Yep. I. Am. Cynthia.

🤭😁

Funny! I have found they vary greatly. Our current neighborhood HOA doesn't seem to do squat, however, our previous neighborhood had a rep that would patrol monthly and send letters notifying of infractions and fines if items weren't fixed within thirty days.

Happily, do not live in one here. We have a voluntary neighborhood association. Of course that means if someone has Christmas lights up now, there’s really nothing you can do, but I’ve learned to let that pass. I painted our storage shed purple a few years back because I could, lol. The City is actually pretty good with code enforcement for too-tall grass, cars parked on the front lawn, etc. Our neighborhood has gone up in property value, and that has taken care of many nuisance issues by new homeowners.

One cannot buy into a new community of homes in my area without being contractually bound to an HOA. There are good and not so good aspects, as with most organizations. One thing we really appreciate about ours is that a portion of our annual dues goes towards weekly lawn care for each of the 40 or so homes here. We don't even own a lawn mower anymore.

We have architectural restrictions in both our neighborhoods (e.g. minimum square footage and no front-facing garage or siding on the front of houses) but no traditional HOA thank the lord! I would not do well in an HOA neighborhood b/c I think HOA boards generally tend to be made up of a bunch of busy-bodies (of course there are exceptions, but as a general rule, those who want to take on that kind of role usually have a specific type of personality that I chafe against).

Fortunately, the houses in both our neighborhoods are on very large lots (5 acres or more) so we can all live with peaceful separation but enjoy talking to each other when we go on walks. I think that makes a big difference, as if you're living in close quarters there needs to be more policing of behavior.

Our neighbors are absolutely amazing, though! Our PA neighborhood was basically developed by this family who bought the grounds of this huge old historic hotel and carved out some lots. One of the members of the family lives in the neighborhood and is developing all these new trails through the wooded area. We half-jokingly mentioned that we wanted a sign named after our beagles and I got a card from him that said "Sign made, good hunting" so we got to go on a scavenger hunt through the woods and lo and behold

No, no HOA here although I can see some good points about them. Our township has many rules and regulations but it’s impossible to enforce all of them. I think that only happens when someone makes a complaint. I had to complain about new neighbors on the next street . A portion of their property fronts on my street and they were using it like a back alley, leaving trash cans out all the time. I used our Report It app and the township checked it out and sent them a letter.

I’d love to have fewer barking dogs, basketball hoops on stands, that sort of thing. An HOA might mean that I’d not have to complain, although I can see in Ida’s case where that didn’t work. One neighbor just painted her house brown and lime green. It’s hideous but I don’t care. I’m sure an HOA would not allow that.

Early in our marriage when we were looking for a house to buy, our realtor steered us toward established neighborhoods instead of new builds so we knew the "look" of the area we were buying into. "You can't zone taste..." she said.

Well-run HOAs certainly serve a valuable purpose in helping to ensure property values. Ours is not active--we don't even pay into it. But fortunately, all of our neighbors take care of their homes, landscaping, etc.

Big sigh... HOA's. I have lots of stories but I won't bore you all with them.

Unfortunately we are in HOA's at both of our homes. In California, we wanted to extend our patio to the edge of the sidewalk(giving us an additional 2 feet) similar to what our neighbors did. Nope... our current president "did extensive research" and discovered that our property line actually ends at the drip line and wouldn't let us extend because that is common area. Doesn't matter that nobody would ever walk there or notice. They also made us completely re-paint a stucco wall when the small patch we did didn't match exactly the rest of the faded wall.

At our small rural lake community, there are really no rules regarding property. But our dues go towards maintaining the lake water quality, our lake beach and roads. For years, we had a very nice guy who selflessly worked on the board as president, treasurer and all around would do anything that needed to get done. We were all so grateful that the rest of us didn't have to do anything that we named our little park after him after he passed away. Then we discovered that he had embezzled almost 200K from the community. It's taken 2 years to get the books straightened out.

We could have afforded an HOA residence in Palm Springs, but we chose a house in neighboring Cathedral City in order to avoid the HOA. All of the HOA residences we saw in Palm Springs had grass lawns, and I wanted desert landscaping instead. Palm Springs is five minutes away and therefore still convenient for when we want to go there.

