HOAs are for the birds... except when they're not.

[Dayrel]

Since you will be right across the road from the HOA, you might want to get a rusty old pickup and put it up on blocks directly across from them. <evil grin>

 

[Dawnclucks22]

EDT: As an awful, awful person, I would have promptly doubled the amount of chickens I had planned and taken the excess eggs up to the HOA boardmembers every week, just to rub their faces in it.

We don't have an HOA program, but we're zoned for a maximum of 4 chickens and no roosters because apparently they're too loud. We have 6 and no one has ever complained. In fact, our immediate neighbors asked if we still had them!
Right next to our house our neighbors had two chihuahuas that would bark all. day. Open a window, barking. Walk outside, barking. Minding your own business, barking. They'd wake me up in the morning. And no roosters! Ha!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Since you will be right across the road from the HOA, you might want to get a rusty old pickup and put it up on blocks directly across from them. <evil grin>

And make sure it has chrome silhouette woman mud flaps, rebel flag covering back glass, bed filled over the top with beer cans and bottles. Then for good measure pull a door off and chain a pitbull mix to it.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

Since you will be right across the road from the HOA, you might want to get a rusty old pickup and put it up on blocks directly across from them. <evil grin>

And make sure it has chrome silhouette woman mud flaps, rebel flag covering back glass, bed filled over the top with beer cans and bottles. Then for good measure pull a door off and chain a pitbull mix to it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Since you will be right across the road from the HOA, you might want to get a rusty old pickup and put it up on blocks directly across from them. <evil grin>

I'd be worse... I'd paint my house an obnoxiously bright color or rainbow polka dots or something. They'd be clutching their pearls over the audacity!

I celebrated my escape from HOAs by parking my trash cans in front of the garage. Silly as it is, I couldn't do that before!

 

[Tooshay89]

I'd be worse... I'd paint my house an obnoxiously bright color or rainbow polka dots or something. They'd be clutching their pearls over the audacity!

I celebrated my escape from HOAs by parking my trash cans in front of the garage. Silly as it is, I couldn't do that before!

Oh, that’s another new “update” to the rules. Previously, our trash cans were to be stored in the garage until the day before trash day. Fine, that’s understandable. NOW, we have a specific timeframe that the cans can be out. No earlier that 5pm the day before trash day and they MUST be brought in no later than 8pm on trash day. I hope no one planned on working late or going out to dinner on Wednesday nights.

“I’m sorry, I can’t go out with you to celebrate your promotion tonight, Debbie. I’ve got to be home by 8 to put my trash cans away. I can’t afford another strike!”

At this point it’s just humorous.

Because I’m fed up, and a little petty... another new rule that was directed at us is that you can’t have any boats or jet skis visible for more than 24 hours, twice a week. We have a pair of jet skis that my husband had in the driveway for a few days while we sold one of our collector cars. We needed that extra garage space to put the car instead of the skis, but had no intentions of leaving the skis outside of the garage permanently. But now... we’ve decided to leave them in the driveway twice a week for exactly 24 hours.

 

[Tooshay89]

Do they also regulate the amount of time your children can stay in your yard? How about breed of dog? No mutts allowed!

How does one remove people from an HOA board?

EDT: As an awful, awful person, I would have promptly doubled the amount of chickens I had planned and taken the excess eggs up to the HOA boardmembers every week, just to rub their faces in it.

Hah! As of the updated covenants that were sent out, they want to limit just about everything in your backyard. We're in violation over several things that were previously no issue. Our shed (which is behind our vinyl privacy fence) is technically too big. They added a clause that says no one can have a shed bigger than 12 ft x 24 ft - which is what all of the board members have, conveniently enough. I have a 12 ft x 32 ft shed. The visual differences are negligible unless you came into my fenced yard with a tape measure and checked it. But it's still a little ridiculous.

They also no longer allow above ground pools. To clarify, they never allowed permanent above ground pools, like the metal sided ones with the wooden decks. That's fine. We opted not to spend 75k on an in ground pool because A - just no, and B - after the first 6 months, we knew this wouldn't be our forever home, so we didn't want to throw money away on an investment that doesn't usually see a return upon selling the house. But we DO have a 10 year old son and a 13 year old foster daughter who like to utilize the backyard from time to time. And we live in Florida... It's HOT. So during summer break I buy one of those blue temporary above ground pools so my kids can have something to do outside other than getting heat stroke. According to the new rules, those are no longer allowed. EVEN THOUGH we have a complete 6 foot privacy fenced acre backyard and literally no one can see it. Too bad, so sad. I just ordered their pool for the summer so... fine me.

It's starting to sound like we're the trashy house in the neighborhood, but if you could only see the amount of time, energy and money we've put into our house, you'd wonder why exactly they are picking on us, of all people. We have neighbors several doors down that have NEVER trimmed their landscaping or weed whacked their yards. It looks awful. You can't even see the windows anymore, the bushes are almost to the roof, lol. It's just comical at this point. Do I care? Not really, it's not my yard, not my problem. But in the last year we've added over 100k in improvements to our house, many of those will benefit and improve the value of our home and those around us. So it's not like we're just trying to bring everyone down.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I am curious if they had to call home to their spouses to make sure they weren't in violation before implementing these changes.

 

[GodofPecking]

i wish you would have, just once, written what HOA is, just once. The Internet covers the planet same as printing. Acronyms are written in full first time they are used followed immediately by the abbreviation in brackets.

 

[Dayrel]

You do know that you could have saved the inappropriate lecture (forums are not formal writing exercises) and more quickly/simply asked what an HOA is, right?

HOA- Home Owner's Association- Local governance, typically restricted to a suburban subdivision. Rules are enforced by contract and civil lawsuits, rather than criminal law and police enforcement. Most commonly setup when the subdivision is built, so that buying a home in the area is restricted to those who are willing to sign the contract. Tend to become dominated over time by those most interested in power and control over other people, as is every other level of government. Collects taxes and uses it to provide some services (ex: snow plowing, enforcement costs to monitor and control non-compliant members).