HOAs

[SnuggleBuggles]

Do you have a crazy HOA? Or a crazy HOA story? I got sucked into https://www.georgetakei.com/craziest-rules-home-owners-association-2650603256.html?fbclid=IwAR114VFE6jx8JutxKAXglI5pX jwORsYxQ_CntJAKSKIeiNpZWXdmIIPCdV8
And can’t believe people put up with HOAs. I briefly lived in a subdivision with an HOA and got one fine for our grass being too long (the week ds1 was born). Otherwise it wasn’t awful. But, we have not lived with an HOA since (and never will) and I can assure you that my neighbors take fine care of their property without bylaws. We do have municipal rules that certainly help but they just aren’t absurd power reaches like the link above. I really do love these tales from power trippers so I’d love to hear more experiences or if you live somewhere that has some elaborate rules.

Eta- I have never lived somewhere that the borough or township wasn’t responsible for things like plowing. Subdivisions aren’t self maintained so that’s a foreign concept to me. :) I understand some HOAs have amenities that people pay for (pool...).

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[georgiegirl]

We have a HOA, but there aren’t any crazy rules. Our neighborhood is private, so our HOA fees go to snow removal, trash/recycling, road upkeep, etc. Everyone can pretty much do whatever they want to their property (within reason).

My mom’s HOA wouldn’t let them put political signs out front...only from their windows.


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[KrisM]

We have an HOA. Our old house, 2 miles from here, did not. We chose and HOA for some specific reasons. They contract to have or roads plowed. The old sub is done by the county, so generally 2-3 days after it snows and only if it's a big snow. That was the biggest reason.

We do have some rules, like no sheds and fences. I don't really care either way in general about those, so it's fine. We don't have much that is too crazy, I don't think. I did read the by-laws before we bought, just to be sure. I'd have to check, but I don't think we have any rules on grass height.

[smilequeen]

The only bad HOA we had was with our starter house. They had crazy stupid rules and busy bodies walking around making sure your grass wasn’t a cm too long and god forbid your dog have a doghouse. After that, no issues. Our very high end current neighborhood is super chill. We need an HOA as we are responsible for road upkeep, snow removal, etc. I am the treasurer right now and my biggest issue is reminding the snowbirds to send their checks from Florida. They don’t mind, they just forget.

[echoesofspring]

our first house was supposed to have an HOA, but it was never set up by the developer as stipulated in the bylaws. So everyone got this book of 'rules' but no org to enforce them. Which was fine with us until we had a neighbor across the street who put a metal fence up facing the street. The kind you would have vines wind up, etc. We didn't have any objections to it, it didn't necessary 'match' the construction but was quite lovely and he had gotten city approval, told us what he planned on doing, got permits did everything on the up and up. But then some jerk way down the street (a good block away not a nearby neighbor!) decided that it didn't meet the HOA rules and took it on himself to harass the neighbor sending certified letters on behalf of the HOA. It really was a mean spirited situation and I felt so bad for the neighbor, they lived in the bay area during the week and had purchased the house with their daughter as a future retirement home so then instead of coming down for a relaxing weekend felt like they were being targeted. They also were immigrants and didn't always understand what was happending so we spent a lot of time commiserating with them, explaining this guy had no standing as an 'enforcer' of the HOA - b/c the HOA didn't exist! but that we'd support them if anything ever came out of it. Eventually the neighbors sold and moved which I hated to see. The thing is, you could walk down the street and find violations almost anywhere - basketball hoop in the street, RVs parked semi- permanently in front of houses, the rules were broad and it was easy to break them. I always wondered if that person harassed everyone.

Editting to add: I wrote 'mean spirited' vs. 'rascist' above b/c the neighbors in question were white and not people of color, I want to clarify that. That being said, I never knew how the neighbors got on the enforcer's radar so I can't say for certain that it wasn't discriminatory, but at the time it did feel like punitive 'everyone must follow the rules' behavior vs. a personal attack. Although now, 20 years later as I'm revisiting the situation I'm wondering if that really was the case.

