HOA people are Condo Commando's (real estate, rent, insurance)

[AJ1972]

We just got a letter in the mail that states that...
if we have any visitor's in our home (with a car, even if the car is in a guest spot) for 24 hours or more, we must contact the "condo commando" for a Guest Pass. For 24 hours??? I have to tell them who is in MY home for ONE night?!!!
Also, we must provide them with emergency contact information. What are we in school??? If we do NOT, then they have the right (in case of an emergency) to enter our home if they feel it is an emergency. WHAT??!!! What kind of an emergency gives THEM the right to come into the condo I own and reside in??? If there's a fire call the Fire Dept. If there's any apparent danger, CALL THE POLICE! Who are they that they can enter MY home. They are not law enforcement!
What is the matter with these people!
I had to fill out their info list they gave us....they even want to know if we have a Service Contract with anyone, who it's with, and WHAT OUR CONTRACT NUMBER IS! What?!!!!
I wrote in the blank where you put the contract #: "Why? Are you paying my bill?"
I'm not providing my personal information to these a%%holes!

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by AJ1972

We just got a letter in the mail that states that...
if we have any visitor's in our home (with a car, even if the car is in a guest spot) for 24 hours or more, we must contact the "condo commando" for a Guest Pass. For 24 hours??? I have to tell them who is in MY home for ONE night?!!!
Also, we must provide them with emergency contact information. What are we in school??? If we do NOT, then they have the right (in case of an emergency) to enter our home if they feel it is an emergency. WHAT??!!! What kind of an emergency gives THEM the right to come into the condo I own and reside in??? If there's a fire call the Fire Dept. If there's any apparent danger, CALL THE POLICE! Who are they that they can enter MY home. They are not law enforcement!
What is the matter with these people!
I had to fill out their info list they gave us....they even want to know if we have a Service Contract with anyone, who it's with, and WHAT OUR CONTRACT NUMBER IS! What?!!!!
I wrote in the blank where you put the contract #: "Why? Are you paying my bill?"
I'm not providing my personal information to these a%%holes!

You clearly are not in touch with what's going on in the real estate world. For one thing, people are allowing other people to live with them so that a SINGLE family house is now a two and three family house.

If you are not in favor of the condo bylaws present it at a meeting, imo. I for one would be VERY HAPPY to know that no "visitors" (meaning strangers allowed to roam around my gated community at will) are allowed over 24 hours without someone knowing about it. Just to mention one thing, you can't even get in our pool it's so filled with these grandchildren and children staying with homeowners as it is.

My guarded gated community requires ID of all visitors entering. It's that way for a reason.

The previous tenant in this house I rent, was doing just that. She had TWO SINGLE MEN renting rooms here (illegally). She fell behind anyway and when eviction proceedings were imminent, (after destroying the rugs in under a year) left during the night. Her housemates generated several complaints too, booming bases coming out of the house and at 3 am in the cars, dripping oil pans in the driveway, EXTRA CARS PARKED ALL OVER, all the visuals you have when you think of "undesirable neighbor", general malaise of lowlifes.

[WeepingBuffalo]

If it makes you feel better, he probably put cameras in your bathroom :P
Seriously though, to me that's a violation of my rights add in the fact that I'm paying the bills (and part of his salary) then I would just find somewhere else.

On the other hand I can understand where he is coming from (on certain things) like having other people in your house for more than 24H, but not on your personal bills and such.

[AJ1972]

Originally Posted by runswithscissors

You clearly are not in touch with what's going on in the real estate world. For one thing, people are allowing other people to live with them so that a SINGLE family house is now a two and three family house.

If you are not in favor of the condo bylaws present it at a meeting, imo. I for one would be VERY HAPPY to know that no "visitors" (meaning strangers allowed to roam around my gated community at will) are allowed over 24 hours without someone knowing about it. Just to mention one thing, you can't even get in our pool it's so filled with these grandchildren and children staying with homeowners as it is.

My guarded gated community requires ID of all visitors entering. It's that way for a reason.

The previous tenant in this house I rent, was doing just that. She had TWO SINGLE MEN renting rooms here (illegally). She fell behind anyway and when eviction proceedings were imminent, (after destroying the rugs in under a year) left during the night. Her housemates generated several complaints too, booming bases coming out of the house and at 3 am in the cars, dripping oil pans in the driveway, EXTRA CARS PARKED ALL OVER, all the visuals you have when you think of "undesirable neighbor", general malaise of lowlifes.

Knowing my personal bills and telling me that "they" can break into my home if they feel necessary (even telling me how they would do it....they break the lock) IS NORMAL to you???
And just for the record, getting passes for cars does not solve the problem of multiple NON home owners living in the condo. Some of them may not have a car......and the residence can lie and say no one else but the owners live there...
They are ridiculous in our subdivision, ok?
We had to put a portable A/C in our window 2 summer's ago, because our a/c broke. Our contract company said it would take 3-5 days to get the part to fix it. So I called our head honcho here and told them I would be putting a portable a/c in the window for that amount of time...it's the summer (HOT) and my son has Asthma, so we need air. It turns out I was able to get the a/c fixed within 3 days, taking the portable out within 3 days. Would you know, I got a CERTIFIED letter in the mail from the community (the day after I took it down) stating they would SUE me if I did not take the portable out of my window. I called to tell them it was out. When arguing semantics with them, they brought up that there was no need for the portable when I have CEILING FANS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!?!!!!!!! Ok, it's 100 degrees outside AND my son has Asthma. How dare them tell me I have to risk my son's comfort. It was in for 3 DAYS!
They need to find other things to do with their time.
My husband was in law enforcement many moons ago, was also in the military, and is now a Cardio Surgical PA. We know law, we know health. This is ridiculous!

