Some numbnuts in the neighborhood have started a HOA, and are trying to get everyone else to join. It is the brainchild of the one dickhead neighbor who is always complaining and threatening everyone with calling the cops about kids, dogs, cars-- you name it! He is using the big lie, “Its to protect your property value” as a cover for foisting his damn rules and regs on everyone else.
(a little background: we live in a very rural, remote place. there are maybe 50 homes in our subdivision. we have paved roads and streetlights, but not much more. we do not need any association dictating how we all live on our 2 acre lots! the guy behind this is a retired cop from california, and i believe he has some real “control” issues, and the association is his means of inforcing his will and plans to use it as such)
My wife and I intend to put together a little packet of info as to the real damage these associations can create. What we are looking for from the teeming millions are your personal stories or good sites you have come across regarding the abuses of these entities. We hope to convince everyone else in the subdivision to preserve their rights as owners and rebuke this tool and his little gestapo organization.
Please include any links you can, as we will be printing the best for distribution!
Thanks Teeming Millions!
If we give in to the Homeowner’s Association, the terrorists have already won!
gatopescado, those Tucson retirees can be a bitch (not to mention racists who put home values before people).
My Cousin, who used to live in one of those neighborhoods, had a retiree with a clipboard come by who was on the ‘weed patrol’, and warnd him that he needed to get out and weed his yard (mind you, this is in a development with mostly natural desert-type landscaping). My cousin had to ask him to point out the weeds, and still had a hard time telling the ‘weeds’ from the ‘natural flora’.
Take Retirees (especially white alpha-males) with too much spare time and add ‘rules’ that need to be enforced and you get self righteous jerks. Everytime.
Oro Valley, North of Tucson, is a hotbed of retireel politics gone bad - constant recalls, home owners associations gone mad, etc. They’re trying to annex my mom’s neighborhood. (so that they’ll be that much closer to the Foothills Mall - their true goal) Mom’s not too happy about this.
I say if this guy succeeds in passing his HOA, go by his house and make sure that he passes his own standards PERFECTLY. Recruit other neighbors who are on your side to do the same. And if he doesn’t, call him on it.
I’ve got a quick question: by what mechanism can HAs claim any sort of power? Even if all your neighbors “voted to join”, or what have you, what’s to stop you from telling them to piss off?
I’m with occ I was always under the impression that they were only binding if you purchased property that was already under the HOA. I never knew that your neighbors could ever force you to join just by creating one.
It is one thing to buy into property that is bound by an HOA, it’s a totally different animal to buy unfettered property only to have your rights taken out from under you.
First thing, find out which kind of homeowner’ association this is. Like occ and Cheesesteak, I can’t see how just by them creating an association , you would be forced to abide by their rules. However, there is another sort of “homeowner’s association”- really, there is . I belong to one. I don’t live in a development, membership is not mandatory and there are no rules. They do such things as hold meetings with government officials, take positions on zoning variances and traffic lights and put pressure on governement agencies to solve problems. If your front yard was so full of trash that it violated the health code, they could do something about it-call the appropriate authorities, which any neighbor could do on their own. If that’s the type that your neighbor is trying to form, you don’t really have anything to worry about (and it might be fun to watch “his” organization disagree with him if most people think he’s a dickhead.)
this zipper has formed a corporation, with 3-4 others. he claims “it is to protect property values”. yeah, right! they are encouraging others to “support” it, i.e. join. they are assessing a $10/month fee, and those who do not pay will not get a vote.
the subdivision has CC&R’s in effect from 1991, with no provision for a HOA. There is no mention of one on my deed.
i am not really too worried about it as such, because i flat out refuse to join, and i do not believe they can force me. what i want is to educate the rest of the neighborhood and presuade them not to join, and have the whole business fade quietly away.
i have dealt with this jerk enough to know that what he is attempting to do is enforce his will on the residents. he threatens people all the time with the sherriff, but because no county/state laws are being broken, he gets no response from the authorities. i am afraid that if this knucklehead gets people to join up and agree to abide by the HOA’s rule, he will then have his avenue of recourse. (see the link in my third post in this tread)
i’m not too concerned for myself, but i would hate the neighborhood to go to shit because of this whole affair.
Expanding on that however, the problem with HOAs is the same as their advantage. They allow you to deal with jerks (jerks who are bad neighbors) with collective weight and legal resources. However, HOAs can also allow a jerk (a bully, a control freak) to have collective weight and legal resources behind him.
