Home Owners Associations

[FOTF 0]

So, about a month and a half ago, my wife, daughter and I moved into a new house. We didn't even know we were part of a HOA until the Escrow agent told us they had paid the dues for a year.

 

This last week, we began painting the house. The siding is old and a new coat of paint was recommended by the inspector to seal it and protect it until we can re side it after a couple years. The color we chose was a nice neutral green, not too bright, not too dark....

 

About an hour ago, some little weasel shows up at my door telling me that I have to "cease and desist" painting my house because we didn't get approval on the color from the Home Owner Association. Bear in mind, this was the first time anyone from the Association had taken the time to come to our door and make contact with us in any form......no "welcome to the neighborhood" packet, or a quick "Hey, how you doing? My name is Bob Loblaw and I am head of the HOA...here is what we are about and what we do" kinda thing....just "Hey, stop painting right now".....So now I am 4500 bucks in the hole because some bonehead couldn't take time out of his busy day to perform his duty as head of the Association. I have to tell a very gruff and large painter on monday that he is going to have to start all over again with some lame ass diarrhea tan color even though the house is already 3 quarters painted....and guess who gets to pay for it?

 

 

Gotta love it.....if I wanted some wanker telling me what I can and cannot do with my living space, I would have stayed in an apartment. Now I have some moron telling me what to do with my 450,000 investment.....Needless to say...I am a little pissed off.

 

Has anyone ever had a good experience with a HOA?

[DaSpungie 1]

good experience no

 

have had some runins with them though

the company i work with do custom home plans and we do some high end developements

the review who get paid 500 buck to give a plan his stamp and approval gets quite out of had some times

the area is a supose to be Frank loyd right ish

but grease is palms and you can slip in a nice little jenish design

can be a hassle telling our clients that we need to add more stone to the back of the house and a deck out front and it needs a cover and a covered patio out back and and and

but if the bugger starts bitching about the floor plans we cut him off at the knees he is only to approve exterior treatments and colours

the newest thing we are starting is setting up the building criteria for developements muahahahah

beware

but we will let it slide if you play woe wov fe or sf online

lol

[FastCargo 412]

Good experience?

 

HA!

 

I have to deal with one of those too. A new company recently took over HOA duties (our neighborhood isn't completely built out yet). We get a letter (polite) saying that our bushes were a little too high obscuring the house number. Never mind that the front gatehouse STILL hasn't been fixed from the last time a truck ran into it (jeez, people, what exactly does 10 foot clearance mean...moron). Way to keep your priorities straight!

 

FastCargo

[FOTF 0]

Exactly....that is my problem too....their priorities are so far out of whack they don't know what the hell to do.

 

The guy is griping at us about painting our house an "unapproved color" while the dill-hole two houses away has paint flaking off his house.

 

You want all the houses to look nice? Then bug the guy who's house looks like crap rather than the guy who is trying to keep his house looking good and up to date!

[DWCAce 19]

While I haven't bought a house yet (going to move to my second apt in sept). I'd take the simple approach of telling them to f*** off since no one told you about the HOA BEFORE the sale. They screwed up their 'paradise of nice colors', now they should pay for it.

[FOTF 0]

Well....I have been reading up on HOA's and what they do...alot of people liken them to those guys that hang out by the docks and employ strong arm tactics to get what they want...I think the call em gangsters.

 

I have read stories where they have put liens on houses or worse of people that do not pay their fees.

 

When I get home from work, I am heading out with my camera and taking pictures of all the trouble houses in the development and all the common areas where the HOA is supposed to be maintaining with our fees.

 

I am not an unreasonable guy. It's not like I said "Hey....let's piss off a bunch of people and put some color in the neighborhood"....Had I known the rules of engagement, I would have gone through the proper channels. They didn't even show me even respect when I moved in to give me a contact list of who to get ahold of in case I had an issue. I don't even have a copy of these by laws that I am supposed to abide by. How can I abide by the rules if you can't show them to me? There is a reason they post speed limit signs every where....so you know what the rules are.

