People Share 35 Ridiculous And Infuriating Experiences They Had With Homeowner Associations
A homeowner's association (abbreviated as HOA) is an organization in a subdivision, planned community, or condominium building that makes and enforces rules for the properties and residents.
Those who purchase property within its jurisdiction automatically become members and are required to pay dues—HOA fees. And while these associations can do a lot of good, some can be very restrictive.
To illustrate how ridiculous, strange, and downright infuriating their regulations can be, we at Bored Panda compiled some of the worst HOA stories we found online.
This post may include affiliate links.
I go into work early some days to get at least some of my work done before the idiots show up. Usually before work I go on about a five mile walk with my dog. I live in a condo so I walk about a quarter mile up the road and walk around in a neighborhood.
About eight months ago while I'm walking a golf cart with actual lights and sirens pulls up in front of me. This huge old lady gets out and starts yelling before I can even get my headphones out of my ears. Turns out walking dogs isn't allowed before 7 am according to the hoa. I informed her that first of all I don't live there and second of all the streets were all public so she couldn't really do much. She responded by threatening to call the cops and have me arrested. I just told her to do whatever she felt she had too and walked away.
This really pissed her off. She started following me in her golf cart with the lights and siren going. This continued for about ten minutes until the cops arrived on the scene. I stopped and talked with them for a bit and explained my side of things. Took maybe 20 minutes before they came back over to explain what was going to happen.
In the end I had every right to walk my dog at anytime of day or night as long as I had a light when it was dark and had reflective clothing (I had both), as for her though they tested the siren which exceeded noise levels for anytime before 8 am. Then to top it off she didn't have it registered for use on public roads, and the tail lights didn't work. As I looped back around the golf cart was getting loaded onto a tow truck and I just kinda laughed the whole way back to my condo.
I am always surprised the cops actually show up for stuff like that. Here, they would tell you on the phone to mind your own business and hang up.
I think they show up for things like this in the hopes the person wasting their time is doing something like golf cart lady was
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Am I the only who read this as "walking a golf cart"? COMMAS, people. They matter!
I read "The Association" by Bently Little. After that, I vowed to NEVER move anywhere that was part of an HOA.
I love when a plan comes together - and I also love it when some HOA Nazi gets their comeuppance. ;-)
I honestly don't understand how some of these HOA's can get away with half the s**t they pull.
They don’t get challenged and HOAs are full of power tripping idiots. The rule about walking dogs wouldn’t hold weight to begin with unless the community is a gated one and the roads are private property owned by (and maintained by) the HOA Public road means public they HOA can enforce rules on the houses but the public roads belong to the town / county / state they are in.
Load More Replies... The kicker is she's trying to enforce a rule about disturbances early in the morning while blaring sirens.
and, unlike a gated community, on public roads the HOA has no jurisdiction over.
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No way in hell would I EVER buy a home in an HOA neighborhood. When looking for a home, that should be the first thing you tell your real estate agent... NO HOAs...
I was thinking that bright lights and sirens are way more disrespectful and disruptive than walking a dog that may bark at something. I guess not to the HOA...?
Over compensation for their own inadequacies. Signs of a really weak mind.
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That's what happens when you try to go against the law. "Doggie" or not, you can walk on a public way whenever you like.
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You can always tell a person's true character by giving them a little power and watch what they do with it.
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Some people just have too much free time to use on minding other people's business. Can't they get a hobby?
Rules and laws can be murky at best when dealing with HOA governed neighborhoods. A gated neighborhood even if the gates happen to be open as long as no trespassing signs are visible the trespass laws hold true. We've had issues with people from the neighborhood behind us coming in walking their dogs and not cleaning up their poo. The op of this did great dealing with this neighborhood and their uninformed hoa "enforcer".
Where the heck do you have to have reflectors and lights to walk on the sidewalk no matter what time of day it is?
I frosted bathroom window in our co-op. Pres. of association tried to find us. Took a picture of his window, made 2 copies one for him one for his wife...he was showering with a guy who showed up AFTER she went to work everyday.. She got house and ALL windows in bathroom had to be frosted..
Im convinced the only people that like HOAs are karens so they can tell other people what to do.
When someone tries to tattle and gets in trouble for their efforts.
Sounds like a retirement/destination community. Very familiar. Also, HOA. Lived in one for couple of decades. Also, I'm a retired L.E.O. with 25 years standing behind a badge. In Florida. So there's that. H.O.A.s are a double edged sword. They can be useful, but the they tend to draw Karens like flies to, well you know. Security Guards. Sigh! Knew a lot of good ones. Then there were those that demanded that a citizen "respect their authority." Except they didn't have any authority. At least not any more than the citizen. At least in Florida. At that time. They just happened to work for a security company. They just mostly called us. Like everyone else.
In Superior, Colorado where the Marshall fires destroyed entire neighborhoods the HOAs are still requiring payments for homes and neighborhoods that have burnt to the ground
Wow. They're bad enough with houses that are standing. They must look pretty damned stupid trying to tell of the owners of piles of burnt rubbish. I do believe I'd tell them what they could with their HOA payments. Obviously someone was pocketing that money and didn't want to lose it.
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What a way to start the day,I would still be laughing,,,,oh I would have recored that for years of enjoyment,,,GOOD FOR YOU
That's why I run my dogs. It never says anything about running your dog.
These self appointed cops in golf carts, often painted as sheriff’s cars, are a thing. They had them in Florida where my parents used to rent. Some like me, a white woman, gets a wave and a nod. POCs get hassled. My dad told me that many of these people are retired and do it to feel important. But it’s hard to feel important just driving around so they have to hassle people and unsurprisingly, since they are racist, they choose POCs. No one in the HOA does anything because they support keeping out the “bad element” (which most means the gardeners leave quickly after their work is done). Local police is generally aligned with them too although they don’t appreciate being called out for stupid stuff like in this case.
You should read the Raleigh NC WRAL story about the guy who sued his HOA about his dog treats in the city’s right of way, under a tree and won the case in court! https://www.wral.com/judge-rules-against-hoa-in-favor-of-raleigh-homeowner-s-dog-treat-station/20302031/ By Joe Fisher, WRAL reporter RALEIGH, N.C. — A Wake County District Court judge ruled this week against a homeowners’ association threatening to fine a homeowner for a pet snack station. The argument boils down to who has control over the city of Raleigh’s right-of-way, in this case a sliced of land between the sidewalk and the street. It's where homeowner Chuck Pringle's pet station has been for five years. “I do see it as a victory,” Pringle said of the judge's decision. Pringle loves keeping dog treats well-stocked outside of his home in Bedford at Falls River. The HOA threatened to fine Pringle $100 per day for the dog treats.
Good because I am in law enforcement, and this is exactly what I would have done!
I find it surprising that in US, something like HOAs exist. Like… I can’t even imagine. I couldn’t stand something like that, that my neighbors get to say what plants I can grow in my yard. Apparently restrictions and obligations are fine, as long as they don’t come from the government.
It seems to me that "Home Owners Association" in misapplied. When you 'own' a home you own the dwelling and any associated land. You can do what you like with it, within Council Regulations. It would be different with a group owners-ship of the land, and then one needs a Body Corporate. In this situation if the residences are free standing, the roadways and foot paths are collectively owned. It is usual that they are NOT freeways for the public. The paths and roads are maintained by the body Corporate, and they have the right to make whatever rules they cn agree on
Anyone who would live in an HOA has to be at least mildly insane. Hats off to you and to the boys in blue for knocking this B***h down a notch or 2. Aside from this, I'd love to know where the picture above was taken. Talk about a lawsuit waiting to happen, that sidewalk in no way meets any kind of code and is destined to cause someone an ankle injury at the least.
5 miles is 8km.... That's a hell of an early morning walk. Why don't I have this kind of motivation?
Reminds me of the day I was walking my dog, in my own yard, which happens to be bordered by a golf cart path. Walking is forbidden on the path and dogs are forbidden on the course, though the course is not behind my house, only the path from one hole to the next. HOA big shot going by on his golf cart stops and proceeds to ream me out for having my dog on the path, despite the fact I was very much in my own yard, and the dog's leash kept her a good 6 feet or so from the path. No cops were called, but words were exchanged.
Wait.. so.. I need to know.. was this ACTUALLY HOA? or was this just some weird lady from the neighborhood who bought a golf cart, siren, and light and just decided to patrol the neighborhood? Is there actually a difference in an actual HOA and a person impersonating HOA? Does HOA have any authority to do this with the residents of that street? I need to know.
Its amazing what HOAs try to get away with. We was approved in writing to take our rock landscape out to put in grass and they sent us a fine for $100.00 for doing that. We argued for 2 years resending the approval letter from them. Yet our neighbor dumpster dives has 6 strollers, bikes, roaches, rats, glass, broken toys in their yard and nothing. Its amazing. We also get a ton of stolen cars over here and nothing. Why is the hoa company getting 30,000 a year and does nothing. Like for two years we did not have the pool open because of covid and we was still paying them 26,000 each year.
I'm always shocked to realize how much some people care about what their neighbour is doing. I barely know my neighbours' names, I truly could care less if they decided to walk their dogs at 3 am, so long as they're not making too much noise, go for it.
That’s all that ol’ Biddy did with her remaining years is Harass people. Nice life 😑 Hope she’s happy in a very warm place in the after life.
i just imagine the lady peering out her front window looking for troublemakers so she can go yell at them. what a life.
Isn't ironic that always the people who b***h about someone doing something "illegal" does illegal stuff themselves too???
Our HOA forced us to pay thousands towards roof repair at the complex due to a hail storm that happened prior to us buying our property!. Also, an inspector checked our roof with a drone prior to our purchase and there was no damage to our roof. Insurance would not pay. HOA threatened to place a lien on the property if we didn't pay. Welcome to the neighborhood right?
Omg!🤣 Not H.O.A. experience but I once went through a stupid war with neighbors over parking ended up having to call the police and long story short the neighbors truck got towed on a friday night over a technically (was blocking shared driveway just enough to not let car in) and almost went to jail for drunk and disorderly on top of it! 🤣🤣 was a very satisfying sight to watch!
Yea I highly doubt the police showed up and wasted their time having a golf cart towed. They would have just told the lady to take the golf cart and get it off the roads and get the tail lights fixed. This story seems pretty bogus.
Yea I highly doubt the cops wasted their time to have some lady's golf cart towed away... This story seems pretty sus
That's why you shouldn't live in a community with a homeOWNERS association.
I live in a condo association in New Hampshire it's basically the largest association. We had a new management company come in that turned out to be corrupt after a few years. They in the group of board members who we feel illegally got on the board they had a special meeting and got themselves elected by a group of disgruntled owners. Still don't know whether this was legitimate nobody was willing to properly vet the signatures. They got rid of the contractor who did have some issues I'll admit and raked in the bucks by having their own staff doing all of the work. The management company was finally thrown out because of the corruption but the property managers is that they had on hand was actually having a relationship with the board president. If that's at a conflict of interest I don't know what is. There is a huge pending lawsuit that's in the works we'll see how that pans.
I'm with you when you're right. Just don't understand what her size has to do with anything. I'm HUGE but that doesn't have any thing to do with my reasoning.
Hoa's are just mini Democratic countries trying to control everything you do
Why do security guards think they are law enforcement? I assume it's because many of them fail out of police academy.
I wouldn't be surprised if this were some self-appointed Karen on patrol looking for someone to vent her anger on.
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You're given a copy of CRRs( covenants rules and restrictions) of your HOA so you can review them well before you close so you can back out of your contract to purchase if these CRRs are too restrictive for you to live with. Guess what, you're not special.
Ever heard of shift work? Screw HOAs all of em and any supporter of such nonsense. They do nothing anywhere...
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Longish story, but it makes me smile every time I think about it
My grandfather lives in a "senior friendly" HOA, he and my grandmother lived there for about 15 years, the entire time my grandma was an avid gardener, and her favorite plants were her hydrangea bushes. The HOA allowed her garden in the back of the house, and the bushes in the front for the entire time they have lived there. A year or two after she passed away the HOA board had a huge turnover and the HOA informed my grandpa that the bushes had to go, even threatening to 'forcibly remove' the bushes. Well, grandpa is a retired federal appellate judge, he has lots of free time and he LOVES to argue. He has told my uncle and I on multiple occasions that after grandma died he really found no joy in anything, but now he is only alive to spite the HOA and loves every minute of it. A year ago he spent about 6 months drafting response letters for every single violation in the HOA that they could try to fine him on and has them all ready to go.
