Home Owner Association. Who are these people?

[Fontucky]

Originally Posted by Donn2390

Me thinks you are repeating old wives tales, of which there is little or no truth..
People come in here for facts, not BS dreamed up by an outsider with zero experience on what he is talking about.

She's not off the mark from my experience. Back in the latter part of the last century, I had numerous friends living in an HOA development in SJC (San Juan Village). I would demand they save the monthly newsletter for me so I could read what the HOA president would write. He was referred to as "The Nazi", and the stuff he wrote was authoritarian, martial, and intrusive.

Hew was retired and had waaaaay too much time on his hands, and apparently he used that time to patrol the development and stick his nose into everyone's beeswax, complete with camera and clipboard. I even remember his name.

[Ultrarunner]

Just be sure to go in Eyes Wide Open...

Things can change depending on how much personal effort you are willing to put in...

A co-worker was so fed up about having to fight the association road and grounds chairperson that he sued and won... even though, he won... it still took a tremendous amount of time and divided the community...

The only one I've had experience with started in 1948 and for the first 50 years the dues or assessments were strictly to maintain the association private roads...

This has changed dramatically because new California Laws now mandate things like reserves, projections and liability issues...

As a result, we now have full time management and the fees have increased 500% in ten years...

I seriously doubt I will ever buy in a HOA again... not that this one is bad... it is just another level of government that takes time and adds expense.

[LadyKLO]

I live in a condo community with an HOA and so far, everything has been pretty good. March will be 4 years I've lived here and had no real complaints. They send out newsletters, have social functions for the owners and stuff like that. We just recently raised our dues to cover flood and earthquake insurance...I voted for it and apparently, so did the others. Years ago we had an "unruly" neighbor and the HOA worked hard to resolve the issue and it worked. I guess there are some positive sides to having HOAs.

[Donn2390]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

She's not off the mark from my experience. Back in the latter part of the last century, I had numerous friends living in an HOA development in SJC (San Juan Village). I would demand they save the monthly newsletter for me so I could read what the HOA president would write. He was referred to as "The Nazi", and the stuff he wrote was authoritarian, martial, and intrusive.

Hew was retired and had waaaaay too much time on his hands, and apparently he used that time to patrol the development and stick his nose into everyone's beeswax, complete with camera and clipboard. I even remember his name.

There are elections every two years. If someone like that is allowed to stay in power, it's because the rest of the residents refuse to get involved, so it's their fault..!
The majority of people who live in HOA's like things regulated, but not enough to give up an hour of their time every month to attend the meetings..
The biggest problem with HOA's is people don't want to get involved.
I have a condo in an HOA, about 400 units, and maybe a half dozen people show up for the meetings. They can't even get five people to run for office, so the same three continue to run, year after year.
I have a home in an HOA, much smaller number of homes, still only get 3-4-5 people show up for the meetings. TV is more important than making sure your community is being properly run...
The people who never lift a finget to help, those are the ones complaining.....

[tn2006]

Thank you everyone for explanations about HOA.

We are looking to buy a house. We owned one before but it was no HOA. In the area we wanted most of the houses have HOA. It will limit of our chooses but it will not make strong enough to get the house with one. I have heard many horrible stories about HOA.