I heard about this on NPR yesterday. Apparently the only “debt” was a few hundred dollars’ worth of back HOA fees, apart from which, the house was owned free and clear by the family.
I understand the underlying principle of a lien, that is if you don’t pay the debt the collateral can be sold to recover it. But I always thought once the debt is paid, the residual proceeds of the sale go to the owner. I think this case is somewhat unusual because it’s more typical for there to be no leftover proceeds after a forced sale. Forced sellers in many cases have already fully hypothecated their houses so there are multiple creditors lined up to claim every last cent. But in cases like this, where the debt is a miniscule fraction of the value of the house, is it generally legal for the lienholder to scoop in the other 98% of the house’s value as pure gravy? Is this just a Texas thing, or can HOA’s do this everywhere?
Why do many HOAs have a problem with “commercial vehicles”?
I guess I can understand big heavy trucks but it seems like in many places, a plumber or electrician can’t leave his marked van or pickup truck parked in his own driveway.
What sort of potential buyer would really be put off by seeing a neighbor’s work vehicle?
It sounds like elitism to me. “We don’t want lowly tradesmen types living around here.”.
Most HOAs will work with a delinquent owner. The one that we foreclosed on owed over $17,000 before we foreclosed. We tried to work with her, even allowing her to pay a reduced monthly amount. I remember how happy our property manager was when he announced that the lien had been foreclosed and the property auctioned, as we would then get our moneys. I informed him, and the rest of the board, that there is a prior existing mortgage. Everybody looked at me like I was a nut case. I even got a horrible email from one of them telling me, in no uncertain terms, that he doesn’t understand a word I say or write in my emails, and that he doesn’t even look at my emails any more, but quickly deletes them. As it turned out, our lawyer handling the case did not read the mortgage, or did not read it thoroughly enough. The mortgage prohibited any assumption by any future owner. That meant that we could not acquire ownership and just pay off the mortgage monthly. We either had to pay it off in full or sell it to the mortgagee. The balance of the mortgage amount was around $86,000, which meant that if we paid it off, we would have to sell it for around $120,000 just to come out even. All the unit owners voted on our course of action, and we elected to have the mortgagee have it, the market being what it is. Most comparable units were selling around $110,000. We would’ve been better off not foreclosing and let the mortgagee foreclose. At least we would’ve had to pay attorney’s fees and other costs involved in the foreclosure.
Anyway, the serviceman will get his house back. Texas does not allow non-judicial sales of property owned by anyone in the armed services. In most cases, I assume, there is a pretty hefty outstanding mortgage, and a purchase money mortgage is always a prior lien over delinquent homeowners’ assessments.
Some people like their HOAs. My mother owns a duplex in a HOA community. They take care of anything outside- lawns, roofs, painting, etc. They have a tennis court, green spaces and two swimming pools.
As a single working woman. my mother wanted to own property but frankly enjoyed not having to deal with heavy maintenance as a renter. She saw how my great-grandparents began to struggle with the unexpected expenses and hassle of home owning and figured she’d like to spend her older years without those problems. A community with an HOA was a good compromise. Since she has no particular urge to paint her house pink, the rules don’t really bother her much.
My mother is on the board of our condo association, and acts as the treasurer. I’ve met and talked to the president of the board, and he’s a nice guy too. There are lots of retired people around, and they like to complain about the stupidest things. There are people who like to feed the geese despite being told multiple times that they are disrupting the wildlife and spreading geese poop over the common area. And despite being told in the newsletter that trash is not supposed to go out until X time the day before pick-up, people are habitually putting it out the morning before it’s picked up. It’s like they’re putting it out a day early.
The annual meeting was held recently and my mother reported on a number of things people
bitched about, all of which would require additional expenditures, but it would be tough to convince the entire development that such a service was needed. As an example, we have snow removal when the snow reaches a certain height, and the driveways are scraped fairly clean by trucks with snow plows. Some people wanted them to do a better job, but it would require more work than they currently do. Their current system makes the driveway drivable, plus they do come back and shovel the walkway. I’m not sure what exactly my point is, but people tend to want more services than they pay for.
