Among Friends

[jeanlake]

Read rules and see if this is something you can abide by and afford.

For 24 years we lived in a lake community with boat rules, pool rules, clubhouse rental, parks, green spaces, firework displays and seasonal events. It was a great place to raise kids, but I did notice a lot of bickering at the few meetings we attended. 

Now I live in a HOA community with no pool or amenities. Basically we pay $85/mo for exterior paint every 5 years, snow removal, extensive lawn care, trash and recycle pick up. A friendly group of people with lots of social opportunities if you want to participate. No bickering at meetings so we try to attend all. 

My sil lives in upscale golf and lake community (outrageous HOA fees) with mega pool, golf course and lots of rules. Children raised, she still works and she's downsizing, by choice. Can't wait to get out of the neighborhood.

It just depends on your situation and what you receive for your HOA fees.      

[Gran Gran of two]

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@lovesrecess wrote:

DH and I are considering buying a home in a large community about 2 hrs from our current home. It does have what they call an "active homeowners association board"....and the monthly fee is quite high....have you had any problems with overbearing HOA boards or nit-picking rules or regulations? We are ready to buy but this one issue is giving us second thoughts.....

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Yes,,, the first week we moved into our house we were sent a letter telling us our tree was dying and we had to have it removed.   A few months later we were told that we needed to repaint our fence and only in the approved color.  While we were painting said fence, a member of the committie came up and asked if we had permission to do so.  I showed them the paper I was sent.  Then a year later they told us we had to replace our roof.  We got a roofer out the next week.  Another member came to ask us again if we had permission.  I showed them the paper,  they gave me attitude and I told them they needed to get their act together and communicate with one another and stop harassing us.  They just never expected us to be on top of things so quickly.  We sold our house a year later because we were tired of them nit picking everything.

[Imaoldhippie]

IMO homeowners associations are Nazism at its best.

[151949]

I live in a planned community with an HOA. At first we had a real gestapo style HOA - got rid of that - we actually got 60% of the residents to sign a petition to impeach him - but the next HOA was the polar opposite.Very milktoast. You could see some properties going downhill because the owners were up north 9 months of the year and the HOA wasn't keeping up with things. 4 of the 5 of them quit last Jan at our annual mtg. and we got 4 new folks. So far they seem to be much better than the milktoast people but certainly not anything like the gestapo ones.Keeping fingers crossed we may finally have the right mix of people.

We pay $217/month and for that we get pool,spa & clubhouse. Outside of our house painted every 7 years or if needed in between, new roof every 20 years, lake maintainence ( keeping down the plants and algae in the lake, fountain maintainence etc) landscape maintainence incl. grass cutting, basic cable TV - which is over 400 channels, and gates over the 2 entrances to the plan, though no wall or fences to keep anyone totally out of the community. You can't drive in but you could easily walk in. Also, because of the gates the road is considered private property so maintainence of the road is on the HOA. We also get things like insect and grub control, if they keep the grubs down then there are a few different animals that stay away like armadillos. There are things here in Fl called tree rats or roof rats and they do put out traps and other things to control  those. they trim all the trees and landscaping, owners are to call to have trees trimmed and are fined $1000 if they trim their trees, because some homeowners trimmed their own and they looked horrible. So you can see we really get our $217 worth. We've lived here 8 years and the HOA fee has only gone from the very low $200 the builders charged to $217.

I wanted to add - pet rules - no pit bulls, rotweillers or dobermans, or mixed breeds containing those breeds. Only 2 pets per household and they have a right to come in & check if that is in question. All pets must be on a leash. The only pets allowed are certain birds - dogs and cats- so no exotic lizards, snakes , rodents, chickens etc etc. Absolutely, positively no feeding feral animals.

[GingerPeach]

You can't impeach an HOA.  HOA stands for HomeOwners Association.  It is a set of rules, not a person.  Maybe you can vote out a board member or board officer according to the rules of your association.  Or you can fire your management company and/or property manager, if any.  Or they leave at the end of their term and new volunteers or new elected board members start service.

And you can also change your CC&Rs (the rules for the property), the Bylaws (the rules for the actual organization - typically a non-profit corporation of whatever type your state deems), and the Articles (the document establishing the corporation).

All states have rats, whether of one type or another and coastal states are notorious for roof rats.

[BalletBabe]

I personally would not.  They tell you what colors you can paint your house and everything.  The other thing is that the fees go up yearly so remember that.  You are only allowed to put your trash at the curb for so long and stuff like that.  Why buy a home that someone is going to tell you what you can or cannot do? 

[riley1]

@lovesrecess - Forgot to mention - if you are planning on living on a golf course, be prepared to have either golf balls in your yard or broken windows - that is your responsibility to repair.

[deeva]

We live in a gated community with acHOA, and like most things, there are pros and cons.

I like that we can’t leave their trash cans out all week or that cars cannot park on the street overnight. And I don’t want to live next to someone with a pack of untrained yapping animals.

It’s frustrating trying to sell a home when your next door neighbor has junk cars or knee high weeds in their yard.

[GingerPeach]

The complaints about not being able to leave your trash cans out as long as you want seem pretty strange to me.  Why would you want to do that yourself and why would you want to live near someone who does that?

And what's so odd about having restrictions in paint colors?  Do you really want a purple house or a lime green house next door?

And what's so odd about not allowing noise from either humans or pets?  It's pretty standard in most city or county codes anyway.

Some of you just don't get what an HOA is all about.  This is not to say that there aren't some board members who are looking for trouble (we have one of those on our own board), but the other board members are supposed to keep that in check.  

It all depends on your own community.

There are too many generalizations presented here, and especially by those who don't understand how a good HOA can benefit a neighborhood.

And no, fees DON'T automatically go up yearly.  It all depends on your own community.    You have to find out how much your state allows assessments to go up per year WITHOUT a vote, and WITH a vote.  These are very different amounts.  

[jannabelle1]

I've been in my town home with an HOA for 11 years and haven't had any real problems. Years ago there was a maintenance guy who had been around forever and he thought he was the "enforcer" of non-rules. Fortunately he's gone and the board hired an excellent property management company. Not all HOA's are horrible - ours is easy to deal with and we seldom hear from them except for notices of meetings. I agree that it's a good idea to try to talk with current owners and get their opinions about the "activities" of the HOA. Some are just fine and don't exist to create problems for homeowners.