Heads up: HOA rules against "unsightly" cars

At my last house the HOA Nazi emailed me about some green algae growing on the fascia boards on my house.  The 2nd sentence after the statement of the subject of the email she says if you don't remove it we will sue you and you will be responsible for paying our attorney.  She went on to cite the chapter and verse of the rule which allows her to do this and more threats of legal violence.       

No friendly reminder, straight to a gun to my head to clean off a few feet of algae.    I let her know of my displeasure of her thuggish tactics.   

  Our HOA was a member of a pool club to which  4 other HOA's also belonged.   The pool needed $200K of repairs.   Our HOA had a vote of all members and we rejected paying for the repairs and elected to get  out of the club all together.  During the process it was shown that the pool was poorly managed and wasted the maintenance money on pet projects.  So the members with kids managed to get a secret vote through the board to cancel our private garbage collection, change over to city collection, and use the money saved to pay off our portion of the pool debt.     So we went from a garbage service that would basically take anything to one that gave you one of the special cans and anything that did not fit into the can was not their problem.   Plus the pool is only May-August.         My current neighborhood association is so much nicer about everything, a refreshing change.

Seems like HOA board people are what happens when the hall monitors in school get older.

MadScientistMatt said:

z31maniac said:

If they weren't forced to move there, I don't see the problem. 

If you don't read the rules of the HOA, then retroactively have an issue, I don't see the problem.

If you don't want to deal with an HOA, then don't move into a community with an HOA. 

This is not quantum physics. 

/thread

The trouble HOAs tend to have include:

1. Sometimes the full details of the rules are not available to residents; you just get a summary. Not sure how that's even legal, but I've seen it happen.

2. Vague and imprecise rules that leave the interpretation up to a few people, or one person.

3. Very little checks and balances - there's nobody to appeal a questionable decision to, other than starting a lawsuit.

I agree with your #2 and 3, but I’m not sure how #1 could happen. 

Deed covenant restrictions have to be recorded at the County Clerk. If they are not, then they are not legally binding. 

I’m sure residents say this all the time, but I am also pretty sure they simply never chose to look up the covenants on their property  at the courthouse. 

Or the covenant as implied by the HOA doesn't exist and they are simply using "HOA" to bully. HOAs are run by people and people can be ignorant. The county clerk would be the only one I'd trust to give the right answer.

volvoclearinghouse said:

I was sawzalling a car into bits small enough to fit into my pickup bed today in my yard.  

A neighbor's chicken came over and said "Hullo".

Another neighbor was target practicing.  

I think we're the bizzarro HOA neighborhood.  

This is my dream subdivision, plus I would get to play with the Plymford.

maschinenbau said:

volvoclearinghouse said:

I was sawzalling a car into bits small enough to fit into my pickup bed today in my yard.  

A neighbor's chicken came over and said "Hullo".

Another neighbor was target practicing.  

I think we're the bizzarro HOA neighborhood.  

This is my dream subdivision, plus I would get to play with the Plymford.

That's my "neighborhood". Closest house is a half mile away. 

Appleseed said:

Or the covenant as implied by the HOA doesn't exist and they are simply using "HOA" to bully. HOAs are run by people and people can be ignorant. The county clerk would be the only one I'd trust to give the right answer.

I completely agree. HOA bullying is common. I have frequently found HOA officers to not be able (or willing) to give me a copy of the actual covenants. Same thing for Realtors. 

But it doesn’t mean the full details are not available to residents.  It just means residents are looking in the wrong place (or failing to look). 

Threads complaining about HOAs are ridiculously common.  But they are almost universally coupled with owner residents who have simply failed to do their due diligence, and never read their own covenants, but would rather complain online. 

In reply to SVreX :

Like I said back on page one..... HOA's are why I live where I live. 

In reply to bobzilla :

I understand. 

But HOAs are also why I live in an HOA neighborhood. 

There are advantages. 

In reply to SVreX :

I just refuse to live that close to other humans if at all possible. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Nothing wrong with that. 

But for those of us who choose to live in HOA neighborhoods, I’d rather be an asset and encourage owners to understand how to survive and interact with their HOA, rather than making all HOAs sound like they are the Devil’s spawn. 

To many of us, ANYONE telling us what we can and cannot do on property that we have spent a crap ton of money on are the devil's spawn. Maybe even Satan himself. 

Interesting point on the neighborhood pool.  My neighborhood has a pool, tennis courts, volleyball court and a pool building.  The annual maintenance on the building and pool was getting to the point where it made more sense to rip them out and redo them vs continuing with the patch work.

There were several neighborhood meetings about this and universally, the older folks with no kids at home didn't want to do it, while the younger people did.  Bear in mind that the additional cost to homeowners here was $75/year.  So not a large amount.  All of us younger people had to point out, repeatedly, that we bought our houses in the neighborhood because of the pool and that if the older folks want to sell their homes for more money, easier, later on, they'll go for the new pool.

