HOA Wants MONEY but Wont Enforce Rules! (Cove: coupon, how much)

[hadleyzoo]

I sooooo feel your pain. Supposedly our HOA management company drives through the neighborhood weekly and writes people up for weeds, grass not mowed, etc. Now they aren't really that a*al about it (and I'm not either), but there were several houses last year where the weeds were so tall and thick that my 5'8" daughter could stand in them and not be seen. I emailed the HOA and they said "well it's been raining so we're letting things slide". Excuse me? Then how the heck have I (and many others in the neighborhood) been able to keep our yards mowed? And on top of that, these weeds were nearly 6' tall! Our biggest problem is the pool and all the people from the surrounding neighborhoods who thinks it's their right to use our pool WE pay for. And I just love the 2 am wake up calls of people screaming and yelling at the pool...but I THINK those who have lived in the general vicinity of the pool have complained (I know of at least 3 others who email the HOA about pool issues) and they are now putting up surveillance cameras which will be monitored 24/7. After pool hours if anyone is in the pool, they will be warned to leave or SAPD will be called. The monitoring company will call SAPD and one of the HOA members has said they will press charges for trespassing. So hopefully this will put a damper on these 2 am parties all summer. Yes the pool is locked, but we have seen the locksmith out here twice so far this summer because it gets damaged by kids trying to get in. And if they can't get in through the gate, they jump the fence.

As far as parking on the road...I really wish our HOA would pass a rule about it. At least no parking on one side of the street would make a huge difference. Because when cars are parked on both sides, only 1 car can pass through.

[tekka-maki]

Wow Shenane... trash piling up? That's terrible. Oour HOA is still builder run until we reach a certain threshold (seems it'll be a considerable time as we have 3 empty Cul De Sacs in the back corner. But at least the management company has been proactive to my complaints. If I see something that bothers me, I report it and I don't care what people think. There are a lot of things that get over looked when they do their rounds but If I see something nasty, I report it and the graffiti is always taken care of.

However, I don't think I've seen an HOA subdiv that doesn't allow parking on the streets. We have lots of folks that do that but it's allow AFAIK and it doesn't bother me. It does bother me slightly when people block the sidewalk with their cars but I've become accustomed to it what with the 10 people that stay in the 2 bed next to me and their 5 or 6 cars, lol.

Where do you live OP, if you don't mind my asking...

[shenane]

One of my neighbors in my old neighborhood purchased an old beat-up 2nd vehicle just to leave parked in front of his house so his neighbor couldn't park there all the time.
I seriously considered doing that. Although I understand that it's a public street, I had a very small yard and when my neighbors would their huge truck in front of my yard and right on the other side of the driveway was another big truck in front of her yard, it was really hard to me to back out

[firstclassflyer]

Originally Posted by shenane

One of my neighbors in my old neighborhood purchased an old beat-up 2nd vehicle just to leave parked in front of his house so his neighbor couldn't park there all the time.
I seriously considered doing that. Although I understand that it's a public street, I had a very small yard and when my neighbors would their huge truck in front of my yard and right on the other side of the driveway was another big truck in front of her yard, it was really hard to me to back out

Why didn't you back your car IN? Then, all you would have to do is PULL out. Problem solved.

[shenane]

Yeah, pulling out going forward would have made getting out much easier. But backing all the way into my small garage in my truck would have been a pain - its a tight squeeze. And when they have that humoungous truck in front of my house, my view is still blocked. I'm 5'5" and to leave a note on the windsheild of that truck, I have to stand on my tippy toes and stretch as far as I can and raise my arms as high as I can and I still can barely barely grab onto the windsheild wiper to put a note (this vehichle blocks my view - paraphrasing). When they answer the door, I ask them to move it whenever I was getting ready to leave. When they don't answer the door, I leave the note. Oh yeah, the windows of that truck are very dark so not only can't I see around it, I can't see "through" it to look for on coming cars (ref: speeders on a bendy street)

Originally Posted by firstclassflyer

Why didn't you back your car IN? Then, all you would have to do is PULL out. Problem solved.

[firstclassflyer]

Originally Posted by shenane

Yeah, pulling out going forward would have made getting out much easier. But backing all the way into my small garage in my truck would have been a pain - its a tight squeeze. And when they have that humoungous truck in front of my house, my view is still blocked. I'm 5'5" and to leave a note on the windsheild of that truck, I have to stand on my tippy toes and stretch as far as I can and raise my arms as high as I can and I still can barely barely grab onto the windsheild wiper to put a note (this vehichle blocks my view - paraphrasing). When they answer the door, I ask them to move it whenever I was getting ready to leave. When they don't answer the door, I leave the note. Oh yeah, the windows of that truck are very dark so not only can't I see around it, I can't see "through" it to look for on coming cars (ref: speeders on a bendy street)

IMO- From a safety standpoint you'd have still been better off backing in. This way you're already in the street and can see if there are children etc. Good luck in the new area.

