Townhome covenants, conditions and restrictions (CCRs) typically mandate the HOA to provide some level of maintenance, typically limited to exterior surfaces of the home and some landscaping. HOA exterior maintenance covers the exterior of buildings owned by the HOA, such as the community clubhouse, fitness center, and common elements within a condo community. The governing documents are vague about what exterior maintenance is, but it is generally defined as preserving and fixing building exteriors and structural components, including the condo exterior.
The difference between a single-family residence HOA and a condo or townhome HOA is that condo or townhome owners are responsible for their unit inside a building. HOA fees typically cover these fees, but in general, if it’s inside your condo or townhome or on your single-family property, it’s solely your responsibility. If it’s used by everyone, it’s the HOA’s responsibility. Both unit owners and the HOA are responsible for maintaining and repairing private entryways and garages, including keeping entryways clean and ensuring garage doors work properly.
The HOA handles the maintenance of shared common areas and the overall building structure. Limited common areas are the shared responsibility of the HOA. It is part of maintenance and HOA repair responsibilities to maintain the exteriors and structures of all common buildings and components, including the community’s exterior walls, roofs, and sidings, except for those that fall under separate interests.
In addition to maintenance upon the common area, the Association may provide exterior maintenance upon lots, such as painting, repair, and replacing. Restrictive covenants state that the HOA is responsible for exterior maintenance and the HO is responsible for interior.
📹 HOA denies entry to homeowner, lawyer says that is against Florida law
A Boca Raton man says he has been denied access to a property he bought at Woodbine Apartment Homes in Riviera Beach.
What are you not responsible for in a condo?
Condo owners are typically not responsible for maintaining the exterior of their building, including landscaping, walkways, and parking areas. However, in climates where snow removal is needed, the Condo Association handles this. The fees paid by condo owners fund the maintenance and upkeep of the community’s common areas. The COA is responsible for limited exterior items like HVAC units and attached patios, balconies, or decks.
Unit owners are responsible for everything inside the condo. In private units, the owner is generally responsible for most maintenance, which may require calling a plumber. Maintenance jobs may vary, but condo owners must handle several maintenance jobs.
Is HOA responsible for balcony repairs in California?
The Davis-Stirling Act, signed into law by Governor Newsom on August 30, 2019, includes two new statutes. Civil Code section 5551 mandates associations to inspect balconies and other exterior structural elements they have an obligation to maintain. Civil Code section 5986 invalidates developer-friendly provisions in governing documents that require homeowner votes before filing a construction defect lawsuit.
From January 1, 2020, associations with buildings with three or more units must inspect elevated load-bearing structures supported substantially by wood. The inspector must submit a report to the board detailing the physical condition and remaining useful life of the structures and their waterproofing systems. The statute does not alter who is responsible for maintaining, repairing, or replacing balconies or other elevated structures.
Dry rot is a misnomer, as wood does not rot when it’s dry. For decay to occur, moisture must be present before fungi can feed on the wood. The Davis-Stirling Act requires a thorough inspection of waterproofing components such as flashings, membranes, coatings, and sealants.
What does HOA cover for townhouse in Florida?
Townhouse communities typically have common areas like pools, tennis courts, and golf courses, which are maintained by a Home Owners Association (HOA). HOA fees cover maintenance of the home’s exterior, including lawn care and roof repairs. They also cover city services like trash removal, water, and sewerage. HOAs often offer insurance to cover damage to the building due to weather events or unforeseeable circumstances, and monthly pest control services to prevent potential infestations.
HND Realty LLC, with over thirty years of experience in residential and commercial real estate, can provide HOA management services to locals. Contact them at 615-297-7711 to learn more about their HOA management services.
Is HOA responsible for balcony repairs in Florida?
Each residential unit is equipped with a patio or balcony, the exclusive use of which is reserved for the respective unit owner. The owner is held responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the balcony, including the wiring, electric outlets, lighting fixtures, and screening.
What are the responsibilities of the HOA in California plumbing?
In California, HOAs are typically responsible for shared pipes, including main water and sewage lines connecting multiple units. However, if these lines are shared among a few residents, costs may need to be split between households. Lines going to or from a single building may be the responsibility of residents. Additionally, HOAs are responsible for issues caused by their negligence, such as not directing water away from a building, which can damage the insides of homes.
What repairs are Hoa responsible for in California?
An HOA is a community management unit responsible for maintaining common areas and amenities, while unit owners are responsible for interior repairs. Governing documents provide comprehensive regulations for uniform enforcement. Communication and mediation are crucial for resolving conflicts between unit owners and HOAs while preserving property values. To join an HOA board, one must understand its responsibilities, qualifications, roles, and best practices. By understanding these responsibilities, residents can avoid confusion and frustration related to maintenance and repair matters.
What repairs are Hoa responsible for in Florida?
The HOA typically manages maintenance and repair of security measures like gate systems and security cameras. Board members also maintain fire alarms, clear escape routes, and check fire extinguishers. Damage due to negligence, particularly structural issues and instances of negligence, can shift based on the nature and cause of the damage. The HOA bears responsibility for integral and structural components like foundations and support beams, ensuring the building’s structural integrity.
Who is responsible for repair of water pipes in condo California?
Understanding the distinction between individual units and limited common elements is crucial for maintaining a well-maintained plumbing system in a condo community. Owners typically handle issues within their units, but some aspects may serve multiple units. Individual owners are generally responsible for maintenance and repair costs associated with plumbing issues, including addressing potential water damage caused by problems like burst pipes or backed-up sewer pipes. Preventive maintenance is essential to avoid plumbing problems, and owners should proactively address common issues like clogged drain pipes, appliance leaks, and pipe bursts.
The condo association typically assumes responsibility for common areas, main sewer lines, and shared plumbing systems, with maintenance fees paid by individual owners contributing to these costs. Understanding insurance coverage is essential for repair costs for plumbing-related damages, and the responsibility may be shared between individual owners and the association depending on the cause of the damage.
Governing documents provide a clear legal framework for condo plumbing responsibility, outlining the rights and obligations of individual owners and the association. However, gray areas may arise, and seeking legal advice, especially from professionals like Calabrese Law Associates, can provide clarification and resolution in specific situations.
