HOA vs HOME MECHANIC

[AirJunky]

Read the rules. Our HOA says "no long term projects, ie; more than 3 days, in the front driveway or on the street".

There are no rules about projects in the back yard or in the garage. And if all I'm doing is changing the oil or a brake job, then I get it done & don't let it sit out 1/2 done for a week.

 

[Paul1956]

I wish my HOA would call me when I leave the garage
door open... happens occasionally on my way to work.

Now, if I happen to be working around the house or in
the garage with the door open... they can pound sand.

 

[Paul1956]

Read the rules. Our HOA says "no long term projects, ie; more than 3 days, in the front driveway or on the street".

There are no rules about projects in the back yard or in the garage. And if all I'm doing is changing the oil or a brake job, then I get it done & don't let it sit out 1/2 done for a week.

How are they to know it is a project unless it is obvious... up on jack stands
or something like that?

Drain oil
Take car off jack
Let sit in driveway for weeks

Is the HOA going to drop by and ask to inspect the oil level? LOL

 

[Gerald O]

Nice Buick!

Thanks!
More on it here: 1949 Super Sedanet Survivor

 

[AirJunky]

How are they to know it is a project unless it is obvious... up on jack stands
or something like that?

Drain oil
Take car off jack
Let sit in driveway for weeks

Is the HOA going to drop by and ask to inspect the oil level? LOL

The point of that particular rule is so that we don't have cars on jackstands/ramps, old blue tarps, no hood or 1/2 painted for days or weeks on end. A nearby neighborhood has this exact problem with several neighbors..... even the county has had to get involved there.

Our HOA is a waterfront community too with a big beach, boat ramp, docks, etc. So many of us have boats too. The rules apply there too. Boats have to be in good working condition, covered (no tarps), no long term projects. That rule actually limits the length of time we can park the boat in the front driveway to 3 weeks at a time. The point was that if your just pulling the boat so you can do some repairs, winterize/summerize the boat, avoid some weather or are just out of town for a while, then you can park in your own driveway (not in the street, which was a problem here). Off season the boats are to be parked in the garage, in the side or back yard behind a fence or off site. It was a compromise for everyone. But has kept the quality of neighbors & boats up so there hasn't been any issues.

Some of you guys are describing unrealistic, outrageous rules that I've never heard of, ie; can't leave your garage door open, can't park your daily driver in your own driveway, etc. Our HOA is definitely not like that. Many of us have boats, dirt bikes, & golf carts & work on them in our own garage/driveway. We can drive/ride them in the neighborhood on the way to the ramp, trails or golf course. But the rules are there so we don't have to see a bunch of trash sitting in someone's front yard.

 

[lat905]

HOA's vary a LOT. When I was buying, several of the developments I looked into had HOA's. I had the realtor get the bylaws for me before I made an offer on several places. They varied from "no junk and fence must be xyz, to you can't park a pickup anywhere inside the development, to all vehicles must be garaged at all times. Most of them were overly prohibitive in various ways, and I have a fundamental issue with being forced to join a group and pay dues on property I own.

So, I told the realtor to stop showing me anything with an HOA. Found my house, nice development, nice township with good ordinances (and enforcement) that keep people from making junkyards of their homes. No issues.

In this area probably 50-60% of developments have HOA's. The farther out you get from the larger towns the less you see HOA's.

 

[Gerald O]

I once owned a home in an HOA. Got a warning about my 27' express cruiser boat parked in the driveway ( I had a 100 foot long driveway). So I moved it back by 8 inches into the "side yard" to comply with the rules.

One day they came by and handed me a container of 'regulation gray' mailbox post paint and demanded that I repaint my mailbox post -- it had faded to an "unacceptable" shade of gray.

My poor brother lives in an HOA. He regularly gets threatened with lawsuits after some busybody measures a blade of grass longer than 6", spots a weed on the lawn, or a finds a spot of mildew on the mailbox post...

 

[DekeT]

I was working on my grandma's Astro van and tge HOA did not like that so I got into an argument with the HOA I hate the HOA does anybody have the same problem with the HOA

While you were ******* them off I called the grammar police too.

 

[AirJunky]

............. nice township with good ordinances (and enforcement) that keep people from making junkyards of their homes. No issues.
..

I've never heard of a "township" around here. Your either inside the city limits or outside of it, which is part of the county. The neighborhoods I described above is in the county. The county has rules about what you can & can't do, but they don't say anything about whether or not you can have a pink, beat up Gremlin in your yard on blocks with no wheels for the next year. They did have a problem with the pile of old barn wood the guy had been hoarding in the front yard.... said it was a fire hazard.