[JustMe]

I owned a townhouse before my current house. It was a different situation in that those townhouses were built to help low-income people buy their first house. As an aside, I did not buy under their program for low income people as I wasn't an original owner and bought from someone else who benefited from that program, although I probably would have qualified. Anyway, the HOA is a large part of why I ended up moving from there. It's not so much that there were crazy rose, but more like the opposite. We only had nine townhomes total so that HOA was all of us. A majority did not want to have any dues, or very low dues, so there was no savings for repairs and maintenance that would need to be done for common or shared areas. There were three groups of three attached buildings, if that makes sense, and I worried what would happen with time as things started to need the maintenance or repair.

[mmsmom]

I have lived with and without. We currently live in a large country club neighborhood with about 800 homes. The HOA is important in this neighborhood and there are some crazy rules but we have not had any issues. Mailboxes are painted a combination of 2 paints and they can only be bought at one hardware store. Thankfully our mailbox is in good shape so we shouldn’t have to deal with it. But the HOA also just built a new neighborhood park and dog park and generally keeps the community looking nice.

In a previous much smaller neighborhood there was an issue with a neighbor who put a very large cement fountain in their front yard and did not get approval. It was so out of place and looked extremely tacky. It was a huge issue after the fact to get the neighbor to remove it. A lot of back and forth and attorney fees... we moved before it was resolved.

When we lived without an HOA there were a lot of township ordinances that covered a lot of what an HOA would.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I have lived with and without. We currently live in a large country club neighborhood with about 800 homes. The HOA is important in this neighborhood and there are some crazy rules but we have not had any issues. Mailboxes are painted a combination of 2 paints and they can only be bought at one hardware store. Thankfully our mailbox is in good shape so we shouldn’t have to deal with it. But the HOA also just built a new neighborhood park and dog park and generally keeps the community looking nice.

In a previous much smaller neighborhood there was an issue with a neighbor who put a very large cement fountain in their front yard and did not get approval. It was so out of place and looked extremely tacky. It was a huge issue after the fact to get the neighbor to remove it. A lot of back and forth and attorney fees... we moved before it was resolved.

When we lived without an HOA there were a lot of township ordinances that covered a lot of what an HOA would.

I say rock on with the fountain! Not my style but matcy matchy isn’t either. I like when neighborhoods evolve and what was a bland subdivision gets some personality. :)


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[MSWR0319]

our first house was supposed to have an HOA, but it was never set up by the developer as stipulated in the bylaws. So everyone got this book of 'rules' but no org to enforce them. Which was fine with us until we had a neighbor across the street who put a metal fence up facing the street. The kind you would have vines wind up, etc. We didn't have any objections to it, it didn't necessary 'match' the construction but was quite lovely and he had gotten city approval, told us what he planned on doing, got permits did everything on the up and up. But then some jerk way down the street (a good block away not a nearby neighbor!) decided that it didn't meet the HOA rules and took it on himself to harass the neighbor sending certified letters on behalf of the HOA. It really was a mean spirited situation and I felt so bad for the neighbor, they lived in the bay area during the week and had purchased the house with their daughter as a future retirement home so then instead of coming down for a relaxing weekend felt like they were being targeted. They also were immigrants and didn't always understand what was happending so we spent a lot of time commiserating with them, explaining this guy had no standing as an 'enforcer' of the HOA - b/c the HOA didn't exist! but that we'd support them if anything ever came out of it. Eventually the neighbors sold and moved which I hated to see. The thing is, you could walk down the street and find violations almost anywhere - basketball hoop in the street, RVs parked semi- permanently in front of houses, the rules were broad and it was easy to break them. I always wondered if that person harassed everyone.