Open communication with the condo association, adherence to best practices, and seeking legal advice are essential components of navigating condo plumbing responsibility. Being well-informed and proactive is critical to maintaining a healthy plumbing system within a condo community.
What is the new balcony law in California?
The Balcony Inspection Law, California Senate Bill SB721, mandates the evaluation of balconies, stairways, and similar structures in multifamily buildings with three or more units inspected by January 1, 2025. Building owners must engage an engineer, architect, or other qualified provider to assess a portion of Exterior Elevated Elements (EEE) to identify immediate threats and recommend actions. Specific timelines for reporting, permitting, and repair apply.
Partner, a specialized team of architects, contractors, technicians, and engineers, has performed balcony inspections on thousands of apartments since 2019. They provide accurate EEE counts, pre-assessments for capital planning, full compliance inspections, repair cost estimates, guidance on permit and design requirements, and support to meet compliance deadlines. Partner offers standard and custom balcony inspection packages, working on single sites or portfolios throughout California.
Is Hoa responsible for balcony repairs in California?
The Davis-Stirling Act, signed into law by Governor Newsom on August 30, 2019, includes two new statutes. Civil Code section 5551 mandates associations to inspect balconies and other exterior structural elements they have an obligation to maintain. Civil Code section 5986 invalidates developer-friendly provisions in governing documents that require homeowner votes before filing a construction defect lawsuit.
From January 1, 2020, associations with buildings with three or more units must inspect elevated load-bearing structures supported substantially by wood. The inspector must submit a report to the board detailing the physical condition and remaining useful life of the structures and their waterproofing systems. The statute does not alter who is responsible for maintaining, repairing, or replacing balconies or other elevated structures.
Dry rot is a misnomer, as wood does not rot when it’s dry. For decay to occur, moisture must be present before fungi can feed on the wood. The Davis-Stirling Act requires a thorough inspection of waterproofing components such as flashings, membranes, coatings, and sealants.
Who is responsible for maintaining a balcony?
The building owner or management company is responsible for the structure, with apartment owners sharing the cost of repairs through the service charge. If your lease includes all the balcony, you may be liable for all the repair costs, even if you don’t have the necessary rights over other properties. When buying an apartment, your solicitor should check the landlord’s rights, such as the right to take back a roof terrace if they want to redevelop the building.
All necessary consents are in place, and any addition to a property should comply with planning and building regulations to avoid local authority requirements. If the feature is well established, you may consider enforcement action or insure against this risk. In some cases, you may be able to apply for a certificate of lawfulness to regularize the situation.
📹 Homeowners Associations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
John Oliver discusses homeowners associations, the surprising power they have, and how to tell if a tree is “tree-shaped.
I lived in a house just outside an HOA controlled tract. Nothing but trouble. They tried to get me to pay dues and join. Started sending me notices to paint my shingled board house, change the color of my roof etc. I was clearly out side of their fenced off area. The more they demanded the more I laughed at them, the madder they got. Little people pretending they were important. The only road out went right by my house. I would make it a point to wave at them all the time. With a big smile and waving my middle finger at them. Life is good.
My home. My property. PERIOD! Unless you are paying my bills, you have zero say in my life. When I was shopping for a house, the FIRST thing I told the Realtor was ” No HOA Neighborhoods”. Full stop. The very first house she took us to was in an HOA Neighborhood. Dropped her like a hot rock and found someone who actually listened to what I had to say.
I have lived in my house for over forty years. About five years ago a home owners association was started in my neighborhood. I refused to join. A lot of pressure was put on me to join but I lived here for years without anyone telling me how high my grass can be or where I can put my trash cans. And I didn’t need anyone to tell me that. So I stuck to my guns. Now, many of my neighbors regret joining the HOA and tell me the smartest thing I did was refusing to join. HOAs are unconstitutional. No one can tell you what to do on you own property.
We brought a house in 2005 (Texas) and there are just over 100 homes here. No pool or common areas, but there WAS an HOA till we disbanded it about late 2007, A petition was signed with over 67 percent in favor. When the developer turned control of the board over to the people, all our nominated/elected officers were already in favor of disbanning. We all voted to disband and we fired the managment company. The unexpecting manager from the company (at the meeting) was so surprised she was nearly in tears.
Had this happen to me. HOA board refused to do repairs on my property that they were responsible for or approve work I wanted to do unless I paid the previous owner’s overdue HOA fees. They stopped when we finally made them realize what they were doing was illegal. But initially, they were condescending and insulting to our realtor who helped us buy the property. There should be state mandated classes someone has to attend if they are on an HOA board. This would save a lot of folks from harassment and HOA members a lot of money paid for unnecessary lawsuits.
i got screwed when moving into an HOA property at the end of the winter season/early spring. They sent me a surcharge for snow removal for the entire winter, but it hadn’t snowed after I moved in. I will still on the hook for the bill since it was part of the HOA agreement, I would have thought about this during closing time had I lived in an HOA community before (but i wasn’t even aware of surcharges like this). Just wanted to mention to others. The snow removal company are experts at running up the bill, they hang out for 2 days straight after even a moderate snow fall. The job should take them no more than 6 hours, but they are billing at least 5 times that amount. I am sure the HOA members or Property Management company are getting kick backs from the snow removal company (or they are relatives/connected on some level), but it is difficult to find proof on something like this. I would never live in an HOA community again. It is actually cheaper to own a home and hire a landscape company to do my lawn and the snow removal, then having to pay monthly HOA dues plus the surcharge.
As a retired association manager I am never surprised at some of the antics of some HOA wannabe dictators. The sad truth is, the people most qualified to preside over an HOA usually won’t ever want the job and it falls to those most ambitious and least qualified to responsibly exercise the authority.
This is why I will never purchase a home with an HOA these days. When HOA’s were first formed, it was for the upkeep of the neighborhood. Now, they act as tyrants. When these restrictive HOA’s purchase my home, pay the taxes and all other expenses, then I will abide. Also, whatever happened to suing the former owner as they signed an agreement to pay and then defaulted. To hold these charges against a new owner is ludicrous!
