I've been too a few HOA meetings and they are complete shit and waste of my time. People arguing about fences and sheds, etc. I could care less to be honest and my wife always leaves mad because of how rude people get in them so I think we're just done with it.

Do i have to go to these meetings? am i legally required?

*I/we am not a board member

9/10/2015 9:06:20 PM

no, you don't.

all HOA meetings are people bitching and moaning about petty shit.


I've gone to HOA meetings for all three neighborhoods i've lived in, and that's all that occurred.

I'm on my HOA board now, and every meeting is people bitching and moaning about petty shit.

Why am I on the board?

Because I want to do everything I can to prevent the board from actually doing anything beyond maintaining common areas or increasing dues.

9/10/2015 9:21:04 PM

^ this.
I'm on my board and the Architectural Review Committee.

9/11/2015 7:22:20 AM

My neighborhood association went defunct in the last few years. It's a historic neighborhood in Winston-Salem (Ardmore to be specific), but no one is forced to pay/participate in HOA type stuff (hence the appeal of living there), as dues were only collected on a voluntary basis. However, the association is in the midst of starting back up again mostly due to concerns about recent crime and a big rezoning concern about an old apartment complex (Cloverdale Apartments) possibly being torn down for mixed-use development, and I'm hoping to snag a board position.

But yeah, we had one meeting already, and they, too, are mostly about people bitching and moaning about petty shit.

9/11/2015 8:35:58 AM

Mine started and then crashed before it got off the ground. I'm 90% wanting it to stay that way.

9/11/2015 8:55:18 AM

We have a neighborhood message board online, but no HOA.

The message board is full of people whining about speeders and people who don't stop at the stop signs, but the neighborhood has rallied a few times on it for different things.

I much prefer it this way. No real authority, but interested people can still get together to do whatever they want.

9/12/2015 10:11:48 AM

I just moved from Northern VA where we had an HOA that had extreme power and everything had to be approved. The dues were reasonable and they kept the neighborhood in nice shape. Two weeks before closing on the sale so we could move, they send out a letter saying our shutters were in violation and needed painting. They were fading, but really needed painting when we moved in 5 years prior. Annoying, but we just painted them real quick. I guess the board decided to finally get on people for that. I am fairly sure the whole neighborhood received the same letter.

So we have been in our current neighborhood for 6 months that has an HOA, but does not appear to have any real power outside of maintaining the common areas. I am glad I can paint this, build that with no approval. However, we have been disappointed in the maintenance of the homes in the neighborhood. There are people that can't even keep their lawn from being completely mangy. Thankfully it is a few and none we have to look at outside of walks through the neighborhood. Our street is kept nice. We have one clown that has an above ground pool at the end of the driveway. None of this stuff would have flown in the past neighborhood.

With have experience both sides, I think I might prefer the more powerful, assuming it managed well. It is pain to do anything, but it keeps people from doing things they shouldn't.

9/16/2015 11:35:46 AM

Yeah its a pain sometimes, but our neighborhood has one and the one that borders us does not or at least is super lax and you can definitely tell. It kinda sucks because it ends up looking like the ghetto as you drive in and gets progressively nicer the further back you go.

9/16/2015 11:59:58 AM

you people are crazy, fuck HOAs

My last neighborhood didn't have one, and I didn't mind a bit.

My new neighborhood has a weak one, and the neighborhood still looks great.

Fuck some person not liking the color of my shudders or where I put my landscaping.

9/21/2015 12:35:40 PM

I guess it comes down to how lucky you get with the rest of the people in your neighborhood. All it takes is a couple folks who dont give a shit moving in and things can go downhill pretty quick.

9/21/2015 2:52:00 PM

Quote :

"shudders"

9/21/2015 3:15:02 PM

haha, my neighborhood is trying to start one. There are a handful of major-league busybodies who have all sorts of crazy pie-in-the-sky ideas...there was a meeting the other night, and it failed to meet quorum to even have a vote, haha.

I'm sure we're not done with it, but that gives me home that not many people are in favor of an HOA fucking with everyone all the time when they aren't busy trying to do crazy shit like entrance gates, speed bumps, and community centers (oh, the best one: petitioning the county to close a public road that connects to the neighborhood. hahahaha)

Quote :

"Why am I on the board? Because I want to do everything I can to prevent the board from actually doing anything beyond maintaining common areas or increasing dues. "

Yep, I had to be out of town for the [failed] meeting...but I plan on running if it comes up again for that exact purpose.

