Posted on 02/15/2015 9:08:46 AM PST by Oldpuppymax
“Simple, common sense regulations at the local level will keep most of the scumbags at bay. “
The HOA is at the lowest ‘local level’.
Perhaps people wouldn’t want to live next door to you after you paint your house?
But the idea that someone else could have such power over how I use my own property is repugnant to me. Maybe that’s why I moved from 45 years in the Seattle suburbs to 32 acres in central, rural KY. All I see from my house is trees and hills (except in the wintertime I see the lights from some distant houses through the bare trees).
“HOA restrictions and amendments just sort of multiply like bunnies,”
I have lived in two HOA’s. Only a couple of changes (minor) occurred in either.
“I don’t want to tell others what color to paint their homes “
I live in an HOA and we just repainted our house. We painted with the colors of our choice. The only written restriction was that it not be of the same color as the next door neighbors’.
Exactly! You hit the nail square, and hard right on the head.
Living in a place like that too, and I love the episodes of Frasier where he gets into it with the HOA. There are at least three episodes. One where he can’t change his door knocker. One where he is in a feud with the guy upstairs, Cam something, and Cam hangs a giant American flag over frasiers entire condo blocking his view, and the whole HOA is convinced to believe Frasier is unpatriotic.
And the funniest one is when his elderly dad is in trouble with the HOA and frasier thinks it’s because he’s always with is dog in the public areas, but it’s really because dad has been using the jacuzzi naked. Frasier’s speech in defense of his dad, not knowing the true “crime,” is LOL funny.
Stuff like “who can blame the man in his golden years taking out his little friend wherever he goes?” “We’re talking about a man’s best companion here people” “is it really so horrible when a man wants his little Eddie to play with?” Etc.
Good for you.
I find myself in a disfunctional HOA with a tyrannical man and woman at the helm. Each with nothing to do all day but fret that somewhere, someone is doing something over which they have no control.
What is the most effective way to organize a movement to have it abolished?
Anyone with proven advice, please chime in.
Gated communities does not necessarily mean there is an actual gate. In many cases, there is an empty guard house. Traffic comes and goes freely. Yes, it would be possible. Also, vehicles parked on yards. Ah yes, owning an “estate” in a “gated” community.
Do a search in your local title office on your HOA, you might be surprised how much rejiggering gets done on amendments to the original agreements. If it suits your needs, great, but I personally have enough problems with the concept of property tax without volunteering for more.
You're right; there are Republican busy-bodies, control-freaks, and tyrants, too.
Many states require HOAs for any development that contains common property.
Anyone who buys property tied into an HOA or who joins his already owned property to an HOA is giving up all his property rights except the right and obligation to pay the HOA’s taxes on that property.If you give up your rights for security you then have neither. You have more rights with a lease than in an HOA. People sometimes join HOAs so that they don’t have to have neighbors “reducing their property values” by neglecting to paint the right color orr by having the Chevy up on blocks in the yard but, hey, does one believe in private property or not? I may not like what my next door neighbor does to his property but it is his property. I do not own it and do not crave to direct how he is to use his own property. I absolutely abhor the person who buys a house in a neighborhood thinking he has bought rights to the whole neighborhood.
My parents moved to Scottsdale, AZ and they had a HOA. They could not paint their house any color but white. They could not plant anything without approval from the socialists. The mailboxes were grouped half a block away for the neighbors to get their exercise.....
My uncle lived in Rancho Paloes Verdes near Los Angeles. Built his home on 2.5 acres in 1959. Never voted for a HOA but one came along many years later.
They decided to add 2 walls to enclose a porch. The HOA socialists told them what windows they could have.... mind you not a single person can see their home as it has many trees and is in the hills but they held up the building by 6 months. 6 months for 2 walls because of socialists. This is a weekend project to add the walls. Add a few days for 2 coats of paint and moving their stuff in.
They went thru the same problem with the skylight they added later on.
One year a lady showed up at their home who they never saw before and she told them to clean up the property (to her satisfaction). My uncle said he didn’t change a thing and never saw her again. I bet this lady was to busy being a busybody with the other homeowners and forgot about it.
That said, I was on the first board without developer input. It was an eye opener and I can see how things can get out of hand quickly i.e. one person kept pushing for a rule specifying no one could have a car more than 9 years old. Fortunately inane proposals were strongly out voted but I can now see how these benign HOAs can become tyrannosaurus rex on steroids.
#42 to 32 acres in central, rural KY
So you are a moonshiner then? : )
But there is no "right" to high property values. However there is a right to have an oddball home if it is on private property. Therefore HOA's are anti-private property.
it’s a tough read.
“Simple, common sense regulations at the local level will keep most of the scumbags at bay.”
Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way. Local governments are notoriously lax on enforcement of their Municipal Codes. I know first hand, I’ve worked for local governments for 25 years. Scumbags find the loopholes and exploit them, usually keeping the most annoying violations happening at times and locations where the neighbors experience them but the local inspectors cannot observe them.
Just try getting a local government involved when a homeowner rents out a storage building or trailer in their back yard for undocumented immigrants to live in, and the immigrants go through their thousands of recyclable bottles and cans at 3 am 5 feet from your bedroom window.
My rule of thumb is if you have to live within 50 feet of your neighbor’s property line in a neighborhood with “cultural diversity” and/or a median income below $150,000/year, you better have an HOA to protect you from experiencing life in the Third World.
Myself, I’m looking to get out away from the suburbs, because life is too short to have to deal with idiot neighbors.
That's private property for you. Are you against the concept?
- the kind of thing that can also drain 10s of thousands of dollars from your home equity
Sorry, but the constitution doesn't mention your home equity.
Let me help you out here dude....your "right" is to live in, or NOT live in, an area with an HOA. Once you're in, and once you pay for the right to have your property value protected, you do indeed have the right at that point. You just are confused on when the rights are exercised. There is NO CONSTITUTIONAL right to do other than choose where you live carefully.....so to speak.
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