Denver Post article about HOA troubles and calls for legal reform (Pueblo: apartment, foreclosures)

[tablemtn]

I thought it was interesting, considering how often the subject of HOAs seems to pop up on this forum and others...

Horror stories prompt industry group to ask Colorado to regulate HOA managers

Colorado legislators received so many complaints about HOAs that in 2010, they voted to create an HOA Information Office and Resource Center to gather complaints and help homeowners...

About 2 million people in Colorado live under more than 8,000 HOAs, according to state estimates.

If "state estimates" are right, that would imply that almost 40% of all Coloradans live in HOA-burdened communities, which is among the highest in the entire country.

[Nayabone]

The case they use as an example tells of a couple who haven't paid their $240.00 per year dues for nine years. How do you feel sorry for someone who refuses to cooperate with the rules?

[Josseppie]

I have never liked HOA's and would not move into a area that had one.

[tablemtn]

How do you feel sorry for someone who refuses to cooperate with the rules?

True - the case in the story definitely isn't the most sympathetic HOA horror story out there. I think it points to a wider misunderstanding a lot of people have, though - they don't (at least at first) think of an HOA as having the powers of a local government. They think of it more like a membership-based association or something similar.

However, when financial disputes lead to things like liens or even HOA-led foreclosures, then reality slams down quite suddenly.

I get the feeling that a lot of people have absolutely no idea what they are getting into when they buy a property under the purview of an HOA.

[bluescreen73]

I don't have a lot of sympathy for HOA scofflaws because you're willingly signing a contract to join the HOA and you're provided with a copy of the covenant prior to closing. It's your responsibility to look at the covenant BEFORE you sign on the dotted line - caveat emptor.

If you don't read the covenant and you come to find out you don't like things about the HOA, use the proper process to get those things changed instead of being one of those jackasses who refuses to pay his dues and then goes crying to the media when the HOA tries to take your house. Your free ride puts a burden on everyone who pays their dues.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Nayabone

The case they use as an example tells of a couple who haven't paid their $240.00 per year dues for nine years. How do you feel sorry for someone who refuses to cooperate with the rules?

We've had a few deadbeats like that in our HOA. We go the full legal route on them....when it gets so far as to put a lien on their property and we move to foreclose it to pay the lien it's funny how that gets their attention and they learn how to spell our name correctly on the checks.

We have a couple of homeowners who think that absolutely everything the HOA does is crooked and that there's a conspiracy to defraud them behind every shrub and tuft of prairie grass. Nothing ever pleases them and no one is ever good or honest in their eyes. You cannot reach these people, they utterly refuse to be reasonable, they can only be dealt with via the lawyers, and if I had my way they'd be in a mental hospital for massive paranoid delusions.

There are two sides to every story, and yes, some HOA's are run poorly; perhaps some on-line courses and certification would lead to fewer complaints and better outcomes, but IMO complaints about HOAs are as dubious as those complaints found on apartment rating sites.

[Idunn]

Another way of simplistically categorizing people may be between those that favor living with HOAs, and those that do not.

I was surprised to learn that about 2 million Coloradoans live with HOAs, as almost half the 5 odd something million in this state. There must be a huge number of them based along the front range, and I presume not only attached to multi-family dwellings but also many single-family planned communities.

As for the law, probably the last thing this state or nation needs is another inane law dealing with the same thing a good handful already do. I believe embezzlement, for instance, is already a crime. If anything, more transparency would help, but that seems something homeowner's with HOAs already have access to, if demanding it.

In these troubled economic times I am left wondering to what extent an HOA could leave one with a serious financial problem. Possibly not so much if in situations where the grass is not getting mowed properly. But more critically so with condos and other arrangements where one is sharing shared resources, such as plumbing and roofs. I wouldn't exactly know, but what does one do if living in Las Vegas, NV, or even Colorado, and perhaps finding a significant number of your fellow HOA members foreclosed upon or otherwise gone? At 5% maybe some kind of norm, but if and when reaching up into the high double digits, what then? The high expenses of a large building are evenly spread, although my understanding that all members must make up any shortfall due others being absent and no longer paying dues. No idea if these costs could be recouped in forced foreclosures of the properties in question, but at minimum it must be an unpleasant situation for all concerned.

It seems, despite the frontier spirit out West, that when it comes to HOAs that in essence everyone with such an agreement is living in a socialized commune of sorts.

[sesamekid]

The last time I lived under an HOA in Denver area, they were so lax it was embarrasing. This was a few years ago, but, nothing was enforced and people did whatever they wanted. I was actually appalled. (Throw your garbage onto my holly tree? everyday? really? Did you think I wouldn't notice???)

I wrote letters to the HOA, even took pictures, but had to call directly to get a response. They said there was nothing they could do.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

I have never liked HOA's and would not move into a area that had one.

It' becoming tougher and tougher to find HOA-free areas within populated areas.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by BarryK123

It' becoming tougher and tougher to find HOA-free areas within populated areas.

Humm interesting. I live in a older part of Pueblo, the houses were built in the late 1950's and 1960's, and there is no HOA here. My problem is the fee as I would have a hard time justify paying it every month plus some of the rules they have are just lame in my opinion. Now if I was to move and the neighborhood I wanted to live in had one would it be a deal breaker? I think it would but I will cross that bridge if I ever come to it.