We’re currently renting a nice house in an upper middle class neighborhood.
The landscaping around the house annoys me somewhat, because there is a section of grass in the front near the street and a larger section of grass in the backyard. We’re in a desert. Of course, there are rules from the HOA telling us how often we have to water the grass to maintain the appropriate level of green.
So, we’ve been watering the bare minimum that we can get away with.
There are also a number of trees and flowering shrubs in front, along the sides of the house, and in the backyard. These are desert-adapted plants. That makes me happy.
Last week, we received a notice from the HOA.
This is a planned community created and governed by deed restrictions. The purpose is to ensure that your neighborhood continues as a well-maintained community with enhanced property values.
The following non-compliance issue with respect to your property was noted:
It has been reported that bushes are missing. Please install additional landscaping in your front yard pursuant to the Design Guidelines or approved landscape submittal. (emphasis as received)
Bushes are missing? I would love to know how many we are supposed to have. And how they counted. The large number of flowering shrubs between our driveway and the home to the west are firmly on our side of the boundary. There are many additional shrubs directly in front of the house and in the yard to the east. (And I am super curious about all the homes on the street that have fewer shrubberies than do we. Indeed, some have none at all, and only a couple cactus or century plants. Did they all receive notices?)
Well, we’re renting. The only time this becomes my problem is when the landlord has people all over my space to install more shrubs. That aren’t needed. That I am then responsible for watering.
So, tonight’s poll: HOAs. Do you have one? Would you ever own a home where there is one? Would you be the neighbor who tattles when someone’s grass is 1/4″ too tall? Or walk around counting shrubs?
Discuss!
Not in a HOA — being at the end of a dead-end street with a 1000-ft driveway means nobody sees the house.
Not quite 1000ft, maybe half that, but ayup. Also never see the neighbors’ house. Leave me in peace, I’ll leave you in peace. Great neighbors, never have to talk to them.
Good fences make good neighbors – Frost
Oh, and when the time comes that I have to move, I’d like to avoid a HOA.
Not that I can afford that sort of hoity-toity house.
Life in South Florida was very weird for me when I moved here. it is pretty much all city. So not only are most developments from the last 30 or 40 years an HOA, they also almost all have a gate with a guard. I hated the experience of having to call from the guardhouse to get permission to drive up to my friend’s house for a visit. Sitting there just cooling my jets while they take down my license tag and copy down my driver’s license. I’ve gotten more used to it in the years since, but when I moved here it was the most intrusive thing I’d ever experienced. Somebody literally monitoring your coming and going.
And I began hearing stories of the HOA people who had nothing but time on their hands for causing people grief. So I told my realtor “No gated community, no HOA.”
I’m glad I live in the kind of neighborhood that doesn’t have a gate.
But the city here is almost as obnoxious as an HOA with their code enforcement. They have rules on everything, including grass mowing and grass watering.
And I have learned that there are positives to having a gate. We have a lot of transients who wander through the neighborhood. And I’m all for freedom… but I’m not all for a bunch of street people casing the joint.
I’m treasurer of our HOA. It’s the second board I’ve been on. It’s quite successful but not as great (rich) as the one in Fort Worth.
An HOA is like anything else: if you don’t like the idea, don’t buy into one.
if you don’t like the idea, don’t buy into one.
Easier said than done around here. Most houses built after 1980 have HOAs in this area. In many towns it is mandatory to establish HOAs for new builds.
This is the problem. Government has made BOSs mandatory in some areas
HOAs. WTF autocorrect
One seldom knows how enthusiastic the HOAs before buying.
Many seem to be run by retired slavers with little to fill up their time but fucking with other people.
Apparently, we’ve just bought a house in Edmonton (actually, a duplex) that is in an HOA; but HOAs in Alberta are decidedly different than ones in the U.S.
An HOA in Alberta appears to be minimally-invasive, and exists mostly to deal with such things as landscaping/grass cutting and (in the winter) snow removal, thus allowing the members of the HOA to lock up their property and bugger off for months at a time to warmer climes. The much more onerous Condo Board (called a Strata in British Columbia) is where your tin-pot wannabe dictators really shine, and specify all that crap to the Nth degree.
We specifically avoided boards/stratas. The HOA fees are cheap, whereas the condo/strata fees tend to be four times as high or higher, due to the existence of an awful lot of “common areas” that require maintenance and that we most definitely didn’t want to pay for.
And I couldn’t care less if the neighbour’s grass is longer than ours (it won’t be anyways, since the HOA cuts the grass of everyone at the same time every week). I don’t tattle on my neighbours right now who are defying the seasonal water restrictions here in Pitt Meadows.
I thought China owned BC already, if not Vancouver
Nah, mostly just Richmond (“Rich Man”).
The legal term in California is “Common interest development”. A duplex would fall under that category because there’s a common wall and roof. Not quite as invasive as a formal HOA.
Yes. Yes. N/A, our HOA is responsible for lawn maintenace. I don’t care what anyone else does in the community as long as it doesn’t directly affect me.
As a side note, they are also responsible for roofs. I’m getting a new roof in the next week or so. ?
I’m in the roofing business.
HOAs tend to restrict the options a person has on their roofs.
Some are easy to deal with and others require a month long review process where each member of the board gets to vote on each Homeowners choice individually.
