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I have never lived under an HOA before. I'm wondering what HOA rules you have encountered that took you by surprise. Things to look out for, things that you might not expect someone to actually make a rule about.
A couple of examples:
-A coworker of mine said that in his sister's community you are not allowed to have your garage door opened for more than 15 minutes at a time. A fine "welcome to the neighborhood" when they got in trouble for this while moving in
-A friend said that in his townhome community all vehicles had to be parked head-in, a policy that was aggressively enforced by a contract towing service
I know everyone is responsible for reading and understanding the HOA rules before moving in. I'm just curious what some of the more unusual and/or overly nitpicky requirements are that people have experienced that might have caught you off guard.
There's also a myriad of "porch/balcony" rules that I'd pay attention to. At my condo, you couldn't have a grill visible, no more than 4 items of furniture, no cat boxes or doghouses and no plants.
Of greater concern to me would be the health of the HOA as a whole. I'd be more interested in the Reserve study than a parking rule.
No garbage/recycle container visible overnight after truck pickup.
I was in non-HOA community and they have police who checks for expired license vehicle. I could not park it in visible space even it is in front of my garage driveway. It has to be inside the garage.
No commercial vehicles parked overnight. No boats. No RVs. Fences to be of a certain type, and must be X number of feet behind the front of the house. All manner of landscape and exterior paint rules. No real estate signs. In places with balconies, nothing to be hung over balcony rail (towels, rugs, etc).
I'm on an HOA Board and we're pretty reasonable. I agree with reading the rules yourself and asking about the finances. Low annual assessments and minimal reserves may mean a big special assessment if the parking lot or roof need to be replaced.
You may also be able to get minutes of the HOA Board meeting; in fact, I'd be concerned if you can't. That would give you a good feel for how well the Board gets along and whether they're dealing with the important stuff or being picky.
I know HOAs can be bad. My niece lived in an HOA neighborhood in SC and they installed metal "eyes" in the ceiling of their front porch so they could use a baby swing hanging from them. They always took the swing back in the house when not in use. An HOA Board member must have snooped on their porch and the HOA wrote them a letter telling them they had to remove the eyes they'd installed in the ceiling of the porch.
If you did your due diligence then nothing should be a surprise.
Well, it can be. Example: we have an Architectural Review Board and they have to approve any exterior changes, even if you're replacing something outdoors with a similar product. Let's say you're repainting your home. They don't have a list of "approved" colors. I'm pretty sure lemon yellow, royal purple, etc. would be rejected because they'd stand out like a sore thumb. So would any projects that go on forever or use inferior materials. A picky ARB could give people a lot of trouble with that kind of leeway but ours just doesn't. The only flat rejection I've seen is for a CB antenna because it was clearly against the Restrictions. (A law may be enacted soon which requires HOAs to allow them because they act as part of an emergency network but that's not a law yet.) The plans we submitted to enclose our screened-in deck to make it a 3-season room was approved immediately with a nice note thanking us for improving our property.
That's why the minutes of meetings may help. If you do have plans to improve your new place, it's best to ask before you buy.
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Very helpful