Thankfully they agreed and we have a beautiful new building and pool.  Just because you don't use it doesn't mean you won't benefit from it...

bobzilla said:

To many of us, ANYONE telling us what we can and cannot do on property that we have spent a crap ton of money on are the devil's spawn. Maybe even Satan himself. 

Which is why you shouldn’t buy in an HOA neighborhood. 

Does it make it better if you bitch about other people’s neighborhoods?

+1 for differintiating Covenant and HOA. 

I bought where there is no Covenant, and a voluntary HOA. Their major focus is an annual potluck, and occasional fire-prevention/insurance discount programs. Pretty much perfect. Local target practice seems less common as more city folk start moving out, but still occurs. More common now is a neighborhood disc golf course, strteching a dozen or so interconnected properties. Never a complaint about any of my automotive creations, and only compliments so far on my diverse and loud music. Had deer, foxes, turkeys, housecats and rabbits all join me when working on cars. Not very helpful, but nice not wrenching alone. 

My current neighborhood is pretty good for people keeping their houses and lots looking good. There is one house that has the most god-awful paint choice color for the trim and garage door. It's a darkish, brick two-story with HIGHLIGHTER blue for the trim and garage door. 

And to the chagrin of many here, there is a house on a corner lot down the street that is constantly filled with broken down cars and projects, sometimes covered in tarps. It's an eyesore in an otherwise clean, well kept neighborhood. The house has a 3 car garage. 

My previous home, out next door neighbor had a truck parked sideways in the driveway with the windows down for years. To the point the inside of the truck was so moldy you could smell it from the sidewalk on hot days. And another house two houses down that had literally 7 different BBQ grills and assorted other junk in the front yard. Called Code Enforcement on both and that got nowhere. 

Once we sell this house in a few years, I'll either be looking to move in a nicer neighborhood with larger homes where there is an HOA so I don't have to see people's junk spread out all over their property. It may not bother some of you, but it irks me to see rundown looking properties in the neighborhood. 

In reply to SVreX :

I don't bitch about anybody's neighborhood. If that is where you want to live, go for it. Just be aware, not everyone wants that.

That's the problem I have with Indiana's annexation laws. The way it's currently written, you're either part of a town, or going to be. Rural areas get annexed, lose their rights to things like open burning, barns etc because the "city" that annexed them doesn't allow that anymore. They end up paying more in property taxes and get no benefits. We went through this 3 years ago now. We bought and built rural to be rural. The town decided to expand and rip people off. 

I never understood why people can't do as they do and leave others the hell alone. 

I don't understand why people bitch about the colour choices of their neighbours...

I bet someone thinks your house looks like ass too.

The inside of my house was painted various shades of catE36 M3 brown when I moved in. If someone doesn't like the Chevy Orange feature wall I have in the bedroom or the wall in my office that is wallpapered with old issues of Modern Mechanix, that's their own problem.

My house is grey on the outside with a blue roof. It sure beats the salmon pink monstrosities they insisted on building ten years ago.

ShawnG said:

I don't understand why people bitch about the colour choices of their neighbours...

I bet someone thinks your house looks like ass too.

The inside of my house was painted various shades of catE36 M3 brown when I moved in. If someone doesn't like the Chevy Orange feature wall I have in the bedroom or the wall in my office that is wallpapered with old issues of Modern Mechanix, that's their own problem.

My house is grey on the outside with a blue roof. It sure beats the salmon pink monstrosities they insisted on building ten years ago.

Lol

In reply to z31maniac :

Nailed it. 

As opinionated as this crowd is, it's a good thing we don't discuss politics. 

HOA?

No berkeleying way.

z31maniac said:

My current neighborhood is pretty good for people keeping their houses and lots looking good. There is one house that has the most god-awful paint choice color for the trim and garage door. It's a darkish, brick two-story with HIGHLIGHTER blue for the trim and garage door. 

And to the chagrin of many here, there is a house on a corner lot down the street that is constantly filled with broken down cars and projects, sometimes covered in tarps. It's an eyesore in an otherwise clean, well kept neighborhood. The house has a 3 car garage. 

My previous home, out next door neighbor had a truck parked sideways in the driveway with the windows down for years. To the point the inside of the truck was so moldy you could smell it from the sidewalk on hot days. And another house two houses down that had literally 7 different BBQ grills and assorted other junk in the front yard. Called Code Enforcement on both and that got nowhere. 

 

Once we sell this house in a few years, I'll either be looking to move in a nicer neighborhood with larger homes where there is an HOA so I don't have to see people's junk spread out all over their property. It may not bother some of you, but it irks me to see rundown looking properties in the neighborhood. 

Basically all of this.  I'll be looking for an HOA or area of the city with strict code enforcement next.

Also, in general those with the rundown looking properties are also the people who behave in manners I dislike.

HOA discussions always devolve into people telling other people their choice is wrong, and I've never figured that out.