I watch a lot of shows on t v where people are buying houses and they never mention association fees or rules. Does anyone out there have to pay them other than the state of Maryland?
I myself have lived in this house long before they were invented but most new neighborhoods and some of the older ones have rules as to what color and fencing and outdoor stuff you can do with your property. They also have condo fees for condos. Some of these can run several hundred dollars a month and they are forever. If you are in one of these associations you forfeit your right to chose a lot of stuff concerning your property and the majority rules.

I live in a neighborhood with a community association and certain rules, all of which are disclosed before you buy into the neighborhood. I LOVE living here. I never have to worry about my property values dropping because my neighbor trashes his house or yard. The annual fees are about $400.00, well worth it. We have walking trails, beautiful tot lots, parties for the summer holidays, free movie nights, all kinds of stuff like that, a gorgeous waterfront pavilion and picnic area, men that landscape the common areas and a great community association staff. I don't feel like I've "forfeited" anything, although I know many people disagree and life in a neighborhood like mine is just not for them.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Like truble said, those rules are disclosed to you before you buy. Some like truble have good feelings about HOA, others do not. I myself will NEVER like in a HOA or any "fee" community, simply becasue I am an independent rebel! We bought our 20 y.o. house 5 years ago and pay a normal monthly mortgage and normal yearly property tax. Our little town does have rules about trash in yards, junk cars, and grass overgrowth, but they are common sense rules that I don't believe anyone has a problem with.

Our first house was somehow exempt from the homeowner's association. The president, while we lived there, didn't like it one bit. However, there was nothing he could do about it. We kept our home and lawn immaculate because we take care of what we pay for. The downside is that sometimes you get a control freak like him and it's a battle. It does serve to keep people motivated to maintain.

Currently, we are in the county and only have to follow their ordinances. All of my neighbors keep their property well maintained. That's a factor in why we bought this house. We looked around at various times of the day and week, over a period of time.

Any homeowner's fees and requirements would/should be disclosed by a reputable realtor so the potential buyer has been advised.

Condo fees are different. Buying a condo means you have to pay a yearly fee which covers landscaping, building, tennis courts, pool, club house, and common area maintenance. Condo life is virtually maintenance free for the buyer once they step outside their door.

dl

I would never live in a HOA type community either. Too "Stepford Wives" for me. A friend of mine loves hers. To each her own.

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Wow, that Stepford Wives comment was pretty insulting. The fact that we like having our neighborhoods stay nice, and having certain services and amenities provided doesn't make us Stepford Wives any more than living in NYC makes you gangster.

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Reading is Fundamental.

We have lived in 4 houses, all have been in neighborhoods with HOAs. We would never live in a neighborhood without them! I agree with everything truble says. Our current ones are $775/year. But we have a heated neighborhood jr. olympic sized pool with a water slide, tennis courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball, playground and an awesome clubhouse that you can rent out for special occassions. We also have neighborhood get-togethers several times a year. It's worth every penny to us to be sure that there aren't old cars on blocks, unmowed lawns, trash sitting out in front of your house, houses painted crazy colors, sheds built in the back yards, etc.

We have friends who can't imagine living in a neighborhood like ours and are perfectly happy living in neighborhoods without rules and things we don't want near us. It doesn't matter to me! Each to his own - if we were all the same, it would be a boring world!

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

"The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have."

Sorry. Didn't mean to insult you. Just my feelings about all the rules. The requirements to conform are too stringent for me. Maybe my friend's HOA has a lot more rules than yours. For instance, she can't have a clothes line in her back yard.

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I grew up in "non" HOA areas. Although they were nice areas, there was always one or two houses with unkept yards, cars parked everywhere but the garage(including their front lawn), etc. For my parents, it was ok. My dad has a lot of crap and doesn't like people to tell him to put it away. I knew I would want an HOA community just because I don't want to look at someone's crap out my window. My DH is president of ours (only because the previous board members were going a little *HOA nazi*..that's what they call power hungry HOA board members here). Our dues are $500 a month. They used to be $300 but had to go up to pay for the dues that were not coming in because of foreclosures. Still, we get a lot for $500 a year. We have a huge open space area, with walking path and park plus a pool. I know other HOA's that pay more and don't have anything...maybe just plants and flowers at the front of their subdivision.

