Hoa

Thats right, HOA... Home Owners Association.

Read an article on yahoo news this morning that I found quite funny.

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog...outwitted-petty-HOA-over-playo?urn=nhl-wp4283

Until I got to Canada I had only ever heard of this kind of thing in movies or eps of X-Files. These HOA's, I understand the idea behind it but some of them are just so incredibly lame. I would be an HOA's worst nightmare, not because I like having junk cars or pink plastic flamigo's in my garden because I don't. But you know what, if I lived in one of these HOA areas I probably would.
It just baffles me how people can be so incredibly bored and have such meaningless lives that they feel the need to report things and take pictures as in the story above.
I understand the idea of keeping your nieghbourhood looking nice, I'm all for it, but there's a limit.
My old boss lives in such an area, his house is beautiful, his yard immaculate, he's got 2 girls both under the age of 10, so he bought a swimming pool, one of those above ground blue ones and placed it in his back garden, out of sight, the only people who could see it would be visitors to his house and his imediate nieghbours. He was ordered to take it down because "it's not in keeping with the nieghbourhood asthetics"
I'm sorry but he owns his house, he built it and has 100% ownership of it, surely if he wnts a pool then he can have one.... yes, according to the HOA he can, but it must be an in-ground pool of a certain size in a certain position.

Is it me or does anyone else find this all very pathetic, keep your property clean and tidy, fine..... but if you want to put a swimming pool up or and sports sign while your team is playing then it's your right to do so is it not?........ aparently not.

These streets that are perfect are weird if you ask me, I've driven down a few where there's intense HOA and personally I think it looks like a bunch of lunatics live there, every garden, driveway and house look almost exact, lawns measure exact length of grass, colours all co-ordinating, curtains drawn to exact spec.... sorry but when it's that strict it doesn't look pretty...... it looks creepy.
These people need to get hobbies or jobs or something.

Sad lonely lives, I feel sorry for them in some ways, they obviously have something wrong with them.

My street looks nice, people often say so, you know what makes it look nice?...... it's respectable and clean but obviously lived in and loved by it's inhabitants.

Rant over.

 

I live in one of these HOAs and have just had a run in with them.

We live in an exclusive block of 20 apartments and there is a syndicate that looks after the building, there are 6 ground floor apartments (mine is one of them) we have gardens at the back and front, in the rules it dictates that the hedges around the garden can only be a certain height and the exterior must not be changed ( gazebo's, painting, color of the curtains as seen from outside and so on) in the beginning when they were new and very expensive (2 years ago) they said that they all must have grass at the front but we had that changed as i am an invalid i needed a hard surface so they relented, now i have just received a letter saying that my satellite has to be removed (it stands on the ground) my reply was rather curt in saying if they wanted it removed then they must pay for a cable service for the TV to be installed and the monthly charge.
I am waiting to hear the reply.

Most of the residents are very friendly but you always get one that has to make live difficult.

 

And there it is, I feel for you Bill. I'm telling you, throw up a plastic Flamingo in your garden, they'll soon forget your satelite dish :-D

 

The development that was built on what used to be our property (placing my house on a corner rather than a dead end surrounded by woods) has an HOA. They quite regularly complain and take pictures of our yard, and we take great pleasure in explaining that their rules don't mean jack here.

For some people, it's a godsend. Those are the same people who purposely send their children to schools with uniforms and who vote straight party ticket. Me, I can't help thinking of the Stepford Wives.

 

Oh man you must have some fun with that, if I were you I'd be reporting them for harrassment or invasion of privacy or some such...... just to wind them up :-D

 

I'm gonna play a little devils advocate here.

If you move into or buy a new house where you sign a contract in which you declare to uphold the wishes of the HOA and keep within the asthetics of the street what do you have to complain about? Doesn't following these rules keep the value of the properties high which is beneficial to everyone including yourself? And with the property values being high you always have the option to move to a messy street without a HOA?

I agree though the curtain twitchers are A-holes but I guess its one of those things where you have to vigilant or the street soon begins to slide.If you work hard keeping your house and garden in order then the Jone's put 3 old FIAT hub caps on the front lawn like I've had for a couple of months that it must be frustrating.:-D

I'm not here for an argument or even dicussion,just putting an alternative view across.

 

I agree. If you buy a house with a HOA, read the rules. If you don't like them, don't buy the house. I will agree that a lot of the rules are BS in my opinion, but, read what you sign...

 

Absolutely agreed...if you buy into one, then you either know what you're getting into or you're an idiot for not reading. But sometimes a neighbourhood will vote one in where there didn't used to be one. I would be VERY cross if I had bought a house and then later got outvoted on having a HOA. What then...sell the house I obviously wanted enough to buy and live in and try to find another one? What if I can't sell it?

 

Hmm, now that is an interesting topic. Can they do that? I would think if you own the land and are not in a HOA, they could not force it on you. But I am not a lawyer, so don't know. But if I were in that situation, said HOA would be spending a lot of time in court.

 

Dear TimW.

We noticed your gallows on your front yard, and we would like to draw your attention to the HOA ban on hangings. Please be so kind as to remove it, or we gonna go 'gangsta' on you.

Sincerely,

Your Caring HOA.

:-D

 

I'm sure you can have gallows as long as they're an integral part of your alarm and security system :-D

 

I can have whatever I want in my garden and leave those hub caps alone wrawwwwhhhh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awIu7bX2NuU

 

I totally agree Rikky we all want the prices to remain high and this is a unique setting for apartments as we have no other building within 500 yards of us.
My only gripe is that when we first moved in there were only 3 apartments sold and it was almost a year before full occupancy, it was only then that a meeting was held with all the owners and the rules laid out at which time my satellite had been installed for some 5 months and nothing was said at the time.
Now i could quite easily have TV from my ISP at a good price but i would loose about 30% of the channels i now have (not that i use them all but it's nice to have them) and gain nothing in quality.

I agree that standards should be set and held but petty complaints do nothing to engender good neighbors.

 

OK Rikky, all my garden gnomes are secured with locks. :-D

 

That's why next time, when I buy a house, I'm either moving to the country where there isn't one, or put a big fat X through the middle of the page that talks about HOA. I mean, money is going to be wired at that point and they aren't going to let a home sale get nicked due to the HOA.

 

Never fancied you for a gnome person Fred,I'd imagine if you owned any gnomes they'd have all took a trip with you to the range:-D

 

That too:-D

 

Don't have any actually. Don't have a garden either. Would love to find a range where shooting gnomes and active targets was allowed... :-D All they let you shoot at the ranges around here is paper.

 

I went shooting clay pigeons 'skeets' with shotguns a few weeks ago,really fun had a gun time

I shot about 50 rounds from an under over 12 gauge,did pretty good but its a lot harder than it looks.