New home....no chickens allowed!?

[Cetawin]

Quote:
Very simply explained....a developer buys X number of acres and sets up a community. To protect the property and that community, said developer creates a HOA home owners' association, a board is elected/selected and A Declaration of Covenants is drawn up and filed with public records and the State. It could be 10 pages or 1000 pages in length and sets out specific details on what is acceptable and what is required for the parcels in the community. From grass height, fence material, house colors, amount of dues, remedies for failing to abide by the rules and so forth. These covenants are an encumberance on the property and attached to it. So simply put, they have the power because when you choose to buy in their communities, you give them the power. The only way to avoid it...do not buy in a HOA community.

When you purchase the property, you do so acknowledging the HOA, the Declaration of Covenants and Dues and your lender is also aware of the restrictions on the property. So, when you buy you are advised of the Dec. and given a copy.

In order of priority, the mortgage has first priority followed by any secondary mortgages, the HOA and then YOU. So, fail to pay and someone will foreclose.

Sad to lose your home to the HOA for 1500.00 in dues, court costs and atty fees, still owe your mortgage and have ruined credit or be forced into bankruptcy. I could not begin to tell you the number of owners I have had to contact to advise them that they either pay the 200.00 in dues to remove the lien on the property (by the HOA) or we foreclose our lien. Nor would I care to count the number of foreclosure sales where my judgments were less than 5,000.00 which I ended up getting back from the mortgage company after I had the owners removed and gave title to the home to the mortgage company.

What is worse...I would guess to say that no less than 75 out of 100 of those owners threw my letters away or hung up on me after saying something stupid like "You are not the atty for the mortgage company and you cannot take my home" only to see me at the public auction of their home a couple months later.

The principle behind all the silliness is to stop people from having junk cars in their front yards, a purple house next to a pepto bismol pink one with orange trim, and etc. (people will do it if you do not prohibit it) It is to protect property values. Most HOAs provide amenities such as clubhouses, golf courses, pools, road maintenance, street light and etc.

No bashing me please...it was my job.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Home Owners Associations are created to keep "standards" within a community. You sign into that when you move to that neighborhood; it's contractual and you are bound by the terms of the contract. You are informed ahead of time about what are called "Covenants, Codes and Restrictions."
Most all towns already have them, known as municipal codes. The HOA is just an extension of that.
And yes, they can often tell you how you can paint your house, landscape your yard, or other things having to do with appearance and conformity.
Homogenization is their goal.

You could go the other way and have a community that states you MUST have chickcnes. Its possible; the standars by which the HOA governs can be modified, but in that that case they wouldn't. Just aint gonna happen.
HOA's are for people who want to uphold a certain standard - to 'keep up with the Joneses', as it were. Ever gone through a neighborhood and saw a house that made you go,
"My God... what were they thinking?"
Or "What a dump, they really need to clean that up!"

Thats is what HOA's are trying to prevent. Good for resale value, not so hot for individuality or personal freedom.

 

[amyquilt]

I say keep looking. I despise HOAs. When we lived in one a few years ago. I had a clothesline, one of the 1 piece ones with a bunch of lines?? Well, I had it for over a year, it barely showed over the top of the fence, and we got a nastygram about it. UGH....nosey butts! I could see an issue if it was tall, gawky, trashy looking and could be easily seen...but it wasn't. I used it mostly to dry our cloth diapers.

UGH!!

 

[manfre]

There have been instances where HOAs have fined people for not watering their lawns despite the state issuing drought restrictions. Having an HOA is not worth it. With luck, enough people will eventually realize this and pass over all HOA homes. Long term, it would be nice if this practice would die.

 

[Becaco]

If you want the chickens, do NOT move into a HOA community. TRUST ME. I did HOA foreclosures in Florida for many years and depending on the Declaration of Covenants, the HOA can foreclose on your house for violations in cases other than failure to pay dues. The problem with that is...you still owe the mortgage but the HOA has your house....it does get more detailed and drawn out but the basics are simple...violate the rules and you get fined....do not pay the fine and correct the problem...lose your home.

Oh my!!! I new HOAs were horrible, but never knew this.

Run don't walk away. I can't believe anyone would live where they weren't Kings and Queens of their own castle.​

 

[ibpboo]

Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rader

 

[amazondoc]

When I started looking for my new property, one of the first things I told the realtor was "No HOAs!"

 

[DENALI]

Quote:
UMMMM He was a city employee in a constable type of job.

Code enforcement is not a paid position, he no doubt had a real job and did the code enforcement.

Maybe where you are from but here he was a full time paid employee of the city.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Quote:

I'll bet! There is no way in H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICKS that I could live in a sub with an HOA!

 

[balticbabe]

I'd stay away from any place with a HOA. It’s next to impossible to get HOAs to budge. The people on the boards are control freaks and will take you to court where the home owners generally lose. Nearby a large development had a rule that all houses must have cedar shingle roofs. A homeowner installed an asphalt shingle roof, was sued and lost. He had to replace his roof.

Unfortunately in some parts of the country they are unavoidable. Some of them aren't so bad, some are awful. Where my parents now live all the homes have HOAs but you can't tell, they are rather lax. Where I used to live I was fined $25 a month for having an unregistered non-relative, my SO, living with me. I couldn’t believe the HOA could determine who could live with you. If they can say no non relatives they can defiantly say no chickens.