Easements and HOA (HOA's) Home Onwers Assocaition's STAY AWAY!!

[Sigarms]

If by chance you're looking for a home / lane that is somehow tied into an easement or home owners assocaition, PASS on it.

If you do not pass on the deal, do not ask months / years later here on this forum what you can do to solve the situation because you're stuck in a no win situation.

Pick your posion

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...ny-such-thing-abusing.html?highlight=Easement

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...tired-having-easement.html?highlight=easement

just go through "easements" per a topic here and you will see the issues.

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...road-maintenance-hoa-power.html?highlight=HOA

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...-clothes-dryers-disallowed.html?highlight=HOA

I'm a below average in intelligence, however, if you're going to spend your money on a home, even with my sub par smarts, I will tell you that YOU need to ensure that other than the government or state, NO ONE can or should tell you what you can or can't do with your property (less local ordinances which is a topic unto itself).

When you see "easement" or "HOA" written in with the purchase of the home of your dreams, RUN or it could become your nightmare.

If you do a websearch per Easements or HOA's per thread title, there really isn't a wealth of info here (as far as what I could find). This thread was started primarily because a home for sale with 15 acres of land was tied to a HOA, and I couldn't understand why https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...t-happened-house-sale-thread.html#post5331437

Ultimately what I'm looking for is key words that new homeowners HAVE to be aware before buying...

 

[TnAndy]

Agreed. Can't for the life of me understand why folks move into an HOA situation which simply buries them under another level of bureaucracy.....or as I told a buddy of mine complaining about his HOA...

"What ? You moved into a commune and didn't expect communism ?"

As for easements, you "own" and pay taxes on a property that someone else has the right to use or do something with ? Really ?

And NOW you want to complain about it ??

 

[EddieWalker]

Another thing to run away from is a road that isnt owned by the County or some other government agency. Private roads need money to maintain and repair them. Rarely does everyone pay to do this.

 

[TnAndy]

Rarely does everyone pay to do this.

Given governments have the power of arrest/jail and/or taking of the property, and STILL don't get 100% compliance with taxes, it's not surprising that taking that out of the private road equation would result in even lower participation of funding.....so yeah....run !

 

[Oaktree]

When you see "easement" or "HOA" written in with the purchase of the home of your dreams, RUN or it could become your nightmare.

A bit of an exaggeration perhaps? Obviously, in some cases it's gone badly but I'd say most of the time not so.
For example, my well is on my neighbor's property. The easement is duly noted in both his and my deeds, and neither of us has a problem with it. 100-odd years ago the properties were likely all one (the house was built in the 1830s), and at some point when pieces were sold off someone thought ahead and made sure to put the right of access in writing.
This type of arrangement is not all that uncommon in this area, the house I grew up in had a similar arrangement (though my parents put in an artesian well back in the 50s, so while still in the deeds it's kind of moot).

HOA's, yeah that's a different story. I would never buy a property that was subject to one.

 

[Sigarms]

A bit of an exaggeration perhaps?
For example, my well is on my neighbor's property. The easement is duly noted in both his and my deeds, and neither of us has a problem with it. I'm sure 100-odd years ago the properties were all one, and at some point when pieces were sold off someone thought ahead and made sure to put the right of access in writing.
This type of arrangement is not all that uncommon in this area, the house I grew up in had a similar arrangement (though my parents put in an artesian well back in the 50s, so while still in the deeds it's kind of moot).

Perhaps, but I wouldn't want my well located on my neighbors property. It's great that you don't have a problem with it now, however, sooner or later, something may change that one of you may have a problem with. Keep in mind, with HOA's or easements, it's never a problem when people agree on what to do, it's a problem when people disagree.

 

[CobyRupert]

To be fair, we don't know the extent of the HOA tied to the 15 acre Texas property in yesterday's thread that was deleted. The OP mentioned that it was organized to prevent a motocross track from being developed on one of the empty lots.

Perhaps HOA was minimal, and had a yearly $10 fee (that's why fees were stated as being paid up for 2 years in advance I believe) and perhaps had no restrictions on the color of your house, mailbox, or how many '83 Camaros you can have up on blocks in your yard that are in their 3 decade of being "restored".
Like with many things, there can be a balance of pros/cons, where a HOA protects the members. Like with most things, they can get out of balance and out of hand, abused. I wouldn't want one.

With easements, often the original owner was paid for that easement (or perhaps gifted it to a relative, etc...). My point being there was a monetary value assigned to that easement. When buying a property that has an easement for somebody else, the present day value of that easement should be subtracted from the property price. (Then the question becomes "What is that value? -To you the buyer.)

 

[dodge man]

I would say as a rule, easements don't cause a problem. Without them you wouldn't have water, electricity, phone, gas etc. I would say shared driveways and that type of easement is the problem. Once again, often these aren't a problem, but they sure can be.

 

[Diggin It]

OK, so another thread, but I'll play.

Here's another angle to the little enclaves. I remember a situation posted on a another board/website. The Stasi had dictated who the residents could have as an ISP. They went so far as to mandate that the ISP install their node at the clubhouse. From there, cables were laid out to the individual homes. In effect, the whole enclave was a LAN the way most of us have in our homes. It wasn't even separate nodes the way Cable and Satellite TV are in apartments. As a result, every home in the enclave was seen as having the same IP address to every website in the world.

Somebody in there did a few things they weren't supposed to which triggered Spam protections by some of the internet security operators. The entire community, every home was blacklisted by the host ISP and no one could access the web. As I recall, it took quite a bit of doing to clean the mess.

Had the Gladys Kravitz type busybodies not gone to that extent and allowed residents to have their own ISP nodes like normal communities do, only the single offending home would have been affected.

 

[widefat]

Mkay,
add ZONING to the list.
Dont buy a residentially zoned piece of property and then discover you cant have one little ole cow.

And, dont by an agriculturally zoned property and then whine because your neighbors cows smell bad or make noise during calf separation season.

And, keep a vigilant eye on your local supervisors - they may decide to change zoning designations.

The list goes on RE Zoning.