My uncle has told me that my grandpa has quite literally set aside 10s of thousands of dollars per year, for 30 years, to pay for legal filings, research, and fines. He will never stop, he is the terminator of HOA fine notices.
My mom told me a great story of the vengeance one of her clients enacted after being harassed by a tyrannical HOA. The guy is a surgeon and very wealthy. He bought a piece of property, and the HOA started really messing with him bad, ripping his trees out, fining him large sums of money for infractions that were baseless, and when he would fight them and ask for proof, they would retaliate by screwing with him even more...
The revenge: Being a pretty prestigious surgeon, and having a sh*tload of money, he decided to buy every piece of property that became available in the neighborhood. This plot took over a year of buying property after property... and he would put them in names of different businesses he owned as to not raise suspicion. The HOA didn’t even see it coming.
Then one day, he showed up to an HOA meeting... and said something to the effect of, “Here’s a list of all the properties I now own in this neighborhood, and that makes me the majority owner. I’m disbanding this HOA.” They were stunned, but there was nothing they could do. He defeated them.
My hoa in Oklahoma required that you hire a professional company and spend at least $500 to put up lights at Christmas time. They threatened to fine me when I refused, so since I'm Jewish, I got a company to put up a huge star of David in my front yard. They removed the requirement from the hoa rules the next year.
OH WEE!!!! My good friend had a story.
Her and the husband moved into this gated community. She loves having a birdbath in her backyard...and she gardens a lot, so the decoration makes sense. Turns out her HOA figured out that she had said birdbath in her backyard. Apparently birdbath=lawn ornament, which was forbidden. She told them she would remove it. A week later she gets another message saying that it hasn't been removed(it wasn't). Obviously her and the husband put it together that the HOA is snooping in her backyard.
For a week, she spends her time outside sunbathing in the nude setting her trap. Sure enough an HOA narc opens the gate to their backyard and sees her in the nude.
Instant call to the police for privacy violations. The HOA gave up and let her have a birdbath.
She is now on the board of the HOA and they leave her alone.
I was once made to resod my front lawn. In the middle of summer with average daily temperatures over 100 degrees. During one of the worst droughts on record. While the whole city was under watering restrictions.
The new lawn (which I had spent several hundred dollars on) promptly died and they tried to make me replace it again, but apparently enough people had complained by that point that before I did they agreed not to make us replace our lawns until the water restrictions were lifted.
Confession bear time: I had to get up early for work (3am), so as I drove through the neighborhood I looked for people watering their lawns in the middle of the night on violation of restrictions. Most people were just trying to avoid being hassled by the HOA, I know, so I left them alone. But when I saw members of the HOA board doing it, I reported them to the city.
Got a letter saying that I had weeds in my flower beds. My front yard doesn't have any flower beds, so I email them and ask which ones they are referring to. They of course come back and say it's the flower bed in my back yard.
My back yard has an 8 foot privacy fence around it that is impossible to see through. When asked how they knew about it they said a neighbor reported it. Not a single neighbor has been in my back yard in the 6 years I've owned the house. I replied back and called them on their bullsh*t and told them that any further trespassing is unacceptable.
I specifically didn't do anything about the weeds and put up a couple of my game cameras (kind used for hunting) watching the gate. Caught the f*cker three different times opening the gate and walking into my backyard. He did it every other Monday.
I took the next Monday off and sat in my backyard with a camera recording. Called the cops and had him arrested for trespassing. City police were very helpful and a lawyer buddy wrote up a nice fancy letter that said that any further contact from the HOA had to go through him.
A friend of mine lived in a pretty big neighborhood with a pretty strict HOA. He asked and was allowed to add a garage onto his house and did so, siding it with cedar planks. It looked great. His HOA disagreed and told him the by-laws state all exposed walls must be painted. He tried to appeal, but was shot down unanimously. So he checked the by-laws further and found that while it was stated that all exposed walls must be painted, there was absolutely no mention of any color restrictions.
By the time he was done, each plank was a different primary color, and there was nothing they could do about it. They were furious with him, and he laughed his butt off.
I did this with our allotment shed! First went from brown to sage green, then raspberry pink (the allotment manager's jaw literally dropped at that one), then beach hut-style brilliant blue and white horizontal stripes, the kids' choice.
Coworker lived in a very expensive and very high monthly HOA neighborhood. They were born in the Netherlands and had a Dutch flag sticker on their front window, maybe three inches tall. They got a $75 fine in the mail. Her dad read the rules over extremely well, went out and photographed over 75 US flags, went to the head officer and said he wouldn't be writing a $75 check until the person writes up all 75 of the following addresses, as there's no exception for an American flag. They dismissed his fine
My HOA mailed us a letter stating the color red I painted my front door wasn't approved. They required me to submit the paint color name, brand and sample to the architectural committee for review and approval. I did. It was denied. I wrote a letter stating there was a neighbor 2 blocks over with a red door- who had been approved. HOA says "paint it the same color as your neighbors, and we'll approve it." I let 2 weeks pass. Wrote a follow up letter informing this very particular HOA that I had completed the repainting of my door from the red I originally chose (which was denied) to the exact same color as the neighbors. I get a letter which thanked me for repainting and (finally) approves my red door. Their letter even stated that my door was visited and inspected prior to approval. Jokes on them. I never repainted it and they couldn't tell the difference.
They sent us a series of nasty notices to remove the dead tree in our front yard. The tree had lost all of its leaves and it was unsightly, apparently.
The catch is that they sent us this notice in November. You know, like, FALL. When perfectly healthy trees lose their leaves.
We pretended we didn't understand which tree they were talking about until spring, when the tree magically came back to life.
Our neighborhood HOA tried to make us remove the ivy from our house. After combing through the by-laws, there was nothing stating we couldn’t have ivy.
I put my foot down hard and told them if they made me remove my beloved ivy, then I would put 50 pink flamingos in my yard because there was no rule about it.
They left us alone after that.
Probably there's a new set of updated rules underway that outlaws "flamingos, pink or otherwise".
Had an HOA which regularly complained about petty things. I did fix them, but was super annoyed. I made a sign (very cheaply, white with black text) which said "Yard of the month" or something like that because it would annoy them greatly and wasn't technically against the rules. Later, they actually made a really nice and expensive official sign "HOA OFFICIAL yard of the month." (lol, really? I was joking) Nice graphics and nice metal frame. Really official looking. I noticed it on a walk at night when most people were already inside. I grabbed the sign and moved it to someone else's yard which was obviously crap with lots of weeds etc. Ya, that sign never showed up again. lol.
My family had a really nice but old Mercedes Benz parked in our lot. It didn’t run at the time, and we couldn’t afford to fix it up quite yet, so we never renewed the tags on it. Again, it was a really pretty silver car simply parked in our driveway. A neighbor called the police/HOA and basically anyone else who she could complain to about our car. The town then approached us and said we must cover the car, so we begrudgingly did. But not before painting a bunch of d*cks on the cover in bright neon colors. It was just about the most hideous thing that you could look at.
No HOA, but this happened to me. Apparently, there's a law in my state that says you can't have an unregistered car in your yard unless it's covered. Someone complained about the red Honda Civic that was awaiting repairs. So I covered it with the ugliest, electric blue tarp I could find...held in place with neon orange duct tape.
My son kept getting sh*t because he had a '50s pickup he was working on in his garage that he would move outside during the day and put away at night. The HOA president had the truck towed from his driveway. He got it back, as it was an illegal tow. A few weeks later, the truck was towed again, and the HOA had it crushed (she must have paid extra, they don't crush a truck in 45 minutes).
He called me and asked to borrow some cash... got ahold of 20 wrecks and had them put on the street all down his cul de sac. He took my torch and tanks and cut every tie down and hook point he could find just to make it cost more for the tow man. The cost of the tows almost bankrupt the HOA. He moved a few weeks later.
Now THAT is horse s**t. HOA actually had his truck he was working on towed AND crushed!!!! That smells like a lawsuit to me. Just saying
I walk my dog through a HOA neighborhood every night and I have had them follow me home in their car to personally drop off a letter saying I am to stay off the HOA sidewalks cause dogs are not allowed and I will be fined if I keep doing it.
Well it's been like 4 months and about half my bathroom wall is now wallpapered with stupid notices and "fines" that i'm never going to pay for using a public space to walk my dog!!
We are specifically limited to "one large animal". It fails to state what the animal can be. I'm thinking whale, or perhaps African elephant.
I've dealt with some weird HOA's in my time. Let's see if I can remember all the weird rules.
1.) Fined 500 dollars for being seen outside wearing camo. (I had to wear it to go to work.) HOA president was seriously anti-government, anti-war, and anti-military. He pressed the issue right to the point some guys from the DoD explained to him the folly of his ways.
2.) Fined 250 dollars for not joining in on the block party. (I was asleep and had duty the next day.)
3.) Fined 50 dollars for not watering my lawn regularly. In a drought. Where the city would fine you for watering your lawn.
4.) Fined 400 dollars for parking in front of my house. No matter that it wasn't my car, but was the neighbor's. I was fined just the same.
5.) Fined 100 dollars for an unwanted display in front of my house. That display was a plastic Jack-o-Lantern during Halloween.
6.) Fined 50 dollars for putting up blackout curtains.
7.) Fined 50 dollars for putting up an electric fence to keep kids from cutting across my lawn to get to the lake.
8.) Fined 100 dollars for calling the police on a neighbor for beating his wife. (there's some context there. I didn't see him doing it, but heard it, as well as the screams for him to stop. The HOA fined me because they claimed I had disrupted the peace.)
When my sister was hit by a drunk driver, the insurance took a few days to decide what to do with her car since it was a weekend. Neighbor called the police and said it was abandoned and had been there for months. Luckily, the police took our side. They pulled up an accident report showing that car across town 2 days ago, then told her to f*ck off.
Too bad they didn't nail the neighbor for making a false police report.
The fake HOA in our neighborhood! Started off as a neighborly gesture. Cheap 75.00 a year. Cleared the roads, some Spring dumpsters, a Summer BBQ.
Then the bored housewife who had nothing better to do became President of the HOA. They "elections", meetings, and of course raised the HOA fee 200%.
She talked about new street signs, new roads, sidewalls, and gates into the entrance of the neighborhood. Mind you our home was the original property back in the 1940s. I assume the owners sold off land for the homes around us. No common areas, neighborhood pool, park, trails, NOTHING. I refused to pay or be any part of the little HOA club.
She called as I was "past due" on my HOA fees. I politely told her there is no HOA here that is why we bought this home. She asked if we use the roads and I said yes of course. Her response was well you need to pay to use my roads. I told her I do, it's called Property Tax. I asked her to NEVER contact me again.
Funny some participate in the HOA. They just put in $15,000 worth of Stop signs. We have 5 intersections!! She wants to resurface the over 1 mile road now!! Good luck with that, I'll gladly be the one they hate who hangs her laundry out to dry!! Do NOT buy in an HOA!!
i mean, I'd like to see some documentation that the roads belong to her... (the housewife, that is)
I was threatened a fine for not having my landscaping done before the end of 2007. I moved in the house Feb 2014... I had to go to the committee meeting and present my case, then 5 or 6 of my neighbors needed to discuss my fate. It took them until the next day to agree that I should not be fined.
I'm moving as soon as I can.
It took them until the next day to work out that 2007 came before 2014?
When we moved in we got permission to build a fence. They said cedar treated pine was fine. Well a neighbor didn't like that and called HOA. We got an email shortly thereafter from HOA Pres that there were some concerns about our wood (ha) so he came by real quick to give it a good sniff to see if it was, in fact, not cedar.
He is now King Fence Sniffer.
What is cedar treated pine? or do you mean "cedar or pressure treated pine"?
My parents built a playhouse for my younger siblings, and our local HOA claimed it was a storage shed and that it was on our neighbor's property. My dad knew it wasn't because he had worked with the neighbor to make sure it wasn't on his property... The HOA's response was this: "It looks like a shed, so it needs to go away." So he went home and hatched a plan.
He convinced all the people on our block to build playhouses, or "sheds." Most people did. The HOA went batsh*t crazy.