Editting to add: I wrote 'mean spirited' vs. 'rascist' above b/c the neighbors in question were white and not people of color, I want to clarify that. That being said, I never knew how the neighbors got on the enforcer's radar so I can't say for certain that it wasn't discriminatory, but at the time it did feel like punitive 'everyone must follow the rules' behavior vs. a personal attack. Although now, 20 years later as I'm revisiting the situation I'm wondering if that really was the case.

This sounds like our neighborhood. We have by-laws but nothing to enforce them and no fee. There are about 15-20 houses in a U shaped road that it covers. It doesn't cover the since added on to street that comes off the U. There is one lady who tries to enforce everything. I don't mind the stuff that says no RV's in your driveway, etc but things like no portable basektball hoops I see as nitpicking. We live in a nice neighborhood and a basketball hoop in your driveway is better than kids running down the street. The fence rule is 4' or less and my friend put up one 6' right across the street from the neighbor who thinks she's the boss. The lawyer told my friends there was nothing that could be done because there wasn't anything to enforce these rules. We just got a letter from the enforcer because someone put a shed in their back yard (which isn't allowed) and she wants to have a meeting. I mean, I don't particularly like the look of that specific shed, but we'd like to have a shed too so I don't know.

[petesgirl]

We have an HOA and it hasn't been too bad. We did go through a period of time when it seemed like they were nitpicky about things like front lawn length and landscaping. We also got fined once for having a dead spot on our front lawn. My DH complained that it was because the landscapers kept driving over that corner of our lawn and they let us off the hook.

The silliest 'rule' to me has to do with our noise ordinance. Quiet hours for humans are supposedly from 10:30 pm - 6 am but Quiet hours for animals are 10:30-5 am. Quiet hours are just times they don't want people hanging out in the public areas...but I guess it's fine for pets (who are also required to be on leash) to be out and about earlier than their humans.

[niccig]

No HOA but a nosy neighbor that drives around the neighborhood with a notebook to report people to the city.

Our decorative split rail fence partially fell down and was a covered by bushes so it couldn’t be seen. Our yard is heavily landscaped like a cottage garden. He was really rude to me about it. The neighbors that live opposite didn’t care about it, they told me “it’s not like you have ugly flamingoes”. It was nearly Christmas and and I saw Santa/reindeer flamingoes on stakes, so we put them right by the fence. Neighbors loved it, so they added some flamingoes too. We now have flock of 8 flamingoes - some are solar and light up, others the wings move with the wind. Turns out the little kids in the neighborhood love the birds and stop by when out walking. A couple parents told us they turn the corner and the kids will call out “the pink birdies!!!”

The fence stayed up for 6 months after the rude conversation from the nosy neighbor. The flamingoes are going on 2 years now


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[SnuggleBuggles]

No HOA but a nosy neighbor that drives around the neighborhood with a notebook to report people to the city.

Our decorative split rail fence partially fell down and was a covered by bushes so it couldn’t be seen. Our yard is heavily landscaped like a cottage garden. He was really rude to me about it. The neighbors that live opposite didn’t care about it, they told me “it’s not like you have ugly flamingoes”. It was nearly Christmas and and I saw Santa/reindeer flamingoes on stakes, so we put them right by the fence. Neighbors loved it, so they added some flamingoes too. We now have flock of 8 flamingoes - some are solar and light up, others the wings move with the wind. Turns out the little kids in the neighborhood love the birds and stop by when out walking. A couple parents told us they turn the corner and the kids will call out “the pink birdies!!!”

The fence stayed up for 6 months after the rude conversation from the nosy neighbor. The flamingoes are going on 2 years now


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Sorry about the nosy neighbor and fence issue but **love** the flamingos! How fun!

[doberbrat]

.... I saw Santa/reindeer flamingoes on stakes, so we put them right by the fence. Neighbors loved it, so they added some flamingoes too. We now have flock of 8 flamingoes - some are solar and light up, others the wings move with the wind. Turns out the little kids in the neighborhood love the birds and stop by when out walking. A couple parents told us they turn the corner and the kids will call out “the pink birdies!!!”