The more I watch these types of articles about HoA. The more I am left wondering why the hell anyone would willingly subject themselves to living like this. Biggest purchase most people will ever make, and you want to let Karen and Keith tell you what you can and can’t do with it. F that. If I want to paint my house bright pink I’m going to paint it bright pink. If I want to go out of town on vacation for a few weeks last thing I want to worry about is Karen coming by and giving me a fine for my lawn being an inch to tall. So someone who is willingly living in a nazi hoa please explain why you would subject yourself to that?
Hoas are ridiculous sometimes. I had an ex her mom moved into an HOA spot in San Antonio. When we would come visit our car would stick out of the driveway a bit (couldnt park on the street, imagine). Then they saw we had a ping pong table in the garage, they said it was only for cars (the owner was an ex olympic level pingpong player she loved playing even in her 50s was very good) nope it had to be inside. The las straw was they dodnt let them put a shed in the backyard when every neighbor had one saying they were put in before the rules were ammended and every shed was ‘grandfathered in’.. ended up selling and taking a hit on the house just to get away from that nonesense. Kids couldnt even put basketball nets on the street OR driveways. It was so stupid.
I have always refused to consider purchasing property that is part of a HOA. I was once offered a super sweet price on a home, well below market value. It was part of a HOA. No way would I proceed with my walk-through. I later learned the sellers had been embroiled in lawsuits against the HOA. They won but no longer felt safe, HOA members were using cameras to insure areas inside courtyard walls (not otherwise visible unless recording devices on selfie sticks or via the interior of the home), met street-view guidelines. The actions of the HOA negatively impacted everyone’s property values.
They never expect you to get lawyers. My previous landlord thought he would get away with not giving us our deposit. When I cited the law saying he has to now pay us double the deposit because it had been more than 30 days after our move out date- actually 3 months later-…… he magically mailed us a check. Dated it for weeks earlier to try to avoid paying us double. Luckily he’s stupid and usps stamped it with the date they got it (he’s actually super dumb for that because it’s literally a 5 minute drive from our apartment we rented from him and he could have dropped it off to avoid that lmao) and I’m smart enough to record me opening the envelope with the check in it. Emailed him the article of me opening the check and wrote “you have 30 days to give us the money we’re entitled to or we get a lawyer.”
HOA’s are there to protect property values, to ensure no one has a dumpster-fire neighbor. But like any situation where you give one group of people more power than another group, it always, ALWAYS turns into a headache and a nightmare, and it always seems to me to be way more aggravating than it is ever worth.
HOA’s days are numbered. Like most things, greed, power and corruption have completely disintegrated what they were supposed to be and, ask any realtor, people are fed up. My guys nephew just bought a house, but fired his first realtor for intentionally only showing him homes that were HOA and not disclosing it until he showed interest. So right after he got a new realtor, his first stipulation was NO HOA, and he told him that most people make that request.
HOA’s are a joke. They’ve always have been. HOA’s are like school bullies. You have to give them your lunch money if you want them to leave you alone. When I was looking to buy a house, the realtor showed me a few great houses, but as soon as she mentioned they were part of an HOA community I told F-No. Not interested. Show me houses without HOA bullies. I literally said “No HOA bullies”. Bought my house over 30 years ago and to this day I’m damn proud not to be part of a HOA community. I still hear friends tell me about their HOA problems they’re having today. On the inside I just smile & laugh. Don’t me wrong, I feel bad for my friends.
Ridiculous. Any debt from a previous homeowner must be settled when the home is sold. Typically, there is even a lien to ensure that outstanding balances are paid. The lawyer involved in the sale should have pulled an invoice of all outstanding balances from the HOA for the property to ensure they were settled at the time of sale.
You need to litigate against the HOA and all board members. Typically the HOA’s limits of liability are low. Additionally, sue each HOA board members . If they have not notified their insurance carrier(s) they have no coverage under their primary Home Owners policy and any excess Liability ( umbrella) policies. Watch how fast they respond. This also applies to coop Boards in apartment houses very common in the North East states.
HOA’s are horrible with their rules. I ran the swim pool for one and I’ll never do it again. They had me strong arm owners who wouldn’t pay their fines by denying access to the pool. That wasn’t my job. So, at the end of the summer I left that job and worked elsewhere. If you decide to live in an HOA you better understand the rules and follow them. Some people like the structure. I would never live in one.
I used to own a home in an development with an HOA. I ran for and was elected to the board PRECISELY to avoid having this type of crap take place. Yes, there are rules that all members must follow, and yes, you want compliance with the rules. But you don’t have to be an a$$hole about it. It almost always works out so much better when you work with the members about the issue and allow them to come into compliance in a friendly manner. They are your neighbors after all. Heavy handed tactics are always and only the absolute last resort.
HOA lien is wiped out at the foreclosure auction because the lien is after the mortgage that was in default. I bought a condo in Huntington Beach that had a $7,000 HOA lien after the loan that foreclosed. HOA tried to get me to pay it until I told them they are going to need a good lawyer to collect. Their lawyer gave them a valuable and expensive education.
In our HOA, our snow removal personnel were paid $58.00 an hour in 2022-2023 . For 2023-2024 it rose to $70.00 an hour. In the next board meeting we Zoomed. Our Project Manager explained that it was just “inflation”. One board member said ” that is not inflation, that is rape”. He was quickly stifled by the Chairman. This was two months ago & we are still waiting for the recorded minutes that will most likely be edited. They have that much power, they have that much legal right. I was told by this Chairman that this was never said. I asked the board member who spoke up, if he did say this & he laughed & said ” well I say a lot of things”. I am lost in a Twilight Zone movie. Looking forward to the next Homeowners meeting. I will ask again…….! NEVER GET INVOLVED WITH AN HOA !
The hoa should have a lien on the home when it was transferred/sold to the home owner. The hoa is a fault for not collecting what was owed from the last home owner. It would be like a hospital bed. The last patient died and could not pay the bill but the new patient had to pay the bill of the previous patient in order to use the hospital bed.
