Yup. Keep in mind that if/when a neighbor paints their home some shade of neon and astroturfs their lawn, you get no say. ;)
I had a friend in graduate school -- a lawyer -- who made a hobby and a habit of breaking HOA's. He knew the governing law inside and out, better than the boards did, and would take careful notes of every procedural irregularity he could find. When he had enough information, he'd pounce.
He'd send them a note, pointing out that they were operating outside of the bounds of their charter and therefore without legal authority. Their actions were acting in restraint of otherwise lawful trade and hence constituted criminal action under both common and statute law, and that this was clearly a well-organized conspiracy and therefore fell under criminal conspiracy. Since they were acting both to demand that the homeowners spend money, levying fines, and demanding dues as well, they fell specifically under "extortion" statutes, which in turn made their conduct a federal offense under the RICO laws as well. Finally, since these actions were made outside of the bounds of the HOA charter, they were not protected by any sort of corporate or official shield, and that he could therefore sue each of them as individuals and hold them individually liable for the entire amount of money ever paid to (or at the demand of)the HOA, tripled because of the RICO provisions. From their personal fortunes.
He offered a deal, "in the interests of avoiding expensive litigation." Either formally unencumber the property of interest, or face charges.
I think his record, last time I checked, was something like 19 wins, no losses.
(I think he got started on this when his HOA started pulling stuff like fining him for allowing guests to park in the guest parking space that the HOA president liked to use.)
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Yup. Keep in mind that if/when a neighbor paints their home some shade of neon and astroturfs their lawn, you get no say. ;)
Who gave me the right to tell my neighbor what he can or cannot due on his property. If its illegal(drug den, excessive noise) I call the police. Problem solved.
As far as the neon paint. That issue has not come up in my 20+ years of home ownership.
I have fake lawn in my front yard and it is not only great to look at but easy on the maintenance and water.
I have an HOA for my Townhouse.
I own it.
I'm still getting shafted.
When I move, it will be to a place that doesn't have an HOA.
Yup. Keep in mind that if/when a neighbor paints their home some shade of neon and astroturfs their lawn, you get no say. ;)Who gave me the right to tell my neighbor what he can or cannot due on his property.
Well, I'm not a lawyer. But my understanding is that if someone does something that injures you or reduces the value of your property, they may be responsible for your loss.
But that's the general idea behind HOA's. It's actually fairly well-documented that part of the resale value of your house is controlled by the area in which you live, including how well your neighbors maintain their houses. A 2010 study found, for instance, that abandoned homes had cost the average Philadelphia home about $8,000 in value.
If you're trying to sell your house, having to lower your price by $8,000 might be considered real money.
Of course, there's a big difference in impact between "abandoned houses" and "unmowed lawns" or "neon paint," and I've not seen any documentation or studies with actual numbers about how being next to an unmowed lawn will reduce the value of your house.
Neglected properties have a direct affect because, when they are eventually sold, it is generally considerably less than the normal price for the neighborhood.
A severely neglected property drags down the rest of the neighborhood by affecting the "running average", as it were.
Who gave me the right to tell my neighbor what he can or cannot due on his property. If its illegal(drug den, excessive noise) I call the police. Problem solved.As far as the neon paint. That issue has not come up in my 20+ years of home ownership.
I have fake lawn in my front yard and it is not only great to look at but easy on the maintenance and water.
Illegal is not the same as what I was describing. I've seen the neon paint, it is rare, but not extinct. There are some doozies out there on the exterior paint scheme.
A good-looking lawn is a good-looking lawn. A bad lawn, such as the kind where one's neighbor is both too cheap and too lazy to take care of it without the city or county stepping in and mowing it for them - which is usually ghastly expensive - affects "curb appeal".
The HoA - if it isn't run by a group of collectively failed politicians - does what it does to attend to basic needs (trash/recycling collection, snow removal, grounds maintenance, repaving and repainting parking areas and fire lanes, etc) of the community. Depending on the specific HoA, they also set the "look" of the community by way of paint palettes and so forth.
It's when the penny-ante wanna-be politicians get elected that trouble happens. Which is why, when you are a homeowner in an HoA community, it is definitely in your best interests to get to know your HoA board members. If you and your neighbors don't like your board, get yourselves elected instead of the people you don't like.
Nothing like walking a mile in someone else's shoes to get an appreciation for what the task/job/role entails. ;)
Yup. Keep in mind that if/when a neighbor paints their home some shade of neon and astroturfs their lawn, you get no say. ;)Who gave me the right to tell my neighbor what he can or cannot due on his property.Well, I'm not a lawyer. But my understanding is that if someone does something that injures you or reduces the value of your property, they may be responsible for your loss.
But that's the general idea behind HOA's. It's actually fairly well-documented that part of the resale value of your house is controlled by the area in which you live, including how well your neighbors maintain their houses. A 2010 study found, for instance, that abandoned homes had cost the average Philadelphia home about $8,000 in value.
If you're trying to sell your house, having to lower your price by $8,000 might be considered real money.
Of course, there's a big difference in impact between "abandoned houses" and "unmowed lawns" or "neon paint," and I've not seen any documentation or studies with actual numbers about how being next to an unmowed lawn will reduce the value of your house.
Losing $8,000 on a $400,000 home is a 2% drop in value. Basically, that $8,000 is a third of the commission you would normally pay to sell the home. Painful in the short term, but eminently recoverable. How long the recovery takes depends entirely on the local economy driving things along in a positive manner.
Losing $8,000 on an $80,000 home is 10%. When losses like these hit a neighborhood, it sometimes triggers a cascade effect as the rest of the community watches their homes plummet in price, pushing their home into the "under water" realm. More and more give up, walking away or otherwise abandoning the property. Given enough time, most neighborhoods will recover. Some areas, such as certain swaths of Baltimore circa 2009, basically disintegrate, becoming literal shells.