 

[iMarZ]

My experience with the one and only HOA home is that it was a nice neighborhood to raise kids. No crappy house, no loud music (except when the NFL DL that lived there had parties), and easy resale for a profit. My take HOA = $. Now I also have experienced a house where we owned 12 acres at the top of a small mountain that backed up to 17k wma land where you can't see a soul for miles and the neighbors bitched when I would target shoot.

It all depends on the neighbors and your relationship with them IMO.

 

[imok]

Bought a new house once in a hoa community. Every house had the same mailbox and post. After living there for 12 years I received a letter from the hoa telling me the mailbox was 2 inches too low, along with the specifications from the postal service, and that I had to correct the height. I put a piece of a 4x4 between the mailbox and the post arm and it was then within specifications. It no longer matched the others but the hoa never said another word about it.

 

[Trey T]

So did you violate the deed restriction or no? Did you read up on your deed restriction before you bought your home? Did they misinterpret the rule?

I once owned a home in an HOA. Got a warning about my 27' express cruiser boat parked in the driveway ( I had a 100 foot long driveway). So I moved it back by 8 inches into the "side yard" to comply with the rules.

One day they came by and handed me a container of 'regulation gray' mailbox post paint and demanded that I repaint my mailbox post -- it had faded to an "unacceptable" shade of gray.

My poor brother lives in an HOA. He regularly gets threatened with lawsuits after some busybody measures a blade of grass longer than 6", spots a weed on the lawn, or a finds a spot of mildew on the mailbox post...

 

[woodrail]

You know I got to wonder if this thread was started only to get people wound up? Kind of like someone yelling "Lebron *****" at the local bar just to get conversation started.....

 

[Jay Sco]

I wonder if this HOA allows PVC air lines.

 

[wildbill23c]

You know I got to wonder if this thread was started only to get people wound up? Kind of like someone yelling "Lebron *****" at the local bar just to get conversation started.....

Considering the OP has never been back here and responded to anything I have to say YES.

Regardless, I wouldn't live in a home that had an HOA. Those idiots steal money from people and have some pretty nonsense "rules" that only certain people have to follow, meaning those who have enough money for some reason get to do whatever they wish at their house, while those less fortunate get a bunch of nonsense thrown at them every time they turn around they can't do this or that. IMO, HOA's are nothing but a scam to grab money from homeowners. All the while the stuff that HOA money is supposed to go to is never done . Those HOA developments don't look any better than the non-HOA development across the street.

I'd rather see someone working on a car in their driveway any day. Even better if they have their kids out there working along side them.

Tell the HOA to go pound sand.

 

[AirJunky]

Considering the OP has never been back here and responded to anything I have to say YES.

Regardless, I wouldn't live in a home that had an HOA. Those idiots steal money from people and have some pretty nonsense "rules" that only certain people have to follow, meaning those who have enough money for some reason get to do whatever they wish at their house, while those less fortunate get a bunch of nonsense thrown at them every time they turn around they can't do this or that. IMO, HOA's are nothing but a scam to grab money from homeowners. All the while the stuff that HOA money is supposed to go to is never done . Those HOA developments don't look any better than the non-HOA development across the street.

I'd rather see someone working on a car in their driveway any day. Even better if they have their kids out there working along side them.

Tell the HOA to go pound sand.

Hahah, the HOA "steals" $25 from me every quarter. $100 a year. Times 53 owners. That money covers all the maintenance of 14 acres of green belt, a playground, forest & a 300' x 100' beach & boat ramp. Absolute nonsense, isn't it?!

 

[rice rocket]

My experience with the one and only HOA home is that it was a nice neighborhood to raise kids. No crappy house, no loud music (except when the NFL DL that lived there had parties), and easy resale for a profit.

I don't know where you're all making comparisons to/from, but there's a happy medium here that you'll find in most middle class areas, people are usually good neighbors and respect each other and their own property. If you move to a low income area, then yes, you'll have rundown houses, loud music, etc. But you won't find an HOA in low income areas either. HOAs do nothing to affect the "profit" you stand to gain from the sale of your home, if anything HOAs and fees are just another fee a homeowner has to consider coming out of their budget, however small it might be.

You can get good citizenship by doing your research and moving into the right neighborhood or you can "force" it with HOAs, I prefer the former as it seems to provide less pissed off people in the end.