It leads to a lot of politics as to who can choose their new roof color.
Some get approved and some don’t.
It’s all in who you know.
Heh, last re-roofing we did we ran out of black shingles, but someone had some brown shingles left over, so up they went, without anyone’s consent but mine.
Good job on recycling the leftovers. I see a few houses in my neighborhood with “brother-in-law” shingles, too.
When I bought my house 22 years ago, directive number one to our agent was “no HOA.” I was a bit resistant to having some pissant tell me what to do even then.
Now get off my (kinda scruffy) lawn.
No x4
Not just because I am an apartment creature – and therefore have no “landscape” to care about. Just the idea of submitting to bizarre demands like “you must install these bushes” from a bunch of officious pricks rubs me the wrong way. It all smacks of infantilization to me.
SP gets it from the HOA; you get it from DeBlasio.
Yeah but in comparison it’s relatively minimal, unless you’re a crazy person who lives in a “historical district”.
– Nope, in fact I don’t even have any neighbors or anyone except the local junior high school.
– Depending on the particular HOA’s terms and conditions, I’d be willing to consider it.
– Nah, the only time I’d get pissy at a neighbor would be if they let their pets do their business all over my lawn or they are actively and purposely messing with my house/property.
I live in a homeowner’ association. We live in the country. The association owns and maintains the well system that provides water to all the houses. The association also covers the insurance for the two small parcels of common land.
The covenant requires all the houses to be a minimum size; have both a minimum number of stalls in the garage; prevents anyone from raising livestock on their property; and prevents anyone from running a business that would negatively impact their neighbors. The covenant also requires all the houses to look different.
The covenant is automatically renewed every 20 years or so. It takes a super-majority of the owners to change the rules, where the new rules take effect with the covenant renews once every 20 years. It takes a super-super-majority to impose rule changes that take effect in three years from passage of the new rules.
If anyone breaks the rules, the members of the association, jointly or individually, must sue in civil court. The association has no other means of enforcement.
Our covenant is extremely lightweight and is nearly impossible to change.
I don’t like them because fuck off, slaver. But the one time I did have an HOA it wasn’t too bad. The fees were only about $40/month, which paid for the pool, tennis courts, basketball courts and a park, which seemed pretty reasonable. My neighbor was on the board, and he helped keep the control freaks at bay.
The answers to all the questions are no. We live in a rural area with enough rules/regs/taxes emanating from the county. I would not/could not live where HOAs exist, not my nature. They might tell me I couldn’t have bees or shoot a gun or what color not to paint my storm door. Another petty bureaucratic entity. Here the Lake Property Owners form their own sort of HOA but the rules aren’t enforceable and not mandatory, at least not until they run to the nearest town board/city council with their ideas
I understand that when you buy into some areas it comes with a HOA, just not my reclusive, introverted libertarian personality.
Oh yeah, I don’t live on a lake so no problem with those folks either
Once upon a time I lived out in the country south of Tucson, AZ. I am right in line with Forescore here – no HOAs for me.
I once let the stripped down, cannibalized hulk of a pick-up truck sit rusting on my land for about a year for no other reason than I could. I only had one neighbor adjacent to my land and we got along well.
Parking is at a premium in our development, narcing out someone who’s broken ass, out of inspection, and hasn’t moved in 6 months car is violating the rules? Yeah, I’ll cop to that. Though I had no idea who the car belonged to.
Pretty cunty
I park in the driveway (cuz I pay the mortgage – aka, “shitlord”).
Having to listen to my gf bitch about some possibly abandoned hoopty taking a space she could park in? That directly affects me.
Judge accordingly.
‘It has been reported that bushes are missing. Please install additional landscaping in your front yard pursuant to the Design Guidelines or approved landscape submittal. (emphasis as received)’
Okay, so I take it the previous renters or the current property owner failed to abide by the HOS’s stipulations prior to your agreement to rent said property. If so, how the fuck is that your problem? If anything, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to be up to code before the home can be legally rented out. At least, that would be the case in a sane world.
P.S.
If they somehow meet the HOA’s definition of shrubs, plant these and invite the HOA’s members and their kids over to dig into your organic garden.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/bulbs/lily-of-the-valley/lily-of-the-valley-toxicity.htm
The planting will not be our problem. The watering and maintaining will be.
At that, the worst HOA we ever dealt with was in Austin. Our neighborhood was like 80% immigrant Asians who dominated the HOA and had a Confucian attitude. They’d actually walk around with rulers to measure your grass height. We got dinged once because I pulled the weeds in the front, went around back to do the same, and while I was back there, they came around and cited us because I hadn’t swept up the front yet.
I…for fux’s sake! The combination of unobtrusive rural and shitty urban conditions I’ve lived in for the majority of my life makes that level of neighborhood driven oversight on how you maintain your own living space completely foreign to me. Even if I ever found myself in a situation where I could afford to live in such an area I would never do so. Regardless where my career took me.
Yeah, it sucks donkeys. Unfortunately, rural rentals are pretty much non-existent where we’ve lived, and urban is unworkable due to cost and having an extra large and barky Wonder Dog. So it’s been suburban living, and HOAs have been omnipresent.
Water restrictions are something you learn to live with in this part of the country; lots of people get fed up with it and just tear out the sod in lieu of rocks and/or natural plants.
