HELP Crazy Neighbors! (home, neighborhoods, to live in)

[needmojo]

cmtiger, i completely agree with you
I live in such a cute neighborhood with 80 nice people but 2 jerks that spoil it. I have had friends that have wanted to move into the neighborhood but now they steer clear after seeing these emails. The nicest neighbors in the community all want to move out.

[CMMom]

I agree with you that this guy has gone WAY over the top with his complaints and uses a very inappropriate and aggressive tone. He really needs something better to do with his time.

I have some experience in this area, as my husband was President of our unofficial HOA for about 1 year. People would constantly call with the stupidest requests that they could easily have solved on their own without bothering him. "There's a golden retriever in my yard!," (uh, so what?), "I can see my neighbor's trampoline from my window," "We need x, y, z, in the neighborhood; can you make that happen?" Invariably, his response was a) don't bring your conflict to me until you've made a good faith effort to solve it with the other person yourself, and b) if you want something done in the neighborhood (stop signs, speed humps, etc...), you're in charge of the project to make it happen, not me! So I definitely understand the ridiculous things that people complain about.

Having said that, try to step back a minute and look at this issue objectively. Despite the inappropriate way this guy is delivering his complaints, is there any substance to what he's saying? Are there homes with multiple renters taking up too many parking spots? Is access being blocked to the neighborhood? Are people leaving dumpsters out for lengthy periods of time (in violation of the covenants)? Are there tons of renters in the neighborhood? That can bring down property values. Now, people should have a reasonable amount of time to make repairs, etc.., but if the guy's air conditioning unit was ripped apart for a month, that really is a long time. Could you solve the parking issue by cleaning out your garage? I know that there were personal circumstances preventing you from doing it before, but what about now?

It just sounds like the whole thing has devolved into a personal conflict instead of the Board objectively looking at the covenants and by-laws and deciding whether people are in compliance or not.

I'm just saying that, as an objective reader, it sounds as though some things are going on in the neighborhood that might be violation of the policies set forth by the HOA. The fact that this guy is a paranoid jerk doesn't change the fact that there are possible violations going on.

Just my $.02.

[sweettea1]

The OP should change his name to needmojito. Whole thing could be cleared up pretty fast.

[atlantagreg30127]

This is something you need to take up with the police - or simply move as someone else has said, to a non HOA neighborhood.

And I would respectfully ask that you NOT post such long posts in the future like your first one above. You can get the same point across, and get more people interested if they don't have to read long copy-and-pasted emails.

[MisterNY]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

And this my friends is why I would never put up with an HOA

It is so clear to me now, no more HOAs......(Now, where can I find a land lot near Metro Atlanta to build something nice? )

That was long, and had to keep going up and down the page to see who was who...

[ellar]

I couldn't make it through your long post either, but from what I did read the problem is on both sides. Your 'Steve" person had some reasonable concerns that he presented, and you gave a scathing response because you thought he was personally attacking you. Then it went downhill from there. I headed up an HOA for awhile, and we got lots of strange complaints as well, but all we could do was be patient and explain what we could and could not do--animal complaint--call the control board. Noise complaint--the police. If it was a complaint we could handle, we looked at the covenants to see if there was a legal requirement or ability for us to act. If the concern was not in the covenants, I showed them that and said there was nothing we legally could do. Parking on the streets was a concern in our neighborhood too, but the streets were county owned so it was out of the HOA jurisdiction. Parking on a lawn though was covered by the covenants, which residents are legally bound to follow. It's simple really--You have a legal foot to stand on or you don't. People have different ideas for what it acceptable and what is not. You sound like you have more of an anything goes attitude and Steve is a picky, play by the rules guy. These types always clash, and that's why you have covenants and laws to decide matters.

[needmojo]

yes you are correct, it is just frustrating that this guy as to be such a jerk in his approach to things

thank you all for your advice, hope you are all having a great long weekend!

[needmojo]

sorry for the long post
i thought it would help in getting the point across of the tone of these two men's emails, you are right that is a lot to have to read through.

Again! have a great long weekend and thank you for taking the time to respond and offer your advice.

needmojo (mojo is our cat)

[Pcola110]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

And this my friends is why I would never put up with an HOA

Ditto on that one; to the OP is your neighborhood a newer townhome community or older subdivision If you have off street parking than the spot in front of your dwelling is for your own personal use and one or two of your guest and not your neighbor or their guest. If your are sharing a common driveway than your neighbor should be more considerate and not take up the driveway or prevent it were you can get to your garage in the back of your house.

With today's vehicle sizes we have-- it can often times be difficult to squeeze in behind our houses if there isn't that much backyard space to begin with. I can see what your neighbor's are saying if they left their christmas decorations up and didn't take them down in timely fashion than of course they were meaning to get around too it. They've just been busy in their daily lives and innocently forgotten about them being up there. But since ya'll live in community with HOA, than it would of been wise on your part to strike up a conversation with your neighbor while they're out by the mail box or when they're in their yard without getting things blown out of portion before preceding to HOA board. I hope ya'll get things work out with parking situation.

P.S.: you can't tow somebody else's car if it's on their property that's illegal. But if it's illegally park in your designated parking space or on your property without your express permission than by all means call the towing company and have that car towed away at the owner's expense.

[JasonPaul]

I also couldn't get through the whole post but from what I read Steve seems to have point on the x-mas lights, x-mas is over take the lights down, to me it makes homes/communites look bad. Also if Steve is sending a letter to the president of the HOA then I don't understand why anyone other that the president is responding to him, unless it has been decided on that the VP or another person has that duty. I'll try to read the rest to see if I missed anything.