[summergal]

The far greatest majority of homes in Tampa Bay are NOT in HOA!


Very happy non-HOA owner here. Been there, done it... yikes! You couldn't pay me enough to live through that hell again

[LandShark99]

No HOA here either BUT...here in Palm Coast we have "City Codes", I just found out. They have a whole department, "Code Enforcement". No where have I heard or seen anything about this or what the heck the codes are. I think it must be secret codes...that way Code Enforcement can cite you for breaking a code. (No I have not been cited for anything).

I met a lady who works for the city and she happened to be over at my house and noticed that the neighbors garbage cans were visible from the street and commented on it: "That's against code!" I said what code? She tells me "You can't have the cans visible from the street, you can't take the cans out to the curb before 6pm on garbage day and they must be in within x number of hours." I was thinking oh, great she's gonna report my neighbor! So I tell her "Hey, I just saw the lady today and she is on crutches. Her husband isn't home yet. Give her a break." Far as I know she chilled. Then she noticed several other neighbors didn't have their cans hidden away yet. Then she told me she keeps hers in the gargage and admitted they stink! LOL! I have a "blind" in front of mine so they are not visible from the street.

Wonder what other kind of secret codes they have? It really smacks of a citywide HOA with the fees being extracted from those high city water, sewer and irrigation fees.

[pslOldTimer]

Originally Posted by LandShark99

.here in Palm Coast we have "City Codes"...No where have I heard or seen anything about this or what the heck the codes are. I think it must be secret codes...

This link takes you to Florida Municodes, a resource that has all of the codes for most of the counties and municipalities in Florida, including Palm Coast.
http://www.municode.com/resources/co....asp?stateID=9

{EDIT} Unfortunately, that resource appears to have been hacked. I sent an email to them; hopefully they'll get it back up again.

In the meantime, I'm certain the codes are available for you to read at your local municipal office. Most cities will also supply you with a hard copy for a minimal cost, and they are usually available in the local library.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by LandShark99

No HOA here either BUT...here in Palm Coast we have "City Codes", I just found out. They have a whole department, "Code Enforcement". No where have I heard or seen anything about this or what the heck the codes are. I think it must be secret codes...that way Code Enforcement can cite you for breaking a code. (No I have not been cited for anything).

I met a lady who works for the city and she happened to be over at my house and noticed that the neighbors garbage cans were visible from the street and commented on it: "That's against code!" I said what code? She tells me "You can't have the cans visible from the street, you can't take the cans out to the curb before 6pm on garbage day and they must be in within x number of hours." I was thinking oh, great she's gonna report my neighbor! So I tell her "Hey, I just saw the lady today and she is on crutches. Her husband isn't home yet. Give her a break." Far as I know she chilled. Then she noticed several other neighbors didn't have their cans hidden away yet. Then she told me she keeps hers in the gargage and admitted they stink! LOL! I have a "blind" in front of mine so they are not visible from the street.

Wonder what other kind of secret codes they have? It really smacks of a citywide HOA with the fees being extracted from those high city water, sewer and irrigation fees.

All cities have codes. They have a code for everything otherwise it would be chaos. You get an inspector who doesn't like you and you can't believe how many violations most everybody has. I once got cited and had dozens. They were all nothing and took like minutes to correct but they were there. I had no idea there is actually a requirement you have to have numbers on your house, I didn't. I had a few bricks in the yard, cited for storing building materials on the property. Cited because there was fruit in the yard from my grapefruit tree and it went on and on.

Point being, don't make enemies. This was all triggered by a neighbor who didn't like me. Most inspectors I was told don't go looking for trouble but they are required to respond to a complaint, even a silly one. You don't want those guys coming on your property for any reason if you can help it.

[mystree]

Perhaps your agent was referring to her own listings.

That was my thought too.

[daniellefort]

Well i think your realtor must just be trying to sell for the HOA developments cause so many are going up and so many are not being filled. they've built them more than they can fill them. We have plenty of homes for sale in Citrus County.

[Floridasunshine]

Most new developement have hoa to take care of entrance of subdivision.
I found that the cheapest one is 10-20 month. If a community pool is part of subdivision than its about 30.00 -75.00 a month.
I would say all new ones have some yearly fee
I made sure they were small and no cdd before I even looked at homes,
Mine is 120 yr. Some builders build on vacant land and are not part of cmmunity so there wouldnot be any. Also lots of older homes dont have any.

[Prichard]

All new developments in most of the counties that I am aware of, for the most part, are required to have HOA's. So, if you are only looking at new houses, then the realtor could have been correct.

HOA's are an easy way for County's and Cities to push more of the maintenance of infrastructure onto the homeowners, rather than using general tax dollars for this.

[Annie of Oldsmar]

Find another realtor. There are lots of places where you do not pay HOA. It all depends on the place where you buy!!Good Luck!

[FL_TN_Nana]

I think this realtor isn't putting much effort into finding you a place. And I agree with others who think she's only wanting to sell her own listings. Since you want in an older, established neighborhood, I would think there are many without HOAs. Most of the newer developments in our area do have HOAs, but if you get outside those, you can find homes for sale without the associations.