HOA Swimming Pool "headaches!!!" (1 Viewer)

[Punxsutawney Phil]

It's impossible to pull off a community pool / clubhouse affordably & successfully unless it's a mega neighborhood / golf club house, etc.  The builders are in and out of smaller neighborhoods, they aren't going to allocate nearly enough space for parking.  They are trying to maximize profit on the development.  It seems nice when you are in on the new neighborhood early, but by the time the neighborhood is filled out the area is likely over congested.  Urban sprawl.

 

[stbugs]

I doubt it about my cousin. He could sell a lot more houses every year if he wanted to go the "used cars salesmen" approach. 

HOA'S are bad because it is basically come live in our neighborhood, but only if you live our way. 

We have lived in HOA's that have lake access, but you can only have a boat if you store it on the property designated for boats and there is limited space. So you pay for lake privelegdes, but can't use them until a spot opens up. Want a fence for a garden or to put you dog out for a few hours to run or while you are at work. Sorry no fences. Unless you have a pool, then you can have a fence because it is state law. Take down the pool though and you can keep the fence because they won't make you pay to take the fence down. We had a lawyer that lived in our sub that wanted every house to pay 5k to have him on retainer in case something happened on the property with lake access. 

These are just a few things we ran into. My cousin has told me stories about HOA's that will fine you 50 dollars if you go over a week with out mowing your lawn, so you mow on Sundays and then it rains Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and you would have a fine on your front door. Forget to put your trash out one week, expect a fine. 

A lot of it probably does rely on the neighbors you have and the people running the association, but a lot of those rules shouldn't be in place. 

I’ve never heard of fines (for first/early issues), but I guess that could be. We get letters in my current one, no idea what comes next but I’m fairly certain it would take non payment to get to fines. That said pretty easy to read the HOA guidelines and see exactly what they specify and decide to move in or not. I did that in both subdivisions and as many of us have mentioned we’ve had little to no issues and like the fact that our neighborhoods are places people want to buy. Also, LOL at your cousin not wanting to sell more houses if he could. 

 

[wilked]

I know a lot of people are down on HOA's, but they can be quite beneficial.   You can't have decent amenities and common spaces without some sort oversight for care and maintenance.  My community has a lake, swimming pool, tennis courts, bocce courts, volleyball court, playground, pavilion, clubhouse, green space...  It is a great place to live, but none of these things would be possible without our HOA.  You need good people, though, to run things effectively.

Ya, how could you possibly have public parks, ponds / lakes, recreation space in a town / city without HOAs???

 

[RokNRole]

Someone with a basic level of reading comprehension would have seen the post barely up from mine that talked about a no alcohol pool policy and known that’s what I was talking about.

I’m drunk

 

[Galileo]

Ya, how could you possibly have public parks, ponds / lakes, recreation space in a town / city without HOAs???

We are talking about neighborhoods here...not city level services.  Yes, we actually have public property in our city that the city government cares for.  Our pool and facilities, however, are private.

 

[rascal]

Sounds like Nazi Germany

I love Germany.  

Neighborhood pools are meant for families and kids.  If you want to drink, vomit, and fight go to a bar.

 

[-OZ-]

Ya, how could you possibly have public parks, ponds / lakes, recreation space in a town / city without HOAs???

Sure. The city, state and maybe even the federal government could pay for these things. 

Or they can be paid collectively by the people most likely to use them, for some people the reason they live in a specific neighborhood is for those services. While that holds true somewhat for towns, the neighborhood is the smallest unit usually able to have these services. If you don't want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA, don't. 

 

[wilked]

If you don't want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA, don't. 

This part makes sense and I think is very good advice. You left one part out though - what should I do if I do want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA? 

 

[-OZ-]

This part makes sense and I think is very good advice. You left one part out though - what should I do if I do want to live in a neighborhood with an HOA? 

Do you want the HOA or the neighborhood? 

You could participate in the HOA, influence it in the direction you prefer.

 

[sbonomo]

I doubt it about my cousin. He could sell a lot more houses every year if he wanted to go the "used cars salesmen" approach. 

HOA'S are bad because it is basically come live in our neighborhood, but only if you live our way. 

We have lived in HOA's that have lake access, but you can only have a boat if you store it on the property designated for boats and there is limited space. So you pay for lake privelegdes, but can't use them until a spot opens up. Want a fence for a garden or to put you dog out for a few hours to run or while you are at work. Sorry no fences. Unless you have a pool, then you can have a fence because it is state law. Take down the pool though and you can keep the fence because they won't make you pay to take the fence down. We had a lawyer that lived in our sub that wanted every house to pay 5k to have him on retainer in case something happened on the property with lake access. 

