Texas HOA goes after homeowners for hurricane ike repairs.

[johncoby2]

It is bad enough that a hurricane swept through the Clear Lake area, south of Houston, causing record damage to homes, but now a homeowners association is going after those who re-roofed their homes with the wrong color of shingle. It's unreasonable action like this that makes homeowners refer to HOAs as "Nazis".

Full story at:
http://bayareahouston.blogspot.com/2009/10/houston-hoa-goes-after-homeowners-for.html

[Warpy]

1. Some of my neighbors have painted their houses interesting colors

and others have cars on blocks and living room furniture on the front porch. I tolerate it because I don't want some damn HOA telling me what color curtains I can have in my windows and whether I can post Democratic signs on the lawn during election season. My property value has doubled in 13 years and has not declined so far, something the gated developments with the HOAs can't claim. The rough appearance seems to keep the (GOP) riffraff out.

HOAs always seem to be run by a combination of bullies and tight assed Puritans.

[SoCalDem]

10. A couple of streets over from us, a family painted their house bright blue

with purple trim..

It was quite.... er.. um.. "noticeable"

this is a neighborhood where most houses' colors range from white, all the way up to tan, & trims are usually white, dark brown or black

[Warpy]

11. I live in an area the state has recently designated

"the international zone," so you can imagine a lot of different cultures coming together with wildly different ideas on color combination, lawn art, and gardening styles.

I wouldn't want it any other way.

Best restaurants in town, too. Few chains.

[endless october]

2. i live in an HOA free neighborhood.

and my neighbors cut their fucking grass all by themselves without being told to by a board of little authoritarian moles.

amazing, huh?

[williesgirl]

3. I lived in one community w/HOA who told me I couldn't have a beautiful wooden swing hang on my

front porch without their permission. Told them to fuck off and they left me alone although I don't know why. Once I moved from there, I've always refused to even LOOK at a home with a HOA and have been very happy since. Surprisingly, all my homes have increased in value except the last one I had to sell this year in middle of housing bust. It had nothing to do with how the neighborhood looked for the upkeep of the homes. In fact, in all of these areas, the rest of us neighbors pitch in and help cut the grass etc of the elderly or sick, shovel their drives etc and not because of our property values. It's just the right thing to do - help each other.

They are small Nazi organizations, period. No one should be able to tell you how you can use or decorate your own property.

[HipChick]

4. one HOA community determines how many families can live in the property..

one family got turned in,because she allowed her brother who had lost his job,lost his house to move in with her...they determined more than 2 people to a bedroom was the max..

[rucky]

5. Never again will I live under an HOA

they're a refuge for little Napoleons.

[deadmessengers]

6. People who sign HOA contracts get what they deserve.

When Mrs. Deadmessengers and I were shopping for a house nine years ago, we had a list of "dealbreaker" requirements that we gave to our agent: that the price would be in a particular range (a whole 'nother story with this one), in a particular elementary school district (the one my daughter was already attending) that the entrance would be at ground level, no swimming pools, and absolutely NO HOAs. I had heard enough crazy horror stories about people who were being put through the wringer by their HOAs over seemingly minor things like the one quoted in the article, and wanted NO part of them.

And you know what? It wasn't easy finding a house without a HOA around here, but we eventually found a nice house, in a nice neighborhood. When we decided to plant a vegetable garden a few years ago, I heard from friends and co-workers "oh, you better check with your HOA about that - they'll fine you in a heartbeat for that". Then, I got the satisfaction of telling them I don't have those problems.

I don't see any junker cars, or weirdly painted houses, and the only time I saw someone's yard get really out of control, a bunch of us got together and took care of it for the guy who lived there - as it turned out, he was spending most of his time driving back and forth to a hospital 150 miles from here to see his terminally ill brother, and really had bigger things to think about than mowing his lawn. Oh, and we get to have our veggie garden.

But, I have to say, those people signed those contracts, and bought those houses, and voluntarily ceded control over their property to the HOA cabal. By voluntarily joining that system, they were the ones who gave the HOA people power over them, and now they're reaping what they sowed. The good thing about stories like this is that it tends to make having an HOA a generally undesirable trait. This will eventually drive the values of HOA houses down. Over time, the owners of those houses will decertify the HOAs - and that's the only thing that will fix this problem.

[depakid]

8. "It wasn't easy finding a house without a HOA "

Therein lies the problem. In some areas- based on state laws allowing or encouraging this sort of development, that's practically all there is- which make people's disdain for folks who are stuck dealing with outrages like this somewhat less than admirable.

[deadmessengers]

9. "but we eventually found a nice house, in a nice neighborhood. "

First of all, who said buying a house was supposed to be easy? SEcond, I noticed that you took my comment out of context. I put the rest in the subject line, so others could see it. The bottom line is that even though my family lives in suburban Atlanta, the heart of McMansion-HOA hell, we still managed to find a non-HOA home. If we could do it here, others can do it elsewhere. It just takes more work, that's all.

[johncoby2]

12. It is impossible to find that combination

Every subdivision around our elementary schools are HOAs.

[depakid]

14. Which makes it a public policy issue- similar to redlining

that has to be addressed by the state.

Curiously, the densest use of oppressive CCR's is in the areas with lax or corrupt land use planning- places like Texas, Georgia and California for example.

In places with responsible statewide land use planning like Oregon they are- counterintuitively- much rarer.

[Odin2005]

7. HOAs are evil incarnate.

[quaker bill]

13. I work with HOAs often

and therefore live in a neighborhood that does not have one. This aspect was among my primary selection criteria, ranked right up there with a clean flood plain assessment, good schools, and the absence of toxic waste.

There is this curious notion that a government should be small and as close to the people as possible. HOAs stand as blunt testimony and near absolute proof that this notion is insane.

There is this further notion that people would prefer a libertarian solution where government is small, local, and governs very little. HOAs and their dysfunction are proof that people, when left alone, will invent government, grab as much power as they can in it, and impose their will on others to and beyond the point of absurdity.

HOAs are an experiment in small scale local government gone very bad.