As far as HOAs, it’s a doubled edged sword. My last house didn’t have one and it was great to be able to do anything we wanted without asking “mother may I?”. However, there were some truly run down, ugly and dumpy homes that would not have been allowed by an HOA.
My current place has an HOA; it’s the first time I’ve had one. So far they seem pretty reasonable and the dues are low ($30/month, includes snow removal and trash pickup). However, I can definitely see how if you had a shitty HOA it would make your life miserable. Things like that always attract wannabe petty dictators.
Ours is run by a professional property management company. Seems to really keep the crazies out of power.
I’ve had the chance to be on the board. Meh. They re doing a fine job without me.
“However, there were some truly run down, ugly and dumpy homes that would not have been allowed by an HOA.”
Wow, you just described my house. I don’t care what my neighbors do nor do they care what I do. Some like lots of outside decorations in the form of cars/trucks/assorted equipment and I don’t give a rip. Young and lower income folks have to start somewhere and can’t necessarily afford all the amenities right away.
Tres Sr. and my Step-Mother moved into a house some years ago, in a development that had an HOA. Their 1st move? Get on the board, and subvert activities from the inside.
#ThatsMyDad
“Their 1st move? Get on the board, and subvert activities from the inside.
#ThatsMyDad”
Your dad is a congressman?
Nope. He was never elected.
However, he is a self-interested, grumpy, pseudo-libertarian.
Once, on a trip to our Nation’s Capital when I was a teen, we were standing on the corner waiting on the light to change. A homeless guy saw he was smoking, and walked up to bum (intended) a cigarette.
10 minutes later, when my Dad finished lecturing him on “individual responsibility” and “why do I have all the cigarettes and you have none, and why are you asking me for a handout when you could be working and making money to get your own cigarettes”, I think the guy decided my Dad was more insane than he was, and started walking away.
At that moment, in a very Dad move, he gave the guy his whole pack of smokes. Walking away, he mumbles, “great, now I need to find a place to buy some fuckin’ cigarettes.”
I’m picturing Marvin from RED.
I like your dad.
True story, too
Tres Sr. will literally give you the shirt off of his back if you need a shirt, but it comes with a lecture about why you dont have a shirt and why he has worked to have a closet full of shirts.
. . . subvert activities from the inside.
“Exxxxxxcellent, Smithers!”
Awful.
A really bad deal for home owners; perhaps the worst deal in the history of deals.
Horrible.
Okay, I’ll bite. Who are you, why are you channeling Trump Tweets, and for what purpose?
Oh, and a obligatory ‘Hi, Tulpa!’.
For two years the FAKE NEWS MEDIA has been saying I am Tulpa.
Witch hunt!
I give a giant middle finger to people who RIP on city nice, yet put up with this nonsense to live in the burbs.
Mice!
People die atop piles of urban mice?
Nothing says cowboy like pissing your panties over clothing designs.
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/wrangler-fans-slammed-brand-boycott-lil-nas-x
Saw that. Twitter strikes again, raising idiot tweets to another goddamn “national conversation about race” we’re supposed to be having. So fucking tiresome.
Second
I’m guessing this is one of those a couple people threw a fit therefore that represents an entire group stories
They all are.
No, not by choice (far too much new construction is covered by a HOA), no, and no.
My ideal would be at least a 100acres with the house more or less dead center.
I’m with you. With my own shooting range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLEYZGntFMU
640 acres, house dead center.
Four sections, house dead centre. ;-)
A friend of mine in New Mexico was ranch foreman for a celebrity back in the day. He had 6000 acres. It was just about perfect.
centre? CENTRE!? CANADIAN!
I built mine in the middle of a 40, some laughed. I am a lucky and happy guy. Then I bought the 40 next door. We’ve taken a lot of deer over the years off the property.
I’d happily live on 500 acres in the middle of nowhere. My wife wants to be in contact with civilization and be in a neighborhood.
There are a few 2 acre, 5 acre, and 10 acre neighborhoods around here, but HOAs loom large.
Id prefer something like this, must I compromise.
We have one. I would classify our neighborhood as middle to upper middle class. A mix of young white collar second home buyers and older blue collar established families. I’d say if you were forced to have an HOA, ours is the one to have. They are lax on the rules, they never fine anyone for violations. I’m sure they’d do something if some one had an extreme violation, but they ignore the small stuff. Fence rules a bit dumb but we’re voting on changing that. They require cedar picture frame fences which is an awful design, they retain and melt away within a couple years.
Forgot to say I’d prefer not to be in a HOA. Wouldn’t mind some acreage but still near the city.
But they keep the moths away.
They require cedar picture frame fences which is an awful design, they retain and melt away within a couple years.
“I wanna TEST-ify!” Yeah, our neighbourhood’s lousy with ’em, and they do indeed fall apart quickly. Installed brand-new panels three years ago after a particularly nasty Pacific storm blew a few apart. Now they look like shit, and have no strength left in ’em.
Not my problem in another three weeks, though.
Just realized I’m missing a word in that post. Should be retain water I’m sure you got the point.
Reminds of me the siliness in the old HOA back in my hometown. They wanted all the houses to have wooden (now chain-link) fences, but they forget it’s South Florida and a decent hurricane won’t give a damn.
Do you have one?
-No
Would you ever own a home where there is one?