[AJ1972]

Originally Posted by WeepingBuffalo

If it makes you feel better, he probably put cameras in your bathroom :P
Seriously though, to me that's a violation of my rights add in the fact that I'm paying the bills (and part of his salary) then I would just find somewhere else.

On the other hand I can understand where he is coming from (on certain things) like having other people in your house for more than 24H, but not on your personal bills and such.

lmao about the camera's.
Yea, we are looking to move ASAP.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by AJ1972

Knowing my personal bills and telling me that "they" can break into my home if they feel necessary (even telling me how they would do it....they break the lock) IS NORMAL to you???

Do what I did when I lived in a condominium; change the locks. If they wanted to kick in my door, I will call it a burglary and call the police, or get my lawyer. Now I rent so unfortunately I can't do that, but fortunately my association/landlord isn't too anal (especially for this area).

[AJ1972]

Oh, they don't have our key!

[runswithscissors]

Originally Posted by AJ1972

Knowing my personal bills and telling me that "they" can break into my home if they feel necessary (even telling me how they would do it....they break the lock) IS NORMAL to you???
And just for the record, getting passes for cars does not solve the problem of multiple NON home owners living in the condo. Some of them may not have a car......and the residence can lie and say no one else but the owners live there...
They are ridiculous in our subdivision, ok?
We had to put a portable A/C in our window 2 summer's ago, because our a/c broke. Our contract company said it would take 3-5 days to get the part to fix it. So I called our head honcho here and told them I would be putting a portable a/c in the window for that amount of time...it's the summer (HOT) and my son has Asthma, so we need air. It turns out I was able to get the a/c fixed within 3 days, taking the portable out within 3 days. Would you know, I got a CERTIFIED letter in the mail from the community (the day after I took it down) stating they would SUE me if I did not take the portable out of my window. I called to tell them it was out. When arguing semantics with them, they brought up that there was no need for the portable when I have CEILING FANS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!?!!!!!!! Ok, it's 100 degrees outside AND my son has Asthma. How dare them tell me I have to risk my son's comfort. It was in for 3 DAYS!
They need to find other things to do with their time.
My husband was in law enforcement many moons ago, was also in the military, and is now a Cardio Surgical PA. We know law, we know health. This is ridiculous!

Sorry, I completely support your HOA. It IS normal to me to try and cover all scenarios. They are not going to arbitrarily start breaking down doors without cause. Their insurance carrier would never cover such actions when homeowners sued. IMO they are referring to examples of things like plumbing emergencies. And I'm sure the downstairs occupants for example would be glad. If their actions are not "legal" then they will never prevail in court anyway.

They are not asking about your "bills". They are asking IF you have a SERVICE CONTRACT in case of such an emergency, who to call, it's obvious to me. I was just away for three days and could have had a leak. One time in my townhouse I came home from work and the entire half of the second floor fell through from plumbing, wet drywall everywhere.

They are enforcing the apparent by laws about the window unit, we have that by law here, too. It's again obvious to me that because of the economy it would not be unheard of for residents to start using window units instead of paying for whole house. I agree with you that you would prevail in court if AFTER A REASONABLE TIME of only using it for, say, three to five days. But that doesn't mitigate the necessity of warning residents right away to make sure that people ARE using due diligence in performing ROUTINE MAINTENANCE and dealing with problems right away, imo.

With the economy the way it is, I have no doubt that properties will continue to have these types of problems and people might have to wait for pay days to fix things that they otherwise would not defer.

Unfortunately I don't want to live in a complex that doesn't adhere to the bylaws so I support them. But like you said, not everyone is right for an HOA.

[runswithscissors]

The other thing is, majority rules usually in an HOA so if ALL the residents have a problem with the "commandos" they'd be complaining and causing a furor, right? The commandos can easily be voted out if they are bad VOLUNTEERS. (unless it's the builder's HOA still...) Either way, the by laws are published to everyone who moves there.

[AJ1972]

Originally Posted by runswithscissors

The other thing is, majority rules usually in an HOA so if ALL the residents have a problem with the "commandos" they'd be complaining and causing a furor, right? The commandos can easily be voted out if they are bad VOLUNTEERS. (unless it's the builder's HOA still...) Either way, the by laws are published to everyone who moves there.

Yea, they just keep coming up with NEW laws that weren't in the paperwork when we moved here.
And everyone in here is 80+...at least the "majority" is. We know we don't belong here and we are doing our best to quickly get out.
All I can say is, I'm glad you're not on the Board here.