The fence stayed up for 6 months after the rude conversation from the nosy neighbor. The flamingoes are going on 2 years now
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I would LOVE to see a pic of the reindeer flamingos!

[Dayzy]

I live in a TH/condo community and I'm so happy to be moving next week. For the most part the board is pretty relaxed as long as nobody does any serious damage. But rules are rules and if someone complains... Well, on neighbor had a small sign outside their door that says "Hate has no home here." and the neighborhood busybody went to the board to complain that it violates the decorations clause by being a political sign. We also have a rule of "no organized sports in the common areas" so she complains whenever the kids are outside playing catch or kicking a ball back and forth. She claims that if they make a plan to play ball, then it is organized.

[niccig]

I would LOVE to see a pic of the reindeer flamingos!

Here they are on Amazon Pink Inc. SR2 SantaMingo ReinMingo Pair https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00480MZRY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_NPNDQ77EM0SXSFX4ATNN

I also got 2 extra reindeer. We take off the Santa outfit after Christmas, but the flamingoes stay up year round

We also have a light up flamingo and blow up flamingo for Christmas decorations.

The neighbors who are in on the original joke love it. They put out similar decorations for Christmas



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[niccig]

Sorry about the nosy neighbor and fence issue but **love** the flamingos! How fun!

We had planned to take down the fence but DH refused after the neighbor was so rude about it. The railings were on ground but not visible from road (lots of plants between road and the fence) so you could only see if walked on to our property and uncovered the jasmine growing there.

The flamingoes have become part of the neighborhood walk - we had no idea until Covid hit and we were home more. Several families stop by most days for their toddlers to visit the pink birdies.
We can’t remove them now

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[AngB]

We have an HOA with mixed results. I think the problems are really from certain people and not the HOA overall. We have a subdivision pool and they have tried to have a bs rule when certain childless people get on the board that families over 4 people have to pay an extra $10 / per person for extra pool passes to get into the pool. I have done some google searches and think it's probably illegal since we all pay HOA dues for the pool but they think no one is going to sue them over $10. (They think because I'm fed up with it and if they try it again this year I'll probably talk to my cousin's husband who is a real estate attorney and probably pay him to write a letter at least.) They have tried illegal things in the past (ie. "adult swim day" where no kids were allowed at the pool for an entire day a week, through the whole summer, when the pool was otherwise open. There was enough of an uproar over that one that they talked to a lawyer and backed down quickly.) And our pool is a kid pool with max depth of 5 ft, a big play climber in the center of it, and no lap area. And then they waste our dues to pay someone to sit and babysit the pool the entire day (ie. play on their phones/read a book/hog the shaded overhang area) because they can't figure out how to pay someone to just open and close the pool without sitting there all day. They recently were sued and lost over trying to not allow someone to rent out their house.
There aren't penalties for breaking the rules in most cases so they don't bother to enforce much unless it's pretty bad. There is a small section of 'carefree villas' in our subdivision that are mostly older couples without kids so that tends to cause a lot of issues (they are the ones who want to pay less HOA fees because they don't have kids, have an adult swim day, etc.)

[carolinacool]

We are still in our first house, which we bought over 13 years ago. I think our HOA is fine. It was definitely more picky the first three or four years we were here. I can remember a guy walking around making sure everyone’s mailbox post was the approved color. And you can only have one style of mailbox that you can either buy through the HOA or apparently get at Lowe’s, I recently learned.

I found them to be really helpful the first four or five years we were here. Shortly after we moved in, the really nice folks behind us who have been renting the house moved out. But the owner didn’t resume lawn care. After the grass got almost 8 or 9 inches tall, DH call the HOA and within a few days it was cut. And when the woman who owned the house across street from us moved out, she brought her trash and recycling bins to the curb, along with just a lot of other junk. Our trash collectors are really specific in what they will and will not pick up. So they dumped the trashcan, but the other stuff just blew around in her yard for almost 3 weeks. I couldn’t believe she never came back even just to move the cans back up to the garage. I called the HOA, and they sent some folks to throw some of the extra stuff in the trashcan. When the city came back the next trash day, they dumped that can again but left some stuff on the curb. The HOA finally just came and picked up everything that was left and moved the cans back.

