Why I can't stand living in a sub-division: Crews Demolish Mailbox

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Check out this story: Crews Demolish Mailbox

I really don't care who's to blame as it sounds like both sides are at fault in this case. I can't deal with a mailbox causing such a fuss. For the love of G0d, it's a mailbox! There are so many other problems facing society and a mailbox gets the limelight.

I'm still looking for a piece of property where I can hang laundry in the backyard. Our subdivision doesn't allow that. I live on the edge of the country and can't air-dry my clothes in my own back yard. Weird.
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I'm tired of having some really old white-haired guy at a desk in City Hall tell me what I can and can't do with my property. I'm the one paying taxes and making sure it's well kept. Right? So if someone wants a brick mailbox, give them a brick mailbox. It's not like the guy had a few rusty school buses cluttering up his yard!


Text of linked article:
FRANKLIN — Sullivan Farms residents Darin Giese and Karen Smith were taken by surprise Wednesday when two men, accompanied by a sheriff's deputy, used sledgehammers to bust apart their brick mailbox and tore away a shed from the side of their house.

The men had been hired by the Sullivan Farms Homeowners Association, which carried out a court order to remove the mailbox and the shed. After clearing away a pile of bricks and rubble, the men erected a wooden post and left Giese and Smith with a mailbox that matches the other mailboxes on Braveheart Drive.


The association had filed a lawsuit against Smith in June, claiming that her brick mailbox and shed violated the neighborhood's covenants. The couple never responded to the lawsuit, according to court records, and on Nov. 23, Williamson County Judge Russ Heldman ordered that the association could remove the mailbox and shed.

"I know it's much ado over a mailbox, but we wish it hadn't come to this," said Edward Schell, attorney for the association. "My clients tried their best to work this out before going to court."

Giese said he thought the case was still in the negotiation phase, and thought he had until Jan. 30 to remove the mailbox and shed himself. Now he and his wife are faced with having to pay $2,600 to cover the cost of removing the brick mailbox and shed and $2,325 in legal fees.

"We came home yesterday morning and this was the first we'd heard about it for a while," Giese said on Thursday. "We had a message on the machine from the homeowners' association guy saying, 'We're going to be there to tear everything down.' "

In a letter dated Nov. 4, the association told Karen Smith that she must remove the shed or face fines and more legal action.

Smith's attorney, Alan Smith, said he never received correspondence about the case because letters were delivered to his old office and never made it to his new office. Court records show that Heldman's final order was mailed to Karen Smith, but not sent to her attorney, who is her ex-husband.

"My client was not advised as to the progress of the case," Alan Smith said. "In technical terms, this was done without adequate notice."

On Dec. 22, Alan Smith filed a motion to set aside Heldman's order, which stated that Karen Smith thought the case was going to mediation, and that he was not aware the matter had been set for a final hearing.

Stewart Heath, president of Southland Management Co., which manages the association, said Karen Smith was denied on three requests to construct the brick mailbox. Heath said the association sent Karen Smith several letters.

"They never attended any mediation hearing or court dates that had been set," Heath said. "I had the order since November and waited until after the holidays to do anything. Their attorney promised they would have it done this past Monday. They failed to do it."

Schell said Alan Smith and his clients had plenty of opportunities to appear in court, file motions or discuss the case. He suggested that Alan Smith could have given the court his new address.

Alan Smith said his mail was supposed to be forwarded from his old address to his new address, but it wasn't. He said he'll take the blame for "dropping the ball" in not filing a response to the lawsuit and missing court dates. But he's pointing a finger at the homeowners association's strict interpretation of its covenants.

Giese pointed out that just several streets away, in the same subdivision, mailboxes were all brick.

"I think the pursuit of this was overly aggressive, and this reeks of a personal vendetta to me on the part of the homeowners' association," Alan Smith said. "It goes back to concerns Karen had with respect to school zoning issues."
 
quote:

When you move into a community with covenants, it is to preserve a degree of uniformity and to prevent anyone's property from falling outside the norm.

I guess that is fine if you are afraid that your neighbor will paint his house polka dot colors, or you don't like the sight of clothes on a clothes line, or don't like metal/plastic swing sets in the back yard.

I would hate to live under oppressive rules like that. But, it represents a mutual agreement among all in that subdivision to abide by the rules.

So, if you don't like those kinds of rules, you should not move there.

You say that in jest, but its true. In our neighborhood, we had someone paint there house yellow with green shutters without contacting the HOA. They had to repaint the house the very next week.

Our house IS and investment. When I go to move, and lets face it everyone moves more now than they did 20 years ago, I want to recoupe my money. If the next door neighbors parks a boat, a camper and five cars (two that are running) in the front yard (a 200 sq ft yard) (two of the cars with front wheels in the yard and back wheels in the street, I don't want to live there and neither will potential buyers.

By the way, my example above of the cars/campers/boats in the yard is not fabricated...they lived down the street from me in my old neighborhood.
 
