Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wow, not sure where you get your info from but this is total bosh...no truth to any of it.
I am stunned at the level of ignorance by many on the structure, purpose and powers of an HOA. I've said this before, if the homeowners don't like a rule, they can change it. It's simple...we did it in our HOA a few yrs back. We had a rogue president who let it go to his head and ran all over our board making unsound decisions. We simply had a member call a special meeting, made a proposal to remove him by getting 37 (10% of the homeowners) to vote "Yes", this constituted a quorum - the votes necessary to affect a change, and we got rid of him and then ammended our bylaws and covenants.
The association IS the homeowners...they do have the power. Most don't read their bylaws to learn of their rights.
You don't pay the dues (rent), you don't obey the covenants (how you maintain and use the property) , you have fines, liens slapped on you, and eventually foreclosed on (here, more properly called eviction).
That's what happens to tenants, not someone who owns their homes. You are actually in something that under any other scenario would be called Tenants in Common, except you are in debt with a mortgage.
You may call yourself and be called a homeowner. But what matters is who has ultimate control over the home, is it you or other people? Can anyone evict you from it? Then you do not own it.
You may be allowed a degree of control, but this is perhaps perpetuate a mirage that you own the property, and human psychology being the way it is accepts this.
That you have a single voice over the property as a member of a HOA, and are allowed to vote in it, does not disparage that all your neighbors operating in a quasi-govern entity own your home not you. You of all people should know how dangerous this can be as attested by your story of a rogue president. That you were able to get rid of him does not mean in the future you will be able to. State laws can change to turn HOA into fiefdoms. A psychopath can get control and use his/her charisma to rally insecure and weak people in the neighborhood around him. Then what? You are screwed. It's very dangerous.
Perhaps the real tragedy of being in a HOA, is that unlike a mortgage which you can pay off, you can never be free of HOA dues. What if cities dump all the road maintenance on the HOA? Those dues can go up very severely. Don't expect property taxes to go down to compensate. Of course you might be able to vote to disband the HOA, you would be wise to in my opinion - if you have that option.
Now, I am not opposed to people who want to live in HOA. By all means do so if that is your thing. But what's the point of buying a house and going into debt? Just rent. You'll get all the dictats you need in your lease, and you will have a landlord to tell you what to do, and how to use the property, and to pay rent to.
You don't pay the dues (rent), you don't obey the covenants (how you maintain and use the property) , you have fines, liens slapped on you, and eventually foreclosed on (here, more properly called eviction).
That's what happens to tenants, not someone who owns their homes. You are actually in something that under any other scenario would be called Tenants in Common, except you are in debt with a mortgage.
You may call yourself and be called a homeowner. But what matters is who has ultimate control over the home, is it you or other people? Can anyone evict you from it? Then you do not own it.
You may be allowed a degree of control, but this is perhaps perpetuate a mirage that you own the property, and human psychology being the way it is accepts this.
That you have a single voice over the property as a member of a HOA, and are allowed to vote in it, does not disparage that all your neighbors operating in a quasi-govern entity own your home not you. You of all people should know how dangerous this can be as attested by your story of a rogue president. That you were able to get rid of him does not mean in the future you will be able to. State laws can change to turn HOA into fiefdoms. A psychopath can get control and use his/her charisma to rally insecure and weak people in the neighborhood around him. Then what? You are screwed. It's very dangerous.
Perhaps the real tragedy of being in a HOA, is that unlike a mortgage which you can pay off, you can never be free of HOA dues. What if cities dump all the road maintenance on the HOA? Those dues can go up very severely. Don't expect property taxes to go down to compensate. Of course you might be able to vote to disband the HOA, you would be wise to in my opinion - if you have that option.
Now, I am not opposed to people who want to live in HOA. By all means do so if that is your thing. But what's the point of buying a house and going into debt? Just rent. You'll get all the dictats you need in your lease, and you will have a landlord to tell you what to do, and how to use the property, and to pay rent to.
Life is funny. Live within a n'hood with a HOA and you pay dues.
Live within a county/state/country with laws and you pay taxes.
Life is funny. Live within a n'hood with a HOA and you pay dues.
Live within a county/state/country with laws and you pay taxes.
You DO pay taxes, right?!!
Vicki
Yes, I pay taxes, probably not as much as you do though since I pay taxes to three governments (local, state and federal) whereas you probably pay taxes to four.
I don't know if my neighborhood's covenants are typical (I have no reason to believe they are not). They provide that they can be amended only by a written and recorded instrument signed by 2/3 of property owners. We have trouble getting a quorom (50%) for our annual meeting, even using written proxies. I can't imagine getting 2/3 of homeowners to sign something.
I was not talking about amending the covenants. I was talking about rules. Without an HOA, the only way the rules can change is to amend the covenants. With an HOA, they usually have the power to make up rules as they go along without having to amend the covenants. I wouldn't even bet a few dollars in a card game if I knew that half or 2/3 or however many of the other players could change the rules in the middle of the game. I certainly wouldn't bet my whole house.
PS 10% of the homeowners like in the previous post?
I beg to differ. To me it goes to a very simple premise:
In a HOA you really don't own your property. The HOA does.
That's why they can tell you what to do with it, and slap liens on your or even foreclose on you if you don't do what they say. It's very much like how a landlord would behave towards a tenant.
So you've put yourself 10's perhap's even 100's of thousands in debt to buy a property you don't even own. How does that sit with you?
So squabbling over the convenants is really just noise around the central issue, all you are really complaining about is what how restrictive your landlord is to you.
Whoever thought of the racket to create cookie cutter neighborhood and have people spend thousands of dollars to buy a house in it, and then have them sign over implied ownership to a HOA really had base human psychology down pat.
By that logic (or lack thereof), nobody would ever own any property. The government can take your house if they want to build a highway, expand an airport, etc.
So squabbling over the convenants is really just noise around the central issue, all you are really complaining about is what how restrictive your landlord is to you.
This is a flawed argument akin to saying that we really don’t have freedom of speech in the United States because we’re not allowed to yell FIRE in a crowded theater.
Fortunately when it comes to HOAs we here in the Raleigh area have the option of living in communities that have them and some that don’t. Hopefully this post has enlightened potential relocators of the importance in knowing whether a community that’s being considered has a HOA or not.
I have no problem with covenants, because you know the rules before you buy. However, the covenants that establish an HOA usually stipulate that the rules can change, usually with just a simple majority of the homeowners and often with just a decision of the board.
"A Simple majority" ...HA!!!
I wish someone would try to get 80% of our homeowners to agree on one thing. Getting a majority is anything but simple!
What many people who rumble about HOAs fail to address is that many HOAs have no real power, that the residents don't even know who their property manager is, that most people get through life just fine, day to day, year to year, with or without an HOA. Painting them as a subervision of human decency is ludicrous.
In Tucson AZ, a man painted the inside of the walls that lined his property (block walls, not wooden fences like NC) and his HOA sued him and caused him much grief! You couldnt see the colors from the outside unless you were looking over his walls, but the HOA decided that it wasn't suitable for their neighborhood. This man fought it because it only stated that the outside portion could not be painted, but in the end he lost.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Fight the real enemy