If anything, there are some complaints that the HOA isn’t doing enough. We live in a huge subdivision (1,500 homes) that’s roughly 20 to 25 years old. We’re pretty middle class except for a few upscale neighborhoods. Certain neighborhoods (not mine) tend to have a fair number of renters, and I guess there have been issues with renter behavior and/or owners failing to keep up the properties. Outside of the two incidents I described above, we fortunately haven’t had any of that sort of behavior in the streets around us.

The only other things that come to mind is that we aren’t allowed to have trampolines and I don’t think we can have above the ground pools.

[DualvansMommy]

We used to live in a condo when I got engaged and lived with him for 4 years. The HOA was just run of the mil standard rules like no trash to the curb but to the communal trash bins instead, have to shovel snow from your car within 24 hours of snow and your sidewalk.

We moved cuz we outgrew our space and the market was right time to get into a house. But I remember the HOA fees were outrageous though! It was almost 300 a month 13 years ago, which is a lot of money. We also kept thinking we couldn’t afford 10K property taxes then until we did the math between paying our condo taxes and HOA monthly fees. We were only couple of hundreds away from 10K a year! That just convinced us to move!


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[JBaxter]

I have zombie flamingos for Halloween lol if you want to keep the trend going

Here they are on Amazon Pink Inc. SR2 SantaMingo ReinMingo Pair https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00480MZRY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_NPNDQ77EM0SXSFX4ATNN

I also got 2 extra reindeer. We take off the Santa outfit after Christmas, but the flamingoes stay up year round

We also have a light up flamingo and blow up flamingo for Christmas decorations.

The neighbors who are in on the original joke love it. They put out similar decorations for Christmas



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[klwa]

I've never lived in an HOA, but there's one place nearby that has one and the drama that occurs on Facebook and Next Door because of overzealous HOA staff there is hilarious as a bystander. Apparently, no play equipment (so swing sets, etc.) should be seen from the front of the house. So multiple people got fined for having a play set in their back yard, but set to one side of the back yard. There's two separate sections of the subdivision, one by "the lake" and one on "the golf course", and there's all sorts of drama at the fact that golf course people aren't supposed to use certain amenities even though all the dues are the same. The lake side is gated, with only one entrance/exit, and the people who live at the backside of the lake want the emergency gate opened but still gated (RFID) but the people up front think that's a waste of money, etc. Fun times.

ETA: OH! And the most fun is the discussions about the elections. Because apparently their board has changed the candidacy rules to make it where they can never be voted out. Or so the people who don't like them say.

[mmsmom]

There's two separate sections of the subdivision, one by "the lake" and one on "the golf course", and there's all sorts of drama at the fact that golf course people aren't supposed to use certain amenities even though all the dues are the same. The lake side is gated, with only one entrance/exit, and the people who live at the backside of the lake want the emergency gate opened but still gated (RFID) but the people up front think that's a waste of money, etc. y.

We did just go through some gate drama... many people want the neighborhood gated. It comes up every few years and came up again recently after a robbery incident. But what people don’t realize is if we gate the neighborhood then it makes the roads private and we then have to pay for road maintenance. They did some research and we needed $4 million to cover installing gates and then having a reserve for road maintenance. It meant a $6-7,000 assessment each then a 400% increase for annual dues. They took a vote and majority said no so it’s not happening for now but I was surprised how many were willing to spend the $. We can have play equipment but it has to be wood and not visible from front.

[doberbrat]

Here they are on Amazon Pink Inc. SR2 SantaMingo ReinMingo Pair https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00480MZRY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_NPNDQ77EM0SXSFX4ATNN

I also got 2 extra reindeer. We take off the Santa outfit after Christmas, but the flamingoes stay up year round

We also have a light up flamingo and blow up flamingo for Christmas decorations.