@Beagles - that sign is so cute, and so is the puppy.

Ya, I saw that on TV and laughed my head off. We have had homes in three HOAs - all very different - mostly good but a few troublesome situations. The thing I have really liked about our HOAs is that they facilitate communication and getting to know neighbors - directory, social activities, etc. Most of the time we've lived on a large, private lot where you don't run into your neighbors. We also have no kids and I think a lot of people get to know their neighbors through their kids. So the HOAs have been nice in that respect.

Our lake cabin is in an HOA of ten homes but it really only exists because the road is privately owned and maintained by the homeowners. We all know each other and get along and the HOA is no problem. It was actually helpful because we could ask to talk to the HOA president before we bought the property and we got a good idea of what kind of neighbors we'd have.

Our current primary residence is in a full blown HOA - actually one for our street of 30 villas and a master association for the overall development of about 800 homes. I'm on the board of the master association only because I attended an annual meeting when my neighbor was president and because he had done so much work and such a great job I volunteered when no one else would. That HOA just deals with the common areas which are minimal so it's not too bad. There is a management company and frankly, how well things are managed and maintained is almost entirely dependent on the caliber of the board which is quite good right now.

The HOA for our street is the more intrusive type especially since it is responsible for the exterior of our homes along with landscape and snow removal. We've been in this one for five years and it cycles up and down in terms of being problematic. We had major storm damage a few years ago and that was a bit of a nightmare. Unfortunately my husband got himself hornswoggled onto the board early on and ended up dealing with the repair process. He received insulting and threatening emails from one nutcase and we were literally looking at other homes so we could move out of the 'hood. We finally decided we like it here other than a couple obnoxious fools and that things would be fine once he got off the board and that is the case.

Our last house was in a pretty unusual HOA where all the land in the city was privately owned including the roads. So the HOA was responsible for all the roads, parks, trails, etc. The city did not handle any of that. There was also the usual architectural committee, etc. That situation wasn't bad at all until one goofball board decided they wanted to spend several million dollars to build a community center. Fortunately the homeowners voted that down. They ended up building one later for over a million with no vote because they deemed it maintenance - replacing an older structure.

We have one here in our Florida home. I am extremely disappointed in the pettiness and downright nastiness of some of our neighbors. Shocking.

We are in a gated community with about 15 developments. They are all very different. Some are villas, some town homes, ours in a stand alone ranch.

The community has preserves, winding paths around lakes and a boardwalk out to the gulf. I bought here because of the huge old big trees and vegetation.

Similar to Ida, we had to involve lawyers, one for us personally, the second for a neighbor who was being bullied. When we took his side, that was when the line was drawn and we were now on the sh*t list. We won both times.

A saving grace is that for the most part, I never felt a connection to any of these neighbors. I want to be a good neighbor, just not friends. Up north, I’m used to my privacy.

I would like my husband to be on the board as it is very corrupt. DH is very knowledgeable about the workings of things and would be an asset.

And, he wouldn’t be vindictive and catty.

Done with rant!

We’ve been lucky. We are involved with a few HOAs that cover rental properties that we own. The rules are strict enough to keep the neighborhoods nice and property values up.

Our primary home is in a small city, not in a HOA, but with a strong zoning code enforcement team. Like every community there seems to always be at least one person who complains. A young neighbor family had a Code warning because the neighborhood complainer reported them for having set up (Front yard under a shade tree) a playhouse for their kids to use during the early stay at home order was issued. The code guy even apologized as he was handing them the notice.

We have a HOA where each board member is responsible for managing one of the community assets, with a committee of homeowners to help. We've done a good job of keeping dues down to a reasonable level, and property values have also kept up, although the property values may have more to do with the location.

Neighbors, for the most part, are very neighborly. One person saw that his newspapers had been picked up while he was on vacation. He was most appreciative to know that there wasn't a pile to indicate that no one was at home. However, the next day, when he went to pick up his morning paper, he saw that the helpful neighbor was a fox, who had been bringing the papers back to her kits. Even the wildlife in our neighborhood is educated.