 

But I guarantee...when it comes time to pay those dues...they are right there knocking down your door.

[DWCAce 19]

I'm HOA's can be good for somethings, but as you point out, they didn't provide you with any info or greeting. Did you know about the HOA before the sale?

[eraser_tr 29]

Well the one my parents were in before I was born wasn't too bad from their stories, but it got disbanded long before so I'd have no idea what it was really like. We do have some crooked police departments around here, and absurd town and county permits though. According to the law, to make any electrical change, you have to hire a master electrician. And yes, ANY. even for changing a lightbulb.

 

I like Dwcace's suggestion, go tell them to F themselves. You own the property, you paint the house however you want. This is America, you're supposed to have the freedom to do that sort of thing.

[+Fates 63]

Paul,

 

Check you legal rights where you live. The seller is usually required to disclose this information. This is the same as disclosing information regarding mechanical problems with the property such as a gas leak or mold, etc..etc...

 

You may be well with in your rights to go back upon the seller to recoupe your lossm and I would definitely do so. There are more then likely annual fees that should be escrowed. My HOA dues are $250/ yr, but if you live in California I'm sure yours are much much higher then that. This is a REQUIRED expense to purchase the home, and much like homeowners insurance, must be disclosed.

 

My HOA is behind the eightball. The let people put up metal sheds and unapproved fences and swings and then to go back and tell the owner that they have to have them removed. It's much easier to put a copy of the HOA covenants on the door for the new homeowner to read. I actually have started a website for my subdivsion to enjoy, forums, forms, news, etc.

 

Have you received a copy of your covenants? Here's a copy of mine http://www.avontrails.com/files/covenants.pdf

 

Good luck.

 

Mike

[+Nightshade/PR 7,928]

Like many of us, my run-in's with them have been negative. People with too much time on their hands and self-important attitudes made me tell them to go to H**l when I put up a fence, and they thought it wise to leave me alone from that day forward. (The threat to "whip your squirrely little @#$ might have been the catalyst) Eventually the neighborhood decided these weasels had to go, and they moved once they found out they couldn't push anyone around.

 

As Fates said, check the legal aspect of it where you live.

 

I'll ask the question here, and see what I can find.

[FOTF 0]

Luckily, my wife works in real estate and her boss (the broker of her office) happens to double as a lawyer. If this fails to resolve by tuesday, attorneys are prepared to draft letters to the HOA.

 

And Fates, to answer your question.....I haven't received anything from the HOA.....no covenants, no contact info...nothing. This is our first interaction with them

[+Dave 2,322]

Paul tell that wanker to piss off, and if he doesn't like tell him he can make the payments. My wife has one for the house she has in Ohio. I told the HOA to piss off the first day (the only day I stayed in my house). The guy got a shocked look on his face and left. Sheila hasn't heard from him since.

[WarlordATF 1]

My Buddy is going through this same kinda crap. He has a Pool Table in his Garage and on friday nights several of us get together and shoot pool with the garage door open. The HOA did not like this and tried to push him around. He told them that he was not a member of the HOA, Didnt plan on becoming one and they could shove there opinion... well you get the idea.

 

In our area the HOAs have no real power, but they like to think they do and they try to intimidate people. The Worst they can do here is call code enforcement if you have a violation. Without that all they can do is issue empty threats. Check your local laws, but its probably the same where you are.

 

Just keep your house within Code Restrictions, paint it any color you like and tell them to talk a long walk off a short pier!

Edited August 13, 2007 by WarlordATF

[JediMaster 451]

Same with our HOA...all bluster, no bite. We used to care about what they said, until we saw blatant violations all over and found they had no power to enforce their decrees. Now we do what we think is best.

[payaso 0]

HOAs are a joke, unless the person(s) running them is a sitting judge or some other person in a position to abuse personal power. My father-in-law sent a very cordial but succinct letter to the HOA in his neighborhood when they tried to tell him that having a basketball goal installed in the front yard was against code- he displayed precedent around the neighborhood for installed athletic equipment, and then ignored them henceforth. So I say forget 'em- they can take time and material of their own to remedy their issue with your paint.

