HOA Question - Can 15% of the houses split from an HOA

[jeete1978]

Thank you so much for the detailed info, sounds pretty much true for our condition too. Frankly, we who bought the "creek" area were taken for a ride by the builder with power point plans that never happened.

[loves2read]

IS this a county development?
If so you should contact your planning/zoning commission--
in some counties there is rule in place that the county defers oversight to the nearest city authority--
so there is latitude for how developer submits plans and gets ok--
but some agency HAD to give permission for that neighborhood to be developed

talk to the person with that agency who has access to the plans the developer submitted that were approved--
he is legally required to adhere to those plans
otherwise he is in trouble with that agency--

like I said--cities usually exercise more control/oversight than counties do BUT if he is in default for completing certain aspects of the design--especially as they relate to floodway control/design then there could be someone with the authority to make him come across with what he promised you

care to site the development?

[txgolfer130]

Also if the developer made the plans and filed them with the county/city, they are required to finish them before they leave. Check and see what they have on file with the county/city and what has been approved vs. what was promised.

[loves2read]

YES--you should absolutely check what type of obligation the developer has with the agency who permitted this development
and make sure they know you and other homeowners have reason to question the developer's follow-through
when I say make sure--I mean take current photos of what the creek area looks like and any brochures/info from the developer/builder about what the finished product was to look like
get letter with signatures of other concerned homeowners to submit to the developer, the county/city planning/zoning board as well as the main administration board

if this developer is planning to close out the development you might have legal reason to file some type of restraining order even if in justice of the peace court--
but if the developer has turned over management to the HOA then technically I think HIS legal obligation to the development has ceased--
so you might be too late in trying to make him honor his promises w/o some court action

[Pete53FR]

I really can't understand how any one would buy a home that requires membership to HOA. A condo maybe but not a house.

[loves2read]

several years ago the state legislature MANDATED that subdivisions built with a certain number of homes had no choice BUT to have a mandatory HOA--
so unless you are willing to buy an older home in neighborhood that has no or voluntary HOA or buy a lot in area that allows home construction but is not tied to a neighborhood most home shoppers are going to be funneled into buying an HOA neighborhood home...
this is something the Texas legislature created---probably lobbied very hard by companies who make their money doing all the administration details for large neighborhoods and by some civic/city groups who believed that having a well-organized, run HOA would help control issues like run-down properties and help maintain neighborhood values...
once again--it operated probably without considering the likely negatives that could come from an ill-designed law with too many loopholes and vague wording that allowed HOAs to become Stalinistic when run by people who got the bit in their teeth and used their positions for their own personal agendas vs the good of the neighborhood at large...

the revisions that happened to the HOA legislation this past cycle show there is still a lot of work to be done...

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

This is also the law in some other states, such as NC. Cities are trying to unload the responsibility for nuisance calls, like sidewalks in need of repair, falling fences, any code violation that can be put on the HOA. It's a $$ issue to the city.

[jeete1978]

Is there a way to spinoff from an HOA? Our development has about 300 houses and we are 15% that would like to spinoff so we can take care of this creek area.

[CLR210]

Originally Posted by jeete1978

Is there a way to spinoff from an HOA? Our development has about 300 houses and we are 15% that would like to spinoff so we can take care of this creek area.

Spinning off is hard to do but I lived in a neighborhood where we did just that, kinda of. Our neighborhood was broken out into 2 huge sections with a greenbelt dividing them. We had about 1200 homes. One of the sections wanted to seperate from the HOA for multiple reasons. This was a voluntary association BTW. Anyway, per our bylaws, we had to have 51% of the membership to vote in favor of the split before it could be done and we did get that many votes so the split was done. In our situation, there were pros and cons to doing what we did but mainly pros so it was in the best interest of the neighborhood. Read your bylaws to see if there is anything in them that could make this possible. Because we were not mandatory may have had a lot to do with why we were able to do what we did.