Home Owners Assoc. says I have to park in the driveway!

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Our home owners assoc passed a rule saying you have to park in your driveway now and not on the street. Pretty crazy!

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Ah yes, the pains of living in a society!

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I'd check the by-laws. In many HOAs rules cannot be changed without a vote of all homeowners. Ours requires 80% approval before anything can be changed. Needless to say, there have been no changes to our rules since the 1970s, because no one can agree on anything. I'm the poor unfortunate that has been elected President of ours, so I know from experience.



It actually isn't so bad though. Our HOA is pretty much non-intrusive. It is more of a co-op that operates the pool, maintains common areas, and provides a lawn mowing service for everyone's front yards to keep up the appearance of the neighborhood. All this for only $26.50/month. What a deal!

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

That is exactly why we will not live in a community where there's a HOA. We have one of those communities in our area called Gold River and things there are so tight you practically cannot sneeze w/o approval.

 

[Tom Schindler]

That is exactly why we will not live in a community where there's a HOA.

Amen brother!





Tom

 

[EddieS'04]

Iam with Rodger on that one..HOA's have gotten too powerful and dont have any common sense...Iam all for keeping up the nieghborhood but some of the rules friends put up with are plum stupid....

 

[Jim Luttrell]

I'm with Rodger. If I'm paying for the house, then I'm doing what I want.

 

[Bob McDonald]

SST,



Is your development built on public streets? Or are the streets private property. If public, you can probably fight it. If private, you need to check the CC&R's to see what power the HOA has to arbitrarily make any changes.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

This wouldn't be an issue but we have four cars and when my step daughter, 16, is with us half the week her car makes 5. Our street is considered private. Apparently, they are now trying, keyword, trying to enforce it as it's been in the by-laws since August 2001. However, we bought our house in 2000. It will be hard for them to enforce it and if I have to get my lawyer on them I will. Simply, they have let is slip this many years without forcing it and now they want to. It also states no vehicle can be parked for more than 72 hours on the street. Well I can play havick with that stupidity. Park in the drive for a few hours and then on the street for 71. Move it back in the driveway. They are also asking for drivers license and plate #s which they won't get. It's basically a scare tactic in writing. All the members on the board are a bunch of weasels. This is the only issue we have had since moving into the complex. Our house value has doubled since we have moved in so it was a good choice to purchase with or without a HOA.

 

[Gavin Allan]

Less government is better. HOAs suck.

 

[Mike Wilson]

My personal definition (not Webster's, this time!) of a Home Owners Association:



"A sorrily grouped conglomeration of weak, narrow-mined persons or peoples,

who, in their many hours of nothing-to-do existance, sit around a table and try to

decide how to run other peoples/persons lives, to make up for their own inadequacies".

Malfeasants and Non-Chalantes, the lot of them, I say!!!

 

[Brock Lagunas]

at least theyre not towing it away :wacko:

 

[Patrick Bajtka]

I once lived in a condo while I owned a beautiful brand new Chevy Sportside 4X4. Right after I moved in, the HOA changed the rules so that I had to park it in the garage. That was just the beginning! They eventually passed all kinds of frivolous rules, including one where you were not allowed to fly an American flag!



Most of the people who lived in this development (prox 25 condos), including me, ended up moving.



My advice: get a lawyer who specializes in condos/real estate. Or move.

 

[Pat Freeman]

In MD, it's hard to find a home that's not in an HOA. Our HOA had that by-law but nobody follows it. It would cost the HOA too much money to sue everyone and everyone knows that. They did try to pass a new regulation that says people can't park on the grass. So, people with multi-car families were ticked. We all got together and fought it and the board was dumbfounded. Nothing happened.



I suggest visiting your neighbors with the same issue that you have and ask them to all get together and fight it. A lawyer is just going to cost you more money than you want to spend. In addition, you agreed to abide by the by-laws. The only way to make them change is to get everyone together and fight it.

 

[Chops]

I actually couldn't live in an area where there is not a HOA, at least not in suburbia. Yes some of the regs are petty, but it does serve a useful purpose for those of us who maintain our property for premium prices, and keeps the dregs from putting refrigerators on the front porch and unregistered / unlicensed cars on blocks for months in the front yard.



Some of my HOA rules:

Exterior paint scheme to be permitted and approved by the city hall color palette

(A neighbor had an 'art deco' delusion and did his house up, without a permit, in Pepto Bismol pink, and the city quickly intervened)

No commercial trucks with signage after 9pm

No boats

No cars on grass

Roofs can't be more than 25% dirty



But then again my property has tripled in value from my purchase price, I'm not complaining.

 

[TomT]

Having lived in neighborhoods with and without an HOA, I agree with chops. Sometimes they do go overboard but they are protecting our investment. Nothings worse then living in a neighborhood with ******* that don't keep up their house or yard, keep junk cars on their property, and just generally run down the neighborhood. If you want to do that crap then fine, take it out to the trailer park in the sticks where you belong.

 

[Bruce Branch]

I wish our HOA had that by-law. I have a neighbor that parks on the street and becasue were in a circle his big ugle work truck ends up being in front of the house on the other side of him (not in front of mine, I would make him move). Another person in the neighborhood parks on the street right in the middle of a hill. So when you have to pass that car that is PARKED in the STREET you are facing on comming traffic while topping a hill. :angry: Ours is a public road so there is nothing we can do about it. I paid alot of money for my driveway and garage I'm going to use them.



Think of your neighbors. Do they really want to see your car parked in the street in front of their house?



Just my opinion, no ofense.

 

[Andy G]

HOAs can say a lot of things...but can they do anything?



What are they going to do? Kick you out of the HOA???



ooohhh, you don't want my $15 per month!!!!!!!!!!! OK, boot me!

 

[Tom Schindler]

Theresa's brother lives in an area with an HOA. They say you must mow your grass once a week. Behind each house there is an area that you are not allowed to mow, they mow it.



The HOA mows it once a month.



I like living without a HOA. HOA's are nothing but a form of communism.





Tom

 

[Michael Hale]

I wish my neighborhood had one. Shutters on one house with the rungs falling out (has been that way for years), crappy yards, and the best yet, my new neighbors who live in a corner turn who instead of parking their Honda minivan and small Toyota in front of their house, park them in front of everyone else's! Hopefully they will get their garage emptied out (they don't have any furniture to speak of inside) and use it. Otherwise, may be time for a note on the windshield.