-I’ve fired Realtors for showing me houses in HOAs before. That said, if it was a nice enough house and an unobtrusive enough HOA, I would consider it as a last resort.
Would you be the neighbor who tattles when someone’s grass is 1/4″ too tall?
-No, but sometimes I’d wish that my neighbors wouldn’t park their broken down minivan in their front yard or let their giant ass bush grow to 15 feet tall and cross the property line or do things that cause 20 some armed gorilla’s decked out for war to storm the neighborhood.
Or walk around counting shrubs?
-dafuq? I’d be tempted to show them my bush if I got a notice like that.
We have an HOA and so far except not being able to park our very new and very nice trailer in our driveway, has been docile.
Iplan on appealing to the board to allow the trailer that is our livelihood (wife’s business) with ammunition from all my neighbors that agree it isnt an eyesore.
I
In Winchester MA you can’t park a vehicle with the name of a business on it that’s visible from the street. City ordinance, no HOAs around.
Thats just odd. Especially in todays business climate
I’m the VP of our HOA. I’ve never liked them but when I look back, I’ve lived in an HOA neighborhood for over 30 years. I figured the best way to keep the board in line was to be part of it. We use a management company as much as possible. Our CC&Rs are like a quarter inch thick. Take care of your shit, get approval before you make changes to your house that can be seen from the street and don’t leave your garbage can on the street all week long. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
I lived in one for eight years and I , too, joined the board to keep them in line. I served as President for the last two years and we were a pretty mellow group. We used a great technique on those residents who would show up to meetings and say “I think you should do such and such..” We reminded them that we were a volunteer organization and would be happy to appoint them to a committee to research, etc. said “such and such.” As you could imagine, 95% said they didn’t have the time and we never heard about doing their “such and such” again. Only major problem I remember is some (((lady))) kept leaving the kids’ filled wading pool out overnight on the common sidewalk. Finally a few neighbors bitched after tripping over it in the dark and we ordered her to take it in every night. Said she would sue us because we were anti-Semites, etc. etc. but, of course,
complied instead of being fined.
Nope. Maybe — some of the HOAs here have little/nothing to do with individual properties but are just a way of handling snowplowing contracts / private roads. Nope. But if a neighbor’s animal came onto my property and started tearing up the place, I might have it impounded the third time it showed up.
I have never lived under an HOA. I’ve been strictly houses most of my adult life. I barely deal with the city, state and federal laws, much less some whack-job neighbor. I’ll count my bushes right after you pound some sand.
No to all. I moved to the country to limit the number of involuntary restrictions forced onto me. There’s no way I would voluntarily seek another layer of government. I can do anything I desire with or on my property (shoot guns, hunt/fish, have a large garden/orchard, extensive fencing, run livestock, burn trash).
My neighbor are free to trash or upkeep their own properties as they choose. I have 30 acres, so it doesn’t affect my life either way. They actually do keep their yards very nice, but I went ahead and planted about 500 trees as a privacy screen.
I bet you wish these ladies were on your HOA board IYKWIMAIKYD.
https://thechive.com/2019/05/23/burn-your-bra-and-join-the-revolution-40-photos-22/
2, 5, 14, 20, 30, 40. Thanks for las tetas bellas.
If I could get a place it wouldn’t be HOA, I’m heavy on the leave me alone side of things, but there’s seems to be some value in a homogeneous look in a neighborhood, your choice really,
We have one. I was on the Board of Directors back in the late Nineties, for two years. Our covenants aren’t bad, just a scooch above city ordinances.
I don’t think it’s either good or bad, just a matter of freedom of association. We had to agree and sign a contract for the covenants when we bought the house, so we knew what they were. If we hadn’t thought they were tolerable, we’d have bought a different house. Same applies to everyone, far as I can see.
Every cat its own rat.
That’s what chaps my hide. People buy a house, have to sign a form that says they received and understand the CC&Rs, and agree to follow them. And then they get upset when they get a letter when someone notices their house is being prepped for painting, or somesuch bs. It ain’t the Board that made the rules, it’s the residents that live in the neighborhood.
Yep. The houses in my neighborhood sell before the sign goes up. I don’t find the HOA regs onerous at all, because I far exceed them anyway.
I have heard so many bad stories about HOAs that I don’t think I could live in one.
I grew up on 200 acres of bluff top land. Now I’m a city mouse. We are blessed with pretty good neighbors, but I miss the wide open spaces. And the morel mushrooms.
We had illegal chickens in our yard for a couple of summers. It’s not illegal to have chickens, but I didn’t bother to apply for a permit. The permit was expensive and the chicken inspectors were more stringent than building inspectors.
The only time I ever sat on a jury was when this lady bought a house in the country. The first thing she did was tear out the windbreak (tall trees). Then she decided that she didn’t like the resulting view of the neighbor’s building property, so she filed a complaint to the county. He had an old beat up truck with a trailer full of reclaimed lumber and corrugated sheet metal roofing. He had just bought several telephone poles and was going to build a pole barn to store stuff in until he could get his house built.
I had to listen to the county code enforcer talk about all the inane rules:
– an immobile vehicle is one that hasn’t moved in 72 hours and is visible from 3 sides,
– piles of building supplies can be habitat for vermin
– codes are for the greater good
It was illuminating to me just how shitty people can be. From the complainer, to the code enforcer, to the judge who specifically warned us against jury nullification.