 

[BC1]

Will there ever be an end to people bitching about this? You get a copy of your CC&R's before you buy the house. You read and sign it before you buy the house. You know what you can't do and the consequences for screwing up. Pretty fricken simple.
HOA's are good for property value and sanity if you have stupid neighbors. I would never live in a densely housed neighborhood without an HOA. I would love 30 acres too, but in San Diego that would mean I'm a multi-millionaire.

 

[rice rocket]

Ok. That's fine.
now grandma lets the meth head grandson move in with her to "give him a new start because he's such a good boy" and he brings friends. There goes not the neighborhood but your specific, crack wafting in to your three year olds bedroom window, neighbor.

Yeah, so your HOA has no methhead and friends of methhead clauses in it?

C'mon dude, be realistic.


At least without overarching rules and such, you can spot when someone's life is falling apart. When you mandate that everything looks to same to preserve some "greater good", how are you supposed to identify which house to dodge bullets from?

 

[AirJunky]

Recently we had some new folks move into our neighborhood. They have 3 Subarus, 3 pickup trucks & a flatbed trailer. Their garage is full of other things, and the driveway will only hold 2 cars. Plus the community mailbox is in front of the house. The mailman was having problems trying to deliver to those 16 mailboxes since there was always a car in front of it. He stopped by there a couple times & asked that they leave him room to drive up to & away from the mailbox. Of course they were put off about it & smart mouthed to him. So he just stopped delivering to those mailboxes altogether. No laws broken. But of course there were some pissed off neighbors who wanted to do something, some of it resembling a lynch mob. A letter from the HOA is all it took.

 

[rice rocket]

Realistic is the hoa can clean them out.
try to draw an experience that would satisfy you from my meth head story. Make it a pig farm or a horse slaughter. The meth head wasn't the point. Maybe the car on blocks in the driveway...maybe the flop house for illegal immigrants...maybe the cesspool....

Realistic is you or your neighbors call the cops and they bust them. The HOA isn't law enforcement, they're not even rent-a-cop.

There are no pig farms that spontaneously appear. They are no horses that are just slaughtered randomly in the middle of the day in residential neighborhoods. Cars on blocks doesn't affect my quality of life. No one runs a flop house out of suburban middle class neighborhoods.

One of the biggest problems with a conversation on this forum is no one can adjust a provided situation to fit the argument.

Or not being realistic. The majority of us will never come across any of these situations. Don't even bother to hit reply, I can already guess what you'll type, it will be "but it does happen, look at all the people that have posted about it on this very forum!"

What is realistic though, is a note + fine on your front door because you violated some rule that you knew about, but forgot because it has no consequence in real life. And the added stress and shortened life you get as a result from locking horns with your HOA over ridiculousness.

 

[rv245]

Hahah, the HOA "steals" $25 from me every quarter. $100 a year. Times 53 owners. That money covers all the maintenance of 14 acres of green belt, a playground, forest & a 300' x 100' beach & boat ramp. Absolute nonsense, isn't it?!

It is isn't it.........

We bought a cottage last year in northern MI on a lake. The HOA if you can can it that is $75 a year. It covers snow plowing the road and trash pick up, along with a key to the access to the lake. Problem here is a lot of people are maybe 1, twice a year or never come to their place people, as a result many have not paid HOA in years. They recently got a lawyer ad now can put a lien on the house/lot for unpayed HOA. Doesn't bother me a bit as the money could be use for other improvements. This year they cemented the access road to the lake. HOA's are all different and have there place, everyone just needs to check it out beforehand.

 

[rv245]

Recently we had some new folks move into our neighborhood. They have 3 Subarus, 3 pickup trucks & a flatbed trailer. Their garage is full of other things, and the driveway will only hold 2 cars. Plus the community mailbox is in front of the house. The mailman was having problems trying to deliver to those 16 mailboxes since there was always a car in front of it. He stopped by there a couple times & asked that they leave him room to drive up to & away from the mailbox. Of course they were put off about it & smart mouthed to him. So he just stopped delivering to those mailboxes altogether. No laws broken. But of course there were some pissed off neighbors who wanted to do something, some of it resembling a lynch mob. A letter from the HOA is all it took.

The postal employee if they wanted to be a dink could of call the police and have the vehicle towed.

 

[DekeT]

What would you call that group?

I would call it the ever vigilant ducks.

 

[Casey69]

like anything, hoa's are fine in moderation. mine has no restrictions on having open garage doors. but most have restrictions on working on a cars for >48 hours outside, no chain-link fences, no obnoxious paint/roof colors, no trailers/rv's/boats/junk cars parked outside, etc. it's not a hassle for me & i generally think there are more upsides than downsides to having a modest set of covenants.

a buddy of mine moved into a development with very restrictive covenants. can't have garage doors open unless you need to & can't park outside unless you have a newer car. it *****, but he knew the rules going in & can't complain now.