Great story, Suero. Czarina, wow I am surprised that there was not some sort of check in place to be sure that didn’t happen. Hope you took his name off the park.

I own a primary house in NY (not in an HOA, just has deed restrictions which are almost unenforceable b/c there is no HOA), and then bought a vacation home in a beach town where nearly everything is in an HOA.

I think everyone above has covered most of the positives and negatives.

The "problem" with HOAs is that they are full of people. Ha ha.

So any time you're getting into an arrangement with people...some people you will like, some people will annoy the carp out of you. :)

The houses in HOAs in the beach town are much more nicely maintained than the ones which aren't subject to an HOA. I take pride in my homes so I like that part.

I read all the rules and regulations before we bought the beach house. I think some of them are dumb. However....because I try to not be a PITA, I follow the rules I agreed to rather than complain about them.

A lot of the HOA angst is about dealing with people who aren't following the rules. Which frankly, is a lot of the same problems with life in general.....

I have never lived in an HOA community. I do not ever expect to do so. I much prefer living in a neighborhood with all kinds of houses, landscaping, and neighbors who don't complain about much of anything. I did have a yard sign that someone who lives down the road in an HOA community complained to the city about a while back. The inspector came out and said, no problem. A few weeks later, he was back again and said this time the person complained about the length of time it was up. Our small city has a time limit rule about "political signs" that is for election periods. Despite the fact that my sign was not that sort, I removed it. After all that is going on these days, it is back up, but closer to the house. They can fine me if he complains again. It is staying.

Just the thought of someone complaining about that sign pisses me off.

Know that if you are in an HOA, you do not have to depend upon the HOA officials to enforce the restrictive covenants. Everyone is equally bound contractually, and whether or not the HOA opts to do its enforcement duties, you can seek legal remedy to compel offending homeowners to comply with the CCRs. It will cost you attorney fees, but your costs may be recoverable. I'm not advocating litigation, but just pointing out that individual homeowners have enforcement rights. I may have kinda, sorta known this to an extent, but our recent situation in hiring counsel to bring about swift resolution of an egregious violation really drove home the point to me.

Why is there always that one neighbor who is self-centered and bull-headed? Our house is located in an area with a non-working, no-dues HOA. I sometimes wish it was active because we have one neighbor who has planted trees that shed lots of debris on the sidewalks and road which he doesn't clean up and who won't trim his trees so they end up impeding people's views. There's no point in talking to him; he just ignores you. There's no view protection ordinance unfortunately. So we all just live with it and wish he would move.

However, when I lived in a neighborhood with a strong and active HOA, I found it to be overly restrictive. I was always getting notices about a bush that needed trimming or a fence that needed painting or garbage bins that were visible from the street, all temporary situations that I would have taken care of in a relatively short time, but man, those notices would hit my mail box within a day.

Then, these horrible neighbors moved in who played loud music into the wee hours of the night, revved their motorcycles at all hours and smoked so much marijuana that you couldn't even step out onto your balcony without getting high from the smoke (slight exaggeration). Guess what? Not only could the HOA do nothing about the situation, neither would the police. I was ill at the time and didn't have the energy to start a legal battle. Luckily, I was able to move after about a year of h*ll.

So, I'm pretty ambivalent about HOAs. I agree that their effectiveness depends heavily on the make-up of the board. If the board has the right priorities and strong management skills, then the community is well-run. If the board is a bunch of petty-minded folks with no business skills, then you end up with problems.

We have never lived within an HOA, and to be honest, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't want to. We've always lived more rural, although we are now in what I guess you would call a neighborhood. We do have restrictions, but enforceable, I think, only through court. I honestly don't know of anyone ever having trouble with the restrictions or going to court. We built here about 25 years ago and have no plans to leave.

I saw that commercial for the first time a few days ago lol.

I didn’t want to live in an HOA but here I am. I thought it would be horrible but it’s not at all. In some ways I think the advantage is that our HOA rules are reasonable and I knew what I was getting into. In non- HOA’s down here there is always a self appointed person or two who thinks they are the rules dictators. Those environments are horrible because of the unknown element . It’s a slow creep.