Had a friend who moved into the suburbs and upon moving in received the thickest f*cking rule book I've ever seen from the HOA. The majority of it were allowed/banned lists; here are the flowers you are ALLOWED to grow and what colors of them you are allowed to grow and here are how many of them you are allowed to grow and what kind of pots you're allowed to plant them in and where in the yard you can plant them and how tall you are allowed to have them and so on, so forth, etc.
They had these lists for not only plants but things like statues you'd put in the yard (gnomes are allowed but they may not be more than three feet tall and may not depict any inappropriate material), the color you could have the house painted (it may be yellow but only THESE SPECIFIC SHADES OF YELLOW), what kind of wreath you could put on the door (wreaths may not be bigger than ___), when you could have BBQs or parties in your yard and what kind were allowed, how tall your grass could be, the kind of mulch you were allowed to use in your garden, and just so much.
You know how you sometimes step into a person's house and it's the kind where you feel like you can't sit down because you're afraid you'll ruin something? I felt like this as soon as I rolled into this neighborhood. Friend is still living there, I don't know how she does it.
Out of pure curiosity in these cases when after buying house can you sur the seller for not giving truthful info about the house and the area? My apologies I have never heard of HOA, and where I am from as long as it is on my land, on my house and isn't causing criminal disturbance nobody can say anything. Like I can't put blinding lights, but I can grow poison ivy if I want. I can have broken yard and nobody can tell me to clean it up. How is the HOA implemented,. Isn't it your property, are you usually not allowed to protect your house from strangers? And why would you buy the house if it is under HOA.
I briefly rented a condo with some friends. The landlord told us that there was a HOA, but didn't tell us about all their crazy rules.
We got fined $60 for leaving a snow shovel on our front steps overnight. We weren't allowed to keep anything on our front steps or lawn.
We Also got fined $80 for putting our trash on the curb at 7pm the day before garbage day. Turns out that 8pm was the earliest we were allowed to put it out.
We all broke that lease and went our separate ways after a few months of living there. The fines and constant threatening phone calls weren't worth it.
I got a notice in the mail in December that I need to plant more trees in my front yard. And I have one month to comply. In December. With snow on the ground.
I have a total of 7 trees on my property, and 3 of them are in the front yard. Well 1 of them in between the sidewalk and street, so apparently that tree does not count. The covenant says I need 3 trees in the front yard. This house is 7 years old and was this way when I moved in 1 year ago.
I wrote them back and said I would plant another tree in the Spring and they will need to wait for better weather. They said I should plant it in December anyway, and I just never responded.
I hate HOA.
Until a recent coup, our HOA was run by some of the pettiest people alive. Some of their hijinks over the years included:
--sending us a nasty letter telling us that we were in violation of their covenants due to bare places in our lawn. We were in the midst of totally replacing the sod in our yard as part of a landscaping plan the HOA approved.
--sending us a violation letter because the trash can had not been moved back inside until 10 minutes after the deadline (6 p.m. on trash pickup day, because no one has a commute or an emergency or works different hours than the HOA board members. This was sent with a timestamped photo of the trash can.
And my personal favorite:
--sending us a violation letter that we needed to replace our mailbox because it was damaged and we would be fined $25 a day until we did so. The mailbox was fairly new so I went out to look at it. It was absolutely covered with bird poop. Cleaned it off and noticed that there was no damage, shrugged and emailed the HOA that the problem was rectified. They came out to verify that it was and I got another letter. More bird poop. A few hours of observation revealed that a hawk was perching on the mailbox stalking a chipmunk that was living in the garden around our mailbox. So I went to the garden store and got a bottle of 'predator pee' stuff that scares away small animals and sprinkled it around the mailbox, causing the chipmunk to relocate. Problem solved. Sadly, I did not send the HOA an envelope full of the stuff.
Hoa are places of choices for bitter and petty til' obsession type of people, give them a bit of power and here they are, overproud of their positions : making people with a life miserable and squeezing as much money from them as possible. Where i live the place of choices for these ones is into the police.
My parents have a terrible HOA. They live in a neighborhood where some of the houses are along a golf course for a country club. The country club shut down two years ago and no one is maintaining the course.
Most of the HOA board live on the golf course and they are all complaining that their property values are going down. So they concocted a scheme where they were going to raise the dues by $2000 a year and use the money to buy the golf course and country club then reopen them.
I went to the meeting with my dad for entertainment and it was crazy. Someone asked if they would at least get a country club membership or access to the golf course because of the fee. They were told no, they would have to join the club. The base membership fee was going to be $30,000 and top out at $80,000.
It did not get done.
not me but my sister. her front door broke because some delivery people f*cked up and she had it replaced. apparently it was the wrong color according to the HOA and she would be fined $500 a week unless it's corrected or REMOVED, because it's totally fine to not have a front door in LA.
another is from a sweet old lady that invited me in for tea and cookies when i was house hunting. the HOA there was $285 a month (below average for socal) and she told me that while she didn't mind the committee so much, she wasn't happy when 2 of her potted plants were shattered by kids playing ball around her house and the HOA wanted to fine her $65 a day until she has them removed from her front yard.
i ended up buying a home without HOA.
My family moved to a new neighborhood when I was in kindergarten. My dad had built an amazing playhouse for me and my siblings. It had miniature windows, an miniature door, working lights, even AC. It was basically a tiny house before tiny houses were a thing. It was beautiful. He had built it on cinderblocks so that we could move it to our backyard of our new house once we moved. Perfect, right?
Nope. The homeowner's association refused to let us bring it, citing that the neighborhood doesn't allow "toolsheds" because apparently they are an eyesore. Backyard playgrounds are fine, but somehow our playhouse didn't qualify as a playground.
Me and my younger sisters were f*cking devastated. I remember crying and crying because I couldn't keep the playhouse that my dad worked so hard on. Hell, I'm 24 years old and I still tear up when I think about it. Why did anyone care so badly that they'd deny some kids their playhouse?
I still drive by our old house once a year or so. The new owners haven't taken care of it and it's fallen into disrepair.
I have other stories about our HOA-- such as how we were frozen out for having a "nontraditional" house color (gray. It was f*cking gray) and a woman who used to walk around the neighborhood with a clipboard to write people up for offenses that shouldn't matter.
I would have followed her around with my clipboard, drawing unflattering pictures of her, people like that can't take the slightest criticism of themselves.
I got fined for having a holloween pumpkin on my patio on Nov 1st.
Before I moved to my new house, without an HOA mind you, I tried to plant a Japanese Maple Tree in my front yard. In reviewing the HOA rules and addendum, I discovered I had to submit the new "design" of my front yard to the HOA. To do this, I had to hire a professional landscaping firm to prepare a design showing the proposed location of the tree and tender the design with a fee to the HOA.
The HOA then reviewed the design, made a comment that they thought the tree should be located slightly right to the proposed location, I had to resubmit a new design matching the HOA's recommendation, get approval, all before I could plant a mother f*cking japanese maple tree in my mother f*cking front yard.
When I was a kid I remember our family had just moved into a new neighborhood. The first person to come greet us from our neighborhood was there to hand us a fine because the moving people left a small tire mark on one of the curbs.
Fined multiple times and threatened with a lien by the HOA because we would not water our grass during a major, major drought season.
It was cheaper and easier to fight the HOA since the City AND State passed regulations banning constant watering and green grass. The City had Google like vans with cameras that’d be driving neighborhoods to catch violators and fine them.
This is awful. Putting undue strain on an already fragile water system (you know, the thing you need in order to live?) in order to water a lawn? We are our own worst enemy.
They vetoed a cell tower because it would be ugly and we still have garbage service at home because of it.
So the HOA in my parents' neighborhood sent my mother a letter to take down her two pink plastic flamingos because "they clashed with the architectural aesthetic" of the neighborhood (upper middle class sort of place). My mother formally complied, but made game flouting the rules after that. There were no restrictions in the bylaws against any sort of temporary seasonal decorations. So the flamingos come out for every holiday imaginable, redressed for the season. Flamingo witches and mummies for Halloween, pulling Santa's sleigh for Christmas, football players for the all-important Clemson/Carolina rivalry game. It has gotten to the point where her flamingo dioramas are a neighborhood institution with people looking forward them.
On a related note, costumes meant for small dogs fit plastic pink flamingos pretty well.
So a while back, I was given a UGA Bulldogs flag and a flagpole to mount it on my porch. Our homeowners association (HOA) restrictions say that sports team flags can only be flown on a day in which the team is playing. My intention was to only fly it on Saturdays when the football team was playing. So I put the flag up on a Saturday the Dawgs were playing, but forgot to take it down until Monday. On Friday, I get a letter from the HOA stating that I am in violation of the restriction and could be fined. Okay, fair enough, they are correct on this one. I then noticed that the date of observation was on Wednesday. I called and said that couldn't be true because I took it down on Monday. Instead of admitting her mistake, she lied and said that she had seen it up on Wednesday. Now I was mad.
I printed off a schedule of every sporting event the Bulldogs had in every sport, even club sports, and then proceeded to fly the flag every single day there was any kind of game, match, regatta, etc., which was almost every single day.
I then started getting letters stating I was in violation again. I would call on each one and explain that the water polo team had a match, or the rowing team had a regatta on those days. After about a month or two of this back and forth, they finally gave up.
My family lived under the dictatorial regime of a HOA for about a year and a half...
My dad, who is into ham radios, put up a small but hardly visible antenna on the back of the house. The top of it could be seen from the front, but only just the very top. Well, the HOA president told him that he had to take it down. He told them he would (although there was nothing in the bylaws forcing him to do so).
The next day, the antenna is 15 feet taller, as my dad had raised the extension in response. The HOA president put a fine in our mailbox immediately and gave my dad a stern talking-to at our front door.
The follow day, the antenna was raised up another 10 feet with an extension added in. At that point, it was clearly visible all over the neighborhood. Another fine showed up in our mailbox, and my dad had to go to another meeting. They threatened to begin eviction proceedings if he didn't take it down immediately. He acquiesced and agreed to take it down.
The next day the antenna was still there, with my dad on the roof first thing in the morning, waving at the HOA president as he predictably came around to inspect.
In a furious huff, he went to the council, called my dad in, and told him that they would begin eviction proceedings since he was not only violating HOA rules, but making a mockery of them. At that point, my dad pulled his ace card and had my uncle lawyer come in and explain that where we lived, HOAs could not regulate the use and transmission of ham radios and licensed operators due to their use for emergency communications and transmissions. My dad knew this all along, but just decided to mess with the HOA regardless. He kept his tower, and the HOA caved in on the fines and punishments and realized they couldn't do anything unless they wanted to take us to court and prove that what my dad had was unreasonable (which it clearly wasn't).
It's his favorite story to tell at parties. I still think ham radios are boring, though.
They refused to let us have garage sales. My dad protested at a meeting, and the president said it was because they didn’t want “undesirables” in the neighborhood.
My dad said, “Oh so you mean anybody who isn’t white, right?”
And the president threw him out of the meeting.
We had a garage sale anyway.
Didn't happen to me personally, but I guess I can tell you about my parent's experience with their HOA.
Dad retired and decided that he really wanted to buy a camper and travel. Mom was all about it, both of them very excited. So dad runs off and trades his F-150 truck for a F-250 with a bigass diesel V8, buys a gooseneck camper, and waits for spring. Camper in the back yard, truck in the garage, no big deal.
Not long after he gets a visit from a lady. She's got a list of rules from the HOA (that was established long after my parents had built their house, something like 15 years later when the subdivision really took off) saying that dad couldn't have the camper on his property because it was an "eyesore." Mind you this camper is in the backyard, behind a 6' privacy fence. You could still see it, sure, but it's not like it was old and in disrepair either.
So here's my retired parents, living in a subdivision that has an HOA that was established long after they built their home, and the HOA is expecting them to abide by rules they didn't agree to.
He never moved the camper.
I was a kid, and we moved into a subdivision with an HOA. My father was painting the front door a gorgeous burgundy over this ugly puke green, and our neighbor, who we called PoodleHead for her dog and her haircut, comes rushing over to tell him he can't do that, and all colors must be approved by the HOA color board.
So my father apologized profusely. PoodleHead returned to her domicile. My father began putting everything away. He'd been about halfway through the job, and now our front door was a wonder of half burgundy and half vomit.
PoodleHead trundled back over and told my father he couldn't leave the door like that, and he said she said he couldn't paint it, either. So it could stay like this, or she could tell him to keep painting.