These are just a few things we ran into. My cousin has told me stories about HOA's that will fine you 50 dollars if you go over a week with out mowing your lawn, so you mow on Sundays and then it rains Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and you would have a fine on your front door. Forget to put your trash out one week, expect a fine. 

A lot of it probably does rely on the neighbors you have and the people running the association, but a lot of those rules shouldn't be in place. 

This post does not make a lot of sense however, keep your lawn maintained, put you garbage cans away, and follow basic rules?  I have complaints about hoa’s but nothing you listed seems like a big deal to me.  In fact the majority (once it again your statement was hard to follow) seems to be the exact reason why hoa’s work. 

 

[Pipes]

This isn't really a HOA issue.  It just sounds like you have ####ty neighbors.

 

[msudaisy26]

This post does not make a lot of sense however, keep your lawn maintained, put you garbage cans away, and follow basic rules?  I have complaints about hoa’s but nothing you listed seems like a big deal to me.  In fact the majority (once it again your statement was hard to follow) seems to be the exact reason why hoa’s work. 

Well obviously you didn't read it well, it was raining. The grass wasn't very high, but the president of our former HOA kept tabs on when everyone mowed their lawn. After 7 days it supposed to be a fine, (which is a stupid rule anyways) she gave everyone 8, to be fair. Same goes for the trash cans, she kept a log of it, and sorry I forgot to put my trash cans out. Oh wait we were on vacation that week so we had no trash and weren't home, or hey we were gone all week and there was no trash, so no we didn't put it out.

5k for a retainer per household for 20 houses in a sub division in case of a problem that has never come up in the almost 40 years since the HOA was put in place. Seems shady to me.

Here pay for access to a lake, with a boat launch and docks, but you can't use them, since the 6 docks in the lake already have 12 boats attached.

Your definition of reasonable and mine are very different.

 

[sbonomo]

Well obviously you didn't read it well, it was raining. The grass wasn't very high, but the president of our former HOA kept tabs on when everyone mowed their lawn. After 7 days it supposed to be a fine, (which is a stupid rule anyways) she gave everyone 8, to be fair. Same goes for the trash cans, she kept a log of it, and sorry I forgot to put my trash cans out. Oh wait we were on vacation that week so we had no trash and weren't home, or hey we were gone all week and there was no trash, so no we didn't put it out.

5k for a retainer per household for 20 houses in a sub division in case of a problem that has never come up in the almost 40 years since the HOA was put in place. Seems shady to me.

Here pay for access to a lake, with a boat launch and docks, but you can't use them, since the 6 docks in the lake already have 12 boats attached.

Your definition of reasonable and mine are very different.

If I am understananding you, based on your statement, you have 7 days to mow your grass?  How in the world does this person keep track of when each home last mowed their grass?  I assume the 7-day clock rests every time you mow your grass?  Is it documented in your ccr’s that your grass cannot  go more than seven day between mows?  Same question for the trash, does you ccr indicate that you must put your trash can out every x number of day (this I cannot believe)?

the retainer, was this a special assessment or was the hoa responsible for paying the expense?  Was this put to a vote?  Once again, how was it documented in the ccr’s?  

 Rather than picking your statements apart, have you ever read your ccr’s?  At a minimum it sounds like you skipped that step when you bought the house or have missed a bunch of the votes that have occurred since you have lived there.  

 

[sbonomo]

Well obviously you didn't read it well, it was raining. The grass wasn't very high, but the president of our former HOA kept tabs on when everyone mowed their lawn. After 7 days it supposed to be a fine, (which is a stupid rule anyways) she gave everyone 8, to be fair. Same goes for the trash cans, she kept a log of it, and sorry I forgot to put my trash cans out. Oh wait we were on vacation that week so we had no trash and weren't home, or hey we were gone all week and there was no trash, so no we didn't put it out.

5k for a retainer per household for 20 houses in a sub division in case of a problem that has never come up in the almost 40 years since the HOA was put in place. Seems shady to me.

Here pay for access to a lake, with a boat launch and docks, but you can't use them, since the 6 docks in the lake already have 12 boats attached.

Your definition of reasonable and mine are very different.

Oh and if the president is such an ####, why not have them voted off at the next election (you are going to need a copy of your ccr’s to see how the election process goes, how long terms are, etc)?  

 

[msudaisy26]

If I am understananding you, based on your statement, you have 7 days to mow your grass?  How in the world does this person keep track of when each home last mowed their grass?  I assume the 7-day clock rests every time you mow your grass?  Is it documented in your ccr’s that your grass cannot  go more than seven day between mows?  Same question for the trash, does you ccr indicate that you must put your trash can out every x number of day (this I cannot believe)?

the retainer, was this a special assessment or was the hoa responsible for paying the expense?  Was this put to a vote?  Once again, how was it documented in the ccr’s?  

