Would you buy into a homeowners association?

[Bird]

Terry, Pineridge's response reminds me of some things I didn't mention in my previous post. IF you are interested in buying into a homeowners association, be sure to carefully read the bylaws first. Like Pineridge, we were about to buy a house until I read the bylaws. I learned what the initial dues were, but they could be raised anytime by a majority vote with no limit. Backyards were fenced with wooden fences so you would co-own the fence with 3 neighbors (one on each side, and one behind) and the fences had to be maintained in their original condition with the cost shared. Any storage building in the backyard and any landscaping had to be approved in advance by the board of directors; no flagpoles, no working on a vehicle in the driveway, no RVs or boats, no storage building visible from the street, and on and on with the details. And the association would have a community swimming pool and park (not yet built), so I would expect the dues to rise rapidly. So, like Pineridge again, we backed out.

 

[gws]

I would NEVER live where a home owners association is. I dont want someone telling me what I can do with my property. a HOA can be very picky or no, but you give them legal control over your propery and OFTEN your legally liable for damges against the HOA.
Office mate HOA due just went through the roof because the HOA was sued and lost a case. Way to many cases of HOA telling people they have to take down a swing set because a neighbor doesnt like his view obstructed. Sorry if its on my property its should be your issue.

If you decide to go into a hoa area you need to know what rights your giving up.

 

[LarryRB]

someone had mentioned, no tractor trailers. When we bought our second home, the neighbor called the cops, then the town selectmen because I backed my rig into the driveway. I agreed to the Monday night meeting that was two days away... At that selectmens meeting they had mentioned the old neighbor's dislike for my rig in the driveway. I had told them that in Mass, an owner operator is considered an artisan and therefore, I can keep the rig in the yard, The second reason, was my contract at the time,.. I hauled mostly computers and trade show stuff for the military and by contract, the rig was to be almost "worn" like a shirt, while under a load... THe neighbor and selectmen backed off and in fact, after some months, the old timers and us became quite friendly and that ended it.

 

[Jagmandave]

Pay money for the priveledge of letting someone else tell you what you can and can't do with your own property? I don't think so.............

 

[LarryRB]

No, I would not get involved in any association with home or property myself, I was just commenting on my tractor trailer and the neighbor who didn't like it in my yard. That particular area, in fact anywhere in that small town, I know of no home owners associations.

 

[AB4D]

Terry,

I would not purchase anything that is located in an area that has an homeowners association.

About five years ago my wife and I decided that we wanted to buy one of those large beautiful homes you see..you know the ones with the 9 foor ceilings, palladium windows, manicured lawns...ect. ect, but the house was in an HOA controlled development.

So we purchased the house...what a nightmare. First let me say that we don't have any children and don't want any. I like kids, along as they belong to someone else, and I do believe that a homeowner is entitled to a reasonable degree of peace and quiet.

The house was located on a dead end street, so we figured that we would buy in the middle section of the street because all the kids will probably play in the dead end circle. First mistake, the people who moved next door had two boys, and her house became the kid house. Noise noise noise, I had family members visit and asked how I could stand to stay. I tried to speak with the parents but their response was "kids will be kids". Next event, one of the many children playing next door threw a rock through one of my gas filled windows (1K plus). I brought this to the attention of the parents. Their response was "well I asked all the children, they said they didn't do it, and I believe them, so I am not responsible". At this point I approched the homeowners association for assistance, what I found out is the board is mostly volunteers and since most of the mommies don't work, they control the board. Basically, I got nowhere. I stayed in the house for three more years, watched the homeowners dues rise year after year, which they said was needed for increased staffing (which I noticed that all of the new employes had the same last name), insurance costs, and to repair vandalism to the fixtures damaged by teenagers. The event that made me decide to sell and move was I came home from work one day to find that my neighbor had errected one of those huge wooden play sets right on the property line. I again approached the HOA, I was told that she did not get pre-approval, and they would have her remove the playset. I thought great, but after no action I recontacted the HOA. However, the HOA now had documents in her property file showing full approval. I advised them that I did not sign off on the pre-notification form. Their response was "our records show that you did, but the orginal form must have of been misplaced". I can only assume that she had one of her croonies backdate the HOA approval documents and placed them into her proprerty file. At that point, I decided to get out of the situation. My point is that an HOA is only as good as the people who control it, and if their interest is not serving everyone equally, you can get into a situation that is out of control and you have no recourse, unless you want to get into a legal battle. Some of the posters have mentioned that an HOA helps maintain property values, well so does protective covenants, but without all the politics and BS. For me, I don't want either because I don't need to be controlled by anyone other than myself.