After the trial (he was found guilty, fined $50 and forced to move his stuff), I rode out to see the place in question. Her property looked worse than his.
Fuck him.
Return a verdict of not guilty for the defendant, a verdict guilty of being a public nuisance to the code enfrocement and the complainer, and a verdict of guity of contempt of court for the prosecutor and judge for wasting the public’s time and taxpayer money.
I don’t care if the jury can’t return verdicts on cases not placed before them, give it as a message to the judge.
I do not have an HOA and emphatically refused to even look at houses with an HOA before buying this one. Why not? Because there really are people who complain when the grass is a 1/4″ too tall, and go around counting shrubs.
On topic – I despise HOAs, or anything that restrains what you can do with your own property.
Like gravity?
A necessary Evil.
Off Topic, I spent the past few hours formatting “Beyond the Edge of the Map” for print.
I spent half an hour fighting with page breaks in the export… only to realize I kept checking the wrong output file. I’d actually fixed the problem and kept trying to fix the problem because I wasn’t looking at my real output.
On the plus side, I learned a few new things.
I do not have an HOA. I live in a neighborhood with a citizen’s association. It mostly arranges meetings with local pols so we can complain about the sidewalks and potholes. According to the last statement, 80% of the budget goes to the picnics they arrange. In other words, 80% of the budget goes to beer. I love my neighborhood.
I never have lived in an HOA and I shall never live in one.
My current house has one, my last didn’t. Like many of the previous responses, I don’t think it’s bad or good. Also, I got involved early on, as did other newcomers to the neighborhood, because the current regime were too dickish and inconsistent.
After squaring away some contentious issues, things clip along just fine. Our association is 84 houses, so it’s pretty damn big, but it works.
My ideal, though, will be my heavily wooded home in the mountains somewhere.
One with, one without – necessary evil and my personal choice.
2 with. Whatever; I like golf courses.
My “off grid” semi retirement interest…. Still in an HOA.
I live in an apartment, but I couldn’t see living in an HOA. Other than the nice look, grass is kind of a waste. If I ever get a house, I’d definitely want to live somewhere where (at least) my backyard could be made into a garden (fruits & veggies).
In Minnesota, I had a large flat expanse of green grass, with flowering plants bordering it. Lovely, but lots of water and chemicals went into it to keep it nice.
Now in much drier inland/upland San Diego, I’ve got succulents, cactii, and about 60 dwarf fruit trees on a heavily terraced front and back yard. No grass. A small dribbler style watering system aimed at the root of each tree or rose bush.
Both are nice looks, but you have to be realistic about your prevailing climate.
I keep the ‘grass’ cut and I have lots (LOTS) of flowers. I say ‘grass’ because it’s weeds. Whatever. I have planted tons of bulbs plus peonies and generally have blooms from early March to November. Starts with crocus and ends with dahlias. I like flowers, so why not?
I don’t water. I figure if something does well, I plant more. If it doesn’t, oh well. End result is lots of flowers and low maintenance.
Good philosophy. I had the gardener/aborist that the neighbor uses come and pull out the weaker trees and plants, properly devide up the thriving ones, and replant them where the new bald spots were. Seems to work.
And the oranges! Oh, the oranges! Year-round. The apples have a shorter harvest but cannot be beat.
Oranges would be awesome. I am jealous.
Flowers are fine, too. A warm welcome in front of the house. I just have an issue with grass. Mostly useless, unless you have cattle or horses, or you just want a nice looking suburban… meh. I’d like to live somewhere it’s not an issue.
Hi-X: Desert-scaping can be really pretty, and is (obvs) much better suited to the climate.
Considering your handle, not a shock. And why not indeed? Still far better than grass.
Lol! My lawn is 30,000sqft.
You all live in an HOA (hint, that’s what government are), Unless you have conquered and held your holdings independently you are living under an HOA. The level of control may vary, the means by which they implement their rules, likewise, but none-the-less under the thumb you are. Sadly “Might makes right”, it’s a bastard of a truth for libertarians but it’s a truth none the less.
Speak for yourself.
I am a government-in-exile.
Let 7.7 billion nations bloom!
Word.
I hold allodial title to the stack of playboys in the basement.
Mine or yours? Because I’m pretty sure mine is a stack of Cheri and Oui.
I hold my alloidal title when looking at them, too!
The government is not an HOA.
You have to own a home to have a vote in an HOA.
No HOA despite living in a townhouse. All my neighbors are militant anti-HOAers.
When I was househunting in Greater San Diego (North County) last summer, I avoided HOAs. But the realtor found a house that had an HOA but thought we’d like the house. I asked how much the dues were, and he said $35 a year. I figured that meant they couldn’t be too micro-managey for that low a fee, so I bothered reading the lengthy rules. Most of the money is dues to take care of the community pool and golf course, and the rules were pretty much common courtesy rules.
We ended up buying the house.
I don’t know if it’s because the neighborhood is mostly 1975 or what, but I suspect it’s more because it’s on a hill and can’t really be expanded into the valleys/chasms surrounding, so there’s no need to price out the riff-raff more than the mortgages already do. There’s not even a through-road, just a road from I-15 up the hill and around the neighborhood like a lasso. Cozy.
$35 a year for the pool? That won’t even clean out the pee from a single visit.