[FOTF 0]

OK...now we're talking. So...our color was not approved, and they have told us they will begin fining us 500 dollars a week until it is repainted.

 

I handed the guy my keys and told him since he owned my house he can move in at anytime and start paying the mortgage. He said Oh...there's no reason we can't be friendly about this....My ass....you just wasted 4500 dollars out of my pocket because you failed in the first place. I told him that I am a very responsible guy, not one to just thumb my nose at authority...had they been pro active and given me some contact info, of course I would have followed through and double checked with them. How could I possibly contact the board to have my color approved when they failed to provide any contact info what so ever? Who would I call to tell them I was painting? He said "well...your escrow company should have given it to you"....no...sorry pal. It's not their responsibility to provide me with your contact info. It is your responsibility and you failed at that miserably. They failed, and now me and my family...and ultimately my bank account, is made to suffer.

 

I am contacting my laywer and the attorney general of Washington state. I have already decided as soon as it is economically feasible, my dream house is going back on the market and we are getting the hell away from these nazis

[+Dave 2,322]

I can't wait to see what they do now. Or can't do now.

[rabbit 0]

I can't wait to see what they do now. Or can't do now.

May their chooks turn into emus and kick their sh**houses down.They wouldn't be small men by any chance dressed in a bus conductors uniform.Try telling an Aussie what colour to paint his house and see what happens.

[+Fates 63]

Just remember that you may have problems selling the house if they put a lien on it.....and trust me they will from the sounds of it.

[eraser_tr 29]

Fine you? ha! ok now they're trying to rip you off. They're not the town, county or state government, some guy with too many sticks shoved up his *** has no legal authority to do so, no more than I can pull someone over and fine them for speeding(unless of course he is a police officer or real town official, though something tells me he isn't). Actually I think that kind of thing would fall under extortion.

 

Just one question, have you continued painting the house the original color you planned on?

[tank03 1]

I think you have some clear legal recourse, not with the HOA, but with the seller and/or broker, at least here in NH you would, so I suspect you do where you are.

 

The agent (and by extention, broker) who represented you should have disclosed that there was a HOA and acquired all the pertinent documents prior to the sale, per their fiduciary duty. If the seller didn't disclose or your agent didn't do his/her job, you can seek remedy through either or both.

 

That's a basic tenet of Real Estate: disclose, disclose, disclose. I don't think you're going to get anywhere going up against the HOA, they've been around long enough that their rules have usually been shown to be leagally acceptable. You need to go after the seller who didn't disclose or the agent who was negligent and get damages plus from them. Good luck I hope it works out for you.

[FOTF 0]

Well....loophole time!!!!

 

So....the by laws states that the color of the *BODY* of the house must be passed by the board of the HOA. It says nothing about trim or doors. So, we are going to switch the body color from our grey-green that the board turned down to a garish white that they have approved and paint our doors and all the trim the grey-green. So everytime they go by the house, there is a big green garage door staring at them....and since it is not covered in the by laws, there isn't a damn thing they can do about it. A little moral victory.

 

Also, the painter has agreed to paint the house without a shirt and plumber crack hanging out.

[Ruggbutt 45]

Paul, I could tell you horror stories about HOA's. I'm a painting contractor and I've seen about every type of asshat you can think of on these boards. My mom's HOA started messing w/her and she finally got fed up and ran for president. She won! First thing she did was ask me to get some color chips together so that the board could pick out a huge amount of colors. ;) The ex president lived next door to her and had threatened her w/violence in front of my brother shortly after that. Man was he surprised when this dude showed up at his door with hair down to his waist and wanting to discuss w/him the merits of never ever talking to my mom again. ;)

 

I suppose that the combat boots, .45 in gun leather and the police freq's on my handheld dual band ham radio made him think I was a cop....................:D I never said I was though.