 Rather than picking your statements apart, have you ever read your ccr’s?  At a minimum it sounds like you skipped that step when you bought the house or have missed a bunch of the votes that have occurred since you have lived there.  

As I said before the president of our HOA watched everyone. To add detail to this, she and her husband were retired, they probably had nothing else to do all day. My husband liked to mow the grass on Sunday's. The time we got the fine on our door was in September or October that year. It rained all day Sunday, and most of the next 2 days. It was mowed Wednesday and we had a notice on our door Tuesday with a copy of page 11 or whatever it was of our HOA agreement with the 7 day rule highlighted and please make the check out to such and such. Again no HOA should have a rule like that, what happens if people go on vacation? there is a drought? it is raining. If the grass is becoming a problem then it should be addressed.

Our trash was included in our property taxes in the township we lived in, so everyone had the same pick up day in the neighborhood. Very easy to look out and see who didn't have a trash can at the road. It was in the same section as the mowing, trash must be out every week or a fine will be sent.

The retainer type deal was put to a vote and was barely lost like 10 to 8 since 2 people didn't show up, but what happened is one of the owners of a house sold it to his son who is a lawyer and I assume he was looking to cash in. This wasn't documented at all since it had never came up, he wanted this added to the HOA.

We never missed a vote because of the stupid rules. (they even tried to call a special call meeting that was held during the day during the week) We didn't receive a copy at the time we bought the house and that was our mistake, but we were in a bad rental agreement with a horrible landlord so we were kind of desperate at the time. We read that HOA front to back and had it memorized after the 1st incident we had about 2 months after moving in, we even took it to a lawyer and asked about some of the stuff after they tried to ding us for the mowing the lawn issue. He said they couldn't enforce payment and to just not pay it.

To answer your other post. This president was in place when we moved in and they have 2 year terms. She was voted out our 2nd year of living there, but her next door neighbor and friend was voted in (barely). So things didn't change and we put our house up and moved out as soon as we could.

 

[sbonomo]

As I said before the president of our HOA watched everyone. To add detail to this, she and her husband were retired, they probably had nothing else to do all day. My husband liked to mow the grass on Sunday's. The time we got the fine on our door was in September or October that year. It rained all day Sunday, and most of the next 2 days. It was mowed Wednesday and we had a notice on our door Tuesday with a copy of page 11 or whatever it was of our HOA agreement with the 7 day rule highlighted and please make the check out to such and such. Again no HOA should have a rule like that, what happens if people go on vacation? there is a drought? it is raining. If the grass is becoming a problem then it should be addressed.

Our trash was included in our property taxes in the township we lived in, so everyone had the same pick up day in the neighborhood. Very easy to look out and see who didn't have a trash can at the road. It was in the same section as the mowing, trash must be out every week or a fine will be sent.

The retainer type deal was put to a vote and was barely lost like 10 to 8 since 2 people didn't show up, but what happened is one of the owners of a house sold it to his son who is a lawyer and I assume he was looking to cash in. This wasn't documented at all since it had never came up, he wanted this added to the HOA.

We never missed a vote because of the stupid rules. (they even tried to call a special call meeting that was held during the day during the week) We didn't receive a copy at the time we bought the house and that was our mistake, but we were in a bad rental agreement with a horrible landlord so we were kind of desperate at the time. We read that HOA front to back and had it memorized after the 1st incident we had about 2 months after moving in, we even took it to a lawyer and asked about some of the stuff after they tried to ding us for the mowing the lawn issue. He said they couldn't enforce payment and to just not pay it.

To answer your other post. This president was in place when we moved in and they have 2 year terms. She was voted out our 2nd year of living there, but her next door neighbor and friend was voted in (barely). So things didn't change and we put our house up and moved out as soon as we could.

Ah I get it now.  I guess the moral to the story is read the ccr’s and don’t judge all hoa as though they are like this one.  Those rules are insane and will obviously drive property values down eventually.  There are good hoa’s out there that are aimed at keeping values up by forcing people to maintain basic levels of standards.  Hope your new situation is better.

 

[msudaisy26]

Ah I get it now.  I guess the moral to the story is read the ccr’s and don’t judge all hoa as though they are like this one.  Those rules are insane and will obviously drive property values down eventually.  There are good hoa’s out there that are aimed at keeping values up by forcing people to maintain basic levels of standards.  Hope your new situation is better.

Thanks no HOA and great neighbors. Couldn't be happier.