 

[Danver]

Seems to be a lot of people here who are overly concerned with what other people have in their yards.

Just like it is easy to say "If you don't like an HOA then don't live where there is one" it is just as easy to say "If you don't like the way my yard looks then don't look at it."

You don't want my place lowering your property value? Guess what, I don't want your carbon-copy house with the perfect yard with every blade of grass cut just right and nothing out of place raising the values in the neighborhood so I end up paying more taxes. Instead of bitching you should be thanking me for keeping your taxes lower.

 

[Steevo]

I am thinking of starting an HOA, with one rule:
EDGE YOUR ******* LAWNS!! All of my neighbors let their damn grass grow all over the sidewalk, don't kill weeds in their driveways, or in the sidewalk cracks, and generally have yards that LOOK LIKE ****!!
None of them apparently have any pride at all in their homes.

 

[lat905]

I've never heard of a "township" around here. Your either inside the city limits or outside of it, which is part of the county. The neighborhoods I described above is in the county. The county has rules about what you can & can't do, but they don't say anything about whether or not you can have a pink, beat up Gremlin in your yard on blocks with no wheels for the next year. They did have a problem with the pile of old barn wood the guy had been hoarding in the front yard.... said it was a fire hazard.

The area I live in is a lot of "unincorporated" small towns, 1-2 square miles in area. The towns have no government individually. We are organized under a township, which is the local government over the group of small towns.
For instance, I live in the town of Mount Royal, which is in East Greenwich Township. The township is my local government, but is not limited to the city limits of my town. I think there are 7 or 8 small towns in the township. Same thing as having a city government, just the small towns are really too small to be on their own around here. Its a pretty typical arrangement in Southern NJ.

So I pay my local taxes and receive services from the township, instead of the city.

The township does have ordinances on how your yard has to be kept, about non-operable vehicles, when you can put trash out, etc. I'm also in a fairly nice upper middle class area, where its just too expensive for riff-raff, so that helps.

 

[PelicanPines]

I live in a harbor town on the Jersey Shore. I am about 1000 feet from a golf development with a HOA. They don't allow boats at all. Garbage cans must be kept INSIDE the garage and don't even think you can do ANY work on your own car unless its INSIDE the garage.

Every mailbox looks exactly the same... one family changed the red flag thing on the side of theirs with a fish flag designed for mailboxes. It was gone and replaced by the HOA within a month.

My sister lives in one. She fits right in... nuff said.

 

[AirJunky]

The postal employee if they wanted to be a dink could of call the police and have the vehicle towed.

Actually, I looked it up. And unless the road is marked, the post office doesn't have any legal recourse other than to not deliver the mail. So pressure from the neighbors is really about the only reason they have to not park by the mailbox.

The stupid thing is the fact that they bought a place that doesn't have enough parking for their own family.

 

[AirJunky]

The postal employee if they wanted to be a dink could of call the police and have the vehicle towed.

Actually, I looked it up. And unless the road is marked, the post office doesn't have any legal recourse other than to not deliver the mail. So pressure from the neighbors is really about the only reason they have to not park by the mailbox.

The stupid thing is the fact that they bought a place that doesn't have enough parking for their own family.

 

[Virgil Cain]

HOA'S are for snobs, and just freaking stupid..I paid for my house. I'll be damned if you're going to tell me what I will and will not do to or on my own property. (Minus of course actual laws such as oh well say murder)

The only authority that the HOA has is the authority to enforce the covenants that you as a home owners signed when you purchased the property. If you signed up to it, you must live up to it, unless your word means nothing to you I suppose. If you don't agree with the covenants, don't sign them and move someplace else.

I don't love HOAs, but I really have no patience with someone that will sign a contract (which is what a covenant is) and not live up to it.

 

[sammerdog]

...we had some new folks move into our neighborhood. They have 3 Subarus...

Lesbians are hot. Post some pics.

 

[gearhead1]

I looked up HOA on google and it showed me this:

ROFL, now that's hilarious, funniest thing I've seen in a while! As a car guy, I definitely have no use for them. But then again, I don't want neighbors, so no problem. Darn funny though....