The front door color was approved on the spot and was still that color when I drove by the house 10 years later and after two ownership changes. It did really suit the house
My friend lives in a homeowner's association and they have a very strict rule on lawn ornaments and decorating. They have banned pink flamingos on their own (this is important later), and for Christmas, they require the house to have a theme. My friend was looking for a way to screw with them, and I found it for him in the Bahamas.
The theme he chose was Christmas in Paradise. He sold it to the association by saying it would be bright colors to off-set the dreary winter we were having. They enthusiastically approved it.
He found some plastic palm trees, borrowed nine of a friend's pink flamingos, and built a sled for Santa. The flamingos had reindeer antlers, and the one in front had a red nose stuck on. It looked something like this. He also had lights on the house, fake palms, and a sign that said Christmas in Paradise. The HOA couldn't do anything because I had found a painting in the Bahamas that inspired the whole setup and bought it for the friend with the flamingo collection, and it fit in with his theme.
the hoa couldn't do anything because op found a painting? that's a weird loophole in the hoa rules
Not mine but one of my good friends has a rather insane HOA. They actually used rented surveying equipment to determine that his clothesline was 1 inch taller than his fence and fined him several hundred dollars for some stupid "structure beyond the fence" rule they had.
Same HOA has someone walking around actually measuring the length of grass with a ruler and issuing warnings for mowing.
My parents HOA is pretty typical, but there's one guy who's on the board who is crazy. For instance. Pretty standard rule, all extrtior paint colors have to be from this list of like 10 shades, or be approved. About 6 months after my parents moved in, they got a different color approved. Then they went out of town for a week, left me home to house sit (home from college for the summer)& hired a company to come paint while they were gone.
No problem. Painters show up, do some prep work and then paint one side of the house. At about 6pm, someone starts pounding on the front door. It's this late sixties aged man, basically frothing at the mouth who instantly starts tearing into me about being in violation of HOA rules since I didn't get color approval& am I a renter, the HOA didn't approve of rentals, and 'no one has seen an adult home in days, just a rotating stream of teenagers (I was 19, looked about 16& had had a few friends over the night before to watch movies, and had a girl I drove to work every day get dropped off). I told him the homeowners were out of town, but as far as I knew, it had been approved& shut the door on him.
He came back the next day and sheepishly apologizes for bothering me. He had personally approved of the paint, but had somehow missed that my parents house was the one being painted (he didn't know any addresses, just what families lived in what houses). Idiot.
I was renting a house that was part of an HOA and the landlord dropped by to show me a fine notice for weeds in the front yard. He had told us how strict they were and I thought I'd done a pretty good job of it, in fact, I had weeded less that two days before the date on the letter.
The landlord told me that before he knocked on the door he had looked over the yard and didn't find anything (bear in mind we had a typical AZ yard, I.e. 4 tons of crushes rock.)
After 10 minutes of us both searching we eventually found a weed that was growing across some rocks maybe 3" long and less than 1/4" wide. You could only see it if you were right on top of it and it was in the middle of the yard. He was convinced someone was paid to check all the yards to find excuses for fines.
As soon as we moved out he sold the house to be rid of that HOA.
A neighbor within the HOA had a giant, ugly satellite dish in his backyard. The HOA rules stated that you couldn't have one of these on your property since it was ugly, and took away from the value of the house. So what does he do? He buys the ugliest hearse he can find, attached the satellite to it, and parks it on the street. HOA board calls the cops on cars every 24 hours (law is your vehicle has to move every 24 hours or you get a ticket/towed). So to spite them, every day he moves his hearse, with the satellite, to avoid a ticket or getting towed. And they couldn't do anything about it.
A huge hearse decked out with electronic gear? People might think there are worse problems in the neighborhood. Who ya gonna call?
A guy across town put up a flagpole. The HOA told him the only flagpole allowed was a small flag hanging at an angle on your porch. He took the pole down. He did some research on his contract and painted his garage door in an American flag pattern.
I know someone where his HOA prevents you from taking the trash out the day before pick up. Like if taking your trash out on sunday night for trash day monday was worthy of a $50 or $100 fine. 12:01AM Monday is fine, but 11:59PM sunday wasn't
“Only plant oak trees” even after multiple arborists & botanists informed the board that doing so would give all of them various diseases and all would need to be cut down. 10 years later? All have been cut down because they have diseases and mites.
Just curious as someone who loves all things about biology: what was wrong with "only plant oak trees"? (as far as tree health,.... obviously, it's aesthetically awful to require such conformity) All I can guess is that disease can spread from one tree to another when there's nothing else between them, but I've never heard that and I'm sure I've seen thick groves of oaks before.
Everyone in our neighborhood received fines for leaving garage cans at the road. It was trash day.
that's it, I am going to murder who ever came up with the idea of HOA!
My HOA decided that my trim needed to be painted RIGHT NOW. Threatened a $100 a month fine if it wasn't. The trouble is that it was January, and I live near Chicago.
As I was buying the paint, the salesperson keeps telling me that the paint won't dry, it will just freeze, and fall off within 6 months. I was selling in the spring anyway, so I didn't care. Painted the trim in a temperature of 7 degrees F.
My mother died in September of 2016. My disabled father went into the hospital and then long term rehab until the present. The house was in my mom’s name and their neighbor across the street is the treasurer of the HOA. He knew my mom died of cancer within a year of her diagnosis and that my dad was in the hospital. He billed my dead mother for a year and when the bills were unpaid, he took it to court to begin foreclosure proceedings. At this point, I received a certified letter and contacted a lawyer to help. It was originally $1700, but increased to $4200 with late fees and attorney fees. Our lawyer is confident we can settle for far less than $4200.
*Edit: * Thank you for all of the kind words and encouragement. I wanted to do some type of harm or vandalism, but that would not be good for my dad and I have too much to lose. As for sending notice, it was an automatic type of withdrawal that my mom took care of when she was alive and cancer free. I was naive and should have been on top of it, but I was taking care of my dad, grieving for my mom, and being a father/husband. When I went to the HOA to pay the fees, they told me I could only contact their attorneys, so I couldn’t go in that direction. I would love to provide you more specifics, but legally that would not be advisable. My attorney is very confident that this will end well for us. Thank you for the encouragement.
A few from our condo:
No motorcycles even from visitors. So my buddy cant ride his motorcycle over to hang out. Has to take his car.
No pets at all. No cats, no fish, no living creatures besides plants on your unit.
I got in trouble for walking around "suspiciously" God forbid I I stretch my legs around the grounds without looking like I'm up to no good.
Also the condo mafia changes and makes up rules as it suits them. I have a copy of the original HoA agreement andany of the rules are simple not in the original HoA.
Let me paint you a scene: a young married couple finds their first apartment and although it is far from perfect, it is spacious and 2 minutes away from work. Mind you this is the beginning of August...in South Florida.
On the day we move in we see a letter posted for the HOA stating that someone HAS to be present in our unit while the workers are there to work on the central cooling unit. Okay, no big deal, I have the ability to work from home sometimes, so I did. Well, at the end of those two days (workers were to be there from 8AM-5PM) we were told that the project “was bigger than expected,” and found out exactly what was happening. They were replacing the piping of all 22 units in our complex, and we were lucky enough to have 1 of 2 points of access to the roof (in our bedroom closet).
That roof access was utilized for 24 days out of the month of August anywhere from 1-14 hours a day.
TL;DR: Newly weds spent first month of marriage alongside AC repairmen. Also, we still don’t have functioning central air.
My mom was always arguing with HOA, and once spelled out "FU" on the lawn in bricks and left it there until they gave her what she wanted.
While I was helping my buddy move stuff out of his house to a new house, my mom called me saying there was a family emergency with my father and I needed to come home right away... I drive home as fast as possible without getting pulled over.
My neighborhood has a 25-mph speed limit. We live in a pretty diverse neighborhood, so quite a few people don't pay attention to it. Well, as I'm pulling 30-mph going up my street, I spot one of the HOA enforcers standing on her lawn and sprint into the middle of the street at the last minute. I slam on the brakes, and she runs up to me screaming about how dangerous it is to drive that fast and how I need to slow down because there are children (children are usually inside or monitored by parents when they're outside) and what I could have done.
I simply gaped at her and said, "Normally, I'd expect a stupid child to run into the street without looking first. Guess I was right."
This is actually something that is ongoing battle between my friend's mom and her HOA, or more specifically one member.
She lives inside this circular complex full of townhouses with a roundabout in the center that used to have a lot of trees and looked really nice, almost like a minipark. The HOA decided to cut down all of the trees without giving notice and my friend's mom was pissed. She went to complain about it and they basically said, "Sorry, too late."
In protest of them doing that she decided to buy this big inflatable palm tree that she stuck on her balcony for all to see. One of the neighbors, who was in the HOA decided to file a complaint because it looked gawdy. She knew exactly who it was and it upset her more that this person did that instead of coming to talk to her after years of living near each other.
She was able to keep her tree and when Christmas came around she even decorated it. She decided she was going to wage this war against the HOA and this neighbor by having annoying inflatable decorations on her balcony. When it started warming up she bought a flamingo, which she likes to dress in Chicago Cubs or Blackhawks gear depending on the season.
I told my friend he should get her a 6ft wacky waving inflatable tube man to put on there next, which I think would be hilarious, but I don't know if she wants to take it that far.
Cant wash our cars in the driveway. Cant have any of the bushes or plants in our yard touch the fence. Got a giant sticker slapped on the side of my window for parking in the wrong "zone" even though it was in the same cul-de-sac.
Washing cars at home is forbidden in Germany, too, because oil and gas residues are an ecological hazard. Otherwise - as with most of the stories - I'm amazed at the amount of cräp HOAs get away with in the "land of the free"
My ex bfs father was part of the homeowners board for their townhouse community. His wife would walk their dog around the entire neighborhood every day and carry a notebook to write infractions to report back to her husband. Ridiculous stuff. Neighbors have a window a.c. unit? Reported and fined. Have a garden that's a square foot too big? Reported and fined. Some people have absolutely no lives.
Only one basketball goal allowed in the neighborhood.
"Basketballs are too loud." -Old people
Not my story, but my dads.
He moved into a new townhouse in summer of 2013. It was a foreclosure property, as the previous tenants were kicked out for not paying their mortgage and for not paying their HOA dues.
They gave everyone in the HOA new patios and decks the summer prior -- it was required, and you had to get a new deck/patio. Buuuuuuuut...the tenants had to pay for 'em in monthly installments in the next three years along with their HOA dues.
As I said, the previous tenants foreclosed on their home. However, there was one rule placed when they got the decks, which was that you couldn't move out without paying off your deck first.
He was told by HOA that he would not have to pay off the deck because it was foreclosed and he was not responsible at all for paying it off. Sweet, free deck! He signed off on that.
He moved in, but then he started getting assessments from the HOA for the deck. But -- wait -- he wasn't supposed to be paying for the deck?
He fought it with the board. Even with the signed thing saying we didn't have to pay for the deck...the board went against him.
He ended up having to pay off the remaining balance on the deck. To this day, he refuses to speak about this topic. It's a trigger for him.
No, he did NOT have to pay. He had a signed contract and should have gone to court to have it enforced.
HOA just sounds like you're paying to live with someone's parents or in laws that hate you.
In laws that hate you is my guess!! 🤣 Houses in our can ONLY be in Nature colors...I'm 🙏 someone goes Turquoise Blue or Fushia-fushia...😈
Load More Replies... Why would anyone give up the control of their personal property to some HOA?
For the ability to control OTHER people's property. They're voluntary associations... but buying the property under HOA terms means that you're volunteering to be a part of them. If you don't like them, don't buy property in an HOA. If your neighbor lets his grass grow there feet high, leaves pick-ups (lorries) on the lawn, and trash all over the property, it can hurt your home value, so it makes sense to agree to some reasonable measures to keep the neighborhood from going trashy... and some HOAs have shared features, like playgrounds, club/party rooms, etc. But once you give people the right to tell others what to do, God help you.
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We got a photo and fine for visible dirt under our rose bushes. The required wood chip ground cover had been moved by some animal or another, leaving what was maybe 6" of dirt visible if you were standing on our lawn about 15' from the sidewalk and looking down. So yeah. Fined for dirt. My neighbors received a photo and fine for a bush that wasn't "full." Granted the little shrub was doing its best to not die but you couldn't see it from the street, and you'd have to walk 20' onto their property and behind a row of well cared for "full" bushes to see it. Neighbor and I will never stop laughing about how she was fined for not having a "full bush."
