Post your HOA horror stories here
- Thread starter Donald
- Start date
Dat Cujo?
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2021
- Messages
- 744
None here. Our little 7-house HOA is great. We pool money for plowing and mowing, and have accumulated a substantial sum towards future paving. Meet once a year for cookies and catching up.
Our HOA has only 3 "officers" now and down from 5. 3 is the legal minimum so if any of the old ladies died we would be illegal to operate any further.
My previous house which I sold to my parents for my younger sister to live in doesn't have one but would be better if if did.
A home down her street got remodeled with white dutch lap siding and a brown roof. Another home owner painted the shutters and front entry door violet on a brown house. One house has 3 work trucks and a Dump trailer sprawed out. There is one guy that never closes his garage door with car and motorcycle junk in the garage. Like he's looking for an excuse to shoot someone at 2 AM. I'll have my sis get a pic and update this.
A home down her street got remodeled with white dutch lap siding and a brown roof. Another home owner painted the shutters and front entry door violet on a brown house. One house has 3 work trucks and a Dump trailer sprawed out. There is one guy that never closes his garage door with car and motorcycle junk in the garage. Like he's looking for an excuse to shoot someone at 2 AM. I'll have my sis get a pic and update this.
My HOA has 25 or so houses and no more room. No pool or club house, just two storm control ponds and a tiny gatehouse for packages. It has a gate that I would like to see the access control system updated. Basically every owner has a remote like a garage door opener remote. UPS and every service provider in the county probably knows an access code to punch in.
Every house I have bought in Austin and San Antonio comes with HOA. It is part of buying a newer house everywhere here.
All of them have basically left us alone, and you pay a few hundred bucks a year for a clubhouse, pool, gym, and some community activities, tennis courts, etc.
The kids have Santa come to town, and the easter bunny, and I get to walk to a clean pool and gym.
All of them have basically left us alone, and you pay a few hundred bucks a year for a clubhouse, pool, gym, and some community activities, tennis courts, etc.
The kids have Santa come to town, and the easter bunny, and I get to walk to a clean pool and gym.
Neighborhood where my sister lives. Guy never shuts the garage door and in my opinion, is itching to shoot someone at 2 AM.
The HOA where I live only allows side load garages.
We are in two and we and our circles have never had a problem. One just maintains the common areas, entrance gardens and swales and the other does that plus a small beach and boat ramp (having our own ramp makes any issues with the HoA worth it). They are led by good folks with the right motivation. Other folks have had issues, but through their own choices; not maintaining the house, hiring a mercenary sitework company to clear common areas and wetlands to put in a tennis court for example...in short stupidity with some arrogance thrown in,
I generally hate HOAs. They steal your money, and encroach on basic freedoms. Heard a lot of bad to horror stories, and had a few myself.
Worst was when I complained about the design of the water runoff in our condos and the HOA refused to re-route it. I got a flooded basement, standing water, mold remediation teams, etc. Major hassle, very expensive. The HOA slow-walked the very expensive payments it had promised, leaving me with a massive headache, and ultimately a lien against MY home by the water remediation team that the HOA "forgot" to pay for months. Very aggravating, I had to jump through many hoops to basically do their job for them.
I recently left an HOA neighborhood that seemed overly concerned that I put my trash cans away 24 hrs after pickup, but my neighbors entire front lawns looked like trash dumps which they called "kids toys" - what an eyesore. Disabled vehicles on the streets, boats, trailers, barking dogs, kids let loose to terrorize the neighborhood, ATVs up and down the streets and sidewalks, loud noises, etc. etc. but they decided my trash cans were fine-worthy and harassed me over it. Unreal.
HOAs are generally filled with small minded, nosey neighbors who feel the need to have unwarranted power over you, collect a fee so they can exist and have a fulfilled life, and generally act as little power hungry dictators picking and choosing who to harass.
Worst was when I complained about the design of the water runoff in our condos and the HOA refused to re-route it. I got a flooded basement, standing water, mold remediation teams, etc. Major hassle, very expensive. The HOA slow-walked the very expensive payments it had promised, leaving me with a massive headache, and ultimately a lien against MY home by the water remediation team that the HOA "forgot" to pay for months. Very aggravating, I had to jump through many hoops to basically do their job for them.
I recently left an HOA neighborhood that seemed overly concerned that I put my trash cans away 24 hrs after pickup, but my neighbors entire front lawns looked like trash dumps which they called "kids toys" - what an eyesore. Disabled vehicles on the streets, boats, trailers, barking dogs, kids let loose to terrorize the neighborhood, ATVs up and down the streets and sidewalks, loud noises, etc. etc. but they decided my trash cans were fine-worthy and harassed me over it. Unreal.
HOAs are generally filled with small minded, nosey neighbors who feel the need to have unwarranted power over you, collect a fee so they can exist and have a fulfilled life, and generally act as little power hungry dictators picking and choosing who to harass.