You don’t even want to know what I pay to swim here.
I think the people in this neighborhood would never dream of peeing in the pool. They’re too old-fashioned polite for that.
For the golf, you still pay for each set of 9 holes. but you are automatically a member and pay member rates.
Oh, geez. I pay $35 per MONTH, not per year. Duh.
Huh. I didn’t know you were a camel.
Trump just issued a memo giving Barr power to declassify docs as part of his FBI investigation.
Even more important, intelligence docs. Brennan is currently looking for property in Argentina.
I suspect there are a lot of clenched sphincters and empty scotch bottles around D.C.
The two people I desperately want to see do the perp walk are Comey and Brennan. I doubt I’ll get my wish. They’ll be able to come in the back door away from the media.
They are far enough down the food chain to be sacrificed. Clinton in handcuffs is my dream, but I’ll take what I can get.
Hey! Did you guys know this dude had dope in his butt and shot himself in the ‘nads?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/man-accidentally-shoots-himself-in-testicles/
Did you bottle your mead?
Several weeks ago. I think I’m going to pop the first bottle this weekend.
I look forward to hearing how it turned out.
Me too. I really enjoyed the small sample I poured when bottling. It looks like a bumper crop of raspberries this year, so this will be a good option.
What this will really help me with is deciding if I like it fermented out dry, or want a touch of residual sweetness. That will determine bottle conditioning, versus the 1gl keg.
I find that anything I make with honey needs at least a touch of sweetness. Some meads with apples and cherries taste great semi-dry (about 1 Brix residual sugar). But most of my meads are semi-sweet to sweet.
In his butt.
What would really be great is if he had 13 felony convictions!
Was this after he told his dying grandfather that Trump was getting impeached?
Damn you!!!11!!!
Appreciate this moment of almost perfect synergy. This is a Libertarian Moment™.
??
Did he tell his dying grandma that Trump was impeached?
To answer your questions; no, no, hell no, and that is asinine.
I understand that in some places they are necessary. And many people like their HOA’s. But the Stepford Wives shit SP just related is why I would never live in one.
Yeah, no HOA was one of my criteria for the house. The citizen’s association is voluntary and only $20 a year. Yet, every year after a snow, someone is complaining on nextdoor about how nobody shoveled. According to the president, it’s always someone that isn’t part of the citizen’s association. Smh
I’m thinking you’ll like this. We’ve had a cold spring so they only just opened in the last day or two.
Plants that can’t be eaten should never be planted on purpose.
Nikki?
O, Maybe, it depends.
I don’t and never had a HOA, I would not have a problem with one if it was reasonable to me. I don’t like houses that typically have a HOA, but who knows. I’m usually not a prick about most things, except when it affects me directly.
Once something affects me directly I’m a relentless PITA.
My first paragraph got cut off.
Never lived in a HOA house, I don’t think i would like it unless it was a small group of landowners agreeing with how to use or pay for commons( lake, road, etc).
When a person reads the comments at Glibertarians.com for the first time.
Pussy.
Like I commented in another thread, we must weed out the weaklings. Only the strong and bold may survive this wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Not an HOA, but I live in a historical district. So, we have some of the same restrictions as an HOA, but 1)I bought the house knowing it was here and 2)I am living in a historical for a reason, and that is the look and feel of the neighborhood. Actually, the only restriction is we have to apply for permission to change anything physical about the house. That doesn’t mean you can’t do something, but you have to have a historical point of reference. In other words, you can’t put in new windows, change doors, what have you. Other than that, we can do what we want; paint colors, landscaping.
All that said, I used to work with an older guy who loved his HOA. No one working on beat up cars parked on the lawn. So, it takes all kinds.
I know how I felt when my municipality had a say on my fence height and my reaction to the code enforcement officer.
I was out of the country when my kitchen was being renovated. The code guy dealt with my wife and he got a rash of shit from her when he held up work for two days to count drywall screws. I would be in court or jail if I had to deal with him.
He started fishing for other stuff to check like the porch I rebuilt earlier in the summer outside the scope of the permits he was checking on.
At one point he told my wife “ you know what makes good construction and keeps ladies like you from getting ripped off, codes.” She laughed in his face.
Christ, what an asshole!
This was after he made a change to my crawl space that would require $3K of additional cost.
I met him a few times in the past, I never got a permit again unless there was obvious work being done by professionals. All my work always done via stealth.
Asshole.
I’m surprised that codes enforcement officers aren’t discovered in ditches more often.
Oh, they’re in ditches, alright.
It’s just that the ditches stealthy enough to hide the bodies aren’t up to code.
I image a few are rebar in some concrete foundations.
Back when we lived in TX, evidently the code enforcement guy got a bit snoopy and ended up in some guy’s backyard uninvited. The homeowner came out and confronted him for trespassing, to which the code enforcement guy started arguing with him. The argument ended very quickly when the homeowner chased him off the property at gunpoint. Code guy was much less zealous after that.
Your wife is probably too honorable to have filed a complaint that code officer made suggestive remarks to her and smelled her hair.
That famous Stanford prisoner experiment comes to mind.
I guess they want to keep property prices up, but that’s why we have the Fed and Congress, right?
No, environmental laws and zoning.
I don’t know about Ya’ll but I’m going to live on my non-permit, smoker too close to the house, high fenced back deck all weekend.