The neighbors who are in on the original joke love it. They put out similar decorations for Christmas



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Those are awesome thanks for sharing :)

[belovedgandp]

Both of the homes we've lived in had an HOA. The first one we lived at for 19 years. There were around 200 houses. Dues were $150 per year the entire time we lived there. Biggest expense was upkeep for common grass/landscaped areas at the entrances. The process to change a rule was ridiculous. There weren't many and most had a more general or common sense tone to them. But fences were extremely specific having to be dog-eared cedar and no more than 6' tall. I'm sure the idea was no chain link, but that was how it was written. A homeowner backed to a wooded area and wanted a much nicer coated metal fence along the back of their property. To change the by-laws required 75% of home owners to vote in favor of the new/changed by-law. Of ALL home owners, so those not voting counted as no. Plus, votes had to be notarized and if there were multiple people owning a home (as most were with couples), ALL owners had to vote yes with notarized signatures.

There is an HOA very close to me that made the national news a couple of years ago when a battle over a retaining wall was finally resolved after almost 10 years of lawsuits. A gentleman decided it was the hill he was going to die on and the HOA battled back. The two of them racked up almost $1 million in legal fees. The HOA in this area is crazy - no overnight parking in your driveway, restrictions on flower pots, and so much more. I used to walk through this area when my kids had a class close by and they definitely were not the friendliest.

[lizzywednesday]

We have an HOA, but the dues are very low compared to other HOA communities in our area because we have very few amenities - there's a tennis court, but it desperately needs to be resurfaced & the net likely needs to be replaced, a tiny play structure that probably ought to be replaced, and a couple of picnic tables that haven't been maintained well.

The dues go towards maintaining the public areas - there are grassy open spaces around the playground/tennis court that require regular landscaping - and paying for the electricity that runs the handful of path lights leading through this area.

DH was (briefly) the HOA President and during his term, I learned about several owners in the neighborhood (which is small; it's maybe 30 duplexes, so ~60 homeowners) who are Extremely Behind in their dues payments. The HOA lost out on at least two owners' dues because they went into bankruptcy/foreclosure before they could move ahead on any claims, although, in recent years, they have taken a couple of owners to court over their back-dues.

But beyond that, there's very little drama/power grabbiness.

One note: our HOA bylaws were written in 1996, so there're a lot of things that appear in them that are extremely outdated now, like bans on satellite dishes and so on.

[zukeypur]

I have never lived in an HOA, and I don't think I would like it. I specifically looked for a non-HOA property when we were house shopping 8 years ago because I wanted a chicken coop, and I knew that none of the HOA's would allow it. Our neighborhood has a few problem homes, but for the most part, most everyone takes care of their property. I like that the homes in our area have personality.

[legaleagle]

We have an HOA but they don't really do that much - no pool, no rules on architecture or yard condition. Dues are only $70/year - there are several hundred homes plus 2 townhouse communities that have their own separate HOA as well. That said, despite them having very little power, my husband joined the board and there is ridiculous drama because everyone else on the board are old crotchety men with nothing better to do.

[niccig]

I have zombie flamingos for Halloween lol if you want to keep the trend going

Yes!! This we need to have!




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[carolinamama]

We have an active HOA and have never had any problems with it. I haven't read the covenant in years but the basics are about maintaining yards, the type of allowed fencing and whatever. We've never been cited for anything and I don't imagine many others have either. Our boat will occasionally spend a few days in our driveway so we can do a deep clean. It's against the rules to park any sort of trailer in site but we've never heard a complaint. I don't think I've ever driven by a house without a well-maintained yard. Guessing those who move into a 'hood with detailed guidelines plan to follow along. There is an architectural review approval process for large changes to a property, which we've gone through for a large backyard project. It was painless after submitting all the plans.

