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My initial thoughts, as someone who worked as a paralegal for decades, is that, legalities aside, you might ask yourself if you've been a good neighbor to the residents of that community. It doesn't sound as if you've been neighborly. This may be because you are not a neighbor, but an investor.
I have to agree with the HOA (although they may have gone overboard in their exasperation). You've been nursing your project for long enough. Get it finished, abide by the rules, and put it up for sale officially (putting a fsbo sale out when the house isn't finished doesn't count, unless you are selling it as a fixer upper, and you have an advertisement to prove it). The travel trailer, the fence, the endless working on the house...
Next time don't buy a house with an HOA. And check the area for cheap motels to stay in, while you do the work.
Wonder if the bank ever got sighted for a violation? Maybe they were just waiting for the next owner to reward for fixing up this house. I agree with the other posters. Go see a good lawyer and let him fight it for you. You need to get this place fixed and sold ASAP.
My initial thoughts, as someone who worked as a paralegal for decades, is that, legalities aside, you might ask yourself if you've been a good neighbor to the residents of that community. It doesn't sound as if you've been neighborly. This may be because you are not a neighbor, but an investor.
I have to agree with the HOA (although they may have gone overboard in their exasperation). You've been nursing your project for long enough. Get it finished, abide by the rules, and put it up for sale officially (putting a fsbo sale out when the house isn't finished doesn't count, unless you are selling it as a fixer upper, and you have an advertisement to prove it). The travel trailer, the fence, the endless working on the house...
Next time don't buy a house with an HOA. And check the area for cheap motels to stay in, while you do the work.
I think you've hit on something here.
Investors harp constantly about property values at HOA meetings. The OP probably has some kindred spirits here.
Because, if the OP was truly interested in getting the most money for this house, he would clean the place up, haul off the shabby travel trailers or at least get an Airstream. Better yet, how about a small motorhome that was only in the driveway when he was actually working on the place. Keep the exterior of the place.
Anything to make the neighborhood look nicer and properties sell for a higher price.
Gotta love those comps.
Last edited by GotHereQuickAsICould; 01-22-2016 at 06:20 AM..
As a President of an HOA I have to chime in here because we have had to deal with this issue a lot. There are several houses in our community that are literally rotting apart because a speculator "investor" bought the home as a forclosure at the bottom of the market post crash. They figured they would hold the asset and slowly improve it until the market rebounded. What they didnt realize is the market wouldnt just rebound after a few months....the houses are just now approaching pre 2008 levels. APPROACHING, not matching. They had carrying costs of investing in these properties and are now broke, if they sold the house it would be at a loss.
So you have young happy couples playing in the yard with their kids in a safe, quiet community...but next to an empty house with two foot high weeds, plants growing in the gutters, broken windows, and construction debris everywhere. Oh and one has a porta potty and a dumpster in the driveway.
These are communities for families to live and play in, not "investment opportunities" that you learned about from some webinar or investment convention.
Sorry, I could not read thru the whole thread. But, I am also an investor and I have purchased foreclosed properties in HOAs. I learned a lesson early on and it has proved to be of great value.
The purpose of an HOA is protect property values. They will accomodate most efforts to improve or repair a property in the community. As an owner, you need to do everything possible to keep the community looking good and sometimes your work may conflict with that. So, BEFORE you do anything that is visible to anyone driving by the property, TALK TO THE HOA. If there are no surprises on everyone's part, there will be time to be pro-active to potential objections. This applies to many things in life.
#1. Not Signing a HOA app may not hood up in court and a lawyer for this will be in or around 5-10 times the cost of the fines..
Quote:
Originally Posted by gvillesux
this may or may not apply there but worth a shot. since this was a foreclosure look carefully at your purchase documents and see if you signed on with the HOA. My parent's neighborhood has an HOA and when they bought they had to sign a document agreeing to the covenants. My cousin bought a house in the neighborhood a couple years ago that was a foreclosure and that paperwork was left out of his closing package. The HOA tried to force him to comply with some minor issue and he told them to pound sand. Seems if you never signed on then they cannot hold you to the rules HERE. Longshot for you I know.
another thing is get a good lawyer NOW. let them handle it. or pay the 1k fine and chalk it up to a learning experience.
Not helpful. Just as telling him HOA ownership should be avoided. It's already done.
The OP is the one that brought this upon himself. If the home was vpurchased at auction without reading the docs, it's all on him.
The OP needs to hightail it to an attorney sooner than later for help navigating HOA laws. Otherwise, he just may lose it in a foreclosure.
This would actually be interesting to look into. In order to close on my home I HAD to sign the HOA form, it was a condition of the mortgage. If I hadnt I couldnt have bought the house. Technically speaking if he didnt sign the form then he didnt enter into an agreement with the HOA. Contracts arent transferable like that, i.e. if the previous owner signed it then it doesnt apply to the new owner unless the new owner signs it. Id be interested to see how that would hold up in court. In contract law youre only bound to agreements that you signed.
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