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Anyone else have problems with their neighborhood HOA???
I am getting SERIOUSLY annoyed with the crap going on with our HOA.
We want to put up a DirecTV dish. There are about 10 other houses in our little neighborhood (less than 25 houses in there) that have the same thing. My husband thought that we had to go through the HOA to put it up...man, was THAT a mistake. Not only are they giving us the runaround with everything ("we have to have this go through the housing board and if they approve it then it goes through the architectural board for their approval...and it can take up to 45 days for an answer"), but we were now told that we're supposed to have someone come and survey our house/property. Uhh...wasn't this something that was done BEFORE we bought the house? Our HOA is really pissing me off. We pay over $1000 a YEAR for this stupid place and they haven't even given us a key to the pool. UGH!
Anyone else hear of anything this strange? I mean...I KNOW our other neighbors didn't go through this crazy process...
Re: Anyone else have problems with their neighborhood HOA???
Yikes, that's awful. Our HOA definitely has some drama, but getting a DirecTV dish wasn't a big deal. We dealt directly with the management company that oversees the HOA (not with the board members), so it got done fairly quick. We just had to fill out a one page form and agree to put it on the back of the building (not the front). Not sure if all HOAs have a professional manager, or whether that's just condos, but if so, you might want to try that person. They're almost certainly more efficient than the volunteer board members.
HTH! Good luck!
Our HOA recently sent something out about having to go through them for dish.
I know my next door neighbor (who moved in around Oct) didn't do that.
Good luck!
Don't get me started on our HOA! We have a management company that controls most of it, but the "officers" are just a bunch of old retired people on a power trip. Also, we live across the street and 2 houses down from our " vice president" who also thinks he's the HOA "police".
He wanted to deny our request for our privacy fence. He wanted us to put up a more expensive fence, when about 25 houses in our neighborhood (of about 80 houses) have exactly the same fence! He told us he would have to take it to the President for approval.... not the ARC??? But what he didn't count on was that the President was a high school football official that new me from seeing me on the sidelines of football games every Friday night. (also, the President had the same fence that we wanted!) When the President ok'ed it, the VP was P!SSED!!!!! haha
Ever since then (and the VP has now become the Pres.) he has had it out for us complaining about every little thing!!!
DH is so tired of the drama... our 3 - 5 year plan is to buy land south of Palm Bay (2-3 acres) with NO HOA and build another house. Can't happen soon enough for him!
Good luck with the HOA. Sometimes its just easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission!!!
Oh, HOA's suck, even for renters. We had plenty of hostility and drama from HOA over the subdivion where we used to rent, but here's the best example:
Right after we moved, I put the broken-down boxes out with the garbage, and came home to find them still there along with a note from Orange Co. stating that "special arrangements" have to be made for pickup and it would take up to 24hrs.
So I waited the 24 hrs., came home from work, boxes still there. So I called Orange Co. and inquired....the woman laughed and said "I don't know why that thing says 24 hrs. It'll be more like a few days. Just leave them and we'll get to it when we can". That took four days.
Meanwhile, the HOA sent us - and our landlord - not one but FOUR nastygrams, one for each day the boxes were out. So in order to make them happy, I would have had to 1. drag the boxes out each night. 2. Wait each morning and see if OC felt like picking them up (and be about three hours late for work each of the four consecutive days - not an option) 3. Drag them back into the house for each of the first three days.
Ummmmmm, I think not. And because LL got these notices too, I had to explain all this to him.
A year later when LL foreclosed and we had to move, on the phone he was telling me more HOA drama, none of which was suprising to me at that point.
A RE lawyer and some friends advised us that due to the high foreclosure rate we should move back to an apartment complex until we can buy, so we did. I don't love it, but one there is advantage - no HOA to put up with !
We had our dish for the Dish Network installed according to the guidelines of our HOA manual. We didn't ask for permission first, because we thought that if we followed the rules in the manual that we would be fine. Well, a few months later, we got a "nasty gram" (as I like to call them) and were told we needed to submit an application for the dish that we had installed without permission. It was approved with no problem though since we had it installed according their established guidelines.
We have some ridiculous HOA rules, but I do like some of the rules just because they keep the neighborhood looking good.
Honestly, issues like that are the reason we chose not to buy a house in a neighborhood with HOA. It makes it more difficult to find a neighborhood where people take care of their houses, but the stress of dealing with the HOA (and having to pay all of that money to deal with the A*holes we were dealing with) was just ridiculous.
I would carefully read the HOA rules and see what exactly is required for a satellite dish. The HOA rules have to be followed by the HOA board (and architectural review committee) as well as the homeowners. If it's not in the rules and you know for certain that other people in the neighborhood did not have to submit that, I would argue it. (BTW, there should be a copy of your survey somewhere in your mortgage/closing docs; that's all that I would give them in regards to that.)
Also, I would supply them with a copy of the first page of your mortgage and demand a key to the pool or you want a discount on your HOA dues for the portion that goes to pool maintenance until you receive a key. (It really sounds like you need to go to more HOA meetings and may need to consider getting on the board so you can get what you want done; outsiders tend to be ostracized and treated as second class neighbors.)
We are in the process of closing on a house in a cute, well kept older neighborhood WITH NO HOA!!! It was a huge selling point for us. When we were in an HOA neighborhood we received the monthly "rant" they called a newsletter and multiple "nasty" grams as well as a cheap, ugly sign right outside our window reminding us not to swim (or boat) in the puddle they called a lake in our backyard. HOAs are havens for older, retired people with nothing better to do than b*itch at and about the people in the neighborhood they don't like (i.e. young couples, anyone with kids or pets and renters).
I agree... HOA's SUCK!
My husband and I rent in a townhome community, and have lived there for almost a year and a half now. The first Christmas we were there--no issues. Last year though, all sorts of issues. Around Halloween we got a notice (as did everyone in the neighborhood), about holiday decorations. You can only place lights in the bushes, but not on the building itself.. even if you own the place! Nothing is to be tacked, stapled, etc from the building. We had really cool Halloween decorations and decided to boycot the letter.
Thankfully, no trouble.
But when Christmas came around and my husband strung up 100 lights in between the house and the sofits--we got a warning for attaching lights to our building! Little did they notices, that they weren't attached. The warning stated that you had to have your attached decorations down on the morning of the 26th or the maintenance company would remove them and confiscate your decorations! what!??!?! My husband was furious! He was ready for war, but I on the other hand would like to lay low since we don't own the place, and would like to keep a good track record! lol...
If we happen to be in the townhome next year he plans to put 2x4's in the yard around the home and string lights up that way... it's not against the rules or anything and it won't disrupt lawn service! lol...
Living and dealing with a crazy HOA has taught us that our first home we buy will be in a neighborhood with NO HOA!
Hang in their and good luck!