They are bad enough, but in my neck of the woods, they have to be the make the beast with two backsing worst in the world. In the home ownership dream, when did we allow HOAs to turn it all into a huge nightmare?

Care to tell us a tale?

Simple. Moved out of the country for work and decided to rent. First renter looked great on paper, credit report, but in practice was horrible. Broke the lease along with some items inside the townhouse. Was going to skip out until I started asking why he had not paid the rent. Apparently his offspring was also the spawn of the devil.

Fast forward a month and we lucked out by finding a good friend's sister-in-law that needed a place. They're a small family with a young child. We thought that our neighbors would actually appreciate them. We even gave them a deal on the rent and did not request first/last or deposit. When we requested that the HOA interview them we were told that we were not allowed to have anyone in there until the lease ran out. Mind you that the HOA requested a deposit for the previous renter so that if he skipped out "we would be covered". They basically told us that we needed to sue for breach of contract. Being outside the US, we do not have the means to hire a lawyer and go after a guy that probably does not have the money. So we did the unthinkable... we told our renters to move in and say that they are guests of the family. That worked great until the HOA started getting testie with the cars. They wanted to tow them. So we wasted time until the previous lease expired. Now they just needed to be approved, so the renters were requested that they provide the rental agreement. Them not being the sharpest tools gave them some papers we wrote up real quick back in the day so that everyone was "covered". Once the HOA saw the dates the went nuts.

I'm back in Chile, but my wife went to the HOA meeting, where she was basically crucified. We could have just walked away from the property and had another foreclosure ruin their property value. Instead we tried to work with them and they refused. They also told the renters that they needed to get rid of the dog, which leads me to believe that our renters were either not picking up after it or that it was running lose. Now we have to wait 2 weeks until they interview the renters and then the HOA decides if they are "allowed" to rent from us.

You'd think they'd be happy that it's not you there.
Threaten to move back up, that will show 'em.

park the cars in the street, it's maintained by the City and they have no legal right to tow the cars.  I had similar crap with my trailer parked more than "3" days without telling them.  I too hate HOA's and make it a habit of going to their meetings challenging everything they do but I'm in a detached home.  I had two condo's and left them because of the HOA crap.

If I moved back, I would get a pitbull and make sure that it only took a shit on the board members' lawns.

I know there is a reason why you need HOA's. I have seen neighborhoods that would have been better served with one. Our neighborhood is very quiet and would do well with just maintenance of the basic structure and shared areas. I made the mistake of not double and triple checking the original renter. The new people are exactly what is needed to get past the trauma of the other guy.

HOA's are not the problem...tattle tale neighbors and busybodies whom have no life so they assume a position on/in an HOA are where issues like this exist at times....

that being said, it is a dual edged sword...if I lived next to a rental that wasn't being maintained to the standards under which were established by the covenants of the HOA, then I would be glad that the HOA is the possible route for handling issues as apposed to trying to track down a property manager from god knows where or the owner in a far away land to take up my grievances....

I always see the same arguments for HOA's, and it typically seems to boil down to people not actually wanting to talk to their neighbors.

If my tenant is doing something wrong, let me know. They have all my contact info. This is not so much about the tenants. It has to do with the over the top rules that they put in place. If my renter bails on me, why should the HOA care that a find another tenant? In fact, with this rule in place I can't get rid of a bad renter, the type that would shit all over the neighbor's yard. They have to suck it up because they approved them and their rules don't give me the incentive of finding a better renter.

Our HOA keeps pulling shit like that...

Last year was the lowest snowfall total in decades. The snow removal company came out once last year.
They raised our HOA dues citing "increased snow removal costs".
Uh...wtf happened to the surplus from last year?
This year, the snow removal company shows up and doesn't plow our drive and a few other people on the street citing "car parked in driveway".
Uh...it is the neighbor's car and there is more than enough room to plow my half of the driveway.
They also didn't clear the shared sidewalks which they claimed wasn't in their contract.
We contacted the HOA asking why, if they raised HOA dues due to snow removal costs, were we paying more for lesser services.
The next day, the snow removal company was back and remedied the situation. Apparently, our block wasn't the only one to complain.

The last 3 years, my wife and I have had to edge, weed and re-mulch our flower beds.
The HOA agreement states that they will do this in a timely manner each spring. In 2010, they did it in late July. In 2011, early August. In 2012, they didn't do it until late September.
Each time we have ended up doing it, we send them a bill for the materials and labor at a rate of $45/hr. We then withhold the billed amount from our next 2 dues payments.
The first year, they tried to take us to court. Our lawyer had them backed down in 17 minutes (that's how long the "mediation" phone call lasted.)
Since then, they have not said or done anything about the adjusted dues.

Our last dues statement for 2012 showed that they had spent $10,347 on "paper, envelopes, stamps and office supplies".
About a dozen home owners called them out on it at the last HOA meeting. They were only able to provide about $800 in receipts for office supplies.
4 of the home owners have filed a lawsuit against them. They have also refused to hold open elections for the HOA board. They send us a ballot, we select members and yet nobody we ever nominate or elect ends up on the board.

And my wife still wonders why I absolutely loathe HOAs.

Quote from: duccarlos on January 15, 2013, 07:56:15 AM
If I moved back, I would get a pitbull and make sure that it only took a shit on the board members' lawns.

Get a Mastiff..Bigger piles!  

Wow... Guess I've been lucky. My previous place was a little townhouse set up in a condo group - so we had a condo association. They did have open elections and perhaps that's a key differentiator as shit got handled. We had our own maintenance guy who what on the spot for fixing minor matters, clearing walks and probably keeping an eye on contractors like land scape and bigger snow removal.

They actually managed to reduce our monthlies - all of $4, but hey... And fixed my roof after snow damage and basement damage due to improper gutter downspout work that had been recently contracted for.

Didn't like sending them a good bit of my coin each month - but I could see where it went. I'd be all Malitovs and pitchforks if I was you guys too.

Well, they do a pretty good job at being anal about landscaping. They also keep the pool area relatively clean and they repaved the parking area. They do hold elections every year, but you have to be present to nominate and vote. We finally got a new president a few years ago, a guy that lives a few units down. He's a really nice guy and the only person we tolerate from the board. Everyone else has been retired in the same community for years and have their own little mafia going.

We have been actively looking for a piece of land to build on but we have some pretty specific requirements so it has been slow going.

We had our small fence around our patio (HOA is responsible for outside areas as is common) get damaged when the neighbor's downspout and gutter got ripped off the building in a wind storm.
When we contacted the HOA to repair both the neighbors stuff and our fence, they tried to tell us that our dog caused the damage. Sorry...my little JRT isn't quite bulky enough to rip a gutter off the house that is at about 15 feet off the ground.

It's just completely assinine stuff but the builder went bankrupt shortly after they completed our development and passed off those duties to a property management company that treats us like some kind of low income housing project and not high end townhouses in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city.

Quote from: MrIncredible on January 15, 2013, 09:21:09 AM
I always see the same arguments for HOA's, and it typically seems to boil down to people not actually wanting to talk to their neighbors.

This