My job is just too easy. Lots of people read this blog site and you’d think I’d struggle to come up with a new subject each evening. But with people around the country gradually waking up to the HOA scam there are stories everywhere about out-of-control Homeowners Associations.
The link below deserves reading. It’s a tiny Homeowners Association in Arizona that suddenly decided it needed two lawyers and a security guard at its annual meeting. The HOA hired a new management firm which is fining homeowners for a bizarre range of ‘violations.’ So homeowners suddenly have to pay fines, pay for unneeded lawyers and an unneeded security patrol just to make sure nobody protests the hiring of such people.
Life can be creepy.
Beware of buying property in the Carter Ranch Homeowners Association!
(link to Coolidge Examiner story on Carter Ranch HOA)
Invariably, in every story about HOA conflicts, somebody comments that “you knew the rules when you moved into that community.”
It’s amazing how much of the picture this sentiment misses.
When we closed escrow on our new house, I remember being asked if we had read all the governing documents of the HOA. I said, “The particulars really don’t matter all that much to me. I’ll abide by all the rules, and will assume that others will, too. I’ll also assume that the enforcement of those rules will be fair, rational, and consistent.”
But I was wrong.
And this is where homeowners can get into a world of hurt.
We often hear of draconian enforcement of rules against people who — for whatever reason — aren’t the Board’s favorites.
The flip side of that ugliness — as in my case* — is where the Board irrationally decides NOT to enforce rules AGAINST their closest friends.
Knowing the rules, literally, means just about nothing. If your HOAs Board of Directors — who give the marching orders to the Property Managers AND the HOA attorneys — doesn’t comprise reasonable, decent, objective, fair-minded grown-ups … then your life can easily become a living hell.
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* http://nbeener.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-destruction-of-medically-disabled.html
Neil,
“If your HOAs Board of Directors — who give the marching orders to the Property Managers AND the HOA attorneys — doesn’t comprise reasonable, decent, objective, fair-minded grown-ups … then your life can easily become a living hell.”
I have yet to hear of an HOA with reasonable, objective, fair-minded grown-ups on the HOA board. I’ve heard countless HOA nightmares where the board members make the bullies in a middle school look like choir boys. It’s been shocking to learn board members old enough to be my parents are so evil and filled with pure hate.
I saw the CC&Rs when I sat down at the title company to close on the purchase. Knowing what I know now those documents aren’t worth the paper they are written on. But had I been given them to read before the closing there is a good chance I would have backed out of the contract. I do believe it is intentional because the entire HOA scam is designed to make sure the buyer has no idea what they are signing themselves into.