Anyway, there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Of course there are pros and cons with and without.

We lived in a non-HOA community for 32 years. It was new when we all moved in and everything looked nice. But over the years, some neighbors did not maintain their yards, some planted all kinds of stuff with no rhyme or reason, a few left their trash and recycling bins by the curb all week, and one neighbor had a camper in their driveway for 25 years only taking it out for about three or four weekend trips in all that time. We considered moving a few times but it never worked out.

We now live in an HOA community. I think some of the rules are ridiculous and man, you should see the bickering on the community forum, but I am happy to not have the issues we had before. HOA’s can be effective in keeping things well-maintained and preserving property values.

I live in a development that has an hoa. Although sometimes it can be extreme most of the time I am happy with the services they provide. They take care of tree trimming, grass cutting, snow removal, mulching and lots of other things. We are responsible completely for our homes but they do a good job keeping the community looking well cared for. Single family homes, condos, apartments, duplexes, quads are all maintained and sell quickly when up for sale. We have a beautiful clubhouse, swimming pools, tennis courts etc and just recently over 55 and over 65 apartments have been added along with a bakery, restaurants, nail salon, hair salon. I really love where I live so I guess Im willing to deal with the hoa.

No HOAs in my town, but our zoning laws are relatively strict and there is plenty of social pressure if a homeowner totally abandoned the upkeep of their house. Overgrown yards aren't tolerated due to tree rats that would quickly take over and cause a health problem.

We own some land in an HOA subdivision that we might build on in the future. We hadn't owned the lot long when we got a warning letter about keeping it mowed and getting a fine. A friendly letter first would have been nice!

Recently some of the neighbors have been doing construction and we found out their builders were "abusing" our lot and using it as a parking lot, dumping trash and building materials. Where was the HOA then? They complained about grass that was a few inches too long, but other people can just put ruts all over the lot with no consequences? I made some calls and the HOA president went out that day and had a talk with the builders. If the neighbors had asked to use our lot, we most likely would have been fine with it. My biggest fear was that we would later get a complaint letter from the HOA saying that our lot was an eyesore and I wanted to make sure that the guilty parties were on notice and that there was a record of the damage. Welcome to the neighborhood!

We lived in one in Florida and spent the subsequent seventeen years living on enough acreage not to have any visible neighbors except wildlife. in our married life we’ve lived in an institutionally owned apartment building in NYC and in single family neighborhoods in towns and suburbs. We’re now back in a HOA community.

Lots of opinions here about HOAs from people who apparently do not now and never have lived in a community governed by one. All I can say is don’t knock it til you try it.

I don't like HOAs for the same reason I don't like tour groups. I don't want my experience to be dominated by random personalities (as a poster said above, the only problem w HOAs is people!). Moreover, I don't want decisions that can impact property values to be out of my control. When we looked at FL real estate, so many were in HOAs, including some HOAs that were spectacular failures, with amenities cut and rules bent. Even the successful ones I didn't care for; they looked more like sets than neighborhoods, and often had a distinctive style that would date the entire development in x years.

In concept, and especially where zoning or enforcement is weak, I understand the value of HOAs. That tends not to be the issue in the NY metro. I just would not want to tether myself to an HOA if I could avoid it, more downside than upside IMHO. Our lake house was part of an HOA. Our neighbor had ATVs, which were not allowed, but I don't even know who we would complain to. As a practical matter, an HOA should do the complaining for you, so you personally don't create friction. But they too rarely do that.

Where we live in CT, you cannot see any neighbors from anywhere on the property save the driveways. But our first house was only on a half acre, and our beachhouse is far less private and on <2 acres iirc. Luckily, the only real neighbor problem I recall is the ATV people. And I do think it's luck!

Mtn, HOAs are a relatively new thing I think, yes? So since they're newish, and they're generally started by developers making communities out of vacant land, every community definitely ends up having its own look. I agree with your point about that.

I think Florida in particular has had some spectacular HOA financial failures, largely driven by the real estate crisis and foreclosures which hit that state very hard.