HOA Application: Pet: Cat, Name: Monkey ---- Me spending 25 days trying to convince the HOA that my pet is a CAT and not a MONKEY. Morons.
By that token, you should be able to name your cat Fern and not have to apply for it at all.
Load More Replies... These HOA things always boggle my mind --- the "Land of the Free" (tm)?!
HOAs, debt-inducing health care, a gun in every waistband, Trump supporters. Americans are a mysterious bunch.
Yes, because every one of us own guns and voted for Trump.
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In Slovakia kind of HOA we have in condo buildings too. But deninitely means nothing, rules cant be used as law, those rules are just recommending things, so max you can be only mad at your neighbors when they do not follow the rules. You can get fine only from authorities when you violate a real law. So i laughed at this 😀
Same here, but there only here to ensure the maintenance of the communal parts of the buildings. It doesn't make sense when you own a house.
Load More Replies... People, please remember that your HOA boards must be elected. It's a job that non-psychos are often too busy for, so the leadership positions sometimes go to the most psychotic, bitter anti-social control freaks. The sad thing is that too many neighbors simply don't want the controversy of contested elections, so instinctively go against the "trouble-makers," so it's hard to run as the "reformer," but if you know of several other neighbors who have been having trouble with the board, please try to present an alternative.
When we lived at our old condo my kids were small and used to love playing in the courtyard. Then we got a threatening letter from the strata stating we were breaking bylaws. Looked through it all and didn’t find a single one we broke so I sent a letter back saying if they threatened us again we would take legal action. Never heard from them again. Found out later the elderly people in the building loved hearing the kids play.
Does this bullying exist outside of America?How are their rules allowed to contradict town council rules as mentioned by several contributors?
In most of the USA, as long as the HOA ruless do not contradict state or federal laws, the HOA can do da*n near anything, yes. We didn't realize our road (of all things, a rural AF road) had one! But it also depends on the people elected to run the HOA ----- some are would-be dictators, some just want to be elected to not have to pay dues for a year. For example, if your new windows don't match the color scheme (b/c most window frames and flashing are *white* in the US) our HOA allegedly demands much. Nobody has cared for over 10 years. And I think many people do not realize that their HOA *is* their town "council" for all intents and purposes. Vote away the HOA ---- but be prepared for unexpected issues. Where I am, the HOA holds the contract for cable TV, or nobody'd afford it. Bulk, we can. That sort of thing. I hope this helped explain.
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I don't understand saving up and buying a home simply to have even less freedom than when renting while having to pay fees to be told I have no say over my own property.
Our HOA was sprung on us after we signed for the property. (New construction neighborhood) One year, they sent a nastygram about the abandoned vehicle in my back yard. We had a week to get it removed. The "vehicle" in question was a bird feeder. Very simple design- a flat tray that sat atop a 1" metal pipe. In my back yard. Out of sight of the sidewalk and road. I sent a letter back - signature confirmation required - saying that my bird feeder had never been registered to drive and as I couldn't find a tow company that would agree to remove it, I was dismantling it myself and I do hope they approved. And I very sweetly suggested that the HOA officer that has been trespassing in my yard against their rules ( and cited the rule; section, page, paragraph and sentence) to wear disposable shoe coverings as we were treating the lawn and I did not want him tracking chemicals into his home and putting (name of his toddler that he had in his open Facebook page) at risk.
this is why no matter how much money I have, how nice neighborhood is, or what amenities come with it, I refuse to live someplace with a HOA. for somebody to tell me what days I can mow my lawn or trim my trees, that I can't park a car on the street/in front of my driveway, when I can walk my dog, what color my mailbox can be, or give me a $100 fine if my son leaves his skateboard on the lawn overnight after I pay $500,000 for a house is insane.
In the land of the free, it's amazing how restricted your day to day living can be. I found out about HOAs when I first lived in the USA and made sure my home was not part of one before I bought it.
Yep. Though only a quarter of the US population lives in an HOA. I never have. I definitely wouldn't buy a home in one.
Load More Replies... So I gather from this that all those HOAs are mortally offended by seeing things like bushes, trees and birdbaths in people's yards? Who hurt those HOA members?
no question that some HOAs are corrupt little rackets... My HOA has the reputation for being the most difficult in Harris County... they practice all the problems depicted in this blog... I had long covid for 2 years with the main symptom being fatigue. I was unable to keep up with the yard work. Admittedly it did look bad. I went through several mowing contractors, all unstable & unreliable. One of my neighbors openly hated me because my yard was not as fancy as her's. This is not a good reason to hate anyone. The covid finally broke, & I did the postponed yard work. The hater showed her approval by sending in her collection of the latest photo evidence of my negligence. She sent these in the day I finally started to fix up the yard. She waited so long as to build as strong a case as possible. The HOA does not issue fines. After the third letter, they threaten legal action. A clause in the contract allows them to add any legal expenses like a lawyer's letter costs or a court judgment to the dues. They can exercise their vendor's lien and foreclose if the dues amount is not paid. They can put a lien on the house to prevent sale. Note this, people whose HOAs give fines. The fines are regulatory with no constitutional basis. Only a court has injunctive authority where they can force you to pay a fine or to debit your bank accounts. You do not have to pay regulatory judgments, only court judgments. Yes, laws may vary elsewhere.
HOA sounds like bunch of bully karens. I could not live anywhere like that, someone telling me what to do with my house or lawn?
from what i have gathered, HOAs are supposed to ensure that the neighborhood remains safe and property is not allowed to go into disrepair. but, after reading these posts it sounds like a fascist organization for petty people craving power. would never live in an area with HOA>
I have never understood why anyone would pay that much for a house just to be told they couldn't have decorations or paint whatever color they chose. No thank you.
I live in a HOA community and I love mine. They take are of the common areas, the roads, the pool, the gym, the clubhouse, etc. The only time in 12 years that they had to take legal action against someone was when a neighbor piled scrap metal and trash on his patio and it turned into a playground for rats and feral cats and he refused to move it because "it was valuable metal." Mostly, ours just keeps things neat, clean, and safe and lets everyone live their lives.
I had an issue with my HOA a few years ago. I got divorced, so I subsequently had a lot of nervous energy to burn. I decided I wanted to paint my walls, bedroom doors and such. I finally got to the interior front door and just decided, you know I'm going to paint the exterior front door as well. I did. Got a letter, saying that my "shutters need to match the front door color" (note this). Oh, okay. Fair enough. I had my shutters painted to match. I then got another letter that I had painted using and "unapproved color". I asked why they didn't say that in their first letter and asked for a list of approved colors. No answer. Fast forward a few weeks. I am watching tv and I see a ladder go up, past my window. WTF??? I see a painter go up and start painting my shutters. I stewed for a little bit and let him finish the upper shutters, then told him he had to go. He had no permission to be there and no one said they were going to paint. He left. So I now had a mismatched shutter and door color (which I did on purpose).
Called the HOA and they told me they were doing me a favor, at no cost. I told them I had already paid to conform to their demands prior (color matching the door as per their demand). They said it had to be an approved color. I again demanded a list. Nothing. That's when I decided to sue them. Served them and had a court date set for a date in a few months. Continued to send them letters demand the "approved color list". Nothing. The morning of the hearing, my lawyer said they settled and they subsequently paid my painting bill. Never did get that list....as it didn't exist. It was colors they had decided to use when the charter was ratified. Little did they know they also paid for some of my interior painting as well. Never believe that you can't sue your HOA and win. Make sure to keep their letters, as these people aren't lawyers and don't use lawyers to draw them up, until it's too late. I beat them over the head with the wording of their letter, which is probably why they settled.
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How can they enforce these fines? I don't quite understand how these people can dominate somebody's life just because they bought a house. First time somebody came up to me, I'd tell them to f**k off
It's absolutely shocking that they can push for eviction or foreclosure on someone's home!! I seriously can't believe that!
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Our HOA pays for extra road maintenance in winter (my state has no funding for rural roads, or we'd never get plowed out), and strikes bulk deals on things like cable TV or internet access. They also pay for removal of downed trees from storms, and even some repairs to our drainage. if we paid out of pocket for those things ----- we'd be paying a lot more as individuals for each of those services. We also have a fund for getting solar battery packs so we can all draw on them during power outages, and there's also a movement to fund solar panels on our roofs/properties. Basically, an HOA is what people make it, much like all else.
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Got fined like seventy bucks for leaving our trash cans outside the fence, because we couldn’t fit it in our puny-ass yard that’s literally six feet wide. We had to smooth a bunch of stuff around and shove them under a tree so we wouldn’t get fined a hundred bucks more if we left them out longer. B******t
my sympathies to the blog commenters who have been oppressed by their HOAs. Some people say they will never live in a neighborhood that has an HOA. There are neighborhoods like that where I live. The problem is, the people that live there live like trash. They provide a clear case why HOAs and all the nuisance headaches they give are justified. Property values in a non-HOA community are less, since all the abuses people make when there is no accountability hurt the area's property values. You can't win either way.
I am dumbfounded by these! We don't have HOAs like this where I live (Europe). We instead have groups that are called community care. their sole purpose is to monitor local goings-on and report to the police when necessary. Its basically just a bunch of nosey neighbors peeking through their blinds! But they do reduce crime rates and also assist with solving crime. You house was broken into? Don't worry Mary down the road got the licence plate and description of the offender's!
Haha! I live in the US no HOA but my street has a lot of folks who are retired and therefore home almost 24/7 they are the neighborhood watch! Some even have police scanners so they know all the crime!
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The GDR would've saved a lot of money by installing HOAs instead of the Stasi.
I live in small rural town with a small HOA of 57 houses. The regulations are mostly just city ordinances. We have an inground pool and clubhouse for use. I use to live in the largest HOA in Phoenix, about 1800 homes I think. Weeds in the spring about all I can remember getting notices on over 18 yrs. Not as strict as some I heard of. I've also had a city notice in a non HOA home in Mpls to remove a tree we'd cut down that was in laying in the ward. It was gone before we got the letter. All in the timing.
Oh, and I have an 8 foot Bigfoot cutout in my backyard. Only comments were from one neighbor that loves it.
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After reading these, I'm making it my personal goal in life to purchase a house that HAS a HOA just so I can continually screw with them. Stupid, rude, greedy, and inconsiderate people need to be put in their place from time to time.
Or you could buy a home that is just outside the HOA neighborhood. Across the street, or next door to the last home in the HOA. Then you can do everything possible that breaks their rules, and flaunt it, without having to deal with fighting them in court.
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HOAs suck. Unfortunately in some places you can't really get away from them. If you have the option, avoid at all costs. You are throwing money away so some jackass can tell you how to live.
Surely if enough people say no to hoas, there's nothing they can do? Don't pay the fines, don't abide by their ridiculous rules, etc. But then I am British; I believe in my ability to make decisions for myself.
I'm curious how it works in Britain with attached houses or condominium ownership where you own a unit but not the entire property. If it's a large building, how do decisions get made and funds get allocated for common maintenance?
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When I decided to buy a house early last year, I got a pre-approval letter from the Dept of Veterans Affairs with a ridiculously high amount on it. My intention was to buy something much lower priced, but I did look at a house at the higher amount on the letter. My realtor schedules a time/day to look at the house. It's obvious nobody's living there, but while we're looking, the HOA neighborhood nosey person shows up and tells me I had until 5pm that day to remove the mud from "my" sidewalk. I said, "Excuse me?" She replies, "The mud right there on your sidewalk. " as she points it out. I laughed and said, "Ok, but it's not my mud OR my sidewalk! And you just made sure it won't be!".
I take it these HOA's are all in the US? We have Ratepayers Associations in South Africa, but they are the folk who negotiate with the City Council about roads that need repairing, etc. Nobody hassles you about the colour of your door, or what you have growing in your garden. If you have an overgrown hedge that is a fire hazard, the CC will contact you, to fix it, or they will do it for a fee.
People need to stop buying in these neighborhoods! Or, can all the "tenants" just band together and stand up to this crap?
And this is why I will NEVER buy a house with an HOA. I pay property taxes, I clean up the garbage that blows over from the houses being built across the street, and I don't let my dogs bark all night outside. HOAs are just run by mini-Hitlers that have nothing better to do.
