Why we don't like homeowners' associations

[K Frame]

"The big point is this: If there is no HOA or covenant to begin with, there is no chance of it becoming a tyrrany."

And there would probably be even less chance of your ever learning to spell TYRANNY correctly. 

I've said this many times before, and I'll say this again.

An HOA is like every other form of government. It will only go as far as YOU allow it.

If you sit idly by, content to be a lazy, self-centered, insular sod interested only in your beer, your ballgames, and your babes, you get EXACTLY what you deserve from whatever form of government you have neglected to shepherd.

[Fly320s]

And there would probably be even less chance of your ever learning to spell TYRANNY correctly. 

Probably a better chance than you ever acting like an adult.

[BridgeRunner]

I would never move into one of "those places."  In my town, everybody keeps everything looking okay, and we all roll our eyes at the douchebags that cut their grass three times per week while we sit in our driveways or on our porches and drink mojitos or beer.  Nobody cares if a guy tunes his loud car or bike in the driveway so long as the hours are reasonable, and outdoor parties are held to the same standard.  If I put up a fabricated metal "mailbox from Mordor" with spikes on it, I'd get compliments, not complaints.

You guys can keep your extra layer of oversight, extra taxes, and petty tyrants-for-hire, and I'll keep my dandelions, mojitos, and race car.

Who is this man?  He comes bearing truthiness!

[BridgeRunner]

In the x-in-laws' old subdivision, when someone didn't mow their lawn, they got a warning and then a fine, for having hurt the neighborhood.

In my neighborhood, when someone doesn't mow their lawn, their neighbor asks her husband who asks a guy he knows davens by the other guys' shul and that guy knows that not only has the family all been having the flu for two weeks now and they're just miserable, but also has a teenage nephew who will go over this afternoon and take care of it.  This past winter, we didn't get much snow but we got a bit, and I was not always availablie to shovel for my parents.  Some kid from the yeshiva always just showed up to take care of it. 

Sucks that they're religious fanatics, cuz it's a great community.  And when your neighbor's house gets ratty looking, usually someone knows someone who knows why, and what can be done to help.

[Hawkmoon]

In my neighborhood, when someone doesn't mow their lawn, their neighbor asks her husband who asks a guy he knows davens by the other guys' shul and that guy knows that not only has the family all been having the flu for two weeks now and they're just miserable, but also has a teenage nephew who will go over this afternoon and take care of it.  This past winter, we didn't get much snow but we got a bit, and I was not always availablie to shovel for my parents.  Some kid from the yeshiva always just showed up to take care of it.  

Sucks that they're religious fanatics, cuz it's a great community.  And when your neighbor's house gets ratty looking, usually someone knows someone who knows why, and what can be done to help.

This is the way it should be, and it is the way it was when I was growing up. My youth predated HOAs by at least a few decades (thanks be to the deity of your choice).

[roo_ster]

Sucks that they're religious fanatics, cuz it's a great community.

Seems that there is more than correlation going on, here, in both the micro & macro cases.  Way too many other similar cases as well as cases where religiosity wanes along with community.

[K Frame]

In the x-in-laws' old subdivision, when someone didn't mow their lawn, they got a warning and then a fine, for having hurt the neighborhood.

In my neighborhood, when someone doesn't mow their lawn, their neighbor asks her husband who asks a guy he knows davens by the other guys' shul and that guy knows that not only has the family all been having the flu for two weeks now and they're just miserable, but also has a teenage nephew who will go over this afternoon and take care of it.  This past winter, we didn't get much snow but we got a bit, and I was not always availablie to shovel for my parents.  Some kid from the yeshiva always just showed up to take care of it.  

Sucks that they're religious fanatics, cuz it's a great community.  And when your neighbor's house gets ratty looking, usually someone knows someone who knows why, and what can be done to help.

.


Why is there always the assumption that nothing of the kind could ever happen in an HOA community, that somehow the community's residents are all strictly insular and have nothing to do with each other, and that the HOA board is a top secret organization that cannot, under any circumstances, be broached?