I had the same problem with an HOA in Florida After 25 years about a fence that was installed by a company was approved in 1996 by the original HOA and was Approved and inspected by the City then the the Original HOA sold the Contract to a Different Company and That’s when all the Trouble started happening The New HOA said My Fence was in Violation of there covenants and they started to Fine me $250 a day until i replace the Fence and bring it up to there code then they send my Court papers they were going to sell my house to collect i had to pay a lawyer to help i won after i spend $4,000 to get them of my back and sell my home so i could get the Hell out of there my house was paid for bought some land in Geneva Fl. and a Home,RV and a Boat but the Best thing is !!! NO FREAKING HOA!!!…I’m good but when thru a Nightmare took me 2 years to get them off my back and sell my home.
I once camped in a small travel trailer in a gated community and it was awful. Really bad. They had something that was like an HOA but not quite. It was an RV park. It all began with a clothes line. They had a strict, and I mean STRICT no clothes line. I got violation letters of a clothesline that was my shore power cord providing electricity to the trailer. Yes, a power cord for your RV was considered as a “clothes line”. They said that it was a “tripping hazard” for squirrels. I promptly pulled up stakes and said, “Adios.” I got very lucky because, I could do that. Later, I found out that someone else had problems and they refused to let an innocent RV in to access their own trailer and that RV owner had to call the police. They had to call the fire department to come and open the gate. Some people even went as far as to smash the gate in with their cars due to all of this madness. Abuse from authorities like this never stays secret for long. Now, this was before internet was widespread, this was before access to critical information about this was so easily obtained like it is now, this was before Yelp became a thing so, people were wide open to something like this happening. They would never get away with bull crap like this now days. Now with internet, yelp, Facebook, and stuff…they pull that kind of bull crap, even once, and they’re screwed. Because, the victim of this madness will put it on Facebook and tell his friends, nieces, nephews, and stuff and that BS would spread like a wild fire.
The more I learn about HOA, the more I realize what a nuisance this organization is. Never seen a good report on HOA. It seems it is people who did not settle their personal problems and are vengeful to a certain extent. Their knowledge is limited. Worse, when they go to court, they take money from the owners and don’t pay anything from their own pockets, and their assistance in pursuing when they know they lost. She should take their own money than I would say matters would be settled rapidly.
AlienLife 7754. Where do you get the idea that an HOA is UNCONSTITUTIONAL??? An HOA is formed VOLUNTARILY. If you buy a property in an HOA, you join VOLUNTARILY. …in other words, you are free to buy a property in a non-HOA area. If you buy into an active HOA, yes, it is compulsory to follow the rules (one cannot opt out). When acquiring a property in an HOA community, you (the new buyer) must follow the HOA rules. If yopu don’t want an HOA, buy elsewhere. BTW, HOA’s are designed to protect property values and to set design standards, prevent ppl from devaluing the area by poor or no maintenance, etc. Yes, there are HOA’s and HOA mgmt that are way over the top. If that’s the case, run for the Board and change the culture. …no one likes ppl that live their lives getting into your biz, but one cannot complain that all HOA’s and/or HOA Boards are all the same. They simply are NOT!!!
As the man (Gen 1:26-28) KJV, a husband (Gen 2:21-25) and a father (Gen 3:16), the minister of God (Rom 13), teacher (Eph 4) and one of the survivors who was bullied in school, I had never heard of HOA until recently and have read nothing but horror stories about it charging homeowners fees, turning everyone’s place of peace into an absolute daytime nightmare. I personally would never purchase a house where I have to continuously deal with Freddy Krueger while I am awake. Man likes peace.
So I lost a potential buyer, Workers who I’m assuming were on the clock were unable to do their job. You may be owed money from someone else (and maybe that should have been a stipulation during the auction) but the new owner has paid money and is losing other money due to your illegal action. Just wondering who owes who here.
HOA’s tend to suffer from the delusion that they are actual governments and have far more legal powers than they actually do. In this case, if the previous owner owed the HOA money, then it’s up to the HOA to hire a lawyer and sue the previous owner (assuming that they can find them). The current owner does not own them fees from before he bought the property. Nor are HOA fees considered to be “taxes” under the law, so a large part of the legal recourse employed by actual local governments against people who owe taxes does not apply to HOAs who are owed fees.
HOAs would not have liked me had I had to relocate to the USA a few years ago. Nothing to do with unkempt gardens or mad paint colours, I’d just tell them straight up I have no intention of joining and invite them to go forth and multiply. If you’re not in one when you move in, then they should leave you be! All of them should be voluntary. If you want maintained common areas then agree to chip into a maintenance contract, band together and do it yourselves (yeah, right) or agree with the local council to get it done for a small tax hike. No need for all these HOA Hitlers marching around dictating maximum shrub unruliness.
HOA f***ed up by not getting a lien on the property before the sale. i am currently shopping for my retirement home in the smokey mtns. i have seen several nice properties that have HOA. RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY. don’t people realize having a HOA lowers property values? i am going to pay cash for my home, so why would i buy one that comes with monthly payments?
It is illegal for anyone to obstruct entry into your home and in fact it is crime for which you can go to jail. You also have the right to force your way into your home. The only exceptions as noted in this report or in the event of a public safety emergency which obviously do not apply. If someone blocks entry into a home you own you have the right to remove the barriers up to and including destroying them. This included gates and drop down barriers etc. So this means you can crash a gate to get to your property if it is illegally blocking you though the easier and less complicated way is to simply call the police.
Property “flippers.” Suck. I hope nothing but the greatest of struggles. The way we see value is so nonsensical. The only reason “flipping” is so popular is because people are dumb and easy to fool. $10,000 and two weeks work suddenly sees 40-50k “added ‘value’” I put value in extra quotations as air quotes.
The good news that HOA can be sued for discrimination against disabled people and other people of other types including races, religions,gender,etc meaning ADA and other anti-discrimination laws can stop HOA,PETA,and others from forcing people based on what I mentioned to do things people don’t like doing.if they did,then they could land in hot water meaning they had to pay money,remember PETA and HOA can’t take what’s yours away because they do wrong things
Just as bad, if not worse than an HOA, under whose hob nailed boot I will never live, are Neighborhood Associations. These people tried to force me to pay dues, trying to claim they didn’t need a contract because they weren’t an HOA. When I had my windows updated, they tried to tell the crew to stop because they didn’t allow vinyl windows. Needless to say I wasn’t liked by these wannabe tyrants very much.