And even then, I'd prefer to keep the dues and more importantly, the HOA scope minimal, while encouraging community involvement, by soliciting for volunteers within the neighborhood for doing the landscape maintenance out front (this has been very successful previously here). Basically, I want to pay for electricity and irrigation for the entrances, and have a provision in case the Beverly Hillbillies do actually move in. That's pretty much it.

[Edited on September 21, 2015 at 10:30 PM. Reason : ]

9/21/2015 10:26:02 PM

Yeah thats what they are there for maintaining public areas so things look nice, making sure people dont let their lawns turn into jungles, people dont have abandoned cars sitting all over the place etc. They can definitely go overboard the only run in I have had with mine is they forced us to pressure wash our house when it wasnt really that bad and the dirty side wasnt visible from the road. In the end it needed to be done I get that it was more the you have until this day then we will send someone out and bill you plus extra fees. They did get no parking on one side of a road through the neighborhood which was great because people were parking every where and it was impossible to have traffic going both ways which was really annoying people would have to park and let others by before they could proceed.

9/22/2015 8:44:02 AM

Yeah I would lose my shit if they required me to pressure wash my house. I'll be the judge of that, dickheads.

9/22/2015 8:05:01 PM

Meh, I needed to pressure wash my house. I knew I needed to pressure wash my house. I didn't pressure wash my house for over a year after noticing the need. Finally my HOA sent me a letter requesting that I pressure wash my house. I then paid someone to come pressure wash my house.

Yes, I am on my board, and essentially sent myself a letter through the management company.

We are in a very lax HOA and most/ all the violations are for street parking, jungles instead of lawns, and pressure washing houses.

9/22/2015 8:11:29 PM

pressure washing is good once a year. Keeps the bugs/nests down that you might not see in your overhangs, etc.

9/23/2015 7:01:46 AM

Quote :

"we will send someone out and bill you plus extra fees"

Couldn't you just tell the whoever they hire to go away and not give them permission to enter your property?

I'm curious as to how things work when HOAs start up in communities that didn't already have one. If one exists when you move in, usually it is part of the paperwork you have to sign. If you don't sign anything or agree to any terms, how can a newly started HOA enforce anything?

9/30/2015 10:28:58 AM

We have one but it's of very limited scope--basically maintenance of the sign, common areas, and several events per year, e.g. a carnival, ice cream social, neighborhood yard sale etc. They seem to do a good job with those and dues are minimal ($20) and voluntary. Ali good things, in my opinion. There are no covenants or other such BS, and no one telling me what I can and can't do with my house or my yard.

Despite the lack of teeth, there seem to be very few people who take advantage of it-- yards and homes are generally well-maintained.

^^^Street parking violations? Really? That seems to be a city matter to me. Then again I live in a neighborhood where a significant number of houses don't even have driveways, so it's kind of a necessity here. Old neighborhood with narrow lots...

9/30/2015 4:43:44 PM

^many have turned their garage into another room! then put one car in the nearly 4 car driveway, then park 2 cars on the street in front of their house. The further into the neighborhood you get, the narrower the streets get, and it makes a real traffic problem. Added with the fact that people are stupid and park well off the curb, it makes it so emergency vehicles don't fit on the roads.
It can be reported and made a city problem, and it takes neighbors complaining before the home owner is sent a violation notice.

9/30/2015 6:28:38 PM

^I suppose if people have ample driveway space that they don't use, then it could be a problem worth instituting regulations on. Something along the lines of "no street parking unless there are 2 or more cars in the driveway" assuming double-width driveways. The parking too far off the curb is worse, but that unfortunately is totally the city's domain.

It's a bit unorthodox, but if the neighborhood is laid out in something approximating a grid, you could also ask the city to change some of the streets to one-way traffic. That way there's no concern about people trying to pass each other in streets that dont' have a lot of room. That definitely wouldn't work in a cul-de-sac neighborhood though.

9/30/2015 7:27:20 PM

The last HOA meeting I went to had to be 8 or 9 years ago which was for my college townhouse, I went to bitch about towing. LOL. So yes, people mainly show up to complain.

The house I live in has no HOA, there is however an extremely lively Nextdoor.com group for my neighborhood. It is an older single family neighborhood and I think not having an HOA is actually beneficial for this one. Many people that move to my neighborhood love that there are no covenants and if they want to build a different style home they do not have to answer to anyone. This has invited more money in as people build new, sometimes ultra contemporary homes, but anything goes here.

