Same. My buddy and his wife have a house in Florida. They were transferred for a year to Texas. While gone, their niece rented the house. Apparently their HOA was dropping off fine notices and their niece never opened the letters up. So my buddy got a call from the HOA saying these fines were due. So the niece opened the letters. They were being fined because their mailbox was dirty. Ended up paying over $500 for it. Said it was cheaper than getting a lawyer to fight it.
I was fined 2k because my roommate moved some furniture out on a weekend instead of a weekday. It was a second offense, the first one was $1000 which I talked the board down to $500.
I begged her not to so it. She was passed at me I paid instead of stiffing them.
How do you guys put up with this shit? Seriously? They are stealing your money. Dirty mailboxes? Moving on the weekend? FOH with that.
3 Likes
Yeah lol HOAs, I understand you canāt get around them with condos but there is no reason I can think of to ever own your own house but be governed by a HOA
Theyāre for the sort of people who jerk off to their homeās imagined valuation and take it as their God-given right to have a high and ever-increasing one at everyone elseās expense. Dirty mailbox? Thatās driving down my homeās imaginary value. YOU are hurting ME with that, so I get to fine YOU for that affront to my homeās imaginary valuation.
1 Like
The only benefit of HOAs Iāve ever seen is banning political signs in areas that would otherwise be littered w/ Trump flags and shit.
Iām not sure how it would work without an HOA in something like my neighborhood that has some private streets and water retention ponds. Is there some legal way to get homeowners on the hook to maintain those community owned areas without an HOA?
Not everything has such exorbitant costs and it still would offset the cost 10% when accounting for interest.
All that says is they donāt assess high enough homeowner dues not that a reserve fund canāt work.
Again this is pretty universal for HAs.
Anyways it only came up because someone suggested that the brunt of cost should be spread out over the life and history of the building instead of being a game of musical chairs to get out before you get stuck with an assessment that costs 20% of the the value of the unit while someone who lived there the whole time it was deteriorating paid nothing.
Itās all hypotheticals regardless.
I wonder what kind of disclosure is required when selling a condo in regards to anticipated assessments? Does anyone know?
Ultimately itās up to the individual homeowners and their representatives as to how much they spend and how much they save. I still suggest many do it pretty wrong.
On a different note, was the 2018 report the first time anyone noted any problems with the building?
The x-files episode undercover in an HOA sounds about spot on.
1 Like
Have those things become public and paid for with local taxes?
This is ultimately a problem and a good microcosm on what is wrong with so much going on.
People definitely want it their way (thanks BK) but they donāt want to spend any time on it.
I have never served on a board or owned property w an HOA. But my dad did it essentially his entire life for many different properties and had long stints as president on several boards.
The drama is absurd for sure. Reminds me of this place a bit now that I think of it.
The biggest issue my dad had to deal with was a large condominium complex in Kauai, where most of the owners rented their property out by the night, and it was completely destroyed in hurricane Iniki. This was a beachfront complex of dozens of single story and double story buildings. Several hundred units in total. The devastation was insane as the entire beach front dramatically changed so it was not close to the same piece of property.
Ultimately it got rebuilt but it took forever, and the board issues were crazy. Since it was a direct revenue stream for most of the non resident owners things got quite contentious. I do wish my dad was still around because now I have some questions about that whole experience.
1 Like
What catface said, why are there private streets and ponds?
A lot of developments have private streets. It doesnāt mean theyāre blocked off or sporting āNo Trespassingā signs.
Normally, it just means the road isnāt owned by the municipality, making the residents responsible for plowing and road maintenance.
I do Door Dash and one thing that cracks me up is when they give you the code to their gated community. Doesnāt that defeat the purpose? I can just come back in the middle of the night and rob someone. I mean isnāt that why you have the gated community to begin with? To keep the undesirables like me out? And I wonder how many people that donāt give their codes out are aware of their neighbors doing so for a $10 burger.
4 Likes
I wasnāt able to read the whole thing because of paywall
Itās kind of like the TSA where itās more security theatre than actual security.
Someoneās gonna get raped this way and it will be a big scandal and then no more door codes.
I think of gated communities as voluntary concentration camps for the excessively paranoid.
1 Like
I canāt imagine my city, or any city really, taking on that burden.
City requires any new development to capture the water that would have normally been absorbed by the barren ground that is now covered by a house and return it to Puget sound. All of my developmentās gutters are plumbed underground into the retention pond where it will then make it back to the sound.
The private streets are very small spurs off the city street. Theyāre not really streets but access to some of the homes (5 total), and we own them.
Not really sure how you approach the city and tell them āwe donāt want the HOA to own or maintain these, so you do itā.