If people were suddenly forced to pay bills from previous owners or tenants…everyone in the country would be screwed. That is just about the DUMBEST thing I have heard an HOA doing….and I’ve heard a lot of dumb things HOA’s do. A new owner has NOTHING to do with the previous owner’s accounts or debts.
Tell me about it. I’m thinking of defending my neighbors & start a Small Claim with the county court!Something has got to be done with some HOAs! They are acting like the Mafia. They team up with lawyers to slapped penalties on homeowners disregarding their own errors that end up being 1000% from the original fees! Then, regardless of any appeal process, they slap a lien on your property, and have a list of buyers so they can make a fortune! States & Counties need to tighten up their leashes.
HOA’s and Property Managers across our nation are run by ignorant and unprofessional ex-McDonald’s employees. HOAs, like stupid cops, have too much power and their little brains can’t handle it. I say, sue these scumbags. Any money owed by the previous owner follows them. After a Short Sale or Foreclosure the HOA should have made a claim against the Bank for that money owed. The Escrow Company would have been scheduled to pay that money at Closing. The Bank would have raised the Asking Price of the home by that amount. The HOA had to know the house was Bank-Owned and For-Sale. When the Bank accepted the offer from these buyers, the HOA would have had to Sign an HOA Disclosure Form prior to Closing.
I understand the surface appeal to a HOA, but AT WHAT COST??? “My lords, I pledge not only myself, but my entire family to your will, & promise to pay my your fees until, not only my death, but so long as any of my family lives on this land. Just, please, promise me my neighbors will never put up pink flamingoes in their yard.”
Regular Karens with no power are bad enough, but HOA Karens with power are way more dangerous. First thing you can do is install security camaras, petition all your neighbors to replace the entire HOA board of members, put caring and fair neighbors on the HOA board, if that doesn’t work, hire a lawyer to look into the HOA “rules” and local laws to make sure no HOA “rule” supersedes law, because in the United States of America no contract can supersede law! Plus, if any Karen from the HOA steps on your property after you have told them they have no permission to come on your property you can have them arrested every time they do so!
HOAs should be illegal. You’re forced to sign up if you want to live in that area. This has gotten out of control. I live in a neighborhood with an HOA. When we were looking for a house, every neighborhood we could afford had an HOA. That’s not really a choice, for people who say, “Well just live in a neighborhood without an HOA.” I live in Austin, TX, by the way.
This is why I will NEVER buy a home that has an HOA in charge of the properties. I will be damned if I’m going to buy a house with my hard earned $ and have a stranger tell me what color my home can be outside or what certain colors I can paint my front door. They even tell you what landscaping you can have out front. Talk about control freaks! Then you suppose to smile when you pay your $300 a month in dues.. yeah, no thanks! Besides the monthly due payment, that doesn’t include your mortgage & insurance payment! It’s insane!
Unless it’s somehow lawfully written into the deed itself, once a home in a HOA area is sold to a new tenant who never agreed to comply with the last owners HOA contract, no HOA can claim authority over a distinct property that is superior to any property rights the most recent owner possesses. The only way that can happen is for the HOA itself to buy the property, and then just lease it to a tenant. While homestead ownership commands many obligations, it also confirms many rights. Home ownership authority trumps any presumed HOA authority to control a privately owned homestead property not specifically surrendered by any current owner. As it seems to be practiced, HOAs are private community governments that can neutralize the national civil rights of any HOA lease claimant. As it is practiced, a HOA corporation is more powerful than any local civilian authority. A HOA can presume such authority that it is the default REAL owner of all HOA identified properties, and any other alleged property owner is just a more subordinate leasee of a contested property.
Sue the HOA. Hit them hard with something they can’t get out of. Plus for future information for Buyers beware of HOA’s getting hit with law suits. You don’t want to purchase a property that is pending a suit or is paying for one. This is certainly something for Realtor’s to be aware of themselves. It might mean not getting the lawn done or some other repair that is supposed to be fixed by a certain time. Especially Condo’s where everyone has a certain percentage to have a building reroofed.
My mother lives in a condo with an assotiation, when the outside carpet went bad she had it replaced. Then they started replacing the carpets in the building steps, and told her they were going to replace hers even though it wes brand new. She also had a chair lift installed when my step father was alive. They wanted her to have the chair lift removed an reinstalled after they replaced the carpet. Since the carpet had already been replaced she said fine, but in order for them to install thier carpet she wanted reimbersment for the carpet and they would have to pay for the chair lift to be taken out and reinstalled (approximately $1500). After that they said never mind.
HOA’s violate the law all the time. I lived in a neighborhood that had one.I owned 2 trucks and traveled alot for work. They notified me they were going to tow the truck in my driveway because it was unregistered and uninsured when I was out of town. The truck was registered and insured. I notified them it was totally legal and that if it got towed it would be reported stolen and sue them. They sent me another notice and I sent it to the Florida Attorney General, after an investigation they arrested the HOA president for embezzlement
These HOAs have far too much power. They are a danger to property owners, HOA Policy and procedure good violate state and federal Constitution. It appears these people want to control property that they do not own. Before purchasing property make sure you look at the HOA requirements and be ready to walk away if necessary.
Homeowner associations were created to protect homeowners from that undesirable neighbor that doesn’t respect other neighbors and can make your property value go down by start a mechanic’s garage in their driveway, for example. They were supposed to be to protect and preserve everybody’s property value. But sometimes the board members let the power go to their heads and start using that power for personal vendettas and petty grievances. And that is when they make everybody’s lives a living hell. My recomendation is, get involve in your homeowner association to watch out for that member that think he or she control everything.
I remember reading a story a few years ago where a guy had a house out in the country. Soon a developer came in and built a HOA community around his house. His house was legally excluded from the HOA as it was not part of the development, but still in the neighborhood. On the back of his house, he had a huge deck. The HOA started harassing him about the deck saying it did not meet the rules and needed to be removed. He kept telling the them his house was not part of the HOA. Then one day he came home and his deck was gone. The HOA sent in contractors to remove it. He sued them and won. The court made the HOA rebuild his huge deck. That ended up bankrupting the HOA. Man, I wish I could buy that guy a beer!
