Covenants, Restrictions, and By-Laws…Oh, My! (Huntsville, Madison: cul-de-sac, homeowners association, attorney)

[LivingInMadison]

PD. BTW, I believe there a lot of wisdom on that advice that says "don't buy a house if you are not planning to stay on that house for at least 10 years." Houses are not supposed to be an investment instrument.

[DvlsAdvc8]

Originally Posted by dramamama

When were you in NoVA? Cause I posted the laws for the CC&R earlier in this thread and the way we are treated here compared to NoVA is NO WAY near what I remember.

Perhaps only Toll Bros. messed up and maybe they are why NoVA had better rules now?

Just curious as to the dates of your time there...

I was born in Maryland and lived most of my life going back and forth between Maryland and Virginia. I spent the last 3 years in Gainesville VA (05 to late 08), just west of Manassas - where all the new NoVA housing farms (that's what we called those neatly lined up rows of houses would just sprout up overnight on clear cut land) were built. I've lived in Ashburn and Fairfax prior to that.

Honestly, put yourself in the developer's shoes. You've borrowed a ton of money to develop some land. Are you going to grant the people who buy lots the right to alter the character of YOUR development before you've sold all the lots? No... you're going to protect yourself through C&Rs that give you the ability to veto HOA decisions AT LEAST, and more likely reserve all rights to yourself until you've done what you set out to do - sell homes. A homebuyer just buys a house; a developer and his banker are on the hook for far more - they prepared the land and paid for all of the infrastructure. They have a lot more in the game - you certainly wouldn't want to put your fortunes in someone elses hands.

[DvlsAdvc8]

Originally Posted by dramamama

I cannot emphasize how many NOVA people in my community are blindsided by this info.. they feel duped. And they are NOT stupid people. This is wrong... bring on legislature. Till then: don't buy new developments till they are free of the declarant fifedom.

I didn't say anyone was stupid. It's human nature - nobody cares until disaster strikes.

You will never get what you seek. Developers aren't going to hand the keys over to developments they haven't sold out yet.

[autobahn]

Part 2 on WHNT:
Watch - WHNT

[ionlife]

Originally Posted by LivingInMadison

PD. BTW, I believe there a lot of wisdom on that advice that says "don't buy a house if you are not planning to stay on that house for at least 10 years." Houses are not supposed to be an investment instrument.

We are fortunate in that we are not forced to move more than once every 9-10 years. And that has been to our advantage. We buy because we have a tax break, we're investing in equity for the future, and we enjoy being homeowners.

However, should we move again, we'll seriously reconsider buying. And this is especially true for us should we head to the Canadian way of handling health care. There is no tax benefit to owning a home in Canada. And only extra taxes on it if you buy -- another secret national health insurance proponents fail to understand will happen.

But I digress. I love how easy it is for a few posters to blame the buyers in this state for what is clearly a statewide "buyer beware" non-disclosure issue.

I stand by my original post: it's wrong to take advantage of people who are trying to protect their original investment, regardless of the need to profit. Heck I'll be happy to break even.

[ionlife]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

I was born in Maryland and lived most of my life going back and forth between Maryland and Virginia. I spent the last 3 years in Gainesville VA (05 to late 08), just west of Manassas - where all the new NoVA housing farms (that's what we called those neatly lined up rows of houses would just sprout up overnight on clear cut land) were built. I've lived in Ashburn and Fairfax prior to that.

Honestly, put yourself in the developer's shoes. You've borrowed a ton of money to develop some land. Are you going to grant the people who buy lots the right to alter the character of YOUR development before you've sold all the lots? No... you're going to protect yourself through C&Rs that give you the ability to veto HOA decisions AT LEAST, and more likely reserve all rights to yourself until you've done what you set out to do - sell homes. A homebuyer just buys a house; a developer and his banker are on the hook for far more - they prepared the land and paid for all of the infrastructure. They have a lot more in the game - you certainly wouldn't want to put your fortunes in someone elses hands.

I would LOVE to try to empathize with my developer but time and time again, he has FAILED. His SUBS have failed. Right now we're dealing with the latest version of bubba is dumb and dumber regarding something they were supposed to FIX and only ended up giving us, and our neighbors, more problems in the process.

Why should I feel sorry for someone who has failed to be honest, failed to disclose all the pertinent facts, failed to see the job is done properly, failed to disclose all HOA transactions, failed to communicate honestly to me about all the above.

why?
Why?

Oh I know--they took a financial risk in developing the property? Well I TOOK A FINANCIAL RISK, THE BIGGEST OF MY LIFETIME IN INVESTING IN THEIR PROMISES.

And they lied. Period.

[Elizabeth_G]

Looks as if there will be an HOA Town Hall Meeting. Wednesday, Sept. 23rd at 6:30 PM at the Madison City Council chambers.

This is a great opportunity for everyone to become further educated and voice their opinions, if they allow public comments at that meeting. If they don't open the floor to public questions, I'm assuming they will schedule that in the near future because this is such a hot button for everyone.

[ionlife]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdvc8

I didn't say anyone was stupid. It's human nature - nobody cares until disaster strikes.

You will never get what you seek. Developers aren't going to hand the keys over to developments they haven't sold out yet.

And buyers coming into this area, will know they are AT RISK thanks to recent news stories and this forum.

And the developers will be forced to reevaluate the way they treat their homeowners.

CC&R are to protect us, NOT THEM.

If I could trust these developers to treat us honestly without false representations, I would be happy to let them keep the keys, but truth is, when we were in the NoVA sub, we were given the keys to the HOA at 2/3 build out and the developer DID NOT HAVE UNILATERAL RIGHTS OVER US.

[autobahn]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth_G

Looks as if there will be an HOA Town Hall Meeting. Wednesday, Sept. 23rd at 6:30 PM at the Madison City Council chambers.

This is a great opportunity for everyone to become further educated and voice their opinions, if they allow public comments at that meeting. If they don't open the floor to public questions, I'm assuming they will schedule that in the near future because this is such a hot button for everyone.

Yeah, anyone got any details on this?

[ionlife]

I do--would you like me to send you info directly or am I allowed to post it? Keeper?