Went against the HOA

HOAs are typically a money grab for the few in charge. They use the funds for their projects etc. The board members always have expensive work done around their homes and properties. Then when new members are selected it starts all over. The old members projects suddenly end….. Our HOA president can’t even trim grass around his house or planting beds but took it upon himself to check my property markers when I had a fence installed. There’s other neighbors that are renting a house with multiple tenants. He’s too chicken to address them….
 
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A past HOA just about evicted me for 3 pieces of split firewood on the patio for a day or two. Not a cord, not a half cord, not a wheelbarrow full, just 3 pieces. You'd think I was Satan himself.

The firewood burned just fine in the fireplace, and was gone. Yet the HOA attack continued for months.

The interesting thing is, they were still talking about us 3 years later. Our two honest and innocent crimes, a birdfeeder and a firewood.
 
KrisZ said:
The sides of my house needed some sort of a paved walkway as the grass wasn’t really growing there and during heavy rain it got muddy.

I decided on concrete. When the contractor came in to start the work, my wife asked if I submitted HOA for a permit, which of course I didn’t.

So, I submitted a request that same day. They took their sweet time, asked for drawings, plans, holy smokes I thought they will want a full surveyor report for this simple task. 😡
Meanwhile the work has been done lol.

Anyways, after about a month and a half, they declined it, saying it cannot be permanent. What a joke.

Now, my story is I bought the house this way 🤫🤐


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But they allow a privacy fence??
 
PontiacHO said:
HOAs are typically a money grab for the few in charge. They use the funds for their projects etc. The board members always have expensive work done around their homes and properties. Then when new members are selected it starts all over. The old members projects suddenly end….. Our HOA president can’t even trim grass around his house or planting beds but took it upon himself to check my property markers when I had a fence installed. There’s other neighbors that are renting a house with multiple tenants. He’s too chicken to address them….
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Well ours never had that. Our treasurer was a straight shooter and she had strict rein on the books, which was OK by me.

But agree, the behavior is so typical!!
 
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Pablo said:
Well ours never had that. Our treasurer was a straight shooter and she had strict rein on the books, which was OK by me.

But agree, the behavior is so typical!!
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You’re in a good neighborhood then. The oldest homes in our neighborhood aren’t 4 years old yet. They’ve never trimmed their shrubs. But-they don’t mind telling me everything they despise about the south and how it’s done “back in New Jersey”. My standard answer is the road heads back north….
 
Pablo said:
HOA once. Previous house.

Two stories:

1) We had some candidate and referendum signs in the front yard. Came home, thrown on the porch. No note, no email, nothing. Turns out the prez did that. Didn't like our leaning. Well guy around the corner was the precinct chair. Read the crazy lady the riot act. There is NO overriding the 1st Amendment. By fed. state. local. HOA. Nope! Hahahahhaha. I put mor signs up. And yes after election took them down.

2) We had some OK rules about nice roof materials (which means expensive of course). We all griped about it but used the good approved roofing material from GAF (as I recall). OB were cedar shake, houses built in 1996.......anyway there was this hoity doity RE agent on our street. Her husband owned a ton of DQ franchises. They moved away to a big, rich, giant mcmansion area (whatever) - but kept and rented/leased the house out. Renters were fine folks, but anywho - the cedar shake was getting a little ratty. So Ms. Megabux, used some really cheap look alike composite shingles that had almost zero 3-D architectural look. And were NOT listed. Same HOA lady from sign incident....."well there is nothing we can do..........." BUT "no one better use those low cost shingles". I was like WTH?? My Neighbor across the road was violently angry, I mean stinking steamed. That shingle meeting was fun! HOA prez lady moved to Tennessee six months later.
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Moved to Tn. to screw it up. I'm sure they will be glad to have her. I hate HOA's but lived in 3 houses with them. I made a lot of money on each house. It does keep property values up. In one of them the board tried to outlaw kids on bikes on the "bike paths". In the community plans they are shown as bike paths. But we had to fight it to get them to back down.
 
