When I was growing up we lived in a condominium. Our condo was situated on a pond and there were lots of established trees on the property. The HOA got it into their minds that the trees were obscuring the view and they needed to go. My mother LOVES trees and she refused to get rid of them citing partly because they had been established long before the current HOA was around. The HOA sent workers into the back yard with chainsaws to remove the trees but my mother basically did the tree hugger get into the way of the saws thing and they left with out completing their job. So next the HOA decided to put plant poison in the sprinkler system to kill the plants. This was a brilliant idea because my sister and I used to play in the sprinklers to cool off in the summer heat.
I've never been a HOA fan.
Re: HOA drama from my childhood
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of HOAs. Ours isn't too extreme, but damn it, if I want to raise chickens in my backyard, I want chickens (our neighbors probably appreciate that we have a HOA for this exact reason...).
In my area, they're really hard to avoid. We'd have to live a lot further from work to buy outside of a HOA -- so the inconvenience of the HOA is worth it to us.
But still. I'm sad about the chickens.
July 3rd, 2012 ~ Hang in there sweetheart, we can't wait to meet you!