I'm so glad we don't have HOA's in the UK. The only time we have to pay maintenance is if you live in a block of flats (apartments) but that's for upkeep of the public areas.
We lived in military housing for some years around the US. They have many rules and housing inspectors. Ruined me on HOAs. I will never live anywhere there is an HOA, which pretty much lets out most apartments, condos, housing associations. I don't care how pretty it is or how secure. Nope and double nope.
I would never buy a house in an area with an HOA. The people who participate in HOAs seem to think they live in a mansion in Palm Beach or something. I like living in a neighborhood where people have playhouses, basketball hoops, eccentric yard art, or a boat or camper parked in the driveway. People walk dogs, kids ride their bikes. That's the kind of neighborhood where people believe in having fun, using their outdoor space, and interacting with their neighbors.
And these horror stories are exactly why I will never move to a home in a neighborhood with an HOA. It's bad enough as it is in my lilly white suburb with the nosy ass neighbors who think it's their job to report everything to code enforcement or the police, I can't imagine even MORE nebnosing from the neighborhood!
Quite frankly, I have no sympathy for people who are being harassed by an HOA. They knew about it when they bought the place. In fact, that's probably why they bought the place. We all know the real reason HOA's exist is to keep out the "riff raff"; well congratulations, you are now the "riff raff".
Wow, land od freedom. Thanks, I prefer to live in a country with communist free healthcare, tips paid voluntarily and no HOA.. BTW communism: people telling you how to live and enforcing it on you , your property is not necessarily yours
After living in an HOA community a few years and getting violation notices regularly, I thought "if you can't beat them, join them". I served on the board several years and eventually found myself alone as the only person on the board. I abolished all meetings except what was required by law and dealt directly with the property manager by email. One day, I was surprised to receive a couple violation notices from my manager for minor infractions. (Every year I sign the contract with the management company for their services) When I asked my manager about the violation notices, she said that her compliance inspector can't show favoritism. She told me to correct the deficiencies or I'd be fined like anyone else would be. When I said, "wow", she said, "since you do so much for the community, your violations won't be in the permanent record and I'll warn you when the compliance inspector is coming". Oh well...that's sort of nice.
Part of the problem is, you do not know how ridiculous the HOA is UNTIL you buy the house and move in! I had a grill on my back deck. The HOA said I could not. I walked around the neighborhood and took pictures of 12 other grills on their exact same decks. But they did not make the others move their grills. Yet they kept sending me mean letters about my grill. So I moved it and the other 12 grills remain on the other people's decks to this day. I also got notes on my trash cans because I put the trash out before 8pm the day before trash day. I won't even start on all the letters I got from the HOA's architectural committee.
I frankly would avoid these places like the plague! I looked it up and in Canada it is often started with the developer of the property! I don't know but it sounds awful fishy to me I would hope they have to keep books and if I lived there I would want to examine them frequently! The realtor must tell the prospective buyer that this is HOA if not informed you then have some sort of legal action! If you are informed and accept YOU MUST OBEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not this old babe!
What on earth is a Homeowner Association and why does it exist? This seems utterly barbaric. Is this an American only thing?
I'm completely confused. A lot of these sounds like they are HOAs for individual houses. I thought HOAs were just for condos and townhouses where you have shared resources, so it makes sense to have rules over and above what the city has, and a group of people to manage it. What on earth would be the purpose of an HOA for an individual home? I hope that stupid idea dies off really quickly.
The land of the free, and the home of the ... wait is that flag an inch bigger than allowed? FINE! HAVE A FINE!!!
Having worked for a few HOAs I can confidently say the vast majority of owners move to HOA communities to ensure everyone follows the rules, except for themselves, of course. It is frustrating to be verbally abused and threatened by owners, over the phone, via email, and even in person, over stuff that IS in the Bylaws and CC&Rs and amendments and all of that information is given to people. People don't like things and whine about changing them then never show up to the board meetings to discuss and vote.
Our HOA isn't too bad, but there are rules about exterior paint colors, and the height of backyard fences, but the entire county we live in seems to have that, even for businesses - everything is varying shades of beige, altho some grey is allowed. I don't know yet about landscaping changes - we've been here 3 years & want to make some changes this spring. Gonna have to check into that soon! The HOA in our old neighborhood was very good until the last 5-6 years we were there, all because of ONE "yard nazi" who would report people for having a single dandelion in their yard. He would actually go into other people's yards & spray weed killer. The bast@rd actually wiped out my front flowerbed & denied it to my face! I'm so glad we moved away from him.
A news channel recently made a comment about a local HOA in Colorado that is being looked into by local law. They have 50 homes with over $10,000 in fines and on foreclosure due to overcharged fees. Law is checking for abuse by the HOA facility.
I would rather live in a cardboard box than any place controlled by an HOA. I'm so glad they're not a standard thing where I live. So gross.
Most of these are longer than a magazine article. Things that should have been 2-3 sentences are paragraphs long. I guess I'll just read an entire book next time I have a couple minutes to waste before clocking back in after my break. I thought it was "Bored Panda", not "Invest Your Real Time Like This Is Actually Important Panda".
I live in a HOA Neighbourhood for 2 years now. We got fined because our front lawn grass was too green during a draught period. Our front lawn grass is fake grass, it can't change color or grow or die, because it's made of plastic. Courtesy of our previous home owners.
Why do people follow these? What can the HOA legally do if you didn't sign up for it or if you leave?
Summers in Seattle area at its hottest typically topped at 90 degrees. Last summer we had record breaking temps at a whopping 115 degrees. My pops kindly installed a spare A/C unit so I wouldn't die from heat exhaustion. The HOA sent a letter stating that the A/C didn't meet requirements of the property because it was the box kind that sat in the window and was an eyesore. (The A/C was not viewable unless someone stood in my backyard). Once I pointed this out they stated that I made unapproved modifications to my window and still insist that I take it down. At this, I snapped pics of how the unit was installed. My father had intentionally built it so that the A/C could balance on the window sill with a wooden track without using nails or adhesives. After that they finally shot back, "well it's a fire hazard because there is a tree 3 feet away from the window " I drug this out til late August. I didn't want to buy a new A/C at full price in summer just to kiss their ass.
To the people wanting to know why anyone would want an HOA: no HOA in my lower working class neighborhood. 80% rental properties. Mostly single men who work in the shipyard, or families just barely making by. New neighbors move in next door & now there's busted out windows and trash all over the yard. They sit in their car hotboxing with super loud bass for an hour at a time, so loud that I can't hear my work conference calls even with a headset on and my hands over my ears. Cops get called on domestic violence accusations at least once a fortnight (super loud fights on both sides), and at one point someone threw an actual gun over the fence into our backyard before fleeing the police. Oh, and their kid set our other neighbor's house on fire with fireworks (I used my household fire extinguisher and called 911). For these people, I wish we had an HOA.
My wife and I lived in our home for a year when the HOA showed u to tell us what was expected. I told them to wait. went and fetche my title. asked them to show me their names as owners of the property. When they failed to do this I explained that as the ACTUAL OWNR, I did not recognize hem. If they did not exist my property I would arrest them for trespassing. I followed up with if I ever see any of you on my property again I will beat the absolute s**t out of you. sure, you can call the police. But your ass will have still been pummeled. At that point guy tries stay Iwe dues. I said why don't you reach into my wallet and take them. The only authority you have, is what a homeowner allows you to have. I ALLOW Nothing. Now f**k off. We lived there for 6 more years. I never once saw any of them again.
There has been considerably effort to rein in the power of HOAs. For instance, in recent years, Texas has passed laws (1) mandating permission to instal solar power generators (2) mandating permission to install back-up generators (3) allowing renting or leasing property (4) preventing religious discrimination or limiting religious activity or expression (5) reforming HOA board elections.
Our HOA...in a town of 1k...is THE elite subdivision, or so they think cuz they stuck the word "Estates" in the name. Your house, on YOUR LOT cannot be under 1200 square feet...Ladiflippindah...🙄
Most times HOA members develop the God syndrome and want to make decisions for all the home owners.
My friend lives on the corner edge of a HOA, 2 years of her living there and standing up to them/refusing to pay stupid fines (Christmas lights taken down by Jan 7th, mailbox flag broke off, but fixed some day, and having out of town guest stay for more than 3 days. (They stayed a week because of her son's wedding.) And worst of all, her roses were the wrong shade.) Ultimately, the HOA had "remapped" it's borders to where her house was no longer considered a part of that subdivision community. Since then, she has done almost everything they had asked her not to do simply because the president's back yard butts up to hers.
I live in an HOA. It's awful! You are policed 24/7 and fines are given left and right. It's a massive headache. Not worth it!
My previous home was in a HOA community. I was lead to believe they weren’t as overbearing as HOAs were known to be. I had a corner lot that had 4 trees growing as it was a new build community. I get a notice in my mail one day with a black and white photo and paragraph about my tree is dead and it needs to be replaced with specific height and tree type. I would have to pay to remove the “dead” tree, purchase, and plant the new tree. Next day, another notice for a different tree. Same thing for a third tree. I respond to all three notices, requesting they provide me with a copy of the report from the certified arborist who determined my trees were dead. No response from HOA and no more notices 🤷🏾♀️ go figure
Good answer to HOAs and malicious beaucracy in general https://allthatsinteresting.com/marvin-heemeyer-killdozer
I used to work for a telecommunications company in the bulk department. This department serviced accounts where there was one primary account that paid for the services they decided services and then a bunch of satellite accounts who would get the free services and have an option to upgrade and pay on their own for additional services. (Think like a hotel providing free TV for every room). This also was very popular in HOAs. The company won a bid for a new development for an HOA and lucky me I was one of the handful of reps who considered this HOA their clients. They called and fought about everything. About the placement of the wires disrupting the "flow" of the neighborhood. About the ethnicity of the people we sent to work. About the size of the nodes. And that the color of the nodes clashed with the overall aesthetic of the neighborhood. When we finally got it set up and got to the part where we talked to the individual people to set up the services there were even more problems.
They complained about the ethnicity of the workers?? That's beyond outrageous!
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How does a HOA work, do they own anything and that is why you have to follow the rules or something? They can fine you? I don't get it..
You agree to it when buying the property. The biggest downside is that you can't opt out if they go bad.
Load More Replies... Never, never, ever buy a home in an HOA controlled neighborhood. NEVER! The first words you speak to any real estate agent when looking for a home is "NO HOAs"! And if your neighbors decide to start an HOA, tell them to eff off.
Okay in the article first he says I'm walking a golf cart.... So I thought why is she upset he's not walking a dog he's a f****** a golf cart
Their scope varies. In some communities, there are common amenities like pools, gyms, playgrounds, even roads, that are owned in common by all the homeowners. Those things need to be maintained. While most of these posts were about HOAs full of detached houses, there are also plenty of condominium properties where you are sharing things like walls, roofs, and plumbing.
Load More Replies... I don't get this HOA. Like if I own home in area, surely there is no law that will bind me to be part of HOA if I choose to.
You agree to it when purchasing the property or when joining one created later. Like any other contract, you are bound by your signatory. If you purchase a non-hoa home, however, you cannot be forced to join or abide.
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The more I hear about HOAs, the more I think that X-Files episode that focused on one was understating it.
Thanks BP as usual a few good laughs a few you seriously except anyone to believe this BS (people do they it up)and a couple that just barely hit the mark for the category and sounds more like people who have zero life experience that are just whining about an inconvenience
Tbh, this was the most obviously fake piece I have ever seen, period. More so than any onion article, and that's saying something.
Which part? Hoa's do exist and they are often exactly as bad as shown here.
Load More Replies... HOA just sounds like you're paying to live with someone's parents or in laws that hate you.
In laws that hate you is my guess!! 🤣 Houses in our can ONLY be in Nature colors...I'm 🙏 someone goes Turquoise Blue or Fushia-fushia...😈
Load More Replies... Why would anyone give up the control of their personal property to some HOA?
For the ability to control OTHER people's property. They're voluntary associations... but buying the property under HOA terms means that you're volunteering to be a part of them. If you don't like them, don't buy property in an HOA. If your neighbor lets his grass grow there feet high, leaves pick-ups (lorries) on the lawn, and trash all over the property, it can hurt your home value, so it makes sense to agree to some reasonable measures to keep the neighborhood from going trashy... and some HOAs have shared features, like playgrounds, club/party rooms, etc. But once you give people the right to tell others what to do, God help you.
