HOAs...A Good Thing or Nightmare (Sugar Land, Pearland: foreclosed, landscaping, neighborhoods)

[Timnwendy]

Don't know if the OP read Inside Pearland: Inside Pearland wants to hear your HOA horror stories before starting this thread, but as of this morning that blog article has generated 142 comments. If you have the time, browse through them. Some interesting commentary.

[ShelbyGirl1]

Originally Posted by West Side Houston

To prevent people from parking in their OWN driveways seems dumb to me. You're dicating people on how to live in their own homes. Now if the are eye sores, ok. But a blade of grass her or there. Do like the flowers the owner chose. It's get a bit overboard. Which brings us back to the retired housewives making people's lives difficult.

Read my post again. Junk cars and trailers don't belong parked out front. I didn't buy in a nice neighborhood to see my neighbors trash in the front yard. Like I stated...you don't like it, don't live here. No one twists your arm to do so.
In saying that, I won't argue, that I'm more than sure some HOA s can get out of hand. Just doesn't happen to be the case with ours.

You seem hell bent on the "little ole ladies"...Don't forget the little ole men that go with them! In fact, there is one in the neighborhood that is the PIA of the community....not that his complaining does any good.

[RVD26]

Wow, I hope the HOA at Westheimer Lakes North are not a bunch of communists like the ones described here.
We are supposed to move there soon.
Anyone know?

[jfre81]

I know not all HOAs are bad, but with some of these I'd just as soon rent and have somebody else fix whatever goes wrong if I'm gonna get bossed around and then forced out of my house if I ever decided to tell them where to stick it.

[Supermac34]

HOAs are a necessary evil in unicorporated or unzoned areas of the country.

They enforce deed restrictions which are critical in keep your neighborhood a neighborhood and not just a collection of lots with whatever people want on them.

That being said, a lot of them over reach their authority.

[jpm42]

Then it is your right as an American to NOT move into a neighborhood that has a HOA.

That is absolutely true in theory, but it rarely works out that way in practice. A prospective buyer almost never has a reasonable choice of similarly situated properties, some with an HOA and some without. HOA's may be Good Thing, Bad Thing, or Necessary Evil. What they are NOT is the free market in action.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by jpm42

That is absolutely true in theory, but it rarely works out that way in practice. A prospective buyer almost never has a reasonable choice of similarly situated properties, some with an HOA and some without. HOA's may be Good Thing, Bad Thing, or Necessary Evil. What they are NOT is the free market in action.

You are right. To those who's answer is you have a choice.....well yea you do. My story is like most others in that I had no idea. I was a 2nd time homebuyer at the time and never heard of commie HOAs. They were not common where I came from. In fact I never heard of a commie HOA till I moved west.

There was not forums like this back then where people compared notes and discussed the goods and bads. Your only source of information was a Realtor but they would never bad mouth anything, they want a sale. So for most of us we bought into one without knowing what they were really all about. One learns real fast though as I did. I had my share of run-ins with those pig wanabes and some got violent. I will always fight for what few rights I have left in this country when our rights are deteriorating by the day.

[baggiegenes]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

You cant fight them. They are very powerful organizations with more power then the president. If you label yourself as a trouble maker always trying to buck their system then you have no chance in hell of ever getting elected to their KGB like agency. This is why the board members usually never change. They just all change positions on the board.

This is not accurate. The easiest way to fight an HOA is with the argument of unequal enforcement. If they try to fine you and you feel it is unjust, just go through the community and take pictures of other violations. Unless everyone is being fined equally for the same level of enforcement then they can't fine anyone but the worst offenders. And, if you make this argument, the burden of proof is on the HOA to provide documentation provind they have always equally enforced every restriction for every home owner.

Also, HOA's are not communist. Totalitarian, maybe if you stretch the definition, but not communist.

[dv1033]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

You are right. To those who's answer is you have a choice.....well yea you do. My story is like most others in that I had no idea. I was a 2nd time homebuyer at the time and never heard of commie HOAs. They were not common where I came from. In fact I never heard of a commie HOA till I moved west.

There was not forums like this back then where people compared notes and discussed the goods and bads. Your only source of information was a Realtor but they would never bad mouth anything, they want a sale. So for most of us we bought into one without knowing what they were really all about. One learns real fast though as I did. I had my share of run-ins with those pig wanabes and some got violent. I will always fight for what few rights I have left in this country when our rights are deteriorating by the day.

Seems like you should have done more research before moving into that neighborhood.

[fordlover]

Originally Posted by baggiegenes

This is not accurate. The easiest way to fight an HOA is with the argument of unequal enforcement. If they try to fine you and you feel it is unjust, just go through the community and take pictures of other violations. Unless everyone is being fined equally for the same level of enforcement then they can't fine anyone but the worst offenders. And, if you make this argument, the burden of proof is on the HOA to provide documentation provind they have always equally enforced every restriction for every home owner.

Also, HOA's are not communist. Totalitarian, maybe if you stretch the definition, but not communist.

You will rarely ever be able to fight a HOA and win. When you purchase a home in an HOA controlled community, you sign a contract that gives the HOA full rights to force you to do whatever they deem appropriate. Contractual law is typcially very solid, and you will only have luck fighting them successfully when the rules conflict with local, state or federal law.

Yes, you could 'just not purchase a home in an HOA community' but really??? Point me to all these so called choices I have.

HOA's are popular because someone managed to use scare tacticts to make people believe that they had to have an HOA, because *gasp* your property values might drop if someone leaves their trashcan out overnight. I bet people in parts of Arizona, Detroit, California, etc. wish that their property value had dropped because of a trashcan left out, verses the 30% and more value drop they have experienced, and many have lost their homes, as we all know.

Your neighbor's grass is a little tall? Trash can left out? Give me a freakin break, and grow up. Isn't there more important things in life?

The sad thing is American's pay an exorbitant amount of money to HOA's, and once a House is built in an HOA neighborhood, the yearly assesments will never stop, and they will never decrease. You might pay off the house, but you'll never pay off the HOA.

HMM, perhaps I should start a HOA management company...somebody is getting filthy stinking rich off of us.