HOA's are out of control!!

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by TAG UR IT

This is a two way street here....they can be good AND they can be a pain in the ass.

Let's say you want to sell your house to move on. You take incredibly good care of your lawn and exterior of your home. The neighbors on either side could care less about their lawns and the grass is overgrown, weeds are everywhere, etc. Guess what? No HOA means the value of your home just went DOWN! With a HOA in place, both of those neighbors just got letters sent to their house advising them they would be fined if they didn't get their lawn in order. The guy to your right did and he's cool. But, the guy on the left could give two shits about his lawn and got fined....and he's telling them to kiss his rear.

You see where I"m going w/ this? The VALUE of your home COULD depend on your HOA and how they act/react. I, personally, don't want a yellow, pink, and blue polka dotted house next to mine. I agree that it IS our home and we should be able to do what we want w/ them. BUT, what I want isn't what everyone else always wants. HOA is there to look out for our best interests.

Now, for the member who had their dish cables cut, file charges against the person who did that. Technically, the damaging and destruction of property NOT belonging to them w/ the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property is criminal mischief. Cutting cables that don't belong to you is (well, it is here) a violation of LAW and is punishable. The HOA can tell you to take them down...even fine you for doing it, but touching them and cutting them???? HELL NO.

Originally Posted by dayvedayve

There was a article couple of years ago when a really old widow lived in a HOA neighborhood but got to a point were she wasn't paying her dues. The HOA kicked her out of her paid off home and sold it to recoup the few hundred (don't remember exactly but it was less than a thousand dollars). Her paid of home worth over $180 K was sold for around $50K. The nice members of the HOA were kind enough to give her the rest minus abunch of fees. If I was in that HOA I would get ready to meet Lucifer cause they are goin to hell for sho.

yeah, but its the same thing as if you sign an agreement to buy a car and dont pay. they repo it. if you read the contract, 99% of the time, they have their bases covered. she just screwed herself.

[dayvedayve]

Originally Posted by CamaroSpike23

yeah, but its the same thing as if you sign an agreement to buy a car and dont pay. they repo it. if you read the contract, 99% of the time, they have their bases covered. she just screwed herself.

She was the widow of a WWII vet and didn't understand the inplications and was afraid to tell her children that she was introuble. Plus she tried to pay in full but the HOA had already decided to be !@#$% about it. No way around it and sugar coat the law/rules/whatever. They got a ticket for the short bus to hell. Maybe they can get into a HOA there. The HOA's were not ment for that. They were ment to keep people from trashing the neighborhoods with cars on blocks/unkept yards, tall grass and weeds, loud parties, and other things that would cause people not to want to live in them. They have been corrupted by power and dont realize that one day their time will come.

Side note: In my town

A very new HOA neighborhood went bankrupt after that story hit. Nobody wanted to buy or build a home there. The HOA was no more and now the neighborhood has lots with grass over your waist, cars parked on the street, at least one brokedown car on the street and 3 houses that are unfinished and haven't been touched in over a year because the builder folded during construction.

[4thGenRocks]

For some reason I though the title of the thread was "HOs are out of control" and I clicked on it really fast for some pictures... I failed!

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by CamaroSpike23

hey tag, one question on the wire cutting tho. if it is explicitly written that you cannot change the exterior appearance of the building (in a town house or condo style setup) and you mount something like that, are you not violating the contract? and im sure it is written in some subclause that they have the right to return the exterior to the intended look by any means necessary.

i ask because i lost that fight with my own HOA, i live on the end of a complex with my side windows of the house pointing towards trees. my fiance recently put up a brown blind in the kitchen (on that side of the house). we recieved notification that it was against HOA policy to deliberately change the exterior appearance of the unit. and when you looked thru the window, you would see brown instead of white (whoopity shit, the side of the house facing trees 5 feet away and someone walks around my house and sees a brown blind... dear god call the cops!). before i contested it, i re-read the 38 pages of my HOA agreement...yes, i said 38 pages.... and it did say that it was forbidden to change the exterior appearance of the unit... but then i got to thinkin, well, im technically changing the interior appearance, and the outside is still brick and window with white trim....


then i looked a lil deeper into article 243, subsection b, paragraph 2, line 5..... "The exterior appearance of all condominums and town house units in this complex shall be uniform. That is to say, that the exterior brick shall not be painted, door frames shall remain black, the window trims shall remain white, and any blind/shutter device placed inside the unit shall be of the same color as the exterior paint trim unless it is agreed upon by the members of this association in a unanimous vote that the exterior colors shall be changed."

i still thought it was BS so i still decided to fight it.... by removing the blind and walking around my kitchen nude......... we finally came to terms, another member of the HOA donated a roll up blind for me to use behind my brown one.


but still, its BS

Spike, I completely agree about the blinds. COMPLETELY. It's not like you did anything outrageous or go over board. However, the HOA can tell you to change out your blind. Now, no one can enter YOUR home w/out permission to change that blind, remove it, etc. Let's say they take it after entering your home. That's called burglary....a felony here in TX.

The cutting of the cables....that, I'm SURE, can't be covered in the 'by laws' or whatever they are, to say the HOA can cut down your wired satellite. If I took the call from the homeowner who had their cables cut, plain and simple it would be called Criminal Mischief. I don't care who you are. There are legal ways to go about doing something......damaging someone's property is NOT the right and legal way to go.

Originally Posted by dayvedayve

There was a article couple of years ago when a really old widow lived in a HOA neighborhood but got to a point were she wasn't paying her dues. The HOA kicked her out of her paid off home and sold it to recoup the few hundred (don't remember exactly but it was less than a thousand dollars). Her paid of home worth over $180 K was sold for around $50K. The nice members of the HOA were kind enough to give her the rest minus abunch of fees. If I was in that HOA I would get ready to meet Lucifer cause they are goin to hell for sho.

I actually heard of something like that happening as well. Yes, HOA's can basically "take" your home from you if you don't do a bunch of stuff....if I recall correctly. I'd really have to look into the civil side of the particular HOA.

[Just a Skidmark]

I was in georgia all summer, and my mom and stepdad both have jobs that take up most of there time, so they don't get that much time to themselves, let alone yard work, but they kept the lawn mowed, and the weeds relatively clear, when I got back, we spend the whole weekend doing yard work, we take about 4 dump runs. (just garbage cans and yard waste)reshingled the roof, moved, trimmed bushes, the next day we did more of the samegot most of it done.

meanwhile, crazy head of the hoa !@$# and her husband, who are selling there house ( and who happen to be two of the THREE active members in the hoa) take a vote, and they come to our house the next day, because they don't like that we didn't get everything finished fast enough, starts tearing up my mothers flower beds, "as if the house is being sold" getting a whole mess of rosebushes. and no weeds. which were the problem anyway.
and on top of that, there fineing us $25 a day, says the letter we got three days later than the day the started fineing us, until we get the weeds done.

[SAE05]

I would find it amusing to re-badge the F-150 as a Mark.