My grandfather lived in a neighborhood with an HOA. After a lengthy battle over a flagpole that was 1 ft too tall he went around to each of the board members houses at night and burned their lawns with fertilizer. He then reported them to their own boary that they weren’t following HOA rules to keep grass at acceptable length. They didn’t have any grass at all as the fertilizer burned it to death 😂 Gramps was a legend.
A couple years ago, an uppity neighbor tried to start an HOA in our neighborhood. No one in the neighborhood was interested. She then hired a company to constantly bombard us with HOA propaganda, hoping to wear us down. Keep in mind, this is a very old neighborhood with average and below-average condition houses. Since I own the most physical properties (I bought the properties with the worst-condition houses and demolished them), the company really focused on trying to pressure me to get on board. And wouldn’t you know it- there is almost as few rules for deed restrictions as there are for HOAs! So I had 100-year deed restrictions placed on all of my properties saying that they cannot be part of any HOA for as long as the deed restriction is active. Problem solved!
We bought a home from a developer while they were building the neighborhood and our contract did not have an HOA established because everything was still being built, (best way to buy a home by the way if you’re going to do it). After about a year, the neighborhood built up around us and the HOA, which was created for the new home buyers, harrassed the crap out of us to try and get us to sign an agreement to join the HOA. Remember, we bought before one existed from the developer. There was no HOA provision in our agreement, so they couldn’t force us into the HOA so we had to agree to join the HOA, and their tactics were absolutely ridiculous. Three times a week, we’d have someone come by our house to “meet with us” about joining, including lawyers. They tried to force us into paying fines, leave warnings, etc. BUT as long as we ignored them, they were uninforceable because, we weren’t part of the HOA. So, they put a stop sign in front of our house, and made that a designated bus stop, so it became a hassle to even leave the house sometimes. They even tried to put a lean on the home, but it was dismissed because the judge saw all of their tactics and was absolutely disgusted. We never did join the HOA, but to absolutely tick them off, we sold the home direct to buyer, and the people that bought the home also had ZERO obligation to the HOA, not for lack of them trying to make sure that if we sold it, the person buying would be automatically part of the HOA. That was kicked out because, again, the judge was ticked off at them.
Our HOA hated us cause we were a mixed family. One time, they kept sending people to steal the number off of our house and then fine us for our house number not being clearly marked. Every time we replaced it, it went missing again the next night. So my dad superglued it to the house. We then received a fine for superglueing our house number to which my dad said ‘How did you know it was superglued if you weren’t the ones removing it?’ they stopped and dropped the fines.
I bought a condo when I was 25 in 2007. I thought I was doing the responsible thing. I had a good career, making good money. 6 months later, the housing market collapsed and I was $100k underwater. At the same time, the HOA did a special assessment for renovations on the whole complex and said my share was $26k. When I said I couldn’t pay, the HOA asked if I could get a home equity loan which I, of course, could not. So the HOA put a lien on my property and threatened to foreclose. I couldn’t refinance because of the lien and I couldn’t pay the lien because I couldn’t refinance. The HOA eventually did foreclose and I had to declare bankruptcy. The HOA ruined my life. I was seriously contemplating ending my life. Things are much better now but I had to start my whole life over from scratch. Buying a house was the worst decision I ever made in my life.
Bizarre to me as a foreigner that, for a country that values freedom as one of its core values, America has things like this. Functionally, Americans are some of the least free of the first world. Never have i heard of a private organisation issuing fines for trees “not being tree shaped” anywhere else in the world.
My first experience with HOAs was in the 80s, in ARIZONA. They had a rule that you couldn’t hang your laundry out to dry, in ARIZONA, SO FOR FIVE MINUTES. They had others that were also ridiculous, I told my husband there is no way I would ever live somewhere with an HOA, and I haven’t. Such horror stories.
My mom’s HOA ended up charging us over $2000 after we missed one yearly payment of $100 on a condo that had burnt down, the month after she died. They hired attorneys to send a demand letter for us to pay. $100 fee, $1900+ in attorney’s fees, on a nonexistent condo because of the fire. Still wish the absolute worst for all those involved in kicking us when we were down.
My friend owned a condo. The HOA sent a paper to go in and redo her patio on the second floor while she was on vacation. They put the planters up on the railing. She was gone for a month. The papers didn’t take down the planters and she started being get fines for the planters. It was the HOA people that put the planters up there.
I’m thinking of how a guy whose been here since the 80’s got a HOA built around him, and they’ve been trying to fine him and such for having his hobby cars in his yard. He however has taken the understandable position of “I never joined your stupid HOA, I’ve been here since this was woods, I ain’t listening to you” and has won one of the lawsuits
I fought my HOA and won. You have to understand how to play the game. A shared drain flooded my 1st floor condo. Because the drain was used by more than one unit it was considered community property and therefore the responsibility of the HOA. After 3 months of refusing to pay up, I called my local city inspectors office and asked for a code inspection of the building I was living in. I advised I had safety concerns, etc. A week later, the inspector came and He found 10 violations for my building alone. So he promptly called the HOA office to discuss the “violations”. Well needless to say, the HOA was extremely upset with my “tactics”. I advised that I would continue with my “tactics” until my condo was repaired. They finally agreed to cover the cost of the repair. The city also required them to repair the code violations or face fines. Haha 😂 I sold and moved out within a year. Just not worth the hassle living in a HOA community.
I have a friend who’s in her 70s and has lived in her house for over 30 years. She wanted to repaint her house. She found the original color, and wrote to her HOA several times over 6 months and they never responded. So she painted it. Two weeks later she got a nasty letter from the HOA saying her painting was not approved. She actually had to take it to court.
My daughter and her husband were house hunting in Washington state. They found the home of their dreams. Was ready to put in a bid when they found out it was in an HOA. They passed on it and the homeowner 1st agreed to drop the price $30,000. No. They then offered to prepay the HOA fees for a year. No. They found a beautiful home not in an HOA. They drove by the house last week and it’s still for sale.