X2. I don't need a pack of nosey people spying on me.No HOA here
One of my favorite subjects as the only thing I probably hate more than getting kicked in the cojones is HOAs. I will live in a cardboard box in a back alley in the bad part of town before I live in an HOA. It's my property, I pay for it, not you, so you have ZERO say in what I do with my property. If I want to paint my front door yellow or put a lawn flamingo in my front yard, I'm going to do it. If someone has a problem with it, it's their problem.
Anyway, story time...
1A. - Old military friend bought a house in an HOA in late 2019. He's a nurse in the ER, working very long shifts throughout the pandemic. He got a fine from the HOA because his grass was 2-1/8" tall. (HOA rules = 1-2") There was a picture included of someone holding a tape measure in his yard to show the grass height. He was upset (and a bit disturbed) by it, but paid it and moved on. He hired someone to cut the lawn every 3 days since he's rarely home.
1B. - Same guy got another fine just a few weeks later, this time for "parking vehicle on lawn." It included a picture of his truck where the outer tread of his driver side back tire was just touching the grass at the edge of his driveway. He raised hell about it, but they wouldn't budge.
1C. - Same guy, a month later, got yet another fine for "working on vehicle on property." It included another picture, this time from the angle of his driveway through the 1-1.5 ft gap in his garage door that he had open for ventilation in the summer heat. He was just changing the oil in his truck. That same week, he moved all of his stuff into a storage center, moved in with his uncle, and put the house up for sale.
2A. - One of my wife's friends lives in an HOA that was bought out a few years ago by some sort of real estate firm. They immediately put in place a lot of ridiculous and unreasonable rules. One of them was that noone in the HOA could own a vehicle, to include motorcycles, that are more than 10 years old. They gave the residents just 3 months to comply. Her vehicle was a 12 year old Camry. (In good shape, only about 80k miles, clean car) Getting another vehicle just wasn't in the cards for her financially. Just 2 days after the window closed, she got a $150 fine on her door for her car, and continued to get the $150 fine every month until she got a newer vehicle. A guy lived 2 houses down who had a beautiful, perfectly restored, late 60s Camaro. (I forget the exact year) This thing was Barret Jackson quality prestine. The new HOA management didn't care. They started sending him fines for his "old" vehicle. He and his wife put the house up for sale and moved away.
3. - My wife's friend's mom died of Covid about a year ago. She traveled down to Florida for the funeral. While she was gone, someone put a sympathy wreath on her front door to show their condolences. She came home the following week to fine the wreath and a $175 fine for having a wreath on her door. She pleaded with the HOA management to drop it since she wasn't even home to do anything about it and a friend had put it on her door. The HOA replied "It's your responsibility to inform your visitors of the HOA rules so the fine stands." She was in tears.
4. - Former coworker got a fine from his HOA, along with >60% of the homeowners, for having their trash can out by the road. They took their can to the roadside that morning before work, the trash truck ran at ~9am, the fine imposed at 1pm, and he doesn't get home from work until after 5pm. The HOA management refused to negotiate, saying cans should be removed from the roadside as soon as the trash is picked up and if they can't be home to do it themselves personally, they have to make arrangements to have it done. This was the boiling point for the neighborhood after a series of petty violations had gone around. The homeowners rebelled and placed more than 40 of their cans in front of the management's office while throwing bags of trash out in the road in protest. The management backed down and voided the fines.
When we were house shopping a couple years ago, our realtor was trying hard to get us to look at houses in HOAs. We were insistent that it was a dealbreaker. If it was in an HOA, we wouldn't even consider it, the answer is no. Yet, she kept asking...
R: "What about resale value?"
Us: "This is the home we're retiring in. *** do we care about resale value?"
R: "What about good school districts?"
Us: "We homeschool so that means nothing to us."
R: "What about restrictions to dangerous dog breeds?"
Us: "We have a pitbull so that's exactly the kind of stupid rules we're trying to avoid."
R: "What about good neighbors?"
Us: "What someone does on their own property, that they pay for, is none of my business and vice versa. Also, if my neighbor can smell me grilling in my backyard, they're too close. The point is to not have close neighbors."
R: "What about community?"
Us: "You mean paying a monthly fee to a coalition of Karens that look for any reason to give out petty violations? No thanks!"
Anyway, story time...
1A. - Old military friend bought a house in an HOA in late 2019. He's a nurse in the ER, working very long shifts throughout the pandemic. He got a fine from the HOA because his grass was 2-1/8" tall. (HOA rules = 1-2") There was a picture included of someone holding a tape measure in his yard to show the grass height. He was upset (and a bit disturbed) by it, but paid it and moved on. He hired someone to cut the lawn every 3 days since he's rarely home.
1B. - Same guy got another fine just a few weeks later, this time for "parking vehicle on lawn." It included a picture of his truck where the outer tread of his driver side back tire was just touching the grass at the edge of his driveway. He raised hell about it, but they wouldn't budge.
1C. - Same guy, a month later, got yet another fine for "working on vehicle on property." It included another picture, this time from the angle of his driveway through the 1-1.5 ft gap in his garage door that he had open for ventilation in the summer heat. He was just changing the oil in his truck. That same week, he moved all of his stuff into a storage center, moved in with his uncle, and put the house up for sale.
