They’ll make you sign the rules as sort of a CYA, but I inherited my house, I never had a closing and I never signed any rules.
But I’m still as bound by them as someone who signed.
We don’t have an HOA, but when we bought our house (25 years ago) I remember them mentioning something about a “neighborhood association”. There are no dues or anything, but I do remember them mentioning some restrictions like certain paint colors (earth tones) and no parking trailers or campers in the street or driveways. But we have several houses in the neighborhood that have campers, people paint their houses however they want, so obviously nobody cares.
LOL I just asked my wife if she remembers anything about a neighborhood association when we moved in and she said “Yes, I’m a member!” But it doesn’t seem like they have regular meetings, no real enforcement mechanism, it’s mostly just neighbors getting together to complain and voice concerns. Kinda like Nextdoor I guess.
States vary. But in Illinois, many HOAs are governed by state law. I’m not familiar with all the provisions, but in IL it isn’t as tho the HOA president can just change the rules upon a whim.
I use my parents’ neighborhood whenever someone wonders why HOAs exist. The dude two houses over has 10 washing machines in his yard, that I can see. There is more stuff in there, but it is so overgrown that you can’t tell what everything is. And this is not abandoned; a person lives there.
Former neighbor had horses… just in his yard. One died in his basement. He put them in his basement in the winter.
And this is a residential area, not way out in the country.
It probably is. Good luck getting anything done about that, apparently.
I’m not saying I want an HOA. I’m saying I can see why someone would, subject to this situation.
My town has laws against keeping farm animals without enough space, and my state has rules against mistreating animals.
I also can’t leave cars in the yard. I probably can leave a washing machine in the yard, though, as i didn’t think that’s explicitly violates any zoning rules.
I understand your point now – thanks.
I too am skeptical when I hear an extreme story told from just one side. In this case an overnight change to require a 90% quorum (if true) does sound like an HOA run amuck.
The problem with living in a community without HOA is that nobody is responsible for snow clearing and rat extermination.
That is not accurate at all. Or do you mean your driveway?
All side walks in my town have to be clear within 24 hours of the snow ending. A town rule.
As to rat extermination? What? I assume you mean in townhouses? That is not really an issue for detached houses is it?
Towns in NJ clear the roads of snow, though the county does the county roads and the state the highways.
My town clears the snow off the town roads, and i clear my snow off my driveway.
I’m sorry, but…what?
My ex-wife’s condo HOA had a huge grass berm that was overgrown. They ended up hiring a guy with a flock of goats to eat it down. It became an event to watch them and was the most popular thing they’ve ever done.
As for a nightmare story. Me good friend’s brother-in-law is a complete fuck up moron. He inherited a very nice house that was part of an HOA no one wanted to run it so he volunteered. Everyone agreed because they hadn’t yet realized that he was an idiot.
He convinced the group to pay for a giant stone pizza oven in the common area. To save money he built it himself. It is a huge monstrosity. He didn’t get a permit. When the authorities got wind of it they told him that it was illegal to run the thing and that there was no way to legally retrofit it. No one wanted to spend the considerable amount of additional money that it would take to demolish the thing so it still stands as a monument to him and people have to see the thing every day.
In my post up thread I was completely blowing off about HOAs after I read the “link” posted by the OP I went on to watch horror story HOA YouTube videos.
Which I’ve since decided maybe manufactured to an extent.
I really don’t know how they can have power over your own property.
But whatever, if a person wants to live in those kind of neighborhood, ultimately it’s their choice.
My freedom to have an ugly swing set or burning my leaves or what appears to be a used car lot, some days, is important to me.
You may care the community pool room is clean and well maintained.
Choices.
The owners at some point, wisely or not, agreed to a contract. Contracts are legally binding unless they are in violation of an existing law. They just don’t take over out of nowhere.
- You have already been told how they can have power over your property.
- The statistic about the percentage of new homes being tied to HOAs show that cutting them out of your house search equation limits you mostly to older houses.
But in a HOA that "one neighbor " is likely to end up president of the association, because, as seems to be true in much of politics, those who willingly take these kind of jobs get a charge out of controlling others. So I’d rather have one annoying neighbor than an annoying neighbor with a mandate.
I don’t think that’s true. The HOA members that are messed up tend to be the busybodies that think their way is the only way. They often take on senior PTA roles also.
The “one …neighbor” is talking about a different issue. One I don’t worry about all that much, but the neighbor whose yard is a big mess. This bothers a lot of people, especially those that actively seek out a nice clean neighborhood that conforms to certain standards.
Again, not me. I don’t like HOAs, I will need to be really old before I would tolerate one.
I’m slowly turning my yard into a flower garden, but I don’t want a group telling me what I can and cannot plant or if I can have chairs on my front porch or the like. I’ve already made a lot of improvements to the place that was fairly tired, but I’m doing it how I like and not according to a council of 9 busybodies.
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Did you read my post where I quoted and linked to a site specifically for you?
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Yes. Technically you are correct. But choosing to not live in an HOA severely limits where you can live. We got lucky. Many are not so lucky as we were.
So far I’ve owned seven properties with CC&Rs, two of which were rentals, and it’s only my current HOA that has been a problem for me. I opted out of joining, so they can’t really do anything to me, but I still mow the lawn and pull the weeds anyway since I have pride in where I live whether I’m under the thumb of an HOA or not.
As has been said many times already, if you are concerned about an HOA going rogue, refuse to buy a home that requires an HOA membership. Civil litigation can get expense, and it’s not as fun as it sounds.
As has been mentioned before that severely limits your options, especially if you are looking for a newer house. Also as has been already mentioned, in some areas you don’t have an option to “opt out”.