We have two pools, one with multiple slides and play areas. Our hoa keeps them running very smoothly and provides extensive maintenance each year. All common grounds are landscaped and manicured. We feel like we benefit plenty from our hoa and their work. But I've definitely heard horror stories, just never experienced them myself.

[JBaxter]

our HOA isn't bad they keep up the common area the community pool and club house and do send letters for violations. You have to have a pretty BAD weed issue to get a letter or your lawn has to be brown and crispy. They seem reasonable folks.

[newnana]

I just read through that blog you linked and every single one of those things plus more happens in our HOA. The problem is our HOA is so small with amenities and most of the people have way too much time on their hands and want to be in everyone else's business. When we moved here, it was the only house available that ticked all the boxes and was less than 6 million. Seriously, either a meth house for 100k or a $6 million ranch or this house. So we bought this house. HOA was not yet formed, but we knew it would be per the listing. Less than 30 houses total now that the neighborhood is complete. Pool and clubhouse for those houses. The number of times we've wanted to move away because of the HOA has been significant, but the housing market has gone up astronomically in the last 5 years. Our house has almost doubled in value, so we can't really afford to move.



With so few houses, nobody wants to volunteer to sit on the board, especially once the board elected to get rid of the HOA company. Neighbors on the board just trying to take their dog or kids to the park in our HOA after work to unwind would get accosted by those with complaints about their neighbors. No trash cans outside or in the alley, only 2 hours before/after pickup. 4 approved color stains for fence, 6 for houses, cannot be the same as house across the street or next to you. Repaint house same color? Architectural committee approval required. Nothing above the fence line, no sheds, no trailers or company vehicles on the property. Holiday decorations cannot be up before/after 2 weeks of the holiday date. Landscaping out front has to be approved by the architectural committee, plants, layout, any hardscape, etc.

All of that is outside of the pool (no lifeguard)/clubhouse craziness. Can minors be there unsupervised, heated opinions both directions. Can you reserve the clubhouse for personal financial purposes like to teach a class for non-HOA members for profit? When property at the clubhouse/pool is damaged by unsupervised kids and their friends from outside these few houses (multiple broken windows, refrigerator from someone climbing on it, graffiti inside), who is responsible? Oooh, I know, self-selected committee should interrogate every family with tweens/teens! What if there is an injury? What about me? I don't use the pool, I don't want to pay for that?

Then mic drop, entire board that voted to eliminate the management company quit together because it was too much work (duh) before their terms were up. Thankfully, new volunteers stepped up and voted to re-instate the management company. Lordy, the complaints from the quitters and the people that didn't volunteer about the fees increasing (they didn't). Having the management company has created a middle man so neighbors policing neighbors has a buffer, so I hear significantly less drama (its there, but now I don't leave the house). Management company will tell you they field more complaints from our HOA than any of the others they manage combined and I'm surprised they will keep us.

Then there are the COVID complaints: the HOA is keeping us from using the pool we paid for. The HOA is keeping us from the clubhouse we pay for and keeping us from having parties there. I just can't...

But what about the neighborhood village? We want this to be a social club and have potlucks and block parties and the HOA should arrange that?! uh, feel free. But I don't want to hang out with you now.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I just read through that blog you linked and every single one of those things plus more happens in our HOA. The problem is our HOA is so small with amenities and most of the people have way too much time on their hands and want to be in everyone else's business. When we moved here, it was the only house available that ticked all the boxes and was less than 6 million. Seriously, either a meth house for 100k or a $6 million ranch or this house. So we bought this house. HOA was not yet formed, but we knew it would be per the listing. Less than 30 houses total now that the neighborhood is complete. Pool and clubhouse for those houses. The number of times we've wanted to move away because of the HOA has been significant, but the housing market has gone up astronomically in the last 5 years. Our house has almost doubled in value, so we can't really afford to move.