This is a condo association story, but it’s a perfect example of the latter. My in-laws live in a small condo community that isn’t fully constructed yet. Mr. Jackass moved into a condo that was priced a little cheaper because its view wasn’t going to be as good once everything got built. My Jackass then got himself elected president of the condo association, and bullied a majority of board members to agree with him that the builder should be enjoined from building the condo that would hurt his view. The filed a restraining order, or whatever is appropriate in this case, saying the other condo couldn’t be built as planned. In essence, he used the condo association to give his own selfish control-freak desires some real weight. And he committed the resources of the condo association to fighting a legal battle that was for his benefit alone. UGH.
i think it is a real good slice of public opinion on these corporate reptiles. alot of the comments apply to our situation out here in the middle of nowhere.
i really like the guy who said he would start his own association! I hit on the same idea also. mine will be called:
Friends Using Common Knowledge, Justly Entitled to Resonably Rule Yourself
Anyhow, like doreen said. His forming a corporation and calling it a HOA doesn’t give his little outfit any authority. And since your covenants don’t make provision for a HOA, you’re safe every which way. The local pizza parlor has as much authority to set community rules as your neighbor’s HOA does. (Might be fun to tell him that. :))
If it weren’t for the dues, I’d suggest encouraging all your friends to join the Dickhead Association and outvote the dickhead. But $120/year is pretty steep, for an association that doesn’t have any authority or responsibilities.
By way of comparison, my HOA dues are $65 a year, and the HOA maintains a community playground with ballfields, and does a number of other practical things in the neighborhood that I can’t remember off the top of my head.
Of course, they could all join, then pass a resolution right away eliminating the dues.
good stuff, RT, in that other pit thread awhile ago. thanks for contributing here, also.
its kinda funny. when our pal sent these letters out informing us that he and a few others had formed this association, he included that the fees “were required by state statuate”, but failed to list which one, or why that figure was decided on. seems to me like they kinda pulled it out of their ass! (which is where i would be placing mine, assuming i agree to pay, which i absolutly will not)
i agree with you that they are useful in congested urban housing developments where your neighbor is 6 feet from you. we live on a freakin’ dry lake bed in BFE, with all lots 2+ acres! The existing CC&R’s enacted by the original developer cover enough already regarding pets, junk cars, yada yada yada. we really don’t need any further restrictions, especially for 120 bones a year!
Lordy, now I’m feeling better about all the home repairs that come along with owning an older house.
We have a “Neighborhood Association.” Dues are $10 per year, we meet about every two or three months, and we exist solely to make our city councilor pay attention to us when our streets need fixed or the city isn’t providing services appropriately. Every now and then, there’s bound to be an asshole who decides that the main purpose of the organization should be to report people who haven’t been pulling their weeds, but that’s not too common. And when a drug dealer moves into the rental house down the block, the neighborhood association can get the attention of the city better than separate neighbors would be able to. The only rules we have are city ordinances, which are subject to the votes of everyone in the city, and we manage to get by with those. We consider that we’re doing enough to protect our property values by being involved in our neighborhood and supporting its schools. We don’t have the time to worry about what color you paint your gate or whether you park on the street. As long as you’re not selling dope to our kids or robbing our houses, we’re good.
Oh, wait. I forgot our most important role. We also have potlucks in the park.
I’m a lawyer, and I once had a client who lived in a big subdivision with a homeowners association, and the properties all had to abide by the restrictive covenants that allowed the HA to dictate standards about what type of fences could be installed in the subdivision. As a result, in order to install a fence a person had to obtain a building permit from the city and also get approval from the HA.
Previously, another owner in the subdivision got approval from the city and from the HA to install a plastic picket fence in her front yard. Then a dictator was elected president of the HA. My guy sought approval for an identical plastic picket fence and was shot down by the HA president, who said that plastic fences were tacky and from now on only reaal wooden fences would be approved by the HA. I got to write a nasty letter to the HA which forced them to back down and allow my client to build his fence. I pointed out that the HA couldn’t discriminate based on arbitrary standards not set forth in the restrictive covenants, such that if the HA had already previously approved plastic picket fences - and it had - then it was stuck with its own precedent and couldn’t change the standards based merely on the new HA president’s whim.
I’m a lawyer, and I once had a client who lived in a big subdivision with a homeowners association, and the properties all had to abide by the restrictive covenants that allowed the HA to dictate standards about what type of fences could be installed in the subdivision. As a result, in order to install a fence a person had to obtain a building permit from the city and also get approval from the HA.
Previously, another owner in the subdivision got approval from the city and from the HA to install a plastic picket fence in her front yard. Then a dictator was elected president of the HA. My guy sought approval for an identical plastic picket fence and was shot down by the HA president, who said that plastic fences were tacky and from now on only real wooden fences would be approved by the HA. I wrote a nasty letter to the HA which forced them to back down and allow my client to build his fence. I pointed out that the HA couldn’t discriminate based on arbitrary standards not set forth in the restrictive covenants, such that if the HA had already previously approved plastic picket fences - and it had - then it was stuck with its own precedent and couldn’t change the standards based merely on the new HA president’s whim.