 

[xtremek]

Back when I lived in a HOA, I dropped and shaved my truck. During that time period, a friend from work dropped by and I fixed a small electrical issue for him. A week later, while still in the middle of the shaving, a cop dropped by and said someone had reported that I was running a shop out of my house. I had a good laugh and showed him what I was doing. We chatted and he left. Right now the Old Mule (my 8n tractor) and my late uncle's truck are sitting in the yard, waiting for me to finish working on the yard and Saturn. No one's saying boo. Eventually I'll get my lean-to put up, then no one will see anything, but for now things have to sit outside.

 

[grifter679]

im not a fan of HOAs mostly because in the inflated real estate market of San Francisco. The going rates for most HOAs are $650-$800 per month. My cousin and I purchased our properties at the same time, my house was valued 100k higher than his however with his HOAs his monthly payments are about $800 higher than mine. After three years at $800 a month he hasnt seen a signle thing done with his HOA fees.

 

[CJM8515]

I find this all laughable, it seems there are people who like HOA and there are those who dont. Those who love them (Im not gonna name names, but give us all a break we can read between the lines here) keep claiming in what like the 5th thread here in the last month that HOA are great they dont like neighbors who arent up to their standards blah blah. WE GET IT, YOU DONT LIKE IT.

I live in a newer manufactured development. There are literally 4 different types of homes you could choose when they were building and each lot is approx 1.5-2 acres. Almost every is from new york city (staten island mostly) and it shows. They all have decent looking homes, all park outside (garage is full of junk), all are landscaped and nothing looks to shabby really. We have run the gambit of professions and styles here, there is no HOA. There is no issue with anyone having a bad looking house, course we do not have any crack/meth or whatever houses. I dont care if my neighbors house looks bad, so long as the entire house isnt overgrown and the lawn isnt a foot high. Dont care if they got a regular mailbox or they want to have a giant golf ball mailbox.

I always work on stuff at my house, I live in a township and we have no problems with any of the ordinances EXCEPT: someone who drew up the rules and regs doesnt like offroad vehicles and they somehow snuck in that you had to have 3 acres and couldnt ride it 50ft from the property line of the road.This is an issue b/c kids have these types of toys and the town has designated all woodlands not built upon as preserved land and you cant do anything with it (infact they fenced it in in a few spots or marked it no trespassing???!!!!) Otherwise so long as your grass isnt a foot high and your home isnt falling apart they dont care what you do.

Im always outside fixing, repair or working on something. I dont care if my lawn has weeds, I dont trim the bushes 2-3x a year, my lawn is 6 inches high and I dont care if there are clumps in it when I mow it. Your allowed by town ordinance to work from 7am till 11pm every day of the week.

HOWEVER we have this one idiot who thinks we have a HOA and he is the king of it for life. Never have I seen the police, fire marshall, FD and code enforcement called until this schmuck moved in. Where is said schmuck from.. NYC and even better manhattan. He is a wallstreet type, pays for everything and too boot is a drunk. He actually called the police b/c I was mowing the lawn on sunday at 12pm and it was bothering him, his response to them as to why he called and why I cant mow my own "well how come he cant be like alot of the other neighbors and pay someone to mow during the week??" he called so much they dont come out anymore and I think they threatened to arrest him if he called for bs again.

People like that guy are how HOA get started and how they become corrupt bs. Im sorry but I prefer to live in the middle of nowhere on 20 acres but hey that didnt happen right now. But I dont care what tom, **** or harry does so long as the property doesnt look like they are running a meth lab or have garbage strewn about or rotting chassis on the lawn/driveway. I dont care if they have a purple front door and I dont care if they want to paint the house pink.

If things like that bother you-then you NEED to live in a HOA community. Where everyone has no individuality and everything must be uniform.

 

[slip knot]

I'm truly blessed. When I think of HOA I immediately think "hand-off-auto" Nosey neighbors never even came up.

 

[wildbill23c]

Hahah, the HOA "steals" $25 from me every quarter. $100 a year. Times 53 owners. That money covers all the maintenance of 14 acres of green belt, a playground, forest & a 300' x 100' beach & boat ramp. Absolute nonsense, isn't it?!

That's cheap, talk to those who's HOA's are more than their house payment. They are charging you to maintain their own grounds .

 

[JMcFly]

Thankfully my HOA is cool with cars being worked on in driveways but probably because we have tow homes and the driveways aren't seen. I had my car on Jack stands for a few days with the tires in and no one complained, I'm regularly out there working on a car. We had a jeep on jack stands with no tires for a day while my room mate got them switched out. But once we buy a house we will not have an HOA because I'm buying up all of the cars that I want and plan on hoarding parts in old refrigerated shipping containers(those are the best since they are sealed tightly)