With so few houses, nobody wants to volunteer to sit on the board, especially once the board elected to get rid of the HOA company. Neighbors on the board just trying to take their dog or kids to the park in our HOA after work to unwind would get accosted by those with complaints about their neighbors. No trash cans outside or in the alley, only 2 hours before/after pickup. 4 approved color stains for fence, 6 for houses, cannot be the same as house across the street or next to you. Repaint house same color? Architectural committee approval required. Nothing above the fence line, no sheds, no trailers or company vehicles on the property. Holiday decorations cannot be up before/after 2 weeks of the holiday date. Landscaping out front has to be approved by the architectural committee, plants, layout, any hardscape, etc.

All of that is outside of the pool (no lifeguard)/clubhouse craziness. Can minors be there unsupervised, heated opinions both directions. Can you reserve the clubhouse for personal financial purposes like to teach a class for non-HOA members for profit? When property at the clubhouse/pool is damaged by unsupervised kids and their friends from outside these few houses (multiple broken windows, refrigerator from someone climbing on it, graffiti inside), who is responsible? Oooh, I know, self-selected committee should interrogate every family with tweens/teens! What if there is an injury? What about me? I don't use the pool, I don't want to pay for that?

Then mic drop, entire board that voted to eliminate the management company quit together because it was too much work (duh) before their terms were up. Thankfully, new volunteers stepped up and voted to re-instate the management company. Lordy, the complaints from the quitters and the people that didn't volunteer about the fees increasing (they didn't). Having the management company has created a middle man so neighbors policing neighbors has a buffer, so I hear significantly less drama (its there, but now I don't leave the house). Management company will tell you they field more complaints from our HOA than any of the others they manage combined and I'm surprised they will keep us.

Then there are the COVID complaints: the HOA is keeping us from using the pool we paid for. The HOA is keeping us from the clubhouse we pay for and keeping us from having parties there. I just can't...

But what about the neighborhood village? We want this to be a social club and have potlucks and block parties and the HOA should arrange that?! uh, feel free. But I don't want to hang out with you now.

Oh geez! Clearly some people have too much time on their hands! I'm sorry you had to land there. Sounds frustrating on so many levels.

[pinay]

My parents bought their house which has an HOA, and it's been an ongoing nightmare for years. I have no idea why my dad thought it was a good idea to buy a house with an HOA when he is the worst at following their rules for landscaping and maintenance. He argued with them for several years about his landscaping plan b/c he didn't want to hire a professional company to do it, he did it all himself- and he's frugal as can be, so things didn't match, he used recycled materials that others had tossed out, etc. Then they started fining him for all the various violations he had, so he got pissed and decided that he wasn't going to pay the HOA dues anymore! Then he got sick and eventually passed away, and it has been my personal hell to deal with since then. I had to figure out all of the fines he had accumulated and get them paid off, along with the backlog of HOA dues. Then, I had to address violations like a fence that was in need of painting (it had to be removed), too much hardscape vs. plants (made us install plants but only certain types that were on an approved list!), then they wouldn't let us put bark down to cover dirt areas unless it met their requirements so I had to deliver multiple samples to someone on the board to get it approved. The list goes on and on.

The house finally got listed for sale and wouldn't you know? Another violation letter arrived because we had weeds in the mulch! It's like their parting shot for me to deal with. I hate HOAs and never ever wanted to buy a house with one, and I despise the fact that I've had to deal with this one for the past few years because of my parents' decision. I can't wait to sign papers to finalize the sale of the home!

[niccig]

Oh geez! Clearly some people have too much time on their hands! I'm sorry you had to land there. Sounds frustrating on so many levels.

I agree this is most of the problems with HOA, annoying neighbors, and people on some committees- they’ve got nothing else to do so little issues get blow into huge issues


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[newnana]

Oh geez! Clearly some people have too much time on their hands! I'm sorry you had to land there. Sounds frustrating on so many levels.

Thanks. Thankfully, we love our house and our immediate neighbors. Makes all the difference.