I am actually a board member for our COA, and oh boy am I familiar with all of these tropes. Being the rare millennial that can afford a home and decides to get into the local politics (granted, this was after the COA royally pissed me off), I am constantly fighting against the weight of bad COA habits, embodied by both other board members and members of the community. And especially our management company. I was floored one time when I was advocating for condo fee leniency in the early days of COVID, when the management company and our lawyer retorted “there’s no need, if they can’t pay we can just take their home.” Totally casually, as though that was not the most horrific thing they could possibly say. And don’t get me started on the blanket excuse for all terrible rules: “property value”. We live in a townhouse style condo, so we really do need a COA, because all units are physically part of a larger building, but somehow the knee-jerk to do more than just ensure basic maintenance is baked into so many of our owner’s minds. I have spent over a year trying to rewrite our rules, with community involvement, to get rid of all the stupid rules. And that is just a start. It just just a constant up-hill battle, but we NEED more young open-minded people running for these boards. After a few years I am getting burnt out, but I know if I step down, I’ll probably be replaced with someone regressive.
As somebody who used to be a manager for a HOA management company, I can tell you that everything in this is 100% correct. I was told by my boss on day 1 that I needed to have my assistant do daily inspections of all my communities and that if she didn’t find at least 1 violation during each inspection, she wasn’t doing her job correctly. And the board members are a joke… I oversaw 13 communities and never once did I have a board of directors that were decent people… all self absorbed penny pinchers who wanted to pass on their misery to other hard-working homeowners. I quit after only 7 months of employment – my breaking point was after an elderly man who had over $30k in back fees… all because he didn’t get the boards “approval” to paint his house… and the management company I worked for was in the process of foreclosing on his home.
My house here in AZ falls under a HOA. I get fined all the time for little weeds that you can barely see with a microscope. One time I got fined when removing those little weeds, putting them in my trashbin and left the bin in the frontyard during the day. How ridiculous is that! These HOA should be outlawed. I hate them!
I had the privilege of inheriting a house. Then I learned of the HOA my grandfather had fought for years. They tried to exploit me for thousands and even put a lean on the home but I found my grandfather’s old paperwork and now have picked up his old fight. I now understand many of the shouting contests he’d had on the phone.
My mother missed her HOA yearly bill and rather than send her a reminder they sent her to court. She never received anything in the mail saying she had a court date so the HOA won in absentia. What would have been a $140 once a year bill turned into a $6500 lawyer fee. We have a woman that lives on our street that is a member of the HOA and will constantly walk the street looking for things to complain about. I pulled up to my house once and she had opened our garage door and was looking inside. She claimed the door was open and she was “just checking to make sure nothing was wrong. Our garage door is broken and we dont ever open it. I recorded her opening the gate to our back yard recently and we received a letter a few weeks later saying we had “too many ant mounds in our back yard.” I showed the letter and the footage to our local police department and we now have a restraining order against her. The next time she violates our privacy I may very well enact castle doctrine or just sue our HOA for harassment.
John Oliver forgot to mention the condo crisis in South Florida and what the associations are actually doing to owners. Since Surfside, a building that collapsed and killed several people in Miami from extreme negligence, the governor of Florida now mandates all condo buildings to have 90% reserves available. Reserves go to possible roof repairs, impact windows, building restructure, etc (big projects). Unfortunately, the HOA’s are asking owners upwards of $100k per project in some buildings for these reserves and naturally, owners cannot afford this. Majority of the time, instead of asking for a large payment all at once or in installments, they raise the monthly maintenance fee. The monthly fees for anywhere remotely close to the beach for.a 2/2 is roughly $600-$1200+, making it remotely impossible for some to pay. Some HOA members also take the monthly fees for themselves, usually this is the incentive for people to join the board. I work in the real estate industry and it’s depressing how many people had to sell their condos because of the amount of extra costs.
My aunt was going through stage 3 breast cancer and her HOA fined her because she couldn’t bring her trash bins in by 5pm. She was getting fined while going through chemo and crippling medical debt. Thank goodness she has good neighbors and they started bringing it in for her. It’s absolute insanity.
My mom round-about called our neighborhood association Nazis. To their faces. She wasn’t invited to any more meetings after that. They were trying to make a 3-day only rule for parking RVs or other such vehicles in your driveway. Funny how the family who had the super nice RV was one of the only two black families in the neighborhood. Mom said they were free to move their RV to our drive every 3 days. The association kind of stopped pushing on that one after that.
I’m going through this nightmare right now with my aunt, she is nearly 80 and the HOA harrassment/fining she has been going through for 2+yrs has had awful effects on her mental and physical health. We comply every time, but they just dream up new violations. I stepped in hoping they might back off knowing she has family to fight for her, but they know they have the better lawyers. I swear they take glee in making elderly people suffer. I spend a lot of time plotting about possibly interviewing other residents, gathering photographs of the poorly maintained grounds, and trying to get media attention because they’re definitely after certain homes (lakefront properties to be exact).
Literally, “HOAs suck and we should get rid of them.” is the one of the only things I can agree with with my conservative former colleagues. I even remember driving through one neighborhood around election time and the neighborhood had a pretty even split of Dems and Republicans based on the lawn signs, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE had “No More HOA” signs on their lawns as well. Nobody likes a HOA unless they are the HOA.
HOA took my fully paid off house, with those bs tickets, and it piled up, and they foreclosed my fully paid off house. I’ve waited for so many years for the mainstream media to mention something about HOA, I hope there is a class action against all hoa one day. It took me so many years to get of homelessness. They didn’t just rob me, they forced me into homeless, when I’ve paid off everything for that roof over my head. I didn’t have any where to turn to, and there were no lawyer take those type cases.
That “selling the house for three bucks” thing is absolutely the sort of thing that should be investigated for money laundering or something similar. As if HOA tactics weren’t mafia-like enough already, that one is clearly a racket to trick people into paying for a house, gouge them for extra money, and then when there’s no money left to gouge, steal the house back to sell to the next sucker.