No comment on the HOA issue but in my thinking that looks like you may have created a water issue. I assume it was dirt before but now, depending on the rain direction and amount, it might be an issue. I think a French drain between the sidewalk and the foundation might have been a good idea. I know, water already under the bridge but that’s my input.
 
Cujet said:
A past HOA just about evicted me for 3 pieces of split firewood on the patio for a day or two. Not a cord, not a half cord, not a wheelbarrow full, just 3 pieces. You'd think I was Satan himself.

The firewood burned just fine in the fireplace, and was gone. Yet the HOA attack continued for months.

The interesting thing is, they were still talking about us 3 years later. Our two honest and innocent crimes, a birdfeeder and a firewood.
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Had a horrible Karen running the HOA on a condo we bought for son’s college - double happy feeling when he was done …
(Sold immediately) …
 
I recently had a customer install a beautiful rear patio with a water feature and a fire pit and grille. I installed the gas line and water all with a county permit. Several months later I get a call from the customer saying he has to have the gas line disconnected and water capped off. Come to find out his HOA would not permit it and they required him to abandon it. I am sure he put 20K into it. And it was done beautifully.
Now yeah he should have checked with the HOA... but man what a hit.
 
PontiacHO said:
You’re in a good neighborhood then. The oldest homes in our neighborhood aren’t 4 years old yet. They’ve never trimmed their shrubs. But-they don’t mind telling me everything they despise about the south and how it’s done “back in New Jersey”. My standard answer is the road heads back north….
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That was a previous house. Now we are in the county. Anything goes!!

Crazy dogs, animals mating wherever, couches being burned, target shooting, old carpets buried about..........you know. Normal stuff. hahahahaha
 
The last HOA meeting that I attended, I sat in a chair in the back row, on the very end. I showed up 15 minutes before the meeting began.

I was just messing around on my phone, until I realized that the board members up front, were openly complaining about ME, to everyone else in the room. They never mentioned me by name, but the topics/details/conversations were very familiar. And they were too stupid and too careless to realize that I was actually in the same room with them.

The apology call that I received from the HOA President (a lawyer, no less) the next morning was one that I will never forget. They had no idea that I was there, until someone looked at the names on the sign-in sheet, well after the meeting had ended.
 
Pablo said:
That was a previous house. Now we are in the county. Anything goes!!

Crazy dogs, animals mating wherever, couches being burned, target shooting, old carpets buried about..........you know. Normal stuff. hahahahaha
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HOA is a double edged sword. On one hand, there are some ridiculous rules that really don’t matter to mist people, on the other, it keeps the neighborhood nice. If I’m in a neighborhood where I can easily see my neighbors on both sides I want an HOA.

My Neighboor is renting his house out. It’s been vacant for months. He had let the grass grow nearly a foot. Weeds even taller taking over the flower bed. His house maybe ten feet from mine. Made my house look like trash too by association. Then he almost rented to some pretty shady characters I met, but the HOA required a background check and they failed. I decided to have a few talks with him along the way and he apologized it was Just out of sight out of mind. But.. he was a little late as I guess the HOA fined him on a bunch of stuff.

New renters are in there, great family. I’m happy the yard looks 10x better. If folks took care of things and picked reasonable modifications to their residence we wouldn’t even need one.

Ohh another thing the HOA caught, someone moved out and turned their house into an Air B & B. Parties all the time, cars blocking the street, straight trashy. No short term rentals bylaw ended that. I don’t care what people do with their property when they lives hundreds of yards from you but when we’re right on top of each other and you gotta live with it you’re glad some HOA rules exist. Some are overkill for sure though.
 
I can honestly say I’ve never seen a gas line ran through concrete like this in a residential setting, but honestly other than that I see zero issues.

On a side note, I don’t get complaining about a HOA when you chose to purchase a home there. I will say we have some friends who lived in a non HOA neighborhood that had a new HOA neighborhood go in behind them while they lived there. It was essentially a wooded area with a nice creek prior to them coming in and dozing everything. The new HOA went after him as well as his neighbors wanting them to start obeying. Definitely a strange thing.. they sold a few years later and moved.
 
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