The bright side of the story is the house sold fast for a great profit, I was able to move to the country, and I now have great neighbors, some of which moo instead of talk /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

Jim

 

[dmccarty]

HOA's can be good and they can be bad. I think overall they are a good thing as long as the convenants are reasonable. Our subdivision covenants are minimal, no building within 30 feet of a property line, no mobile homes, certain building size, etc.

I wish it had rules about noise and road repair. Right now I fix the road but if we need new gravel or a culvert fails there is a problem. The convenants are going to have to change soon to cover this issue.

My FIL bought some rural land with three friends. One friend died and the house in question has been a problem ever since. The other owner has the first house in the subdivision. and you have to drive by this house to enter or leave. The place would make a pig look clean. He has old lawn mowers, boats, trailers, wood, etc all over the place. Fred Sanfords place is cleaner. An agent said that this home lowers my FIL house value by 25,000 dollars. That is a bunch of money. Especially when I doubt his house would get much more than 100K to begin with. If they had set up an HOA this problem might have been prevented.

Yes some people go on power trips in an HOA. If the convenants are minimal then power trips are minimized. Covenants can help prevent problems and I think for most places they work. We hear of the horror stories but I think they are minimal. Our old house was not an HOA. We had numerous problems with neighbors, loud parties, too many vehicles for the house, too many people in the house, garbage, drugs, etc. Even with multiple calls to the city to handle all of these issues the problem was only solved when the people moved out. An HOA would have solved the problems quicker. And this is in a city that is known for being clean and wanting everything just so. They really could not do much with these people.

I am not sure if I would live in a subdivision without convenants. Too easy to get a bad neighbor with no way to deal with them.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bob_Skurka]

It strikes me that this thread is really showing some of the extreme examples of bad homeowners associations. I would say that the examples I gave, and then dmccarty later gave are examples of good associations that do not have overly restrictive covenants, but have just enough control that things don't get nuts.

For what it is worth, our association cannot levy a fine, it cannot cut off your water (we all have wells anyway) it cannot stop you from building a shed or pole barn, but it does have the right to tell you to paint it to match your house. We can't stop you from putting up the mailbox of your choice but we do have the right to say you can't park a large commercial vehicle on your driveway. You also can't park your camper outside, but you may certainly store it in your garage or barn. We can charge dues, but only with the vote of a super-majority, and currently our dues are $100 per year, and we actually have a surplus so we may lower the dues this year.

Our 'restrictions' are very reasonable and the vast majority of the neighbors like them and actually wish we had a few more restrictions. What I have seen is that many people expect TOO MUCH from an association, they expect the association to control other people's children who run amok, or prevent crime, or stop speeders on the road. Not going to happen! The associations typically are there to keep the road in good repair, fix the drainage ditches, maintain common areas, and to enforce the land covenants.

But don't think that just because you live outside of an assocation that you can do what you want, in many areas there are still covenants on the property, or building regulations that restrict types of construction or land use.

 

[dmccarty]

As I reread this thread it hit me that an HMA gives a homeowner some protection of property values and maybe a bit of lee way dealing with problem causing neighbors.

To a certain extant The G'vment does this but only to a certain level.

The HMA and convenants can cover what the G'vment does not address.

So the question is will the covenants and HMA help you or hurt you? This depends on what is the covenants and who is going to inforce them.

I would live and do live with restricted covenants which for me are very reasonable. Things have changed since the covenants where written and they need to be updated. Some HMA rules are too restricted and would drive me nuts so there is no way I could live in such a place but ours are very reasonable. We own most of the lots in our subdivision, long story, and we are only one vote short of changing/updating the covenants as we like. BUT the HMA would still have to fork over the money to inforce the rules.

What it really gets down to is that some people are just idiots and living next to them can be a living h..ll. The HMA can sometimes help with these people and sometimes the HMA IS these people. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Later,
Dan

 

[LarryRB]

The fact that one cannot park a commercial truck on the property is what would stop me from an association. It isn't always easy, to park a rig just any old place, and most want their trucks at their own home., Sometimes it is mandatory by contract... Even though I'm not in trucking anymore, I would still feel the same way. It might work for most people in a community that is against commercial vehicles. Nothing I would be interested in though...