Home Owner Associations robbing people of their rights, their savings and their homes

Coach is Right ^ | 2/15/15 | Suzanne Eovaldi

[Albion Wilde]

We did our HOA payments online fifteen days before the due date, and somehow they never managed to get there “on time” and the management company always tried to charge late fees. Our utilities, phone and credit card were paid by the same bank’s online service only ten days ahead and always got credited. Amazing, right?

[C. Edmund Wright]

They are no more a government than a bowling league is a government....what do you want? Anarchy? Without some order, there CAN NOT BE LIBERTY.

You do NOT HAVE TO be under them - if you don’t like them, don’t live in a neighborhood with them. There are plenty of great places to live IN or NOT IN HOAs. You are only under an HOA if you choose to be so, thus it has nothing to do with government, which is NOT optional.

[C. Edmund Wright]

I agree, and for the life of me, I can’t fathom the thinking of some supposedly conservative Freepers either....

[terycarl]

There was a HOA featured on a T.V. story recently where they approached a homeowner about parking his pickup truck, which he drove daily, in his driveway. When the camera panned down the street, there was another, much larger, truck parked in another persons yard....that one was deemed O.K. because it was obvioussly a "passenger" type pickup while his looked too commercial.....

I know of another case where an older couple decided to go into an assisted living quarters and found that they wouldn't be able to rent out their property which they desired to retain ownership of for their heirs.

PATHETIC

[Mears]

“and somehow they never managed to get there “on time” “

—

Now THAT would make me angry.

Really angry.

.

[Alberta's Child]

State law would override the HOA in matters related to HOA law -- i.e., if your HOA is being governed in a way that violates your state law about the governance of HOAs, then state law will override the HOA.

Beyond that, there are very few cases where state law would override HOA governance. In many cases the HOA rules are more restrictive. Some states, for example, require boards of non-profit corporations to meet at least once per year. Your HOA documents may require your board to meet quarterly, or monthly. In that case, the HOA regulations would govern.

I'd be curious to know what issues you were facing in an HOA that were overridden by Maryland law.

[driftdiver]

What was wrong factually?

[Albion Wilde]

One of the reasons HOAs or community associations have arisen is that we are not on the wild frontier any more, and the entire thrust of the civil rights movement has made it impossible for people to group together by background any more, so community has broken down. When I was a kid in the 50s, all the kids in our neighborhood went to the same school and a handful of churches and synagogues. Everybody knew lots of people in more ways than just living nearby. Now, there is nothing tying people together, especially when developers throw up a new subdivision and people with nothing in common flock in. One of the brand-new communities we moved into had no land whatsoever anywhere for a church to buy -- the nearest churches were fifteen-twenty minutes away by car, if those were among the ones you would want to attend -- there was no community hall of any kind in walking distance.

A community association is a lame substitute for family history and family ties in an area, but it's some kind of organizing principle.

[Alberta's Child]

I don’t know about the issue with the truck (some HOAs may have restrictions on commercial vehicles, which may have nothing to do with the size and type of the vehicle), but I am familiar with a number of cases in my state where HOA rules prohibiting tenants are being overturned in court because they violate state or Federal housing discrimination laws.

[Mears]

“I know of another case where an older couple decided to go into an assisted living quarters and found that they wouldn’t be able to rent out their property which they desired to retain ownership of for their heirs.

PATHETIC

---

Not so-—the rules for assisted living are quite different than a HOA.

The actual purchase is different.

.

[Hot Tabasco]

I can’t fathom the thinking of some supposedly conservative Freepers either....

I'm confused, are you referring to me?

[C. Edmund Wright]

no sir, not at all....figuring you agreed with me.....

[familyop]

"HOA is presented to prospective buyers as a means to keep thier property values up and thier neghborhood pristine but it can turn into a dictatorship"

Fascinating. And pristine is often used as a word in real estate advertising.

3 definitions found for pristine

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Pristine \Pris"tine\, a. [L. pristinus, akin to prior: cf. F.
     pristin. See Prior, a.]
     Belonging to the earliest period or state; original;
     primitive; primeval; as, the pristine state of innocence; the
     pristine manners of a people; pristine vigor.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) :

  pristine
      adj 1: completely free from dirt or contamination; "pristine
             mountain snow"
      2: immaculately clean and unused; "handed her his pristine white
         handkerchief"

[C. Edmund Wright]

I assume from your answer that you know where you were off topic - and the factual mistake is that in most jurisdictions the cops will enforce the same kinds of things HOA’s will. There’s only a tiny over lap there. Tiny.

Which brings up another question: do you prefer being harassed by government cops, who you cannot choose not to do business with, or by an HOA that does not force you to live in their neighborhood???????

The conservative answer would be B.

[Albion Wilde]

I'd be curious to know what issues you were facing in an HOA that were overridden by Maryland law.

The one that springs to mind is that the HOA-ARC tried to regulate where the satellite dishes could be mounted on the houses, but the owners prevailed, because the location if the dish affected reception. Another is that people succeeded in running low-density home day care (one or two other children besides their own) in spite of the HOA by-laws forbidding home-based businesses.

The HOA did succeed in having a high-density day care put out, but only because it was completely illegal in terms of the state-mandated safety provisions for chlldren, and was being run by renters, who had not secured permission in their lease.

Renters were a real problem altogether -- maybe 8 to 10% of the 150 attached houses. The HOA didn't allow renting for the first 6 years, but when the economy tanked when Obama came into office, people just couldn't sell, and the HOA started allowing it. Now that community is infested with Section 8'ers in the rental units.

[Albion Wilde]

location “of” the dish, not “if” the dish....

[BlackAdderess]

Bowling leagues don’t attach liens to your real estate.

[C. Edmund Wright]

You need to learn how to use analogy. Bowling leagues, like HOA,s are NOT FORCED on anybody. That’s the analogy....

And most HOA’s do not attach liens. Again, the anecdotal doesn’t change the basic facts. They’re just anecdotes. You’re out of ammo here. Quit firing.

[Hot Tabasco]

Thanks, I wasn’t sure.........sorry

[Alberta's Child]

The satellite dish issue was probably subject to Federal statutes aimed specifically at permitting the installation of these things on residential buildings. In effect, the Federal statute basically overturned every HOA regulation governing satellite dishes. I believe the wording of the statute states that the only regulation that can be imposed on them is that they are mounted safely on the outside of a building.

I'm just speculating here, but in the case of the low-density home care as you've described it, I suspect the owners prevailed against the HOA because the arrangement in question doesn't qualify is a "home-based business" by any objective measure. I'm actually surprised that the HOA even pushed to enforce that provision in an arrangement like that, because it sounds like the HOA rules as they were written could technically prohibit people from even hiring babysitters for their own children.