Disobeying HOA rules or restrictions (Kings Point: sale, subletting, foreclosure)

[Blanco111]

I currently own a home in a tract of houses with a HOA. I pay $200 a year. They mostly take care of the common areas. There are also HOA restrictions. For example, you can't put up fences. Someone in the community ignored the restriction and the HOA brought him to court. The judge said the fence had to come down. The homeowner took the fence down but stopped paying his annual HOA fee. When he was told that a lien could be placed on his home, he said he didn't care. I heard this story from another neighbor.

I plan to move to a retirement community in Florida, for example Sun City Center. What happens if someone breaks one of the HOA rules or ignores one of the community restrictions? Who does the policing? What happens?

[EngGirl]

Policies are normally prepared prior to opening of the community, but could be change by the board and community members if more will vote for it.

HOA can very well place the lien, and normally homeowners should care about it because they will have to pay it if they decided to sell or HOA can even force the sale to get paid. The only time when it's not going this way is when homeowner is under water in the mortgage, and HOA still can put the lien, but will not see any money, but still can speed the sale.

It drives me nuts when people like topic starter's neighbor are moving to HOA community with known restrictions, but doesn't want to follow it later. Get your crap ready and move out to non-HOA community...

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by Blanco111

I currently own a home in a tract of houses with a HOA. I pay $200 a year. They mostly take care of the common areas. There are also HOA restrictions. For example, you can't put up fences. Someone in the community ignored the restriction and the HOA brought him to court. The judge said the fence had to come down. The homeowner took the fence down but stopped paying his annual HOA fee. When he was told that a lien could be placed on his home, he said he didn't care. I heard this story from another neighbor.

I plan to move to a retirement community in Florida, for example Sun City Center. What happens if someone breaks one of the HOA rules or ignores one of the community restrictions? Who does the policing? What happens?

"HOA" ridden communities are like their own communist countries. I would stay FAR, FAR AWAY from them.

I wouldn't buy anything in an HOA again. These people are commies, and their rules are not even in compliance with "common sense" let alone any shred of humanity. They perpetuate a sense of massive selfishness and one/two people's personal preferences, which should NOT be the case in a "community". We lived in one that wouldn't allow HIBISCUS because the flowers were pink & red! WTF! Yeah...

Please don't spend your money on this kind of restrictive environments, it really takes the joy out of homeownership!

[BucFan]

SCC has had a strong, well organized HOA, Community Association, imo. One of my friends lives in SCC and decided to have his roof tiles replaced, and hired a contractor, and as soon as the contractor was working on the tiles, the association was out there questioning the contractor, my friend about the colors of the tiles, whether they were approved by the association, etc. They resolved the issue, but just demonstrates how on top they are on situations involving these things.

I think SCC HOA is a huge federation that has subsections, each subsection has a president, I believe the CA has lawyers to deal with non compliance or non-payment of HOA fees.

My grandparents lived in SCC, my parents, my uncle and now I do (Kings Point).....None of them have had issues at SCC or their neighbors/neighborhoods.

SCC is pretty much the model for HOAs.

BTW, anyone who compares communism or NAZIism as they have on this message board in the past are nutjobs who have a hard time living anywhere - you run into them once in a while, unfortunately.

[BucFan]

OP, here's a website for SCC. Maybe you can reach out and touch one of the directors and ask pertinent questions regarding your community of interest.

Association

[BucFan]

Governing Documents

[bentlebee]

Some people hate HOA's and others will like them. Personally I don't have an issue with the rules of the properties I resided but some HOA management companies are run badly which can become an issue but the ones that are run well can be an added value as most properties will be maintained and right now most HOA's will otherwise mow the lawn.

Falling behind on HOA dues and/or being fined for a violation has to be taken very serious as many HOA's are filing for a lien a.s.a.p. as they only have a short time frame to recover the money and otherwise they will loose out.

I have served on certain boards and therefore learned how HOA's like many lawyer's do, will pick and choose who to go after. The ones who own the least on a mortgage or have paid cash will be the ones who will be in foreclosure the first as they are the easiest to get money from or to foreclose on BUT usually the ones with the fines are the ones with a mortgage.

The minute a HOA lawyer files for a lien the amount is getting higher and from what I was told the amount for filing is when the outstanding balance for a fine or dues is $ 1000.- but some file for lower amounts.

HOA's will foreclose a.s.a.p. on a property and they will than negotiate with the lender to recoup their money and hand over the keys to the bank as the HOA doesn't want to own the property or pay off the loan. That means the lender will in a way do a cash for key deal and usually a quit claim deed will be done.

We always warn home owners not to mess with a HOA. Either move if you dislike a HOA for which a buyer should have known the rules or make sure to be in compliance.

Of course we all have heard about the HOA person who has no heart, too much time on their hands and just want to play the role of a cop but that type of people are exceptions.

A good run HOA and proud home owners can keep the values up!

[PhotoProIP]

The only "nutjobs" are those who need to be policed to keep up their properties! Normal, educated(in common sense mainly) people don't need to be policed to live & maintain their homes for which they pay for=mortgage!

[Blanco111]

I read if you want to change something on your property, you must submit your plans to the HOA and get their approval first. Is there some kind of form for this? How does the HOA even know you are doing something not permitted by the HOA? Does a neighbor complain to the HOA? Are there volunteer or paid HOA police doing community patrols looking for violations? How are you initially informed you are in violation of the HOA rules? Does somebody knock on your door? Do you get a letter in the mail? I could tell you how it works in the subdivision where I now reside, but I doubt it works that way in the retirement communities of Florida.

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by Blanco111

I read if you want to change something on your property, you must submit your plans to the HOA and get their approval first. Is there some kind of form for this? How does the HOA even know you are doing something not permitted by the HOA? Does a neighbor complain to the HOA? Are their volunteer or paid HOA police doing community patrols looking for violations? How are you initially informed you are in violation of the HOA rules? Does somebody knock on your door? Do you get a letter in the mail? I could tell you how it works in the subdivision where I now reside, but I doubt it works that way in the retirement communities of Florida.

Yep, usually you submit the request for a change to your property on a form provided by the HOA. Sometimes you need to get your neighbor's permission. For example if you want to extend your lanai with a Florida room and it potentially blocks the view that your next door neighbor has, it is only fair to get their permission first before the extension is approved. You might also have to show the contractor's license to make sure they're acceptable for the job (ie do they have appropriate insurance).

As for enforcement: exterior modifications to your place is usually obvious to anyone walking by or driving by in the neighborhood - construction, additions, painting, etc. Normally the first thing is a neighbor might complain to the Pres of the HOA to look into the problem. I doubt that SCC has a patrol or any sort. I would think if you start a project without going thought the HOA they'll talk to you first, give you something in writing, etc.

Each HOA is different in how they enforce. Some are weak, some are strong. The subdivision you're thinking about buying into is very new. Most likely the first several years will be fine, it's when you have 2nd and 3rd generation owners or even renters who tend to not go along w/ the HOA documents like they should. BTW, some HOs have strict rules about subletting your place. I think nearby Valencia Lakes have certain rules about that.

Ask your sale rep for copy of the HOA documents and read them before buying. Everything is clearly written out there.


If they don't have a copy, then you should ask them how they expect you to buy into a community with rules blindly. Pretty bad if you can't be provided with the documents and unprofessional of them.