2A. - One of my wife's friends lives in an HOA that was bought out a few years ago by some sort of real estate firm. They immediately put in place a lot of ridiculous and unreasonable rules. One of them was that noone in the HOA could own a vehicle, to include motorcycles, that are more than 10 years old. They gave the residents just 3 months to comply. Her vehicle was a 12 year old Camry. (In good shape, only about 80k miles, clean car) Getting another vehicle just wasn't in the cards for her financially. Just 2 days after the window closed, she got a $150 fine on her door for her car, and continued to get the $150 fine every month until she got a newer vehicle. A guy lived 2 houses down who had a beautiful, perfectly restored, late 60s Camaro. (I forget the exact year) This thing was Barret Jackson quality prestine. The new HOA management didn't care. They started sending him fines for his "old" vehicle. He and his wife put the house up for sale and moved away.
3. - My wife's friend's mom died of Covid about a year ago. She traveled down to Florida for the funeral. While she was gone, someone put a sympathy wreath on her front door to show their condolences. She came home the following week to fine the wreath and a $175 fine for having a wreath on her door. She pleaded with the HOA management to drop it since she wasn't even home to do anything about it and a friend had put it on her door. The HOA replied "It's your responsibility to inform your visitors of the HOA rules so the fine stands." She was in tears.
4. - Former coworker got a fine from his HOA, along with >60% of the homeowners, for having their trash can out by the road. They took their can to the roadside that morning before work, the trash truck ran at ~9am, the fine imposed at 1pm, and he doesn't get home from work until after 5pm. The HOA management refused to negotiate, saying cans should be removed from the roadside as soon as the trash is picked up and if they can't be home to do it themselves personally, they have to make arrangements to have it done. This was the boiling point for the neighborhood after a series of petty violations had gone around. The homeowners rebelled and placed more than 40 of their cans in front of the management's office while throwing bags of trash out in the road in protest. The management backed down and voided the fines.
When we were house shopping a couple years ago, our realtor was trying hard to get us to look at houses in HOAs. We were insistent that it was a dealbreaker. If it was in an HOA, we wouldn't even consider it, the answer is no. Yet, she kept asking...
R: "What about resale value?"
Us: "This is the home we're retiring in. *** do we care about resale value?"
R: "What about good school districts?"
Us: "We homeschool so that means nothing to us."
R: "What about restrictions to dangerous dog breeds?"
Us: "We have a pitbull so that's exactly the kind of stupid rules we're trying to avoid."
R: "What about good neighbors?"
Us: "What someone does on their own property, that they pay for, is none of my business and vice versa. Also, if my neighbor can smell me grilling in my backyard, they're too close. The point is to not have close neighbors."
R: "What about community?"
Us: "You mean paying a monthly fee to a coalition of Karens that look for any reason to give out petty violations? No thanks!"
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Never lived in an HOA and never will.
About the only way to get a new house in this area without an HOA is to buy land and have it built. Which is what I did.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
All HOAs are not the same. We moved into a new house in an HOA in 2018 and the only complaint I would have is the HOA doesn't enforce their rules enough. You guys who say my property do as I please are right up to the point where what you're doing affects your neighbor's quiet enjoyment of their property. This HOA sends out a letter spelling out the violation and gives a deadline to fix it or stop it or whatever. No fine on first time. I've got a couple, good for a LOL. My next door neighbor got a violation letter for an RV on the street overnight, it was my truck and trailer covering the front of our property and overhanging hers by 5'. We had a good laugh and she called the HOA and set them straight and told them our trailer was allowed in front of her property. They actually have a rule allowing an RV to be in front for 36 hours or something if you give them notice, our trailer was out front for 14 hours overnight while we loaded it and left in the morning. I didn't give notice and may or may not in the future if I remember. Oh well.
No doubt there are HOAs out of control as mentioned above and those are the ones you hear about on the news but I'll bet the vast majority are pretty much invisible. The rules are plainly spelled out and we were fine with them or we wouldn't have bought here. For some reason some people don't really read the rules or don't plan to abide them then complain.
@Donald, hope you get your problem resolved. People can be stupid when it comes to their dogs.
No doubt there are HOAs out of control as mentioned above and those are the ones you hear about on the news but I'll bet the vast majority are pretty much invisible. The rules are plainly spelled out and we were fine with them or we wouldn't have bought here. For some reason some people don't really read the rules or don't plan to abide them then complain.
@Donald, hope you get your problem resolved. People can be stupid when it comes to their dogs.
Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Where I lived in Mesa it was just right. You can work on your car outside, paint your house any color, no permission needed to change the landscaping, etc. but you can report a neighbor easily online if their yard is an absolute forest with weeds. I reported a neighbor once because they had an absolutely dilapidated 90s Oldsmobile parked on the street that was clearly junk for 2 years. There was weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement because the street sweeper couldn't sweep it. Once there was a weed that was tall enough it was tickling the bottom of the side mirror I went online and did the report. They got rid of the car 3 days later so it worked out well.
