HOA Rant

[cement]

!@@##%#$#...Translate that the way you want. I put mine on my car and the HOA(Home Owners you know the rest) made me take it out because " Commercial logos or adds are not allowed, per the HOA's :BS:rules .
They even made me cover my truck's company logo with magnets. I tried to reason with them, you know, it is not commercial, is just a place for engineers to share ideas and help others. Did not work. I can't believe that.

Luis, that has to be the most petty bunch of nosy neighbors on the planet. But at least you don't live next door to Satan.

That's right, she lives next door. And the Eye of Sauron watches our every move. Every move we made would be reported to her willing minions at the HOA, or more specifically, the Architectural Review Comittee (ARC, rymes with Orc). The basketball hoop had to be hidden, the dog run taken down, and then the final straw, the telephone wire when I ran the fax line from the kitchen to the basement had to be stained to match the siding. Fortunately, a letter from my lawyer to Satan and the members of the ARC stating that legal action would follow if the inequitable actions against us did not stop did the trick.

It seems like she travels alot now with her ill-gotten wealth (crazy story there) and the ARC actually cooperated when we asked them for approval to replace the garage door that fell off the track and we got same day service. :brickwall:

 

[DVINNY]

I don't think I could even imagine what it must be like to live in something like that.

I decided to add another parking area this year by extending my driveway out to the side. I had my father-in-law bring over a mini-excavator, and we started tearing up ground. I formed it, poured it, and then went to the City and paid for a permit.

I'd love to see what your HOA would say about my dog. I think he'd have to take it up with them himself.

Us rednecks can't live like that. We gots to have our car in the yard, up on blocks. Makes fur a good doghouse

 

[Hill William]

Us rednecks can't live like that. We gots to have our car in the yard, up on blocks. Makes fur a good doghouse

YEEEHAAWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Road Guy]

I generally hate the thought of them, but my old neighborhood didnt have one, and although it was a new neighborhood, within 2 years you started seeing tractor trailers parked on the street, above ground pools in peoples side yards, half asses chicken wire fences in the front yard, I was barely able to get out of there without losing money on the house at closing.

ours tries to be strict in our neighborhood, but I live on a street that was added after the subdvision was complete, most of us on this street are fairly normal and dont call on each other. the other 3/4 of the neighborhoos refers to us as "the late comers" since they were all here before us.

when we moved in I had a retaining wall put in the back yard, 14 trucks of dirt was removed and in general my yard was a construction site for 4 months.

It was a pain in the ass to get permission to do that, but I was using the "easier to catch flies with honey" approach and got it all approved no probelm, I did feel bad because most days I had stuff delivered my street would get muddy as hell and I would pressure wash it off just to try and be a nice neighbor.

 

[FusionWhite]

I posted this in the other thread but Ill go into more detail here.

All the houses in my neighborhood are 2-3 years old. Its a new but modest development with some nice to moderate houses in it. The developer was going to turn a swampy retention basin into a little lake with a path around it which is located at the low point of the development. Well apparently turned it from a swampy retention basin into a swampy retention basin filled with garbage. Everyone in the neighborhood is pretty pissed because it looks like total crap. My wife and I call it "Swampy Bottom Park". We tried walking around the path last summer but ran into 2 problems: 1) mosquito's, everywhere 2) the path cut through someones yard and they forced the developer to remove it (which is of course a good idea since ITS THEIR DAMN YARD), so the path deadends at a fence in someones back yard. So overall the whole thing is a complete screw. The developer has decided to wash their hands of it and is leaving the basin as is. The word law-suit is starting to get kicked around.

 

[GCracker]

I don't even know where to start?? I've gotten letters about my dog crapping in someone elses yard and I don't have a damn dog, but others were letting their dogs crap in mine.

I got another letter about painting the step to my porch, and it has been the same color since the day I bought the house. Letters about weeds and grass too high, when my neighbor could bail hay in his yard.

People park in the street, using their garage for a storage building,...etc...etc.

My HOA is full of fucktards! I can't wait to get out of this neighborhood and I'll NEVER live in a HOA community again!

 

[ktulu]

The only reason I wish we had a HOA is for a neighborhood pool. But that will never happen.

 

[TouchDown]

I knew that the over involved HOA existed, just haven't heard so many examples of it before.

There are some communities around that have strict limitations on the property, but I don't know of any that restrict markings on cars.

We used to live outside the city limits, in the county - next door neighbors had chickens / ducks they kept in their garden shed in their backyard, they also built a large skateboard ramp in the street infront of their house, and a car was permanently afixed to the street with flats. When we moved into a nicer neighborhood, that doesn't have a HOA, I can say that it's definately nicer to know that you have neighbors who care that their homes look nice, yards mowed, etc. Hearing all this, we would definately have to think about it hard before moving into a home with a HOA.

 

[Wolverine]

Yeah, there's good and bad with HOA's. Fortunately we have a good one - 49% Miss-Kravitz-Busybodies and 51% slackers. It's important to have a good representation of anti-busybodies to counteract the other.

It's a trade off - if you don't have a strong HOA, you can get a run down neighborhood in a few years. You can drive around my area and see which neighborhood enforces covenants and which does not. We had a guy buy a fire truck on Ebay and park it in his driveway, with intent to restore it. It was kind of cool at first - six months later, not so cute, and he was asked to move it along. My neighbor had a rat-infested, rust-bucket, 1973 topless convertible Gran Crapismo, at first parked on the grass, then to the driveway, and finally forced inside the garage. God bless the HOA.