There are rules but nothing bad. You can have clotheslines (I think state of CO said you cannot block them anymore) and you can have a power windmill to make your own power. You DO have to have colors approved if you want to paint. I don't mind it. I don't want to have my neighbor paint their house tie-dye (it happened to my parents in our old neighborhood growing up). You can't have chickens or animals (we are in city limits) and you have to have a certain fence. I don't find it frustrating to deal with.

I watch a lot of shows and I do see them talk of fees (the ones I watch are HGTV like Property Virgins).

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I guess I've lucked out. I've never lived in a HOA community and I've never had anyone with cars parked everywhere, junk in the yard, weird colored houses, or cars on blocks. The worst I've seen is every once in a while a lawn gets a little shaggy, but that doesn't bother me.

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$500 a month? Holy ****! So, over a 10 year period, you are paying $60,000. Just for HOA fees.

Never been in one and never plan to. Sounds a little uppity to me. That's a lot of money to pay just to be sure everyone 'conforms'. I live out in the country.. rural area. Funny, here we don't pay 'association' dues but all our houses are nice, well kept yards, no junk cars. Wow, and everyone manages to do all this on their own, without having to pay a fee!!!

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"GO HOKIES!"

Our subdivision has a HOA, and I don't mind paying the fees at all. Our subdivision is beautiful, and I like that. We also have several ponds, walking trails, amphitheatre, community building, dog park, and children's park, and it is well maintained. I don't find the rules to be bad, No clotheslines, fences have to be uniform, only 2 types allowed, no foil in windows. As long as you take care of your home and property you won't have any issues. The care of the area, makes re-sale easier (IMO) and being military this is also important.

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Nicole

It's not just to be sure everyone conforms. That is part of it, but the bulk of it is to maintain all the amenities that you see listed in everyone's posts and to cover the cost of neighborhood get-togethers, etc.

You can't maintain & insure neighborhood pools, playgrounds, lakes, walking trails, etc., etc., without money. A lot of people (myself included) consider those amentities worth the cost.

Our neighborhood also has a very nice gym that residents can use.

ETA: I forgot to add our HOA also pays for trash pickup and cart rental for trash & recycling. Currently we only have to pay for recycling (not sure why - maybe because it's optional?) but they are talking about picking that up as well.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

"The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have."

Mine are more than that....and we have no pool, no lake front, no nothing. We have about 40 custom homes in our neighborhood. The rules....well, let's just say there are many....even down to what color we have to paint our mailbox. But, it is well worth every dime. Houses in our area are rarely on the market for very long (last one on the market was on and off in less than a month and sold for over $500k) and all didn't drop much in value during the housing crisis.

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I'm the kind of woman when my feet hit the floor in each morning, the devil says "Oh crap, she's up."

Wow...that was a good typo! It's $500 a YEAR....sorry

My mom lives part-year in CA and her condo dues are $400 a month BUT they get a huge rec center with gym, pools (two), hot tubs, sauna, party area, weekly meet and greets to stop at (food, etc), local bands play on Fri nights, she may get to play golf...not sure since she doesn't play, plus it's gated. $400 a month is pretty cheap in her area considering what she gets

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

My mom & dad lived in one. Most of the home had pools & they couldn't have clotheslines, so people "hung up" their clothes on their deck railings. Looked terrible.
I couldn't live in one. I hate being told what I & can't do with something I own. I would have a real hard time with no clothesline. I love to hang out my laundry.
Judy

I have never lived anywhere like that and never intend to. We live in the counrty, have a really nice yard, huge garden , cloths line, apple , pear, peach , walnut , pecan trees. Grow grapes tons of other things that my sister who lives in a community with rules cant have. She even had to get approval to plant flowers in the little bity tiny yard.We have neighborhood cookouts every yr, yard parties and such. No junk cars or couches on porches and such around here. No one telling us we cant if we want to but no one wants to trash up a nice area,. If I am paying for my place, I dont think anyone has the right to tell me what color to paint it or what flowers or trees I can plant on my OWN property.

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There are no rules about what I can plant on my property! I've never heard of such a thing in an HOA -- that's a new one on me! It's true, if I change my paint color, I need approval -- and I'm very, very glad because it means I'll never look out my window at a house painted orange and purple or some such foolishness.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Is it really that common to see a house painted orange or purple? I've never seen that, except for some row houses in San Francisco. I think it looks cute there.

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Yep, got one for our neighborhood. Fees are $600 a year, and if you want access to the gym and tennis groups it is another $300 a year. So far we have not had a problem with this one. Our old neighborhood also had one and it was a problem. They would come after you if you had weeds in your beds, a hose outside, parked your car out of the garage etc...