Load More Replies... We got a photo and fine for visible dirt under our rose bushes. The required wood chip ground cover had been moved by some animal or another, leaving what was maybe 6" of dirt visible if you were standing on our lawn about 15' from the sidewalk and looking down. So yeah. Fined for dirt. My neighbors received a photo and fine for a bush that wasn't "full." Granted the little shrub was doing its best to not die but you couldn't see it from the street, and you'd have to walk 20' onto their property and behind a row of well cared for "full" bushes to see it. Neighbor and I will never stop laughing about how she was fined for not having a "full bush."
HOA Application: Pet: Cat, Name: Monkey ---- Me spending 25 days trying to convince the HOA that my pet is a CAT and not a MONKEY. Morons.
By that token, you should be able to name your cat Fern and not have to apply for it at all.
Load More Replies... These HOA things always boggle my mind --- the "Land of the Free" (tm)?!
HOAs, debt-inducing health care, a gun in every waistband, Trump supporters. Americans are a mysterious bunch.
Yes, because every one of us own guns and voted for Trump.
Load More Replies... In Slovakia kind of HOA we have in condo buildings too. But deninitely means nothing, rules cant be used as law, those rules are just recommending things, so max you can be only mad at your neighbors when they do not follow the rules. You can get fine only from authorities when you violate a real law. So i laughed at this 😀
Same here, but there only here to ensure the maintenance of the communal parts of the buildings. It doesn't make sense when you own a house.
Load More Replies... People, please remember that your HOA boards must be elected. It's a job that non-psychos are often too busy for, so the leadership positions sometimes go to the most psychotic, bitter anti-social control freaks. The sad thing is that too many neighbors simply don't want the controversy of contested elections, so instinctively go against the "trouble-makers," so it's hard to run as the "reformer," but if you know of several other neighbors who have been having trouble with the board, please try to present an alternative.
When we lived at our old condo my kids were small and used to love playing in the courtyard. Then we got a threatening letter from the strata stating we were breaking bylaws. Looked through it all and didn’t find a single one we broke so I sent a letter back saying if they threatened us again we would take legal action. Never heard from them again. Found out later the elderly people in the building loved hearing the kids play.
Does this bullying exist outside of America?How are their rules allowed to contradict town council rules as mentioned by several contributors?
In most of the USA, as long as the HOA ruless do not contradict state or federal laws, the HOA can do da*n near anything, yes. We didn't realize our road (of all things, a rural AF road) had one! But it also depends on the people elected to run the HOA ----- some are would-be dictators, some just want to be elected to not have to pay dues for a year. For example, if your new windows don't match the color scheme (b/c most window frames and flashing are *white* in the US) our HOA allegedly demands much. Nobody has cared for over 10 years. And I think many people do not realize that their HOA *is* their town "council" for all intents and purposes. Vote away the HOA ---- but be prepared for unexpected issues. Where I am, the HOA holds the contract for cable TV, or nobody'd afford it. Bulk, we can. That sort of thing. I hope this helped explain.
Load More Replies... I don't understand saving up and buying a home simply to have even less freedom than when renting while having to pay fees to be told I have no say over my own property.
Our HOA was sprung on us after we signed for the property. (New construction neighborhood) One year, they sent a nastygram about the abandoned vehicle in my back yard. We had a week to get it removed. The "vehicle" in question was a bird feeder. Very simple design- a flat tray that sat atop a 1" metal pipe. In my back yard. Out of sight of the sidewalk and road. I sent a letter back - signature confirmation required - saying that my bird feeder had never been registered to drive and as I couldn't find a tow company that would agree to remove it, I was dismantling it myself and I do hope they approved. And I very sweetly suggested that the HOA officer that has been trespassing in my yard against their rules ( and cited the rule; section, page, paragraph and sentence) to wear disposable shoe coverings as we were treating the lawn and I did not want him tracking chemicals into his home and putting (name of his toddler that he had in his open Facebook page) at risk.
this is why no matter how much money I have, how nice neighborhood is, or what amenities come with it, I refuse to live someplace with a HOA. for somebody to tell me what days I can mow my lawn or trim my trees, that I can't park a car on the street/in front of my driveway, when I can walk my dog, what color my mailbox can be, or give me a $100 fine if my son leaves his skateboard on the lawn overnight after I pay $500,000 for a house is insane.
In the land of the free, it's amazing how restricted your day to day living can be. I found out about HOAs when I first lived in the USA and made sure my home was not part of one before I bought it.
Yep. Though only a quarter of the US population lives in an HOA. I never have. I definitely wouldn't buy a home in one.
Load More Replies... So I gather from this that all those HOAs are mortally offended by seeing things like bushes, trees and birdbaths in people's yards? Who hurt those HOA members?
no question that some HOAs are corrupt little rackets... My HOA has the reputation for being the most difficult in Harris County... they practice all the problems depicted in this blog... I had long covid for 2 years with the main symptom being fatigue. I was unable to keep up with the yard work. Admittedly it did look bad. I went through several mowing contractors, all unstable & unreliable. One of my neighbors openly hated me because my yard was not as fancy as her's. This is not a good reason to hate anyone. The covid finally broke, & I did the postponed yard work. The hater showed her approval by sending in her collection of the latest photo evidence of my negligence. She sent these in the day I finally started to fix up the yard. She waited so long as to build as strong a case as possible. The HOA does not issue fines. After the third letter, they threaten legal action. A clause in the contract allows them to add any legal expenses like a lawyer's letter costs or a court judgment to the dues. They can exercise their vendor's lien and foreclose if the dues amount is not paid. They can put a lien on the house to prevent sale. Note this, people whose HOAs give fines. The fines are regulatory with no constitutional basis. Only a court has injunctive authority where they can force you to pay a fine or to debit your bank accounts. You do not have to pay regulatory judgments, only court judgments. Yes, laws may vary elsewhere.
HOA sounds like bunch of bully karens. I could not live anywhere like that, someone telling me what to do with my house or lawn?
from what i have gathered, HOAs are supposed to ensure that the neighborhood remains safe and property is not allowed to go into disrepair. but, after reading these posts it sounds like a fascist organization for petty people craving power. would never live in an area with HOA>
I have never understood why anyone would pay that much for a house just to be told they couldn't have decorations or paint whatever color they chose. No thank you.
I live in a HOA community and I love mine. They take are of the common areas, the roads, the pool, the gym, the clubhouse, etc. The only time in 12 years that they had to take legal action against someone was when a neighbor piled scrap metal and trash on his patio and it turned into a playground for rats and feral cats and he refused to move it because "it was valuable metal." Mostly, ours just keeps things neat, clean, and safe and lets everyone live their lives.
I had an issue with my HOA a few years ago. I got divorced, so I subsequently had a lot of nervous energy to burn. I decided I wanted to paint my walls, bedroom doors and such. I finally got to the interior front door and just decided, you know I'm going to paint the exterior front door as well. I did. Got a letter, saying that my "shutters need to match the front door color" (note this). Oh, okay. Fair enough. I had my shutters painted to match. I then got another letter that I had painted using and "unapproved color". I asked why they didn't say that in their first letter and asked for a list of approved colors. No answer. Fast forward a few weeks. I am watching tv and I see a ladder go up, past my window. WTF??? I see a painter go up and start painting my shutters. I stewed for a little bit and let him finish the upper shutters, then told him he had to go. He had no permission to be there and no one said they were going to paint. He left. So I now had a mismatched shutter and door color (which I did on purpose).
Called the HOA and they told me they were doing me a favor, at no cost. I told them I had already paid to conform to their demands prior (color matching the door as per their demand). They said it had to be an approved color. I again demanded a list. Nothing. That's when I decided to sue them. Served them and had a court date set for a date in a few months. Continued to send them letters demand the "approved color list". Nothing. The morning of the hearing, my lawyer said they settled and they subsequently paid my painting bill. Never did get that list....as it didn't exist. It was colors they had decided to use when the charter was ratified. Little did they know they also paid for some of my interior painting as well. Never believe that you can't sue your HOA and win. Make sure to keep their letters, as these people aren't lawyers and don't use lawyers to draw them up, until it's too late. I beat them over the head with the wording of their letter, which is probably why they settled.
Load More Replies... How can they enforce these fines? I don't quite understand how these people can dominate somebody's life just because they bought a house. First time somebody came up to me, I'd tell them to f**k off
It's absolutely shocking that they can push for eviction or foreclosure on someone's home!! I seriously can't believe that!
Load More Replies... Our HOA pays for extra road maintenance in winter (my state has no funding for rural roads, or we'd never get plowed out), and strikes bulk deals on things like cable TV or internet access. They also pay for removal of downed trees from storms, and even some repairs to our drainage. if we paid out of pocket for those things ----- we'd be paying a lot more as individuals for each of those services. We also have a fund for getting solar battery packs so we can all draw on them during power outages, and there's also a movement to fund solar panels on our roofs/properties. Basically, an HOA is what people make it, much like all else.
Load More Replies... Got fined like seventy bucks for leaving our trash cans outside the fence, because we couldn’t fit it in our puny-ass yard that’s literally six feet wide. We had to smooth a bunch of stuff around and shove them under a tree so we wouldn’t get fined a hundred bucks more if we left them out longer. B******t
my sympathies to the blog commenters who have been oppressed by their HOAs. Some people say they will never live in a neighborhood that has an HOA. There are neighborhoods like that where I live. The problem is, the people that live there live like trash. They provide a clear case why HOAs and all the nuisance headaches they give are justified. Property values in a non-HOA community are less, since all the abuses people make when there is no accountability hurt the area's property values. You can't win either way.
I am dumbfounded by these! We don't have HOAs like this where I live (Europe). We instead have groups that are called community care. their sole purpose is to monitor local goings-on and report to the police when necessary. Its basically just a bunch of nosey neighbors peeking through their blinds! But they do reduce crime rates and also assist with solving crime. You house was broken into? Don't worry Mary down the road got the licence plate and description of the offender's!
Haha! I live in the US no HOA but my street has a lot of folks who are retired and therefore home almost 24/7 they are the neighborhood watch! Some even have police scanners so they know all the crime!
Load More Replies... The GDR would've saved a lot of money by installing HOAs instead of the Stasi.
I live in small rural town with a small HOA of 57 houses. The regulations are mostly just city ordinances. We have an inground pool and clubhouse for use. I use to live in the largest HOA in Phoenix, about 1800 homes I think. Weeds in the spring about all I can remember getting notices on over 18 yrs. Not as strict as some I heard of. I've also had a city notice in a non HOA home in Mpls to remove a tree we'd cut down that was in laying in the ward. It was gone before we got the letter. All in the timing.
Oh, and I have an 8 foot Bigfoot cutout in my backyard. Only comments were from one neighbor that loves it.
Load More Replies... After reading these, I'm making it my personal goal in life to purchase a house that HAS a HOA just so I can continually screw with them. Stupid, rude, greedy, and inconsiderate people need to be put in their place from time to time.
Or you could buy a home that is just outside the HOA neighborhood. Across the street, or next door to the last home in the HOA. Then you can do everything possible that breaks their rules, and flaunt it, without having to deal with fighting them in court.
Load More Replies... HOAs suck. Unfortunately in some places you can't really get away from them. If you have the option, avoid at all costs. You are throwing money away so some jackass can tell you how to live.
Surely if enough people say no to hoas, there's nothing they can do? Don't pay the fines, don't abide by their ridiculous rules, etc. But then I am British; I believe in my ability to make decisions for myself.
I'm curious how it works in Britain with attached houses or condominium ownership where you own a unit but not the entire property. If it's a large building, how do decisions get made and funds get allocated for common maintenance?
Load More Replies... When I decided to buy a house early last year, I got a pre-approval letter from the Dept of Veterans Affairs with a ridiculously high amount on it. My intention was to buy something much lower priced, but I did look at a house at the higher amount on the letter. My realtor schedules a time/day to look at the house. It's obvious nobody's living there, but while we're looking, the HOA neighborhood nosey person shows up and tells me I had until 5pm that day to remove the mud from "my" sidewalk. I said, "Excuse me?" She replies, "The mud right there on your sidewalk. " as she points it out. I laughed and said, "Ok, but it's not my mud OR my sidewalk! And you just made sure it won't be!".
