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I would like to know how the OP knows that yellow ribbons were "a forced expression of beliefs" and not actually something everyone there agreed upon. Perhaps they did a fund raiser for the troops and all donators got ribbons for their mailboxes.
Bottom line is I believe both you and the association would be better off if you choose not to live in that association.
You're probably right. I'd figure out a way to wreck havoc on it.
The ugly mailboxes in both neighborhoods REALLY bother me! The belief that all mailboxes should match to avoid one rouge tacky mailbox is illogical. What I witnessed was an entire neighborhood of tacky mailboxes! It seems there's less of a risk of being offended by tacky mailboxes when all mailboxes are different.
Next time I'm up there, I'll take pictures and post them here. I might start a national campaign against ugly matching HOA mailboxes. I'll shame them with humor. You know what's hilarious? The HOA would probably change the mailboxes if I did that!
You're probably right. I'd figure out a way to wreck havoc on it.
The ugly mailboxes in both neighborhoods REALLY bother me! The belief that all mailboxes should match to avoid one rouge tacky mailbox is illogical. What I witnessed was an entire neighborhood of tacky mailboxes! It seems there's less of a risk of being offended by tacky mailboxes when all mailboxes are different.
Next time I'm up there, I'll take pictures and post them here. I might start a national campaign against ugly matching HOA mailboxes. I'll shame them with humor. You know what's hilarious? The HOA would probably change the mailboxes if I did that!
Mailboxes, really? That's your biggest concern when buying in a neighborhood.
As others have said, an HOA Board cannot change the covenants or bylaws. Where I live, it takes a 75% vote by the homeowners to add, remove or change anything. The Board only has 2 functions: hiring contractors (landscapers etc) to maintain the neighborhood and to fairly, evenly and consistently enforce the covenants and bylaws as written and approved by 75% of homeowners. That's it. No other powers are given to the Board.
Anyone considering a purchase in an HOA neighborhood should read and understand the CC&Rs prior to the purchase. That way they won't be surprised if their mailbox is under strict and unilateral control via the CC&Rs.
I asked you a specific "what if" question. Your HOA might have few restrictions now, but that could change in the future.
So, what if your HOA decorated your mailbox for a presidential candidate you didn't support?
Step out of your world for a moment, use your imagination and consider how you would feel if your HOA did that to your mailbox.
HOA's don't decorate anything, they just enforce the rules to make sure any decoration comply with the rules the resident signed and agreed to before purchasing property in that community.
However, to play along with you game, the answer is... In order for a HOA to decorate anything, it would require purchasing the decorations. HOA's can't spend money without permission from the residents. If someone would propose the idea to decorate the mailboxes, they would need to attach a cost factor to the suggestion, which would be duscussed and voted on at the next board meeting. Majority rules.
HOA's don't post political signs on lawns, they regulate those who do. Policical signs are considered free speech under the constituation and cannot be regulated by the HOA.
HOA's enforce rules residents asked for when they purchased homes. If you don't care for the rules, live elsewhere. In our community, residents are provided with a copy of the CC&R's before they buy. They must read the rules and sign a form stating they read, understand, and agree with the rules. If that form isn't signed and returned, escrow cannot close. It is a legal document and if you sign it, you better live by it or end up in court...HOA's have unlimited power to enfore they rules the residents signed a legal contract to comply with. Berore local city government will sign off on construction plans, they must get permission from the HOA. Cities respect the power of the HOA. So should the residents.
I live in a HOA controlled community, and own rental property in another. They are a really great ida. Most of the wild stories you hear about HOA's are presented by people who don't live in one and have no idea what they are talking about, or by residensts who signed to comply with the rules, and then refused to do so.
Incidently, the HOA's I'm familiar with both have gang mailboxes by the gate, not one on each property, but where mail boxes are placed, and what they look like are part of the plan that must be approved by the city before the community is build, and any changes are goverened by the US Post Office. We had a mailbox damaged by a vehicle. Before being allowed to repair it, we had to contact the P.O. to place the mailbox out of service until repairs were made. Legally you aren't allowed to touch a mailbox without the approval of the PO.
I could go on and dash any arguement you can come up with, but I think you get the point..
Mailboxes, really? That's your biggest concern when buying in a neighborhood.
They are THAT bad! This is the first time I saw hundreds of ugly mailboxes all in one place! I thought an HOA was to protect against tackiness so I was pretty shocked to find tackiness on a mass scale. In normal neighborhoods (HOAs aren't common here), I've never given mailboxes a second thought because tacky mailboxes are random and rare. I just can't imagine being forced to have a tacky one in my yard.