Here here! I have a pork shoulder ready for tomorrow and two racks of ribs for Saturday.
I don’t have meat for this weekend, but my brother and his family are coming to stay over, they’z more high-falooten then me, so I’m sure they’ll have something they’ll want me to smoke.
I’m planning for a pork shoulder and a Chuck roast this weekend, but I’ll see what’s on sale at the restaurant supply store.
We’re headed into a patio remodel that includes a cover that ties into the roofline and an outdoor kitchen. The contractor started into his “ahem, this is what we plan on doing” speech. I flipped to page 2, saw the initial quote and declared, “holy shit!”. His complained, “you’re not going to listen to anything else I have to say”. We’re still going through with it, but damn. On the plus side, the President of the HOA and I both agreed that no approval is needed. And my kitchen will include a grill, smoker and wood burning pizza oven.
‘Contractor’, that’s one of them rich people words. Just buy some beer and invite friends over, done.
That does not meet Shitlord standards. Being a Shitlord in a Shitlord neighborhood, there are conventions to be acknowledged.
The forms must be obeyed.
My housing situation is very complicated and like me a one of a kind thing, and for all the crazy stories about living here, I don’t want to live anywhere else.
Straff,
My good friend purchased one of 5 bottles of Hakushu 12 year old in NYC and left 3/4 of it at my house. It’s a great Whiskey.
fondly remembers how that 12yr old tasted…I’m talking about whiskey you sick fucks!
You’ve got better friends than I. That stuff would travel home in their bellies.
He manages to leave a bottle of scotch each visit. He is a generous and forgetful friend.
He will be here in a month and my plan is to do a Scot h and Wiskey tasting with all of his leavings.
You have an excellent friend.
The directive marked an escalation in Trump’s efforts to “investigate the investigators,” as he continues to try to undermine the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe amid mounting Democratic calls for impeachment proceedings.
Okay…undermine exactly what? That there is no there there?
Are you quoting something? Or just screaming on a virtual soapbox?
I believe he is quoting this totally not biased article the AP put out.
The same people ‘familiar with Trump’s thinking’ that told us all this Russia shit was true? *hearty chuckle*
Again, I’m not a Trump fan, look to the NEXT EXCITING EPISODE! of The Hat and The Hair: Animated. But damn, I’m not in a coma either.
Yeah, well just you wait until the Trump tax returns come out! Look, there’s his W-2 from the Russian FSB. And, what’s this, a business expense taken for “Hookers and Blow Party for V. Putin?” And what about the “Business Trip to Berlin to lay wreath at site of A. Schickelgruber’s funeral pyre?”
I was kind of disappointed ‘The Americans’ didn’t end with Trump taking over for the lead characters. Wasted opportunity.
I never would have thought Trump would be the president intent on declassifying anything. Yet here we are. Let’s make popcorn.
About 12 years ago we moved out of the development with an HOA. Nice to be out of it.
She seems nice.
https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/05/23/takala-first-amendment-terrorism/
Ann Ravel has erased with few vestiges of rationality she may have had left. She is full on statist communist at this point.
So you’re saying she will be easily elected?
I think she’s too emotional to hide her whackery. More likely, a position on a couple of proggy company boards.
We are Mr. Boogedy.
Oh, she’s running in Cali, yeah sounds about right for that crypto-soviet state.
Snopes calls this one: “Incontrovertibly, gargantuanically false”.
Definitely time for more popcorn. I wonder if any elected Chicago official will get burned.
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2019/05/23/ouch-heres-why-a-judge-ordered-jussie-smolletts-case-records-unsealed-smackdown-alert/
I have an HOA. Mostly they just take care of the community pool and community landscaping.
They’re kind of lax on rule enforcement. I suspect this is because the most egregious offenders in the neighborhood are a lesbian couple who are pretty quick to play the discrimination card if they get cited, and they can’t cite anyone else while letting them get away with stuff.
As for tattling on the neighbors, I ain’t no fucking snitch.
I’m just not good at keeping secrets.
Gott in Himmel.
Lol. Looking forward to it.
I’m very proud of using the the LGBTQWERTY flag to evoke Super Friends. I don’t consider myself an artist, but if I did, I’d be very proud of this above all else.
I definitely felt that Super Friends vibe. Good touch, man.
Some lawyer will be contacting you shortly to “discuss” it.
I’ve been around long enough I’m not some 20 something youtuber that gets mad when my video completely made of other peoples’ content except my monotone voice talking over it gets flagged for copyright.
“Say it ain’t true, Joe”
Say goodnight, Gracie
I’m in the market to buy a house and I told my realtor that if she sends me a single home with HOA restrictions then we’re done. There have not been any problems so far.
I get *why* people would want to form, build and live in an HOA but damned I want to deal with that tomfoolery. If a guy can get can’t drunk and pass out under a decrepit Camaro on cinder blocks in his own yard…
Late to the party.
We have a HOA (actually a POA). We’re in a remote area in the forested mountains and the POA provides water and plows the roads in winter. The type of people who like to live where we live are mostly the “leave me alone” types so there are no measure the grass types around. Come to think of it, I cannot think of a single house that has a lawn.