My secret plan for taking over the world begins with taking over the HOA. I originally thought I would take over and LOWER dues just to be counter-revolutionary, until I saw how much needs doing and how little budget there is. Not much longer and I'll be fully assimilated into the machine :burgerking: , "lowering expense deficits" (raising dues) and "positive behavior reinforcing" (fining people for ugly paint). :17:

 

[Wolverine]

GCracker, your neighbor is sticking his HOA-F.U.Letters in your mailbox! Infiltrate and conquer your HOA!

 

[DVINNY]

GCracker, your neighbor is sticking his HOA-F.U.Letters in your mailbox! Infiltrate and conquer your HOA!

LMAO. Go stick em up his keester there Cracker!!!!!!!!

 

[GCracker]

That's his azz!! :burgerking:

Think I'll take a keg of homebrew to the next meeting and start acting friendly. The neighbors may have gotten the wrong impression of me when I was standing in the street at 2am in my boxers telling them to shut the hell up or I would deliver an ass whoopin to each and everyone out there! :17:

 

[singlespeed]

HOAs are supposed to be about protecting property value, but all too often are run by power hungry control freaks.

I drive an hour to work (36 miles), but I'm glad to be able to piss off my back porch when I get home if I want to. :thumbs: Our closest neighbor is 300 feet away lusone: . The only downside for me (some folks don't appreciate :17: the sweet smell of manure in the spring :burgerking: , barking dogs, skunks, etc.) is taking care of the 2 acres - it takes time & money. I can spend the whole day to mow, weedwhack, trim trees, etc..

 

[ktulu]

I can spend the whole day to mow, weedwhack, trim trees, etc..

Yeah, but that makes the beer taste all-the-more refreshing....

 

[Road Guy]

yeah I could handle that. My old neighborhood I had close to 2 acres (actually in a subdivsion) but man when a guy on a corner lot puts in an above ground swimming pool in whats essentially his front yard, its time for me to move. But I did use to piss off the back deck all the time. you could also shoot turkeys off my back porch they were so abundant.

One good thing that ours did is killed a planned "mega car wash" that a developer wanted to put next to our neighborhood. That would have been the beginning of a slow kiss of death to most of the area if they would have let them change the land use over to commercial from low desnisty residential.

Thanks to the fighting they did, it got killed at a board meeting. So they can do a few good things.

 

[FusionWhite]

To get to my development you have to drive through one neighborhood that was built about 25 years ago. Then you have to pass through another neighborhood built about 10 years ago. Then my neighborhood is about 3 years old. The houses go from looking run down to pretty average to decently nice. I wish our HOA could something about the houses when you first drive into the area. The houses in the older development (at the entrance) are starting to look pretty run down but they're out of the jurisdiction of the HOA.

 

[mizzoueng]

We're coming up to the one year mark in our place. I am planning on doing a bunch of work to the exterior of our house, extending driveway, landscaping, etc. So far none of the HOA people in the 'hood have come by. They seem to be pretty laid back. There is one nazi on my street though. Apparantly you cannot put signs next to the subdivision sign at the entrance unless you are selling your house.

If you do she will storm out of her house, after you leave of course, and pull it out of the ground and lay it down. I understand this somewhat, we get lawn and siding companies coming by and trying to put them up everywhere, so they get taken down. But they also took down my wifes garage sale sign.

Its also written the HOA that you cannot have a garage/yard sale anytime you want. You are supposed to wait until the 'hood wide one occurs. Last year we held one anyways, good way to meet neighbors and pay for all the furniture my wife made me buy.

We did have to watch an old man in our yard pick up his dogs crap. I've noticed some biscuits once in a while and we caught this old b-tard one morning. We were leaving and the dog just finished right in the middle of the front yard, he was getting ready to walk off until we backed out of the garage, we had to sit there in the street and stare him down until he walked over and picked it up. Then he looks at us like we killed his mother or something.

I do have some F-tards around me, but most are good people. I have made it known that if my neighbor does not keep his cat out of my yard that I will find a way to "get rid of it".

 

[MA_PE]

I wish our HOA could something about the houses when you first drive into the area. The houses in the older development (at the entrance) are starting to look pretty run down but they're out of the jurisdiction of the HOA.

Doesn't sound like anything some gas and matches can't cure. You'd be doing the poor dopes a favor.

 

[MA_PE]

That would have been the beginning of a slow kiss of death to most of the area if they would have let them change the land use over to commercial from low desnisty residential.

or a boon to property values and money in your pocket if it's a heavily traveled area and you weren't planning to stay there. Just presenting an alternate scenario.

 

[MetroRAFB]

I have made it known that if my neighbor does not keep his cat out of my yard that I will find a way to "get rid of it".

I suspect that you already know this, but go ahead and prepare to do the deed. Unless they lock the flea-hotel up somewhere it'll most certainly be back in your yard. My number one "pet" peeve is other people's animals roaming free in my yard. I despise cats with every fiber of my being, (after having owned one for 4 years) and any that is silly enough to wander into my yard is living on borrowed time. I don't currently own a dog but I am definitely a dog person. I don't like neighborhood dogs in my yard any more than I do cats, but I don't immediately shoot them on sight.

Before all you cat lovers start sending me hate mail, I already know that I'm an asshole as far as this issue is concerned. I would never go out of my way to hurt someone elses pet, unless it happens to be doing its nasty business in my yard where my kids play. I'm OK with being an asshole when it comes to cats.