Home Owner Associations
r/HOA
I live in a rowhome, and all of the attached rowhomes are part of a HOA, where I was elected president because the previous president didn't want to do it anymore (and did a terrible job). Water and sewer have a shared main line with separate connections to each unit, but each unit has their own electrical and internet. Everyone owns their own lot outright. The only areas that could be construed as a common area are an easement to take out trash/recycling behind the backyards, and potentially the hell strips.
Our HOA CC&Rs are very restrictive, and were written by the entity that bought and redid all the units (>20 years ago).
From talking, two-thirds of the owners want more freedom to be able to do more with their property, but we're unsure of how exactly to approach this beyond rewriting the CC&Rs.
My instinct is that because of the shared water/sewer, we'd still need the HOA in place to split water/sewer bill and have recourse if someone doesn't want to pay, but are unsure what else we need/want in a looser CC&R, e.g. master policy: right now we have studs-in policy, but it seems like this would be a no-go with less restrictive CC&Rs, e.g. if someone wanted to do an addition, all the owners would in effect be subsidizing them.
I think the next step would be to contact an HOA attorney and ask about this, but just wanted to ask if anyone has had any experience with a CC&R rewrite where they replaced a very restrictive covenants with something looser.
Hello! I have appreciated being a part of this subreddit; I have learned so much! I would appreciate your advice on parking rules in my Community (our streets are private, not public). Violations of parking rules are rampant. The Pres. of our HOA repeatedly claims that unless they know the owner of the vehicle in violation, they can’t do anything. There is nothing in our CC&Rs that state that. A good example of violations is people parking, sometimes for days, in the fire lanes, clearly marked in red that violators parking there will be towed. Thoughts? Is he full of shit or am I shit out of luck in wishing that parking rules will be enforced? (And pls don’t tell me to mind my own business. It IS my business when I can’t easily back out of my garage because a car is parked in the fire line opposite my garage, OR when an emergency vehicle couldn’t access my house because a car was blocking the fire lane….).
SFH in CA. Posting just to see if there are any better solutions as this is apparently a headache for all involved.
We are a gated community, security at entrance. All guests (family, services, etc.) are required to have valid US driver's license for entry. I was made aware of this this morning as my contractors laborers are not being allowed in (Mexican license). I drove over and asked the gate guy if I could do anything, he said not really, and I said no worries I knew it wasn't his fault. He explained that the whole thing is a headache, all the food deliveries and contractors and everyone regularly complain, and the scanner doesn't even work. We have issues with vandalism and destruction, and it all comes from kids jumping walls/getting in gates, not visitors driving in.
I can't find one mention of license requirements for vehicle access anywhere in DCCRs/bylaws/etc.
Question: Has anyone had issues with this before? Does your community at least allow Canadian/International/etc. driver's licenses?
Also, are there ways we can leverage the value add from restricting/tracking guest access while avoiding scanning licenses headache?
Here to help you with all your Robert's Rules needs! (https://lastminutemeetings.net/about)
I have lived in my community for about five years now and my HOA has been raising fees by holding improper meetings that are an in clear violation of the rules. The fees being raised is not the main issue but as a community we have noticed that we have been receiving less and less. For example last month the cost of paying the HOA was raised another 25 dollars and accompanying that our landscaping company was fired. They have shut down the pools and rec center claiming that they do not have enough money to maintain these part of the community open.
Along with this I have taken a look at a poorly prepared balancing and net income sheet but they refuse to provide me with the cash flow sheet. Every time I ask for it I either get yelled at or just hung up on. The community has been in poor health and declining even further since the HOA is not taking care of it. Things like the grass dying because they refuse to turn on the sprinklers. Is there anything I can use to gain leverage in the meetings? And on another note taking a look at the balancing sheet we are missing about $68,000 their excuse is that people are not paying there dues.
Edit: Im new to all this but from further information that I’ve gathered the outstanding dues ($68,000) are from people that couldn’t afford to pay during the recession. That is what the HOA told me. As of now with the 180 homes in our property everyone is up to date on their dues and some people like myself are ahead. Our board has no organization meaning no president, vp etc. I’m getting information as I but special assessments were made to cover the outstanding fees from the last tenants because the Liens placed on the property defaulted because of the 08 recession.
Can an HOA mow private property that is not the common area in order to achieve a desired look?
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r/HOA Rules
Guidelines
Posting guidelines:
include your state
briefly describe the issue
include or provide a link to the relevant regulation and communications regarding the issue
come back after it's resolved and let us know how it went.
be respectful
Many questions can be answered by reading the governing documents for your community. These may be called Declarations, CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions), or Master Deed. In addition, the association (typically a non-profit corporation) will have Bylaws that govern its structure and operation.
Every state has different laws regarding real estate transactions and HOA governance, so please include the US state where you are located as members here may be familiar with your state laws and practices.
State HOA laws can be viewed here -> https://www.hopb.co/hoa-state-laws
If you're new to the board or feel your board is dysfunctional, this article may be useful -> https://www.reddit.com/r/HOA/wiki/index/boardmakeover
Remember - an HOA is a business, not a neighborhood club, and needs to be run as one; the owners are the shareholders in and customers of the business, and the success of the business is measured by the quality of life in the community it serves.
General information on community associations and how to run an HOA is available at Community Associations Institute - www.caionline.org (Board membership approx $300/yr) and HOA Leader - www.hoaleader.com (Board membership approx $120/yr).
Introduction to Community Association Living - https://www.caionline.org/AboutCommunityAssociations/About%20Comm%20Assns/introduction.pdf
Community Association Living: An Essential Guide for Homeowner Leaders - https://cdn.coverstand.com/25762/690134/8e672e120d60f533504a4baaf80297221d056154.7.pdf
General information on reserve studies is available at www.reservestudy.com/resources.
Wiki of articles of interest at https://www.reddit.com/r/HOA/wiki/index.
Message the mods if you have questions. Thanks.