re: Homeowner’s Association Stories

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that kind of frickery lowers property values big-time.

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Yea.... I see it often cause I go on frequent walks around the neighborhood...there is someone 2 doors down trying to sell their home and I legit feel bad for them. Not sure how or why they haven't raised more hell

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Not sure if serious. Because I’ve never heard of a positive story with an HOA.

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Even nice neighborhoods can/do have batshit crazy homeowners and HOAs keep them in line.

Had one homeowner in an average $3mil neighborhood wanting hogs in her backyard, another extreme leftist wanted to paint her home the stripes of a pride flag. Both fought the HOA tooth and nail and lost.

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No complaints about mine. They leave everyone alone unless there is a clear problem that needs to be fixed.

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This.

I’m in two different ones and they both work well.

I live by the covenants attached to the properties and expect everyone else to keep their legal commitments as well.

Not aware of any Karens at either location.

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I'll take my chances on having an unkept yard or property in my neighborhood before I sign on to an HOA. I'm not paying more of my hard earned money to have a company tell me I can't park a vehicle where I want on my property or do something I want to do. Fortunately I live in a neighborhood with larger lots (2.5 acres) so we're spread out and even if someone has a pile of stuff somewhere it is out of sight from my porch.

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I get it, I have lived in both situations. But have you ever driven by or better yet visited a hog farm? I could not fathom walking outside and getting hit with that stench everyday, especially in the Summer. Imagine grilling/ hanging out by the pool with sounds and smell of hogs rolling around in their own shite while spending time with the family.

A perfect situation is respectful sane neighbors and/or laid back HOA.

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A friend I’m trying to bail out of a jam owes $25K in HOA dues.

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What does she pay a month? After a year or two, mine will start legal proceedings to put a lien and we pay $300 a year. No way they let that go that long to get up to that amount. Unless she’s paying 1k a month.

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What does she pay a month? After a year or two, mine will start legal proceedings to put a lien and we pay $300 a year. No way they let that go that long to get up to that amount. Unless she’s paying 1k a month.

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Your CCRs probably automatically give you a lien on the property as soon as the dues go into arrears. Filing the notice of lien is just to motivate the homeowner to pay, since they've probably ignored multiple collection letters already.

Our process (once turned over from the board or property manager) was to send a FDCPA letter, then a notice of lien, then small claims court, then collect on the judgment. At any point in the process, we'd work with the homeowner on a reasonable payment plan, but the board cannot accept a settlement for less than the assessments owed plus out-of-pocket expenses (fiduciary duties).

If none of that worked, we might start nonjudicial foreclosure. But usually at that point the homeowner probably wasn't paying their mortgage, either, so really we were just trying to motivate the lender to do something.

If the HOA has hired an attorney to deal with this (and for a person this much in debt, they likely have), those fees are now probably tacked onto the ledger (recoverable under the CCRs/Master Deed). If they started foreclosure, so are those costs. If she got depressed after her husband died and had some maintenance/enforcement issues come up, so are those. Late fees, etc. The bill can rack up quickly when you get behind.

I had a guy try to argue he only owed $3K in back dues after years of non-payment, when the COA had racked up over $10K in attorney fees dealing with him (multiple enforcement actions to remove dangerous animals, nonjudicial foreclosure costs, lifting fraudulent bankruptcy stays, etc.). Judge gave him a chance to redeem, but was not sympathetic on the amount.

The only reason the judge even gave him that option was because it was a $350K condo (in the early 2010s) with no mortgage that the guy (pro athlete) had bought with cash for his mom, and they didn't like the idea of the COA foreclosing on it for about $15K then re-selling it for a huge windfall (and the crappy property manager couldn't even interpret the account ledger correctly on the witness stand).

We don't have one but I wish we did, when we closed we were made to sign papers/rules as if there was an HOA, when asked about fees was told there was none. Turned out the HOA was dissolved years ago so the paperwork we signed was useless.

For the most part it's fine, but there's a few houses that just have a lack of pride of ownership. People parking on their front lawn, rarely cutting the grass or weeding their landscape. I don't give a damn about the lady that painted her garage & front door fire engine red, or the guy who painted his mailbox Midas gold, but the other unkept places really look like shite.

Additionally, the hood is on a standalone sewer system, apparently a deal was reached with the city where the HOA would cover half, and the city would cover the other, and allow us to tie into city sewer, and do away with the standalone system. The HOA was dissolved a few months short of reaching their goal, so the system stays.

The HOA was using fees to pay a lawn service to cut/maintain the front entrances, now its done by random homeowners since there's no fees collected. One homeowner was collecting fees but only about 20 of us was contributing out of ~240 homes.

There's nightmares, but the certainly can serve a purpose.

Hell I don't even care if you want to rent your house, as long as you screen your tenants, there's ~10 rentals and all are fine with the exception of one guy, who will take the very first applicant that applies. The first tenants put the lease in the grandma's name, was selling weed out of the house, and eventually had SWAT show up at 2am to scoop him up. The next tenant in the house ran a construction outfit. If he didn't need his excavator that day he'd unload it in the front yard and leave it there for weeks. He bought a school bus and parked it on the front yard and left it there for 2 months before the city got involved. The current tenant seems ok so far.


ETA: Our next home will be 50+ acres so I don't have to deal with any of this shite

Best story I have is our board is run my mostly older boomers that are all homeowners. This one older lady was the treasurer for years. She apparently stole over 80k in dues over the years. She wrote a letter apologizing to everyone in the neighborhood and said her husband pulled out his retirement fund to pay it back. The other homeowners had to pay for the audit that caught her.

She was besties with a lot of people on the board and in the hood so it never got reported to police. Half the neighborhood was pissed about it b/c she would have kept doing if not caught and basically got an 80k interest free loan. They wanted her arrested. I had heard it was used on gambling of course.

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Wouldn’t be surprised if theft doesn’t happen a lot.

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About 15 years ago our homeowners voted to turn the HOA over to a HOA management company. About 8-9 years later it was found that they had embezzelled about 2-3 years worth of dues. Then a year or two later, guess what the dumbass homeowners in my neighborhood voted to do? You guessed it, got another management association. I am currently in a fight with them over financial statements. They provide a bullshite income statement showing what they take in and what they spend it on. I have told them they better provide me detailed income statements and balance sheets for their organization so that I can analyze them. The people in my neighborhood are for the most part retarded.

In 7 years, taking dues of about $400 a year from over 220 homes, they have replaced one small wood walking bridge near the lake and poured gravel on the walking path around the lakes maybe 2-3 times.

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10% "this is bullshite I own this property"….. 20% always in some sort of arrears people.

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That 10% are correct. When you abide by HOA’s request it should be a courtesy not forced. It is their property not the HOA’s. Rules should only be for exceedingly egregious.

The 20% not paying should also be swept under the rug. Settle with them for a small payment but HOA charge too much and provide very little outside of being annoying.