I can’t believe John Oliver talked about the neighborhood I grew up in. The same neighborhood had this ridiculous flag policy. My parents put up a welcome flag in the front yard and were told to take it down or face fines, and that the only flags they’re allowed to display are the US Flag, the AZ Flag, and the Gadsden flag. People rebelled by putting up pride flags around the neighborhood because the policy was so stupid. Eventually they walked it back.
I’ve received HOA violation letters for the following: – Having a custom address plate right next to our front door installed by the previous homeowner – Having a wire through the front of our home to power the front patio sprinkler installed by the previous homeowner – Listing our spare bedroom for a short-term rental (our address was not even in the listing) – Having Christmas-style solar powered white lights—which frankly didn’t even work—on our balcony railing – Having our garage door open for “too long” – Not having plants in our front patio planter – Having “weeds” in our front patio planter that were not actually weeds – Having our Ring camera doorbell on our door instead of where our existing doorbell is (where the camera would be useless) – Having laundry in the window to dry out – Using a BBQ grill in our front patio – Having our trash bins out the morning after trash day Fuck them. So hard.
When I was in graduate school one of my classmates was a middle aged guy who owned a house in an HOA in Temecula, CA. He removed his front lawn and put in an olive tree and some drought tolerant landscaping. The HOA came after him. However in CA there is apparently a law that renders any restrictions on planting drought tolerant landscaping unenforceable. When the HOA tried to penalize him he took the HOA to court. His olive tree and drought tolerant landscaping stayed right where it was and the HOA had to pay all the expenses they incurred on themselves by trying to collect from him. Thereafter, other members of the community also began removing their lawns and planting drought tolerant landscaping.
My parents bought their house prior to 2008, after the housing crash a bunch of homes were bought up on their block by one company. Some random guy moved in down the street and whenever a house was sold he’d show up and introduce himself as the head of the HOA. He then started harassing my parents saying they had to join the HOA. They told him to go to hell since they were there prior to the HOA. He then started leaving fines for them for every little thing. They threatened to sue and press charges for harassment and he immediately mentioned he was doing it for the company that owned the houses on the neighborhood. They sent a cease and desist to the company and finally got left alone after they put up a 7 foot fence around their house. It took over 5 years and multiple talks with their lawyers to finally be left alone.
I live in a HOA in Miami where they increased the HOA fees by 300%. It was insane. I had no choice to pay the increase. But the good thing is it pissed off a lot of people. And stuff happened to vote out the board and replace the management company. To then find out the board was stealing money. $2 million roughly in the last 4 years.
I knew very little about HOAs before perusal this clip. But even then the little bit that I knew was enough for me to know I would never, ever, under any fucking conditions buy a home in such an area. Part of the reason for that is it I’m not a sheep, But the main reason is I just don’t like people telling me what I can do in and/or to my house.
One single person in my neighbourhood tried to start an HOA and the rest of the neighbours decided to throw a block party, not invite her until she apologized for it, and set the DJ in front of her house where he proceeded to do the exact thing she’d been complaining about in the first place: playing “ethnic music” all day (from noon to eight pm). Her husband and kids, for the record, were welcome to the party, fed well, and her youngest even won a round of jumbo connect four
When my husband and I were searching for a house, any listing that had an HOA received a hard pass from me. My husband entertained the idea of a couple houses in HOAs, and I put my foot down fast because I don’t believe that a small group of strangers should fine me daily because they don’t like something truly trivial like the color of my front door.
After living for a while in a development that had an HOA, never again. Just one of the reasons: my neighbor was out of work for an extended period, and they were really struggling to make ends meet. The HOA came down super hard on them for having paint flaking off his eaves, and threatened a near-immediate fine that was super extreme. Because the family were hurting for money, this man in his late 50s climbed onto a 22 foot ladder to paint his eaves and trim, which were over 16″ feet high. You’re seeing where this is going. When he fell, he broke his leg & hip, and dislocated his shoulder. HOAs are a scourge on the country.
My mother-in-law got a notice for not having the minimum 3 trees in her yard. When we pointed out to the HOA that she actually had 5 trees in their yard they said they’d send a guy out to inspect and sign off on the violation. Guess what? She got ANOTHER notice for not having 3 trees in her yard. I guess the guy couldn’t count. I made the chairman of the HOA meet me at her house and count the trees himself. I even gave him a pencil and paper to make tally marks as he counted the trees. He was not amused.
I just bought my first home last year. After living in an HOA as a child, the very first “demand” I gave my realtor was, “No HOAs”. I don’t care if they’re giving it away for free. It’s a scam that I will never be part of. I get great amusement from the fact that HOAs were (supposedly) intended to increase/maintain property prices and values. Yet, it’s becoming a deterrent to buying the home… meaning the house is worth less.
HOAs are horrible. My mom’s was fining her for not having blinds on a window that didn’t even face the street. $25 a week until she fixed it. Eventually the neighborhood fought back random fines and found that the money they were paying wasn’t even being used for it’s intended purpose, it was a whole thing but long story short, they dropped everyone’s fees for that year. Some guy, I remember, was fined for having his work truck on his driveway 😒
In my last neighborhood the HOA went after a retiree who used to be a para-military operative for a three letter agency. They didn’t like his shed in his back yard or the handrails he had installed on the stairs leading up to his front door. The last thing I heard was he still has his shed and handrails and four of seven HOA board members resigned with one moving out of the community all together.
My moms HOA charged the entire neighborhood over $10,000 out of pocket – within 3 months – or face eviction for “assessed hail damage” that is almost guaranteed to have had foul play involved with the board and the third party company. My mom making $14/hr at the local high school and I saved our house. Truly disgusting, evil people of Hennepin Village, MN.
My house was originally in an HOA, but sometime before we moved here, the HOA was dissolved after a neighboring development found out they’d been charged HOA dues for over a decade… but they weren’t part of the HOA. They all sued and the HOA was disintegrated from orbit. They were one of the bad HOAs too. My sister lived here during the dark times, and the HOA fined people (including my sister) for not having a certain species of tree, which wasn’t native and couldn’t survive there. My neighborhood is still lined with dead trees, but they’re slowly being torn down by the wind and sometimes getting replaced.