Home Associations (Atlanta, Smyrna, Alpharetta: homeowners association, condos, townhomes)

[Valerie-Lydie]

hi,

Just wondering what you would know about those home associations, are they legal or not?

I have already written a post on my other thread called Smyrna/Vinings/Alpharetta about what seems to irritate me about these.

For the two houses that we are looking into, in Alpharetta and Smyrna, both are attached to some home Associations.

We are not interested. Are they legal, or is it possible to thank them and refuse to pay for their enormous fees and become members?

We feel mature enough to know what is good for our house, and don#'t feel like asking the permission all the time for what we want to add in front or in the back of the house, this is ridiculous and they want $1400 for that!

Valerie

[lastminutemom]

Then don't buy in a neighborhood that has a homeowners association. Look for older neighborhoods -- those over 20 years should be safe.

No way around them -- they are in your deed if you buy in a neighborhood with an association.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by Valerie-Lydie

Just wondering what you would know about those home associations, are they legal or not?

Yes. HOAs are common in most, if not all states, for condos, townhomes, and single family homes.

Originally Posted by Valerie-Lydie

We are not interested. Are they legal, or is it possible to thank them and refuse to pay for their enormous fees and become members?

Just don't buy in a community with an HOA. When you purchase the property, you agree to the covenants and bylaws of the HOA. You can't "thank on them and refuse to pay" or they will plunk a nice fat lien on your home.

Originally Posted by Valerie-Lydie

We feel mature enough to know what is good for our house, and don#'t feel like asking the permission all the time for what we want to add in front or in the back of the house, this is ridiculous and they want $1400 for that!

Again, don't buy in a community with an HOA. The money is used to maintain common grounds, such as pools, playgrounds, and landscaping, or in the case of a condo or townhome the roof and exterior maintenence. Another effect of an HOA, which you may like or hate, is that they protect the community from the guy who wants to paint his house pink or have cars on blocks or 20 pit bulls running around.

[NEastBound]

Personally, I love HOAs. I keeps the neighborhood uniform. Some limits the # of cars hanging out in the driveway (for an extended period of time of course, not like your visitors), how long you can keep your trash can out by the curb, the color of your home, design of fence (personal favorite - hate chain link), etc. In my parents old neighborhood, you could not keep your garage door open for more than a 2 hr time period and NO garage sales.

Keeps the riff raff at bay or away. It's a good thing if you ever want to sell, because you have to sell your neighbors too. You wouldn't want to have to ask your neighbor to bring in the army to remove their weeds or to remove the 12 cars that they have on blocks, or "in restoration" in the front yard so that you can actually list your home and have a chance of ever selling it, if you needed to of course.

While monitoring the time that your garage is open seems a bit insane, the HOAs do serve a purpose.

[Mattie]

Some HOA's a over the top in terms of rules, but the vast majority serve to look out for everybody's interests and home values. And, not all of them are as expensive as what you've seen. We pay less than $400.00 a year for ours, but we don't have a neighborhood pool or tennis court to maintain. I think HOAs, for the most part, are more good than bad. They tend to sponsor a lot of community activities that make it easy to meet your new neighbors.

[gloria25]

I'm sorry, but my HOA experience has been quite negative....

You would think that you wouldn't have to ask your HOA to enforce the rules about a nasty, noisy neighbor, but yes, in some HOAs they pick and choose who they want to enforce the rules on

And don't let me begin on how they mismanage your money and/or hire some management company to mismanage it for them...

[Valerie-Lydie]

OKay.....hum...I also heard that they can change their fees as they wish?

I am not against the car thing, or noise in the neighbourhing, but I am against being watched or being policed. The garage thing is "mad". This is abuse of power in my views, an infringe on freedom. Keeping a certain style is ok, but limiting people with everything, even the colour of the house (as long as it remains relatively tidy) is going over the top I think, or even ask if you can plant such or such flowers or get rid of some bushes you hate. having to even ask permission (like to parents) when you BUY your own home, is a nightmare I find. Obviously there must be some advantages at buying (one day you might sale) so I don't know why some people feel the need to police the area with such extreme measures, and yes, who supervise their power over the neighbourhood? Also, I find that there should be some payment options like if you already have a swimming pool and don't want to use their facilities, you should not pay that much money per month or per year? Can they change their figures for wahtever reason like that?

Valerie

[lastminutemom]

Valerie

As to swim-tennises -- they are expensive to run and generally the budget is built on every home being part of it. These swim tennises are big selling points in metro Atlanta-- but there are many neighborhoods that don't have them and even some neighborhoods that do, but membership isn't mandatory.

It really sounds to me like you are better off if you ask your realtor to look for homes that aren't in neighborhoods that have mandatory anythings. You are setting yourself up to be unhappy if you buy in a neighborhood that does. Simply look for older homes -- in older neighborhoods.

[atlantamoi]

I like our HOA. You sound like you'd be unhappy with someone telling you that you can't paint your home a certain color (which to me is absolutely within bounds of an HOA), so just move on and find a neighborhood without one. $1400 is $1000 more than we spend, but we don't have tennis/swim.

[NEastBound]

In regards to "changing fees w/o prior notice":

The HOA is in most cases, a corporation. A corporation that you are a "shareholder" in. When certain things need to be done it repair or improve the common grounds, there is usually a meeting (ours was always held at the pool clubhouse) to hold a vote or to open the floor for comments/suggestions. Anything over $1000 is not unusual for a gated community, golf/country club community, or one loaded with amenities beyond your s/t, that's a lot of ground to cover and landscapers are expensive! Ours, was only $440 per yr, but all we had was s/t and the entrance to pay for. Sure that seemed high for just that, but there was also a surplus that remained in the acct and that was used for things like rebuilding a wall at the pool, or if something were to happen to the stone entrance, there was a portion blocked from spending to replace if need be. Anyone that wanted a breakdown/print off of what the HOA was spending and why, they could.

But as other posters have said...keep hunting but do not complain if your neighbor paints his house pepto pink and has strobe lights outside facing your bedroom window. (hopefully a sane person would not do this...)