All things being equal, I would probably prefer not having an HOA. But life isn't equal. In my beach town, I couldn't afford to have the amenities my HOA provides the community. Tennis courts, pool w/clubhouse, etc. Land is just too expensive for me to be able to afford enough space for those things. If money is no object, many things are possible. :)

We toured probably 20 communities or so before we bought. Some houses had a definite look which is overwrought (IMO, obviously) and I don't think will age well. I didn't even look inside homes there. However homes are selling like hotcakes there so lots of folks like them.

We narrowed the search down to communities with a "look" that we liked, and then I started reviewing HOA documents and talked to the president of every one under serious consideration. We made our final choice carefully and it's been a wonderful home for us. I love it there.

What chaps my hide are the folks who buy in an HOA and then do nothing but complain and not follow the rules which were there for all to see before they bought. Which takes me back to my first point above - the problems with HOAs is that they're full of people. :)

Homebuyers must sign a contract agreeing to be bound by the terms that the HOA has established. There's zero excuse for not following the prescribed rules, and only a fool can say they didn't know what they were getting into. I too don't get why a tiny minority so often seem to think that the terms THEY AGREED TO don't apply to them. Mind boggling.

Ida, it’s like tenants who don’t follow the terms of their lease. Mind boggling is right.

I think the other thing that happens is, if you don't have a rigid enforcement, the rules become moot. So by not doing anything about the ATVs, you make it impossible to enforce the rule the next time someone gets an ATV. But if you personally have to make a stink, you make an enemy. It's so often a lose-lose

What chaps my hide are the folks who buy in an HOA and then do nothing but complain and not follow the rules which were there for all to see before they bought. Which takes me back to my first point above - the problems with HOAs is that they're full of people. :)

This gets my goat as well! There was a bit of hullabaloo over trucks a while ago. In my HOA trucks are not allowed to park in the driveway or street overnight. If it’s too big for your garage you can’t have it. A half a handful of residents decided they wanted trucks one day so caused a big fuss over the forty year rule. To me the issue isn’t about whether trucks are better or worse than soccer mom vans. It’s not even about how tall trucks wouldn’t fit in our standard garages. My beef is that there are thousands of other places to live. Why buy here and then want to change everything to your whim?

What Mt. said. We don't want to be told what we can and can't do (down to what flowers to plant, etc.) with our own property. Sorry if I sound like I'm throwing off on the HOAs. If that's what you want,that's great. I know it is a good option for some. Privacy has always been big with us. We have some good people living near us, but thankfully we all have our space and privacy. We don't want to live in a subdivision, so I can't imagine an HOA. Ammenities such as community pool, club house, etc. are not something we are interested in. I'll take my mountain view, a pond, etc. any day! We want to take care of our own property (even though sometimes it's a pain). I realize that at some point, we might not be able to handle all our own upkeep, but we would rather pay someone to handle these things when/if needed than pay a monthly fee. I'm just saying, HOAs are not for every one.

Ya we had considerable trouble with people who moved in from single family, non-HOA homes who either didn’t read the rules before they purchased their home or perhaps thought they could be ignored or changed if they made a big enough stink. And it is the board who has to deal with these obnoxious neighbors - not a pleasant situation. We are pretty easy going and not that fussy about yard/landscaping as long as we don’t have to do the work. We have plenty of outdoor work to keep us busy at our lake cabin.

We unwittingly bought our current home in an HOA five years ago. We went to the closing, signed all the papers, and then the seller pushed the covenants document across the table to us and said "here's everything you need to know about living in this neighborhood." What??? The realtor has no idea.

HOAs aren't super common in this area but they're common enough that we had been avoiding them as we searched for a new home. No way did I want to live in one. There was nothing in the listing about an HOA and we naively didn't ask.

Fortunately, our HOA basically has no teeth due to the way it was set up in the 90's, so it's pretty lax. There are certain rules like you cannot install an above ground pool, park any vehicle on a street overnight (our roads are narrow, curvy and hilly), add a shed to your yard, and such. There has been nothing we can't live with.

Bluebell brings up an interesting point. With school at home, playgrounds closed, and camps questionable, a lot of people around here have bought above-ground pools and play sets, only to find that their HOA or town rules require a permit, control placement, or forbid altogether. And they find out after installation!