Well, we’ve moved on to “Orwellian” and then “fascist”. Nazi Germany can’t be far down the road.
In any event, this proves America is not the “Land of the Free”! Wait, that was another nimroddian Pit thread.
As mini-tyrannies go, I applaud the one restricting your ability to hang wind chimes. Personally, I feel that anyone who has chimes that are audible beyond their property line should be drawn, quartered and then sent to the gulag.
Do you also applaud the mini-tyrany that prevents you from planting in your garden where you want to and hanging your christmass lights early…wait…tht’s the same mini-tyrany, so I guess so.
How about the one my gf must deal with, where you can’t park on the street in front of your own house overnight, nor have any tree on the property more than 12 feet tall? And why must people pay to be tyrranized? I guess it’s part of the deal.
You apparently missed the earlier post where I mentioned the horror stories I’d heard about overreaching homeowners’ associations and that I’d never live anywhere where I’d be subject to one.
That said, there’s potential for at least some good, even under the fascist, Stalinist, Khmer Rouge, sieg-heiling, goose-stepping tyranny that is currently crushing milroyj under its spit-polished jackboots. And I put the wind chimes restriction in the category of the Greater Good.
Is there some law in California or in the United States that forces anyone to live in a community with a homeowners’ association? Don’t think so.
As a non-US resident, can someone explain to me how such associations gain rights over the areas they control? I find the whole concept a little bizarre, to be honest; when I was staying in the States for a summer (I’m a US citizen) I was renting a room in a house, and my landlord (who lived in the rest of the house) got a registered letter from the HA telling him to cut his lawn. The letter was sent from the guy who lived in the opposite house, who could have easily walked across and said “Hey, Bob, would you mind cutting your lawn?”, but no; registered letter. This freaked me out. What’s going on? Are the houses built by HAs or do they somehow move in on neighbourhoods? Is it possible to buy houses that aren’t overseen by little Hitlers? Roughly what proportion of houses are run by these monstrosities?
This is almost entirely a phenomenon in new developments (detached housing or condos). According to one stat I saw, about 1 in 8 Americans lives in a “common interest community” that has rules and regulations of this kind. You know (or should know) what you’re getting into when you buy in.
The whole idea is to protect property values and keep things “nice”. The problems come when people don’t realize the amount of conformity that is required, the amount of dues that are collected and the mindset of some of association leaders who apparently enjoy poking their nose into everyone’s business. The potential for your neighbors to be interfering pains-in-the-ass should not, however, be confused with Hitlerism. There are also moves on to bring some of the more flagrant HOA abuses under stricter local or state control. And ultimately, the pendulum may swing back more in favor of homeowners preferring greater individual freedom, even at the risk of someone hanging a candidate’s sign in his yard or letting the grass grow more than an inch in height.
Beyond HOAs, I can only imagine the joys of living in a historic preservation neighborhood, where your ability to make improvements and fix dilapidated structures can be even more rigorously controlled.
caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. If you don’t want to be subject to fascist restrictions, don’t join into one of those associations.
You did read the fine print when you got the place, right?
You probably don’t want to put one of these things up. 
[Big Mike] “But there are so many, many rules.”[/BM]
Hey, I agree that HOAs can be irrationally nick-picky about unimportant stuff. My mom and dad’s HOA at their winter place has enforcement patrols that drive around (in golf carts!) making sure that no one hangs wrought iron decorations on their house, or forgets to wheel the garbage can back in on garbage day, or lets their plants die without promptly removing them. Piddly doesn’t even begin to describe some of it, and we’re talking no-life-havin’ retired people who literally have nothing better to do than make sure the bouganvilla in your yard is planted the requisite distance apart. (My parents are in their mid-60s, and they are amonst the youngest, and most relaxed, in their neighborhood.)
But two things: First, you signed up for it (or, in your case, your landlord did). If you don’t want to live in a location where you have to deal with a HOA and all the rules and regulations that entails, then don’t buy there. I have a townhouse with a HOA and you can bet I read the covenants and rules from front to back before I made an offer. Nobody’s making you live there.
Second, while a lot of stuff an HOA can pull is seemingly irrational and borderline fascist, your complaint is not an example of that. Again, they are letting people know that the HOA is incurring additional costs because some people are not obeying the rules. They are warning everyone that those additional costs will be passed on to the transgressors in the form of fines, rather than assessed against all the homeowners. Unless it was me who was throwing my garbage around (or whatever), I’d be happy as a clam that they were applying a boot to the ass of the guilty parties. There’s nothing Orwellian about it; Winston Smith didn’t voluntarily subject himself to Big Brother by buying a house in the Oceania Subdivision.
Well, as a member of my HOA, I wouldn’t really say, “nothing”. After all, we use the money collected to put out hits on those who displease us and to buy shiny new automobiles. Plus, every other Thursday we all gather to roll around in our special “money room” and rub bills and boullion all over ourselves.
And we also get really cool tattoos.
Bottom line: if your girlfriend finds living there so horrible (and to be fair, it sounds pretty pissy and petty) then she is free to move. Of course, she can also piss and moan about it in perpetuity. Her call, really.
If you’re building a new development with a bunch of houses, you make the people buying them sign a HOA contract (or else you won’t sell.) In some cases, depending on state law, the HOA agreement may actually be part of the deed.
The HOA collects a regular fee and provides services such as keeping up any private streets and common areas, providing community swimming pools or recreation, doing garbage pick-up, private security, etc etc. They also enforce rules meant to keep everything looking nice, which is why you often hear of HOAs having stupid, arbitrary rules like “your grass must be between two and three inches high.” In theory this is to keep property values up by ensuring that your neighbors don’t stink up the place.
Unlike the commonly held view, some HOAs do a spectacular job maintaining the community with a minimum of fuss. Others are complete fucking bastards. It’s really important to do a lot of research if you’re buying into an HOA-controlled home.
One common feature of those who do the most complaining about their HOAs is their unwillingness to serve on the Board of Directors. The bottom line is often that they don’t want to do any work. They want things taken care of (common lawn areas mowed, parking lots paved, snow plowed, etc.), but don’t want to help manage the place.
By the way, anyone who wonders where all the money goes should simply ask to see the HOA’s budget and most recent balance sheet. These organizations are usually set up as nonprofits, and even if they aren’t, their financial records are always available for inspection by any homeowner.
Often, a goodly chunk of the money goes into reserve funds, to pay for future capital improvements or major repairs. In Virginia, HOAs are required, by statute, to maintain adequate reserves. That way, when it comes time to fork over $80k to repave the parking lots, the hit doesn’t land entirely on the poor saps who happen to be living there when the paving needs to be done. As soon as the new pavement has cooled, the HOA starts putting money into a reserve fund to pay for it the next time around.
Gotta agree with you on the wind chimes. That was my boyfriend’s doing, not mine. But planting an herb in the “wrong” section? C’mon, how stupid is that?
:eek:
Not to hijack this or anything, but milroyj’s a woman?!
No dear, I’m not.
Oh, dear…
Meaning what, exactly?
Just having a little fun, milroy. I don’t usually immediately identify rabid right-wingers as family. Must be a glitch in my gaydar.
It doesn’t help my sense of the state of the universe when I essentially agree with you on the whole HOA thing.
And I extend a virtual olive branch on this one because that first paragraph was really, honestly not meant to sound quite that…um…snippy.
OK thanks. I may be a right-winger, but I don’t have rabies, for heaven’s sake.
I’ve never been able to decide if HOAs are essentially American or essentially unAmerican. I’m not quite sure if I can expand on that statement, so I’m not going to unless someone calls me on it.