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I wouldn't say it's the norm but yes, people DO paint odd and unappealing colors. Some do it just to tick off the neighbors. I have lived in such a neighorhood before. It may not be orange but it could be yellow...which can be a nice color on a house, unless it's BRIGHT yellow...like glow in the dark (and yes, I've seen that too). Or how about blue that's almost black. Not attractive on a house (that one is a couple miles from us currently). We have a friend who painted the top triangle part of his house in a rainbow and painted the fence to match. We adore him but are glad we aren't his neighbors

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Here they get no special treatment or emenities no pool, spa, trash removal other than the norm and all they do get is rules, hey don't even have a tree.

There were some people on the news the other night in the metro in the next town over that are painting their house bright orange, yellow & purple. They apparantly saw it somewhere on vacation and liked it, bought a house (they haven't moved in yet) and are having it painted before they move in. They neighbors are going crazy over it and are hoping to talk them into changing the colors. It is so ugly they were on the news! Crazy! I'm just trying to figure out where they would have been on vacation to see it!

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

"The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the best of everything they have."

If I had to guess, I would pick somewhere like Key West, the Bahamas, or possibly even Galveston.

I would think there would be good points on both sides. If you just watch closely on the news, expecially when there is a fatal domestic, or a drub bust, you can see the wierd things some people will do to their property. I don't "think" I would like to live in a place with HOA and rules, but I am well aware what type of neighbors you can wind up without them. I am sure a lot of it depends on what area you live in and what type of house you can afford.

When we looking to buy our house, we made sure we did not get a house with a HOA. Only because at the time dh worked for a tow truck company and if he had to bring the truck home(if he had a late night call) he could. Plus I don't want anyone telling me I can or can't do something to my property if I want to. We wouldn't paint our house any odd colors any way.
We do have pretty strict code enforcement in our county though and they do come by every 2 weeks or so through the area.

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Mom to Katie 1/95 and Sara 5/97

I live in a HOA neighborhood. I don't get into the politics of it all. It seems like there is always some emergency meeting to deal with a compliance issue. But, the rules aren't strict IMO and I believe they protect the value of my home. We have a pool, tennis courts, lots of common areas, play grounds, bike paths, etc. It isn't Stepford by any means, but it isn't Petty Coat Junction either. I like the fact I won't wake up to a neighbor with a camper in the back yard, an above ground pool and 20 kids screaming around, a toilet or bathtub flower planter, or 5 beater cars in the driveway. But, to each their own. Life is all about choices

Our HOA are only 50 per Year.It's really only for snow and lawn care..No other extras...

When we moved to FL, looking for a neighborhood with NO association fees was really high on my list. We found one and I've been happy here. Everyone keeps up their property.

What I've seen happen in FL with associations since our move has only reinforced my feeling of dislike for the whole association concept. This being the latest story.

Rest of the story:
Homeowner's association cuts resident's water pipe

The owner needs to pay up but the pipe cutting is way over the top.

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That is just insane! There are laws HOA's have to follow and no way would ours cut a pipe (or be allowed too for that matter).

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

In that case, the HOA is actually providing the water to the homeowner, who didn't pay for it. Think the water company doesn't cut off your water if you don't pay the bill? Trust me, they do.

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Reading is Fundamental.

But cutting the pipe is way over the top!!

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"GO HOKIES!"

According to her lawyer, it's illegal:

There's a deliberate action by the homeowner's association that's not only illegal, but they're trespassing on her property," Fernandez stated. "They're taking rights away from her that are under the constitution and they're also violating Florida laws."

Fernandez says, under Florida statutes, an association can suspend use of amenities like a community pool or workout room. They can also suspend their voting rights for community issues. But Fernandez says the law does not say water -- a necessity -- can be cut.

Given that she has a disabled daughter, whether legal or not, it seems immoral to me.

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No, the water company CAN. They don't always. If a customer can prove there are exstinuating circumstances, then the utility company won't.
Just like electric companies won't turn off electricity in the summer in the South, and energy companies won't turn off fuel (oil, gas, elec.) in the dead of winter, water companies operate much the same way. By shutting off the necessities (water, heat/air) a utility company opens itself up to a huge liability should an elderly or infirmed person experience some sort of exacerbation of disease/illness or should they die.

You're wrong, truble. I know that's a bitter pill to swallow.

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