I take it these HOA's are all in the US? We have Ratepayers Associations in South Africa, but they are the folk who negotiate with the City Council about roads that need repairing, etc. Nobody hassles you about the colour of your door, or what you have growing in your garden. If you have an overgrown hedge that is a fire hazard, the CC will contact you, to fix it, or they will do it for a fee.
People need to stop buying in these neighborhoods! Or, can all the "tenants" just band together and stand up to this crap?
And this is why I will NEVER buy a house with an HOA. I pay property taxes, I clean up the garbage that blows over from the houses being built across the street, and I don't let my dogs bark all night outside. HOAs are just run by mini-Hitlers that have nothing better to do.
I'm so glad we don't have HOA's in the UK. The only time we have to pay maintenance is if you live in a block of flats (apartments) but that's for upkeep of the public areas.
We lived in military housing for some years around the US. They have many rules and housing inspectors. Ruined me on HOAs. I will never live anywhere there is an HOA, which pretty much lets out most apartments, condos, housing associations. I don't care how pretty it is or how secure. Nope and double nope.
I would never buy a house in an area with an HOA. The people who participate in HOAs seem to think they live in a mansion in Palm Beach or something. I like living in a neighborhood where people have playhouses, basketball hoops, eccentric yard art, or a boat or camper parked in the driveway. People walk dogs, kids ride their bikes. That's the kind of neighborhood where people believe in having fun, using their outdoor space, and interacting with their neighbors.
And these horror stories are exactly why I will never move to a home in a neighborhood with an HOA. It's bad enough as it is in my lilly white suburb with the nosy ass neighbors who think it's their job to report everything to code enforcement or the police, I can't imagine even MORE nebnosing from the neighborhood!
Quite frankly, I have no sympathy for people who are being harassed by an HOA. They knew about it when they bought the place. In fact, that's probably why they bought the place. We all know the real reason HOA's exist is to keep out the "riff raff"; well congratulations, you are now the "riff raff".
Wow, land od freedom. Thanks, I prefer to live in a country with communist free healthcare, tips paid voluntarily and no HOA.. BTW communism: people telling you how to live and enforcing it on you , your property is not necessarily yours
After living in an HOA community a few years and getting violation notices regularly, I thought "if you can't beat them, join them". I served on the board several years and eventually found myself alone as the only person on the board. I abolished all meetings except what was required by law and dealt directly with the property manager by email. One day, I was surprised to receive a couple violation notices from my manager for minor infractions. (Every year I sign the contract with the management company for their services) When I asked my manager about the violation notices, she said that her compliance inspector can't show favoritism. She told me to correct the deficiencies or I'd be fined like anyone else would be. When I said, "wow", she said, "since you do so much for the community, your violations won't be in the permanent record and I'll warn you when the compliance inspector is coming". Oh well...that's sort of nice.
Part of the problem is, you do not know how ridiculous the HOA is UNTIL you buy the house and move in! I had a grill on my back deck. The HOA said I could not. I walked around the neighborhood and took pictures of 12 other grills on their exact same decks. But they did not make the others move their grills. Yet they kept sending me mean letters about my grill. So I moved it and the other 12 grills remain on the other people's decks to this day. I also got notes on my trash cans because I put the trash out before 8pm the day before trash day. I won't even start on all the letters I got from the HOA's architectural committee.
I frankly would avoid these places like the plague! I looked it up and in Canada it is often started with the developer of the property! I don't know but it sounds awful fishy to me I would hope they have to keep books and if I lived there I would want to examine them frequently! The realtor must tell the prospective buyer that this is HOA if not informed you then have some sort of legal action! If you are informed and accept YOU MUST OBEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not this old babe!
What on earth is a Homeowner Association and why does it exist? This seems utterly barbaric. Is this an American only thing?
I'm completely confused. A lot of these sounds like they are HOAs for individual houses. I thought HOAs were just for condos and townhouses where you have shared resources, so it makes sense to have rules over and above what the city has, and a group of people to manage it. What on earth would be the purpose of an HOA for an individual home? I hope that stupid idea dies off really quickly.
The land of the free, and the home of the ... wait is that flag an inch bigger than allowed? FINE! HAVE A FINE!!!
Having worked for a few HOAs I can confidently say the vast majority of owners move to HOA communities to ensure everyone follows the rules, except for themselves, of course. It is frustrating to be verbally abused and threatened by owners, over the phone, via email, and even in person, over stuff that IS in the Bylaws and CC&Rs and amendments and all of that information is given to people. People don't like things and whine about changing them then never show up to the board meetings to discuss and vote.
Our HOA isn't too bad, but there are rules about exterior paint colors, and the height of backyard fences, but the entire county we live in seems to have that, even for businesses - everything is varying shades of beige, altho some grey is allowed. I don't know yet about landscaping changes - we've been here 3 years & want to make some changes this spring. Gonna have to check into that soon! The HOA in our old neighborhood was very good until the last 5-6 years we were there, all because of ONE "yard nazi" who would report people for having a single dandelion in their yard. He would actually go into other people's yards & spray weed killer. The bast@rd actually wiped out my front flowerbed & denied it to my face! I'm so glad we moved away from him.
A news channel recently made a comment about a local HOA in Colorado that is being looked into by local law. They have 50 homes with over $10,000 in fines and on foreclosure due to overcharged fees. Law is checking for abuse by the HOA facility.
I would rather live in a cardboard box than any place controlled by an HOA. I'm so glad they're not a standard thing where I live. So gross.
Most of these are longer than a magazine article. Things that should have been 2-3 sentences are paragraphs long. I guess I'll just read an entire book next time I have a couple minutes to waste before clocking back in after my break. I thought it was "Bored Panda", not "Invest Your Real Time Like This Is Actually Important Panda".
I live in a HOA Neighbourhood for 2 years now. We got fined because our front lawn grass was too green during a draught period. Our front lawn grass is fake grass, it can't change color or grow or die, because it's made of plastic. Courtesy of our previous home owners.
Why do people follow these? What can the HOA legally do if you didn't sign up for it or if you leave?
Summers in Seattle area at its hottest typically topped at 90 degrees. Last summer we had record breaking temps at a whopping 115 degrees. My pops kindly installed a spare A/C unit so I wouldn't die from heat exhaustion. The HOA sent a letter stating that the A/C didn't meet requirements of the property because it was the box kind that sat in the window and was an eyesore. (The A/C was not viewable unless someone stood in my backyard). Once I pointed this out they stated that I made unapproved modifications to my window and still insist that I take it down. At this, I snapped pics of how the unit was installed. My father had intentionally built it so that the A/C could balance on the window sill with a wooden track without using nails or adhesives. After that they finally shot back, "well it's a fire hazard because there is a tree 3 feet away from the window " I drug this out til late August. I didn't want to buy a new A/C at full price in summer just to kiss their ass.
To the people wanting to know why anyone would want an HOA: no HOA in my lower working class neighborhood. 80% rental properties. Mostly single men who work in the shipyard, or families just barely making by. New neighbors move in next door & now there's busted out windows and trash all over the yard. They sit in their car hotboxing with super loud bass for an hour at a time, so loud that I can't hear my work conference calls even with a headset on and my hands over my ears. Cops get called on domestic violence accusations at least once a fortnight (super loud fights on both sides), and at one point someone threw an actual gun over the fence into our backyard before fleeing the police. Oh, and their kid set our other neighbor's house on fire with fireworks (I used my household fire extinguisher and called 911). For these people, I wish we had an HOA.
My wife and I lived in our home for a year when the HOA showed u to tell us what was expected. I told them to wait. went and fetche my title. asked them to show me their names as owners of the property. When they failed to do this I explained that as the ACTUAL OWNR, I did not recognize hem. If they did not exist my property I would arrest them for trespassing. I followed up with if I ever see any of you on my property again I will beat the absolute s**t out of you. sure, you can call the police. But your ass will have still been pummeled. At that point guy tries stay Iwe dues. I said why don't you reach into my wallet and take them. The only authority you have, is what a homeowner allows you to have. I ALLOW Nothing. Now f**k off. We lived there for 6 more years. I never once saw any of them again.
There has been considerably effort to rein in the power of HOAs. For instance, in recent years, Texas has passed laws (1) mandating permission to instal solar power generators (2) mandating permission to install back-up generators (3) allowing renting or leasing property (4) preventing religious discrimination or limiting religious activity or expression (5) reforming HOA board elections.
Our HOA...in a town of 1k...is THE elite subdivision, or so they think cuz they stuck the word "Estates" in the name. Your house, on YOUR LOT cannot be under 1200 square feet...Ladiflippindah...🙄
Most times HOA members develop the God syndrome and want to make decisions for all the home owners.
My friend lives on the corner edge of a HOA, 2 years of her living there and standing up to them/refusing to pay stupid fines (Christmas lights taken down by Jan 7th, mailbox flag broke off, but fixed some day, and having out of town guest stay for more than 3 days. (They stayed a week because of her son's wedding.) And worst of all, her roses were the wrong shade.) Ultimately, the HOA had "remapped" it's borders to where her house was no longer considered a part of that subdivision community. Since then, she has done almost everything they had asked her not to do simply because the president's back yard butts up to hers.
I live in an HOA. It's awful! You are policed 24/7 and fines are given left and right. It's a massive headache. Not worth it!
My previous home was in a HOA community. I was lead to believe they weren’t as overbearing as HOAs were known to be. I had a corner lot that had 4 trees growing as it was a new build community. I get a notice in my mail one day with a black and white photo and paragraph about my tree is dead and it needs to be replaced with specific height and tree type. I would have to pay to remove the “dead” tree, purchase, and plant the new tree. Next day, another notice for a different tree. Same thing for a third tree. I respond to all three notices, requesting they provide me with a copy of the report from the certified arborist who determined my trees were dead. No response from HOA and no more notices 🤷🏾♀️ go figure
Good answer to HOAs and malicious beaucracy in general https://allthatsinteresting.com/marvin-heemeyer-killdozer
I used to work for a telecommunications company in the bulk department. This department serviced accounts where there was one primary account that paid for the services they decided services and then a bunch of satellite accounts who would get the free services and have an option to upgrade and pay on their own for additional services. (Think like a hotel providing free TV for every room). This also was very popular in HOAs. The company won a bid for a new development for an HOA and lucky me I was one of the handful of reps who considered this HOA their clients. They called and fought about everything. About the placement of the wires disrupting the "flow" of the neighborhood. About the ethnicity of the people we sent to work. About the size of the nodes. And that the color of the nodes clashed with the overall aesthetic of the neighborhood. When we finally got it set up and got to the part where we talked to the individual people to set up the services there were even more problems.
They complained about the ethnicity of the workers?? That's beyond outrageous!
Load More Replies... How does a HOA work, do they own anything and that is why you have to follow the rules or something? They can fine you? I don't get it..
You agree to it when buying the property. The biggest downside is that you can't opt out if they go bad.
Load More Replies... Never, never, ever buy a home in an HOA controlled neighborhood. NEVER! The first words you speak to any real estate agent when looking for a home is "NO HOAs"! And if your neighbors decide to start an HOA, tell them to eff off.
Okay in the article first he says I'm walking a golf cart.... So I thought why is she upset he's not walking a dog he's a f****** a golf cart
Their scope varies. In some communities, there are common amenities like pools, gyms, playgrounds, even roads, that are owned in common by all the homeowners. Those things need to be maintained. While most of these posts were about HOAs full of detached houses, there are also plenty of condominium properties where you are sharing things like walls, roofs, and plumbing.
Load More Replies... I don't get this HOA. Like if I own home in area, surely there is no law that will bind me to be part of HOA if I choose to.
You agree to it when purchasing the property or when joining one created later. Like any other contract, you are bound by your signatory. If you purchase a non-hoa home, however, you cannot be forced to join or abide.
Load More Replies... The more I hear about HOAs, the more I think that X-Files episode that focused on one was understating it.
Thanks BP as usual a few good laughs a few you seriously except anyone to believe this BS (people do they it up)and a couple that just barely hit the mark for the category and sounds more like people who have zero life experience that are just whining about an inconvenience
Tbh, this was the most obviously fake piece I have ever seen, period. More so than any onion article, and that's saying something.
Which part? Hoa's do exist and they are often exactly as bad as shown here.
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