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My Genius Home Owners' Association.


Alexia
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I received a letter yesterday from the HOA manager that starts with, "It has recently been brought to our attention that a non approved shed is being constructed at your residence." Ending with, "Please stop construction immediately [...]. If shed is constucted without approval it is subject to removal." Spelling and grammar errors verbatim which also includes his mistyped phone number preventing me from contacting him quickly.

 

I forwarded the email from the Architectural Review Committee(ARC) Manager with the approved application to the HOA Manager's email address. *Head Desk* I guess they do not talk to each other. This is the same HOA manager that threatened to fine my neighbor for having his trash can out on the curb on a trash pick up day for being not being a pick up day. Also the same HOA manager that said I have a "unlicensed illegal to operate on the road vehicle", referring to the Comanche, the same day I took the glamor shot of it.

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Unfortunately these positions are often filled by people who have nothing else going on in their lives and feel it is their destiny to be a petty tyrant in the enforcement of homeowner association covenants. They seldom, if ever, consult anyone else in the association prior to issuing one of their edicts from their throne (unless it may be some of their like-minded toadies who are convinced it is their responsibility to keep the "offenders" in line).

People like this are also the self-appointed traffic monitors who drive 2 MPH below the speed limit in the left lane to prevent speeding by others.

Self-important people with small minds.

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All the more reason I refuse to live any where with an HOA, I'm not going to be paying for my house and my property and then also be paying some other idiots to tell me what I can and can't do on my private property. HOA is one of the most useless things next to Obama.

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All the more reason I refuse to live any where with an HOA, I'm not going to be paying for my house and my property and then also be paying some other idiots to tell me what I can and can't do on my private property. HOA is one of the most useless things next to Obama.

 

I agree totally!

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Although I don't live like a 'redneck', I refuse to allow someone with (their) perceived authority tell me my garbage can must be brought in within two hours of garbage pickup (the standard for HOA's around here).

 

I'd rather live in the country....

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with all the times I've taken my local code enforcer to court, I can only imagine the fun I'd be having with a homes owners' @$$ociation. :rotf:

one of my favorite things about this new home in GA is the compete lack of caring about what your neighbor is doing on his acre.  :yes:   some places look like a car exploded in their yard.  others look like a tornado dumped a toys-r-us store on them.  the one up the road looks like they had a yard sale a few years ago and forgot to bring in their stuff. :dunno:   admittedly most houses in the sub look ok, but I find great happiness in knowing that no one is going to call the cops simply because of something stupid like an un-plated MJ sitting in the drive.

 

this is my acre, that is your acre.  semi-rural living at it's finest. :cheers:

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All the more reason I refuse to live any where with an HOA, I'm not going to be paying for my house and my property and then also be paying some other idiots to tell me what I can and can't do on my private property. HOA is one of the most useless things next to Obama.

Without being too pissy I feel that anyone who willingly subjects themselves to something like an HOA should not be too surprised at the petty tyrants that fill such positions in such groups.

Not much of a choice in Madison County, AL. Pretty much if you want to build any sort of housing development the county requires the builder to create an HOA for those houses. With more government and engineers moving here older homes get snatched up with a good bit of competition. My choices were either buy an older house far from work or buy a new house in a HOA community.

 

The HOA here is generally okay and the good news is the ARC Manager is the son of the neighbors that I hang out with all the time. So I have my foot in the door with stopping any shenanigans that may occur.

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Do you have a dog?

 

 

I would wrap some dog poop in hush at letter and put it on their door step.

 

 

 

Really, though, I bet that the person being a fool probably has major stuff wrong with his house.

The neighborhood lawn nazi with the immaculate lawn just leaves animal traps out with rat poison and cat food in them. She is not a nice person.

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Hard to believe that's legal  :hmm:

You get sh*t for your MJ and this person is purposely trying to kill animals, pets, priorities in that neighborhood seem to be skewed...

 

 

Do you have a dog?


I would wrap some dog poop in hush at letter and put it on their door step.



Really, though, I bet that the person being a fool probably has major stuff wrong with his house.


The neighborhood lawn nazi with the immaculate lawn just leaves animal traps out with rat poison and cat food in them. She is not a nice person.

 

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HOAs tend to be the rule in urban California.  Best thing you can do is read and understand the CC&Rs prior to buying a home with deed restrictions.  Once you are in the community, take an interest in your HOA by being a small part of it.  That way you will learn how they function and why they do some crazy stuff.  Professional HOA property managers tend to be very poorly paid because the home owners don't like paying the HOA fees, so you get poorly paid and over worked people sending out form letters to ask for compliance with the rules that Property Owners agreed to accept when they purchased the house.  Then the owners don't want to follow the rules they agreed to and somehow, it becomes the stupid HOA - rather than the owner who will not live up to what they agreed to do when they purchased the house.

