market because they are more difficult to defend against in situations of legal misconduct. That they provide economic benefits does not remove the greater legal threat they pose to non-Board members.

An HOA can be owned by a real estate developer/corporation. Yuck. Condos are not. Co-ops, mostly a new York thing, are like corporations, except the individual owners are buying the shares on the corporation, aka the building. It's not a corporate ownership the way we commonly use the word.

There's nothing inherently wrong with paying a monthly maintenance fee. I mean sometimes they are very high for various reasons. But if let's say 10 of us each had a condo in a building, which has an elevator, some backyard that shared, even a shared roof deck, or none of that but the roof and siding and the basement, hallways, these are all common areas that will require maintenance. So monthly maintenance fee to manage the financials by a third party and to keep reserves for future repairs such as replacing a roof, It's like splitting the responsibility of the exterior of a home divided by x amount of owners. If you have a doorman and you consciously buy into a doorman building, somebody's got to pay them. The monthly fee goes to that as well. More amenities the higher the fee.

When you buy into a building you will be aware of this. Sometimes buildings have major repairs that can deplete the reserves, then you'll have an assessment for x amount of years to pay.

Around here a lot of the pre wars have very high monthly maintenance fees even with few amenities. Every so many years they have to repoint the stone work outside and that's easily millions of dollars in a large building.

If you want to buy a unit inside a larger building someone has to be responsible for all the exterior and interior maintenance outside of every unit's walls. So you have to create some sort of monthly or yearly fee to take care of these things.

Certain rules can protect a building such as I mentioned before, 50% of units or more must be owner-occupied. One owner can only own x amount of units in one building. These things can prevent one person getting too much power or too many absentee owners abandoning their responsibilities.

 

[snoopy7548]

I have to go to work today.

 

[IronWing]

Yesterday, my wife encountered two adults who didn't know how seeds work. I don't mean the details, I mean they didn't know that seeds grow into new plants. I suspect this is a concept grasped by humans right after we came down from the trees and before we stopped flinging poop at each other.

 

[lxskllr]

I was talking to a Jamaican once, and he explained how they planted whole peppers to grow a pepper plant. The delivery was made in such a way that he seemed to expect astonishment from me. I'm thinking "Yea, that's about right" :^D

 

[Red Squirrel]

I saw an alarm on our generator and as I went to go check it outside I heard some zombie sound straight from Walking Dead and noticed it was coming from a woman walking all weirdly towards me. I decided I did not need to check the generator and proceeded right back inside.

Downtown at night be cray these days.

 

[pete6032]

So I bought a Nest smoke detector about a year ago. I recently moved and took the detector with me. I'm at my new place trying to set up the detector and it refuses to connect to the Nest app, even after factory reset and reinstalling the Nest app on my phone. Been on the phone with Google support for 90 mins doing the same troubleshooting crap I did before I called them. Finally at the point where they will send me a new device since it's under warranty. Will not be buying a Nest product again.

 

[MrSquished]

So I bought a Nest smoke detector about a year ago. I recently moved and took the detector with me. I'm at my new place trying to set up the detector and it refuses to connect to the Nest app, even after factory reset and reinstalling the Nest app on my phone. Been on the phone with Google support for 90 mins doing the same troubleshooting crap I did before I called them. Finally at the point where they will send me a new device since it's under warranty. Will not be buying a Nest product again.

Curious. What will you use next if it will be a smart thermostat?

I'm in the market for just a single one.

I need to be able to temporarily pause it when cooking certain dishes. I want to be notified when I'm not home if it goes off. And if it can alert the local authorities with certain settings if that's even possible.

 

[Pohemi]

My FWP of the month/year:

Been trying to get an insulin pump, and I'm getting the pass-the-buck runaround by both my doc's clinic and the durable medical equipment supplier a few states over.

Doc - "We faxed the paperwork, they should have everything they need, they'll be contacting you soon." ...don't get a call for 2 weeks, so I call the DME...
DME - "We need this other thing from Doc's office before we can proceed..." ...call Doc's office, they tell me they already sent it but they'll send it again...

When the DME finally contacts me for the final info they need, that'll open a whole other can of worms. Trying to get it covered by insurance, who will no doubt request a pre-authorization...at least thrice.

Woohoo, medical care in 'Murca.

 

[Captante]

When I update windows 11 I always hit the Windows key to open the start menu and then type "update." Then "check for updates" appears as a search result. Now when I do it, "check for updates" does not appear. In fact the only thing that appears is "uninstall updates." WTF.

Solution: Use Windows 10 for as long as possible.

 

[Pohemi]

Solution: Use Windows 10 for as long as possible.

+1
I always sandbag hard on Windows and stick with them long after newer versions release.

 

[Captante]

She's 87

So.... like 5 years older than you?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Just lost my VPN to my home network but I'm stuck at work so can't check why. I am hoping it's nothing bad, like a server failure or something but have no way to check. Hope it's just my internet. We got a fibre alarm that came in around that time so MAYBE it's related, but I doubt it, it's only a 10gig link and I would have had people call me by now if it was affecting anything serious.

So now I just sit and worry about what might be going on in my house for 3 hours and not be able to do anything about it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

That was quick. Fibre issue fixed and I can reconnect to my home network now. At least I know everything is good with my network, I was starting to worry it was something bad. I guess the fibre alarm was in fact related after all.

 

[sdifox]

Just lost my VPN to my home network but I'm stuck at work so can't check why. I am hoping it's nothing bad, like a server failure or something but have no way to check. Hope it's just my internet. We got a fibre alarm that came in around that time so MAYBE it's related, but I doubt it, it's only a 10gig link and I would have had people call me by now if it was affecting anything serious.

So now I just sit and worry about what might be going on in my house for 3 hours and not be able to do anything about it.

Your cat puked on your servers again?

 

[pete6032]

What is the answer to this captcha? 5 squares, 1 square, or 0 squares?

 

[sdifox]

Zero

 

[VirtualLarry]

one square? (moped?)

 

[sdifox]

one square? (moped?)

A moped is still not a bicycle.