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Homeowner's Associations
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Who here has had a homeowner's association that has too much power? What did you do about it? (No, moving is not a solution.) My HOA just keeps making arbitrary rules without any consultation with the community & apparently the bylaws somehow allow them to do so. It's infuriating!! :evil:
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You need to find a way to make a motion/amendment etc to take away power.
But that is going to be a very difficult task, cause if the board finds out your motive, they can interfere.
A petition signed by the greater majority of everyone in the community might help too.
2010: 5/20 NY, 5/21 NY ... 2011: 6/21 EV NY, 9/3 WI, 9/4 WI ... 2012: 9/2 PA, 9/22 GA ... 2013: 10/18 NY, 10/19 NY, 10/21 PA, 10/22 PA, 10/27 MD
2015: 9/23 NY, 9/26 NY ... 2016: 4/28 PA, 4/29 PA, 5/1 NY, 5/2 NY, 6/11 TN, 8/7 MA, 11/4 TOTD PA, 11/5 TOTD PA ... 2018: 8/10 WA ---- http://imgur.com/a/nk0s7
Apparently motions have been made to take away power in the past, but a 2/3 majority is needed change the bylaws & it's impossible to get that much participation from the community. :(
I can't afford to just sell my place & move every time an HOA board starts making stupid rules - especially given that I'll likely just have to move to another place with an HOA that might do the same thing.
I'm planning to run for the Board in the next elections, which aren't until November. But I know at least one person on the Board who is threatened with removal every time she stands up to the other Board members, so I'm not sure how much power I'd have to affect change. (Apparently the bylaws also give the Board the power to kick out a member without cause.)
I agree that HOAs are good insofar as they do things like upkeep of the common areas. But I disagree that they necessarily improve the value of the community and quality of life. I'd say the rules being made by our Board actually decrease home value & quality of life, actually.
(And, no, I don't mind boats, grass, or green houses. I'd rather live in a community with individuality than one where everything looks exactly the same.)
What makes it impossible? Is it just like general apathy from the community?
We overthrew our HOA, we got the participation/support and made a power move. We even kicked the guy who developed the community out of his own board.
I don't, but they are always on the news around here for something stupid. Recently, a HOA would not let a family have a swing set in their back yard. Definitely seems like they have too much power. When we get a house, I'd like to move into an area that doesn't have an HOA..but most of the neighborhoods in the suburbs seem to have them so it won't be easy :(
So I've heard it all. And it all comes down to the fundamental question of weather the rights of one outweigh the rights of many. Can't be answered...
I fall on the side that thinks that my neighbor has no right to decrease my property value because he likes tall grass and a pink house.
I see your point, but I don't think it's that black-and-white. The HOA Boards don't necessarily represent the rights of the many and the rules they make don't necessarily preserve property values - in fact, I'd say sometimes they decrease them.
Our HOA Board decided last year to replace all the house numbers to make them uniform. They look nice, but they're really small and can't easily be read from the road. If my pizza delivery guy has a hard time finding my place, surely a paramedic might have the same problem. And we have a lot of elderly people in my neighborhood who are even more likely to need emergency services. But the Board created a new rule banning people from putting up their own house numbers, despite the fact that people wanted to put up ones that could be seen from the street for safety reasons.
Before you point out that cities have codes about how big house numbers should be so they must not be too small, let me explain that I live in a townhouse. When people complained that this was a safety issue, the Board got some lawyer to say that - even though our house numbers must be seen from the street like any other house number - we don't fall under the house number code, but under the condo/apartment number code. Because you walk up to apartments instead of driving (and oftentimes apartment doors are inside, like at hotels) the numbers on apartments can be much smaller than numbers on places that must be seen from the street. So, despite the fact that the house numbers do not meet code to be seen from the street, the HOA Board found some way around this and fines anyone who does what they think is best for their own safety. Decreasing the safety of the community does not help property values and, even if it did, it's not worth it.
They also recently said that we can't have front porch lights with motion sensors. Why the hell not?! How on earth could front porch lights with motion sensors decrease property value?? This is another safety issue. I need my light to come on when I walk up to my door alone in the dark every night. I need to be able to see if someone is lurking behind that ugly, dead bush in front of my house that they refuse to remove.
One of the reasons I moved into this neighborhood is because so many of the neighbors have beautiful potted flowers on their front porches or in window sill planters. The guy across from me is an old Japanese man who must be a master garderner or something. He has a beautiful little potted garden that he tends to every day as if the plants were his children - flowers that I don't think most of us would be able to keep alive. I love coming out every day and seeing his beautiful little plants. And I always wanted to live in a place where people have flowers on their window sills.
But not the HOA Board has decided that no one can have any plants outside. Why?!? How on earth do beautiful flowers bring down property values?! They don't; not having flowers is what brings down property values.
Anyway, I could go on... but my point, I guess, is that HOAs do not always act in the best interest of the community. And I don't want to live in an Army barrack where everything is sterile and looks the fucking same. (Hell, now that I think of it, we had more freedom when we actually did live on military bases. Sure, our yards were inspected every week to be sure we had cut the grass, but at least we could have a wind chime or some flowers or a motion-sensor light if we wanted to.) :(
I know. But sometimes it unavoidable. And I'm not anti-HOA - just anti-too-much-power.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
I'm with you. I worked with a guy that got in trouble with his HOA for parking his boat in his driveway over a weekend. It was on a licensed trailer and it was probably a 100K boat. How is that lowering your property values? :fp:
Yeah, just apathy from the community. We can never even get enough attendance at the annual meeting for a quorum. From what I hear, a lot of HOAs have the same problem. I keep asking the property management to create a website so we would all communicate better, but I think they're afraid of people having greater ability to organize the community. Maybe I'll just create one myself.
just anouther layer of government....
no different than a village or city or state of fedral .gov telling you what you can and cannot do.
in my village, you aren't allowed to park your RV at your house during the winter months.
we also can't park on the street at night without a permit and we can only have a couple of permits per year.
also need a permit to have a garage sale, and those are limted as well.
:fp:
exactamundo.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Do they have such organizations in Australia? (You're from Australia, right?)
yes im from australia. im unaware of such organisations. however ive never lived in a spanky new subdivision or a gated community. but i know that birdbaths, gnomes and grass longer than a crewcut are allowed in the free range suburbs.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
people must be foolin around
if you own land no body can tell you what to do not much for the burbs
give me open country
If all else fails, flaming bags of dog poop are always an option.
nope. aussie all the way.. i just have a lot to say.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
How is parking on the street a safety hazard or an eyesore? :? Do you have particularly narrow streets and neighbors with particularly ugly cars or something?
I signed so many mortgage papers when I bought the place that an HOA contract was probably in there somewhere.