Problem with HOAs (least in this area) is that it's hard to buy a house thats new and not under HOA. I had to buy a house in one, i got a letter post marked the day i signed on the house to mow the lawn! The next was a few days later after i had moved in to get rid of the truck n trailer i had brought stuff in on amd was unloading.
Two quite unreasonable letters with creepy drive by pictures attached imho. How much of a creep do you have to be to drive by slowly and snap pics like that ? Talk about being power hungry.
My HOA rules arent "that bad" considering i have a friend who cant change his oil in his driveway. Keep it mowed (always have done when i lived somewhere with grass) and no thrash/vehicles being stored which i never do anyway.
Only odd thing is only TX and US flags can be displayed, i would think that would leave them open to all kinds of court cases.
on topic of mail boxes, i actually hate the look of them! Never.saw one i liked so we have communal things near the entry.
I don't understand how people want to be dictated to or love taking pictures and sending letters. Must be a drama power issue some people love, its not for me! I think we can co exist since most of the.rules ive read so far are common sence.
My HOA has very few restrictions, nothing about what kind of flowers you can plant or anything trivial. But last summer when a new homeowner decided she was going to dump many truckloads of dirt in her front yard to make a dirt mountain (true story!] the HOA made her stop and then clean it up and restore her yard back to the original grade. She had also refused to mow, preferring the "natural" look, so the weeds in the rest of the yard grew up to three feet tall! The HOA took care of that as well.
Question for the non-HOA group: would you like it if your neighbor built a dirt mountain in their front yard?
If my neighbor let their yard go prarie, and the "dirt mountain" (usually called a berm in landscaping-speak) was covered with native grasses and wildflowers, I'd have no issue with it.
Of course, I live in an HOA where other people who like to micromanage other people's freedoms would have a heart attack, so it would never happen.
but in the future, when I return to a peaceful - non HOA interfering lifestyle - I have no problem with the back to prarie movement.
My neighborhood is an HOA neighborhood, and it does more good than bad.
Ours is on $31 per year.
Our restrictions aren't crazy... no fowl, min/max square footage on the houses, no trailers/RVs etc stored externally on site., etc.
No restriction on mailboxes, or paint, or landscaping...
Thank you for being the only person who answered my questions until your post. Is there a limit to what 51 people can impose on the other 49?
No. Not really.
We live in a community that was run by some really hard-core nose in other people's business the first 2 years.
Everyone says "run for office yourself" -but since our community doesn't vote for someone who hasn't ALREADY been on an HOA board, I'm basically permanently excluded.
Every petty neighbor skirmish became a "HOA violation". The wording in our CCRs is super vague and subjective, and the board refuses to clarify. So something that was okay to do 3 years ago, might not be okay to do now (if this board feels differently about it, or they don't like you..)
Finally, we voted in some saner individuals about 2 years ago (thankfully some of the founders *left* the community). 2 years of peace were glorious. Now we've voted in another that seems as though they might be micro-manage-y... we'll see what the summer brings in terms of gratuitous violations.
When we purchased in this *not yet finished, no HOA in place* neighborhood, we read the CCRs and as we interpreted them SANELY saw no issue with them.
Our mistake was in assuming that everyone else would interpret them in the reasonable way we do.
As far as *changing* the rules -- our board can do that without a vote of the people. And a majority vote of the people can authorize any sort of expense that everyone will be held liable for.
For example, my community voted that the address blocks on our houses (part of the brick of our houses) was not sufficient and that we should all have reflective #s on our mailboxes.
Instead of allowing us to do that privately, they *of course!* contracted it out so that everyone's would look the same. They charged every household $55 for the privelege. We voted against it, but - doesn't matter - we now have cheap reflective #'s crookedly installed on our mailbox. *sigh* c'est la vie.
I would suggest Hopes that you avoid HOAs like the plague. I know some people love them (good - they'll be a market when I sell my home) -- but honestly, you sound (like me) like you'd hate them.
And you would. Every time they came up with something stupid you had to comply with, you'd be insanely angry. Its not worth it.
We had some brilliant members suggesting that everyone give up a percentage of the back of their lots (as an easement) to put in walking trails (we don't have sidewalks in my neighborhood). Besides being a legal nightmare, the cost to put in such walking trails would have been insane. Thank goodness that gem was voted down.
But yay I live in an HOA so I always get to worry about what the next administration of lunacy will bring.
(thank goodness no toilets planted with petunias next door though, clearly that would have been a signal of the apocalypse).
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