 

In event of a dispute, the best thing is to talk to the board at a regular board meeting.  That will usually lead to a good resolution of the issue.

 

No, I am not an HOA property manager.  Just learned how to live with them since I purchased my first house in 1972.  6 months ago was the last time I got a violation letter.  Turned out the HOA was wrong and the problem went away when I pointed out they were wrong.

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Hard to believe that's legal  :hmm:

You get sh*t for your MJ and this person is purposely trying to kill animals, pets, priorities in that neighborhood seem to be skewed...

Of course it is illegal, but has to be proven. My neighbor sent her cat off to be autopsied and tested. :(

 

The HOA here is generally reasonable and usually only acts if something makes a complaint. The local lawn nazi has put in more complaints than the entire neighborhood plus all 18+ neighborhoods under the HOA management company combined. She previously came over to my lawn with a ruler to measure it.(She is now banned from my property for trespassing.)

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When we purchased a home, we were very clear with our realtor [whom is a friend] that we did not wish to be in a HOA.

 

It has its disadvantages, however, we enjoy not having to deal with:

 

-a perfectly manicured lawn [mowing 1x/week and is enough, thanks]

-unapproved shingle colors

-wrong kind of bushes or flowers out front

-no pickups parked in the driveway or on curb [i'm looking at you, HOA in Frisco, TX]

-incorrect color of binds/curtains in the front windows

-plus many many more!

 

I can deal with the neighbor's old Aerostar sitting in the street for a month at a time or an unmowed lawn; it's a small price to pay to avoid HOA headaches.

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It took the HOA Manager a while to get back to me because the ARC Manager filed the application in the wrong community's folder which caused the initial confusion. Whoops!

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Sounds like your ARC Manager could benefit from some of Randy's methods (he's the assistant trailer park supervisor on the Netflix Canadian series Trailer Park Boys) and not fall into the bad habits of Mr Lahey, who drinks like a fish and pesters the parks residents.

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I say all the north alabama/southern tn people have a get together at Alexia's place. we'll park all our dirty dented up rigs up and down the road and see what they think of that.

I am not against a get together at my place. I definitely have the space for it. :P

 

I bet the lawn nazi s#%t a brick when you were stripping that XJ down in the driveway.

I stripped it in the garage and then parked the cut up carcass in the drive way. I got a call immediately the next day and told the previous HOA manager at the time that a friend dumped it in my drive way as a prank. She believed me and the neighborhood scrap guy hauled it away soon after.

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We had a neighbor that thought she owned everyones house in the neighborhood . We don't have an HOA . She would put complaints in anyones mailbox of what she didn't approve of their house. Needless to say someone in the neighborhood put 50 pink flamingos in her yard one night and put a stop to her holier than thou attitude.

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We have no HOA.  just a 13 acre farm that is slowly but surely getting "city" moved around it.

 

Our neighbors out back all have million or more dollar homes.  there are 6 of them.

 

One is just a good 'ol boy who owns two restaurants.  He's no bother.

 

One is an elderly heart surgeon who is hardly ever home.   He will back a troublemaker, but doesn't really care.

 

One owns a body shop.   He will always take the path of least resistance.

 

One family was just a down to earth family who worked hard for their money...they want nothing to do with anyone else's problems.

 

One family's wife's dad owns a lawnmower company (building many many machines, of which some of you surely know.  I will leave unnamed for my purposes).   She has unlimited access to his money, the largest lawn compared to the others...and it is mowed 3 times a week.   She is trouble, but only in the air up in the nose sort of way (snooty).

 

The worst one is a doctor.   He MUST get his way.

 

 

A handful of years ago, tax reassessments happened.   They actually optioned us to rezone and modify our property lines, subdivide, etc.    We had those allowances in our deed as well.   Oh, btw, the realtor who sold us our property also sold all the neighbors theirs.   He also sold the property across the street on the front side of the property...it now shows us the back side of a WalMart.

 

Anyways, front half is now business.   Long and short of it, the doctor got all but the restaurant owner on the bandwagon to chance that...they don't want any more traffic on their road (they all live behind us on a dead end off-shoot), and don't want houses across the street.    Their deeds all say we can't do any of what the new assessments say we can, and contradict our deed...while contradicting each and every other deed.

 

They got the township to supersede the county assessments (not possible according to state statutes...no smaller branch may override a larger branch of government at the state and county level).    We sued, won.  What put it over the top was very, very simple.    We made the statement that, as we are zoned agricultural, we are perfectly within our rights to own a pig farm.

 

 

Some people want to have everything be butterflies and rainbows...or at least what amounts to that in their eyes.   Sometimes, though, you just need to take the gloves off.

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