HOAs

[SnuggleBuggles]

Do you have a crazy HOA? Or a crazy HOA story? I got sucked into https://www.georgetakei.com/craziest...NpZWXdmIIPCdV8
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.