That is until a bunch of fascist dicks take over the board, which is the risk you have to take when you buy into even the most reasonable-seeming HOA. At that point they’re also bent on making sure your door is painted just the right hue or that you have just the right type of lawn furniture.
It’s happened in both HOA’s I’ve lived under (neighborhood homes, not Condos). In both cases, the HOA litigated over nonsensical stuff: a fence the wrong height in one neighborhood, a room addition THREE INCHES (out of twenty five feet) too close to a lot line in another.
In both of these cases, the only “common property” was some mailboxes and a sign. A $1000 trust from each home when it was built would pay for contracted landscapers to take care of these two things in perpetuity, no HOA required.
It’s unfortunate that HOAs are unavoidable where I live if you want to own a home.
I’m more familiar with situations where there are multiple dwelllings in a single building, e.g. condos and townhouses. I’ve lived in those kinds of buildings most of my life. In those places, the entire exterior of the buildings is common property.
I can see why HOAs are objectionable where the development is really single family homes. But I’ve lived in condos and townhouses all my life, so HOAs are just part of the territory.
One of the most odious and socially harmful aspects of HOAs is that there seems to be an underlying assumption that uniformity of appearance in residential areas is of unquestionable value. Especially in suburban areas with large lawns, there’s no reason to give such body the authority to enforce visual standards. A homeowner should be free to paint his house any color, or to convert his bluegrass lawn to a more natural meadow ecology. And the perpetuation of HOAs and their uniformity standards reinforce the idea of uniformity even more. They also interfere with mixed uses of land, which is a major source of our wasteful energy consumption and inefficiency and inequality in general. The proliferation of large tracts of residential-only land use is killing us. It not only sucks up energy and creates pollution, but it also sucks away our time and makes us overly dependent on motorized transportation. If I run out of bread or eggs or cough syrup, there should be commercial operations within walking distance, so that time and energy need not be spent excessively for every single thing. There should be limits on to what extent private arrangements can be used to bar mixed-density housing and mixed-income housing and mixed uses of land.
True for condos; not quite true for townhouses which are not developed as condos. In true townhouses, the exterior of the building is the owner’s responsibility. A party wall exists in the common wall with the adjoining owner. In comparison, in a condo, the exterior of the building is common property, but is “limited common property,” which means only the unit owner has access to it. In the general common property elements, all of the owners in the development can use them. All of the unit owners (called “the council” in SC) are responsible for the upkeep of all the common elements, and that is done through regime fees.
acsenray:
In a condo development, this is necessary. A condo development should have a uniform look. However, in our development, we have authorized a scheme of different colors (approved by the Board and the Council) as well as given permission for different looking decks. The variation in color is nice, but the variation in decks was more or less forced on us because some owners built different decks without Board approval, and nobody complained at the time. Now, if somebody wants to build a deck, approval must be had by the Board as to the specs. Initially there were no decks. We allowed simple decks that would not interfere with a neighbor’s line of sight, would not project too far into the common elements, and would have only a step or two. People have built huge decks, with many steps, projecting well out into the common elements, and with high fences. Approval for new decks still must be had, but this is a formality unless an adjoining owner complains.
Sorry, but I don’t really get this whole HOA thing. It just seems like a way for some vest-pocket Hitler to tell me what I can/can’t do with my own property. I find it funny that a people (i.e., Americans) that are so gung-ho over “freedom” would be willing to allow someone to tell them what to do in their own yards.
Well, they largely started as a way to keep ‘undesirables’ (blacks, jews, etc.) from buying a house in your neighborhood.
Unfortunately, one of the ‘freedoms’ americans have embraced over the years is the freedom to discriminate against others you don’t like. Just like a part of our country caused a Civil War over ‘states rights’, but the only one they were really concerned with was the ‘right’ to own slaves.
I dunno. I think it’s pretty sweet to not have to cut the grass or maintain the lake out back myself. Or fix the electric gate out front. Or trim the giant ass old trees all over. Or care for the pool. Or repave the tennis courts. Or scoop the dead duck out of the corner of the lake. Or deal with it myself when my ahole neighbor parks in front of my house all day every day. Or deal with it myself when my neighbor puts his stinky garbage outside my bathroom window. On and on.