I own 3 investment properties and all have HOA. I do not go to the meetings because it is mostly bitching. I will probably go to the one at the beach because they have some crazy stuff going on and I want to run for the board. This is something I will probably regret, but for the time being they need some non-absentee owners on the board to stay on the management company.

Think about HOAs like this, you have 6 or 8 people who don't necessarily have any qualifications other than owning a house. These people make all the decisions on how to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. They decide when to assess and raise dues, what management company to use, landscaping, exterior maintenance, insurance, the list goes on and on. It is never wise to completely ignore what is going on with your HOA, if no one steps up, everyone suffers, but the other side of that is if they are taking care of business you are wasting your time.

Serving on the BOD is a thankless job and I am not sure why you do it other than you genuinely care about the neighborhood and want to keep it up. Unfortunately some people must do it to feel important & in control, those folks often have no idea what they are doing, those are the ones you have to watch.

1/18/2016 8:22:35 PM

I have a neighborhood association, but no HOA. We can't really do anything other than provide support or "go against" people trying to make changes to their home...which is actually given a decent bit of weight when people have to submit plans to the City's Board of Architectural Review (historic downtown).

So I've been going to all the meetings for the past two years because I'm trying to add on to my house and want/need the support. I got it...so I might not go to meetings anymore. Although we're probably going to vote on our neighborhood allowing short-term rentals soon (airbnb/vrbo)...which I want so I can do it for my house in the future...so I might have to keep going.

My neighborhood is constantly having new developments (residential and commercial), so it is interesting to see the beginning of those new plans. It's just a pain to have to sit and listen to two hours of stupid people bitching about stupid stuff, just to see the 15 minutes of interesting stuff.

1/19/2016 8:23:30 AM

Well ive missed the last two meetings and i feel great. The hoa regulars wont talk to me but thats ok. Unless someone paints theirs house pink, i probably wont be back.

1/19/2016 8:41:11 AM

I'm going to have to go to our meeting this year. We have a rule against homeowners renting out their houses, and the one beside us was allowed to be rented due to financial hardship.

This was in 2011. We moved in in 2012 and will have our fourth neighbor in nearly as many years, with no attempt to put the house on the market. The owner even said he didn't want to sell it. I'm tired of the transience, and would like a neighbor that lives in the house next door for more than a year. We've had good neighbors so far, but eventually the luck is going to run out and we're going to get crappy ones.

1/19/2016 11:04:00 AM

I see your concern if you purchased in a community that was supposed to be free of investment properties and that is not what you are getting.

The downside to that might be that if the home is sold there is no guarantee the new owners wont be crazy, and stay for much longer. There is no personality test to qualify for a mortgage, some of the craziest, meanest, most aggravating people you will ever meet have a job and decent credit.

1/25/2016 11:15:06 AM

how are house values today compared to when they bought it? would they be able to break even? a lot of people can't afford to lose a large amount of money on a real estate transation

it's hard to justify selling a place for a loss when you can rent it out for a gain - i'm in the same place with a townhome i bought back in 2007 - i moved a few years ago due to my company moving to a larger office and the commute was an hour each way - i'm currently renting it out for ~$300 profit after mortgage / taxes / hoa and it's ~$600 if you include the principal that's getting paid each month - if i sold it i'd take a ~30k loss based on what i paid for it despite having enough equity in the place to be right side up

so 30k loss or $300 in my pocket each month - i think i'll go with the HOA hardship permit for now

1/25/2016 11:24:53 AM

yeah i think it's fucked up for HOAs to disallow people to rent out their properties.

1/26/2016 9:27:30 AM

I just put in an offer on my first house, and it has an HOA. I am pretty nervous about it, my only other experience is with the one on lineberry in Raleigh and they were a pain in the ass. My fiancee works for the company that manages it though, and it seems pretty lax, so maybe it'll be ok

2/1/2016 10:27:02 PM

You'll be fine. Just don't park on your lawn and keep your grass cut and powerwash your house

2/1/2016 10:32:55 PM

Read the covenant before you buy.

2/3/2016 6:07:50 PM

Update:

I haven't been to two meetings. Come to find out a lot of people stop going because two people are trying to control the neighborhood. No one is showing so they do not have a quorum to pass new rules.

2/3/2016 7:19:45 PM

This is what I worry about with HOA's. I don't mind the concept behind them, but also dont really care to be involved and you end up with the super controlling nut jobs making the rules.

2/4/2016 10:55:55 AM

Collect proxies from all your neighbors who also don't care then vote down anything that any assholes might try to do.

2/4/2016 1:32:15 PM