I see a LOT of disinformation and out and out bull from people whose only apparent tangible information about how HOAs operate comes from either the occasional horror story they've read (yes, an HOA, just like ANY form of government, can get out of control), or worse, from assumptions about what HOAs are and how they operate.

I've provided, and will keep providing, the surest method of guarding against ANY form of government growing too powerful, too insular, or too draconia -- PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT.

Get to know your neighbors, get to know your board members, and get involved in your community.

If you can't be bothered to do that, then what right do you have to complain?

It is directly comparable to that old saying...

If you don't exercise your right to vote, you don't have the right to complain.


For those who have never lived in an HOA, and who say that they would never, ever live in an HOA, I have a question for you...

Would you ever live in a city or a town?

Don't think city/town governments can spin out of control?

Google Bell, California, and Dixon, Illinois

[Jamisjockey]

+1

 ;)M

[AmbulanceDriver]

Mike, I'll agree with you 99%....  :)   A well run, well organized, and yes, even *friendly* HOA is certainly a possibility.  My problem is that the two experiences I've had with an HOA have been less than positive.   And in neither case did I have the opportunity to *be* involved.  The first was an apartment I leased that turned out to be a "condo conversion" with individual owners.  I, as a tenant, had no opportunity to input into the HOA.  Yes, I know that I always had the option to "vote with my feet".  But to be honest, I didn't want to deal with the hassle of breaking the lease, and the fairly prohibitive monetary damages attached to that.  I now recognize that part of the reason the terms for breaking the lease were so steep was probably due to the fact that the HOA was not disclosed up front.  And yes, I probably could have gotten a lawyer, gone to court, and legally broken the lease based on that non-disclosure.  Which may have cost me about as much as breaking the lease...  So I dealt with it until my lease was up, and then promptly beat feet.

The second is the situation we're currently dealing with, our home is outside the HOA, but is bordered by it on two sides.  And the busybody "president of the HOA" is giving us grief and problems, and passive-aggressive BS....   But that one will be pretty simply solved.  She sets foot on our property again, I'll have her cited for criminal trespass.  And she's been warned of that.

[brimic]

In my neighborhood, when someone doesn't mow their lawn, their neighbor asks her husband who asks a guy he knows davens by the other guys' shul and that guy knows that not only has the family all been having the flu for two weeks now and they're just miserable, but also has a teenage nephew who will go over this afternoon and take care of it.  This past winter, we didn't get much snow but we got a bit, and I was not always availablie to shovel for my parents.  Some kid from the yeshiva always just showed up to take care of it. 

Sucks that they're religious fanatics, cuz it's a great community.  And when your neighbor's house gets ratty looking, usually someone knows someone who knows why, and what can be done to help.

Why go through all of the trouble of knowing your neighbors or even talking to them if you can another layer of nanny government to do it for you?

[K Frame]

"And the busybody "president of the HOA" is giving us grief and problems, and passive-aggressive BS...."

So, at this point you don't actually have a problem with the HOA itself. Or, I should say you're not sure if you have a problem with the HOA.

You have a problem with a person who is president of the HOA bordering your property, but you don't know if she is acting on behalf of the HOA, or acting out of her own personal interests under the veil of authority of the HOA.

Granted, they're very easy to comingle, but two very different things.

[AmbulanceDriver]

I should state that she is being a busybody, and passive agressive.  Yes.  But she is acting in her role as president of the HOA.  Since her property is not one of the ones that borders ours but is a few houses down the block, and one of her complaints is that the HOA is having to pay to maintain the sidewalk where "our" english laurel is growing adjacent to by keeping it pruned back (but which mysteriously enough is planted OUTSIDE our fence/property line, on the HOA's property), then no, I don't think she's acting in her own personal interests. 

As I said, it's certainly possible to have a good HOA.  I don't in the least doubt that they exist.  However, my own experiences with them have left me with a less than positive impression.