We’re supposed to get committee approval for home improvements but I’ve turned my basement into living space (and am working on the attic), wired my garage for electricity, installed an RV dump station that ties into my septic and built retaining walls of railroad ties all without begging permission. A couple of years ago I rebuilt my deck and replaced all of the siding on the south facing wall of the house. It is the side that faces the road so pretty much everyone in the subdivision saw what was happening. Crickets from the POA.
We’re all so apathetic around here that there are often only two persons running for the three positions on the board.
Timely. We are currently having problems with our HOA. We rent, it’s NYC and we ain’t the Rockefellers , but we have a rather nice beachfront home with a yard in a recent build out (2011). Our landlord’s HOA is full of motivated busybodies – Asian 1st time homeowners and multi-unit owning rental investors. On the plus side, all the neighborhood streets are private and the towing of cars without parking passes is aggressive (a very important factor when the rest of the city flocks here for the Summer), and they maintain a nice neighborhood playground, provide ALL snow plowing and shoveling, and have nicely manicured common areas if one is into that sort of thing (full disclosure – I HATE the waste involved in keeping a golf-course level of landscaping green right next to the North Atlantic). On the downside, they have recently decided to switch the residential parking passes from a permanent mirror hanger to a decal that must be renewed yearly.
I know a lot of people hate HOAs as they exist today, but honestly I could see HOA-like entities being a substitute for government on things like roads, sidewalks, streetlights, and perhaps even utility lines. If government didn’t do these things, developers who build these new subdivisions would have to construct them; they’re not just going to stand there and scratch their heads wondering how to solve this problem of having built a bunch of houses that lack roads or power lines. Buying the house could require that you join the association and pay for the upkeep of the roads and utilities.
It IS pretty fucking silly to mandate a certain number of bushes or the type of fence that must be constructed, but people should be allowed to buy into whatever contractual arrangement they want to. Naturally, it shouldn’t be mandated by the government as some have mentioned, but they should allow a robust housing market that offers plenty of choices. Some developers would cater to those who want no HOA; others could use the regulations as a selling point for those who want to live under such an arrangement.
All that being said, I can somewhat see the appeal recently due to some asswipes next door purchasing an extremely loud minibike that they ride in the backyard almost every day. Also some other neighbors who have visitors who pull up to the house and walk inside while leaving their cars running with their stereos on full blast. I might consider joining an HOA if 1) it consisted only of regulations on excessive noise, and 2) it were explicitly stated in the charter that no further rules would ever be implemented.
Yeah, live in one. Wouldn’t call our interactions with them common, nor, fun, exactly. Was renting the house prior to buying it, and the purchase/decision to buy was somewhat quick. Since I’m not the one who handles the bills, I’m not quite sure what we pay.
If we had our druthers, we wouldn’t have one, but, we’re OK with the way things are, for now. The appearance of lop-sided enforcement (them and city) is what chaps my hide, if anything. But, it would take quite a bit before I got even close to nit-picky on anyone else.
Also, mornin’ to all of you.
..and a Good Morning back atcha…
Good lord you are up late.
Early, my friend. Stayed up 24, and slept overnight. I will reverse it on Saturday.
Thought I would broaden my horizons with day-walking with glib friends.
I don’t have an HOA. Where I live is all old houses and established neighborhoods, as in at least a hundred years old, We’re in the city proper, so the city government’s really the only people we need to deal with like that. Mostly people take care of their property around here to the extent they can. There was one guy whose place sort of went to shit, but nobody really bothered about it. There was one person who had to snitch to the city about his grass length or something, and they came out and cited him. Well, turns out he’d be recovering from some serious medical situation and hadn’t been able to do anything, so, you know, fuck the snitch.
When we bought the place I was firm: no HOA. When we get our next place, an HOA wouldn’t be a deal breaker for the right place, but a.) I tend to like places that aren’t in neighborhoods, and b.) everything else about the place would have to be perfect. I have this naive belief that if I buy property I subsequently have the right to do what I want with it. If ownership means anything, then it has to mean the freedom to dispose of the thing owned in whatever fashion you see fit. I’m deeply, deeply resentful of being told what to do, especially by some bunch of officious busybodies from down the street.
With that said, I’ve heard plenty of good things about HOAs that basically just pay for a snow removal if it snows, take care of common areas, and pretty much leave people alone. And in principle I can understand wanting to keep the appearance of the neighborhood you buy into from changing or devolving. I just think that shouldn’t trump the rights of the owner of a piece of property to actually own their property. And when issues do arise I think the best way to deal with them is to just go and talk to the people involved.
Late to the party
No current HOA, nor never lived in one, nor any place with covenants on the land.
I currently live in in town, in a pre-hoa, pre-covenants era subdivision built out from 1955-1980. About 95% of people in the area take decent care of their property, but they do so for a reason. This town is in comparison to the surrounding towns, a wealthy place. If I go to the next town down the highway you find a lot more run-down looking places and its for a very simple reason…those towns aren’t as wealthy.
I could probably deal with an HOA that is exclusively for road maintainer, or a static and unchanging covenants, but I really don’t want to.
I want to build but the problem I’ve found is that if you want less than 3 acres, its got covenants and/or associations.
If you want land w/o HOA/Covenant you are looking at 20+ acres of farm land which is actually rather expensive around here…at least 9k per acre and often a bit more. I’ve no interest in farming and while I know I could lease it for someone else to farm, I don’t believe it would be enough to cover the mortgage on the land.