Makes me glad I live in an area where our yards are measured in acres and if I want to do something to or on my property I don't have to ask anyone (other than my wife!).
 
When we moved to our house in Virginia there were some bushes that were very unsightly and actually obscured the roads. We were going to have them removed when the weather got better but about 3 weeks after we closed on the house we got a letter ordering us to cut the bushes.

So I went to the hardware store and bought a chain and pulled them out with my F150. All the neighbors were out there cheering me on. (The bushes were really ugly)

It took about 6 months to get all those wholes in the yard picked up.

But by the time we left it was looking really good.

I kind of agree, if the mail box didnt' configure, get it out of there. Same with the shed and what not. If you dont like it move!!
 
HOA blow, they make lots of rules to protect property values... you hanging a pair of 501's in the backyard makes it look trashy, like a ghetto and brings property values down by tens of thousands, or so they think... buying a house in a subdivision is like leasing a car.... it's never really YOURS
 
Drive around Alabama, you can have a million dollar house next to a trailer with 4 cars on blocks and 20 dogs tied to the front porch.

I'm not 100% of HOA's but in some circumstances they work okay. I've been in 2. The one I'm in now and the one in Virginia, I never had any problems.
 
msparks,

You speak the truth. Alabama is funny that way. It's sort of like a 3rd world country. There's a lot of what you describe within a couple miles of the WW estates.

From where I'm live , you can see the million dollar homes & the trailers. At least from the confines of my palacial estate
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, I can't hear the dogs barking from the trailer park down the street.
 
Someone actually did paint their house yellow, up the street here.

A brick mailbox would work really well her, with the kids who like to go around smashing up the metal ones, every so often.
 
mikemc, for sure!

quote:

I remember back when nobody cared about what color you painted your house, or if you put up a basketball hoop above your driveway, etc.

Back then a house was a home first and foremost. A place you live and maybe raise a family.

Now it seems many people consider a house as just and investment, and "house value$" are more important than anything else. They buy a house and immediately fret over how much they can sell it for in the future.

The thing is, people dont work for one company and stay in one place anymore... and a lot of that isnt the peoples' fault. Cant blame them for worrying about values in situations like that.

Another consideration is that people are stuck (yes, you can make the argument that you can move further away, but in reality, that $uck$ BIGTIME and is NOT really an option for many people) buying homes that are MUCH more expensive these days. In the old days, buying a home that is 2x or 3x your salary was the norm for most folks. These days, a home that is 2x or 3x your salary isnt anything. I dont blame anyone for having more interest in values... Obviously if you buy a timex watch, youll use it, and not care much if it gets hit, scratched, lost or stolen... If you have a rolex and any of these things happen, you'd be upset. Same principle here.

The real problem, IMO is that people have very little care for others or for general common courtesy. As a result, rules must be made... Like anything, they can go overboard, and often will.

JMH
 
There are people in the world who have nothing better to do than sit around and worry about that kind of crap. That's ridiculous.
 
When you move into a community with covenants, it is to preserve a degree of uniformity and to prevent anyone's property from falling outside the norm.

I guess that is fine if you are afraid that your neighbor will paint his house polka dot colors, or you don't like the sight of clothes on a clothes line, or don't like metal/plastic swing sets in the back yard.

I would hate to live under oppressive rules like that. But, it represents a mutual agreement among all in that subdivision to abide by the rules.

So, if you don't like those kinds of rules, you should not move there.
 
I remember back when nobody cared about what color you painted your house, or if you put up a basketball hoop above your driveway, etc.

Back then a house was a home first and foremost. A place you live and maybe raise a family.

Now it seems many people consider a house as just and investment, and "house value$" are more important than anything else. They buy a house and immediately fret over how much they can sell it for in the future.
 
This reminds me of my wife's aunt and uncle... they moved into a rather expensive sub in Troy, MI ( I won't say nice, because I don't think the house was worth 1/2 what they paid for it) and promptly went to war with their neighbor over the neighbor's *bird feeder*. they won, but I found it incredibly petty.

I for one will never live in a deed restricted sub, an apartment complex is bad enough, but I don't own that.
 
My neighbor didn't like the rust on my last car or the toys in another neighbor's driveway. I didn't mind that she wrote a letter castigating my car to the association, he!!, I enjoyed wearing that badge.
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I was mad that she would deny children their fun. A child is entitled to a much joy as possible, life isn't much fun later on and we all grow up soon enough.

This neighbor should move to an adult community if she does not like kids. I'll help her pack.
 
IMO, a lot of the problem is all the people who in reality arent all that well off, and in reality dont have a pot to pi$$ i, who all of a sudden think theyre high end because they have a prada handbag and drive a BMW or big SUV. Theyre better than you, so guess what? They could care less about the reality of the situation, same as they could care less how many peoples' time theyre wasting. It makes them feel good and superior.

JMH
 
I kinda figure a home without a HOA is worth more to my wife and I. I know a few people who live in HOA some like it some dont.

Really, if I cant mow the lawn for a few weeks It makes some one elses home look much better!
 
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