[nicholasa101]

To the OP-- I had the same experience when I lived in a KB neighborhood- the HOA was only good for collecting fees, not keeping thier end of the deal. This is what I did; first get all the support you can, put flyers on you neighbors doors and ask if any one else is fed up (stir things up a little) suggest you have an informal meeting of your own and document your complaints. Have as many signature as possible- I believe you have to have over a certain percentage and you can vote to "out" your current committee. Also, we contacted the news stations- It was WOAI (this was many yeas ago) they did come out and do a segment on our neighborhood. We did contact a lawyer, it is expensive and timely--- he never really got resultion because health issues came up for me and we moved. I do think though, had we kept going we would have seen a change. But the biggest suggestion though is to get the support of your neighbors if you can- so that you dont just look like the nieghborhood nag. Good luck!

[shenane]

Good for you Nicholas. If there were more folks like you, there would be fewer of these neighborhoods going bad. I took the easy way out and moved. My situation is better, but it didnt' help the good folks that I left behind.

Originally Posted by nicholasa101

To the OP-- I had the same experience when I lived in a KB neighborhood- the HOA was only good for collecting fees, not keeping thier end of the deal. This is what I did; first get all the support you can, put flyers on you neighbors doors and ask if any one else is fed up (stir things up a little) suggest you have an informal meeting of your own and document your complaints. Have as many signature as possible- I believe you have to have over a certain percentage and you can vote to "out" your current committee. Also, we contacted the news stations- It was WOAI (this was many yeas ago) they did come out and do a segment on our neighborhood. We did contact a lawyer, it is expensive and timely--- he never really got resultion because health issues came up for me and we moved. I do think though, had we kept going we would have seen a change. But the biggest suggestion though is to get the support of your neighbors if you can- so that you dont just look like the nieghborhood nag. Good luck!

[DigginHouseVibez]

Thanks for a bunch of really good suggestions!! I don't really have the time (which I know is the problem for most people) to document for everyone and run to everyone's house, etc and the problem I would have in finding someone to helpe me do the same is that nobody else has the time either. I know with the results I'm looking for that's probably what it would take but knowing that there are possibilities makes me feel better. I have free legal counsel I just found out, and that's a bonus!! A close friend of my brother's owes him and big time so he said whatever I needed he's good for. I don't want to go there JUST yet but I told him to "be ready" (and I promised to be very organized about it!) I'm going to get a copy of the bylaws (I misplaced mine but I'm well aware of what some of the main regulations are) and scrutinize them and go over what they have and haven't done and are SUPPOSED to do according to the bylaws. I'm going to get everything outlined for him and then go over what all of the issues are related to both the hoa and code compliance. I've had issues with code compliance coming out and being "buddy buddy" with some people and letting things slide that are MAJOR issues here and that's not ok with me. Because of some past problems we've had we installed a security camera in the front. I made sure that it was legal, etc (to have it and to record) and next time we call in an issue regarding someone living close to us I plan on having that camera running to show whether or not code compliance lets whatever it is "fly" (the sound on the camera is exceptional). That really freaked me out. What's the big deal about expecting someone to do their job?? I always do mine! Damn. . . and I know about looking like the "neighborhood nag". I don't really care anymore. I have a new neighbor who is renting and he said "until someone tells him different" he's gonna keep infringing however he pleases.

For me that translates into "bring it on".

So I am. I know documentation is key but I have a lot of other stuff going on and working all of that in is gonna make this a slow process but I'm taking everyone's suggestions to heart and I'll take this on the best way I can. It might be extreme but the way I see it is, if you're causing me to LOSE money (by devaluing my property), you're stealing from me. If someone tried to grab something that was mine from right in front of me, chances are I'd pop em in the face (and I'm not a violent person!) - right now that's pretty much how I see it so I'm keeping my temper in check and taking this as far as I can. ;-) Thanks for everyone's help!!

[nicholasa101]

I know it is hard to keep your temper in check, many times my mad latino/country girl mix was dying to come out, but know that would of over shadowed what needed to be done--just be relentless--call someone every day. The squeeky wheel always gets the oil.