I think of HOA's as necessary evils. Without them people would probably start letting their properties go, however, they can sometimes be overly restrictive. Unfortunately, in Texas at least, they have a lot of power over homeowners.
When we first moved into our house several years ago, we found out how blood-thirsty this HOA was. My FIL set about installing ceramic tile flooring in our house, and put out a sign in the front lawn advertising his services. We immediately got a call from the HOA company telling us the sign was in violation of the covenants and restrictions. Interestingly enough, my wife and I have seen many of these signs in others' yards since that day.
More at issue is that the subdivision we live in is small (only 50 homes), and the vast majority of the homeowners are elderly - including one of our neighbors. That's usually not bad, but over time, this couple have become neighbors from hell - do mainly to the fact that they used to have a dog that barked at all hours and we reported them to the HOA many times. That was several years ago. To make matters worse, all the elderly people are good friends with one another and several sit on the board of directors. Needless to say, we are the "enemy" now.
Last year, we noticed one of our evergreen bushes were dieing (the upper half was brown while the lower half was still green). We immediately got a letter from the HOA to cut the dead portion off or remove the whole bush. I cut the dead part off. Earlier this year, the same thing happened to another bush: dead on the top, got a letter, and I cut the dead part off. Earlier this summer we get another letter saying the red tip bushes around a 4'x4' electrical box in our front yard were diseased and we needed to remove them. I went out there one afternoon and cut them all down.
That brings us to today ...
My wife told me today that we received yet another letter from the HOA saying that we need to plant NEW bushes around the electrical box (I only removed the diseased ones). I think this is the last straw. I know fighting this will probably be an uphill battle and prove fruitless, but this is pure BS.
First of all, we have done everything they asked us to do regarding this and past incidences with the landscaping in our front yard. To me, they are using their position to strong-arm us into doing more and more useless crap than we need to. My wife told me several weeks ago she noticed the next door neighbor talking with another elderly woman and pointing at our electrical box. The neighbor sits on the BOD's, so we knew they were probably conspiring to send us another letter about our yard. Secondly, our front yard is maintained by the association itself (or, at least, is supposed to be). While we own it, we pay a monthly fee each month to have it maintained. Of course, their argument will be that the maintenance is only for mowing, trimming, and watering. Perhaps most interesting is that other homeowners in our subdivision have utility "appendages" in their yards which are not screened by bushes. Ours is probably the biggest that isn't screened, but the covenant and restrictions don't go into detail. Matter of fact, I don't even think they talk about this particular thing at all - only as part of the overall "appearance".
6 comments:
Steve,
How much do you pay for the monthly fee? It sounds like you don't get too much out of it.
We pay $292/quarter, which is partially to pay for upkeep of our front lawns, including, but not limited to, water usage provided by a community controlled sprinkler system, and routine mowing and trimming by a professional landscape company.
This topic comes up every year at the annual meeting, and every year it is voted to keep things "as is". Several of us have voted to have the homeowners do the work themselves, but are out-voted by the elderly homeowners, who represent the majority of the homeowners. IOW, they are too old to do it themselves, and it would cost them more to have them pay for the service.
At this point, my wife and I are considering moving. We've talked about it before due to needing a larger house and more amenities for the kids (which we didn't have when we bought the house), but this latest incident may be the push we need.
I'd say turn the tables on your HOA by taking a quick drive through the neighborhood and note ALL violations. Send them a DETAILED complaint and then follow up on a regular basis complaining how long it's taking them to fairly enforce the covenants.
Payback is a Muther.....
douglas - The problem with HOA's in Texas is that they are given too much power by virtue of state law. I've been doing research, and even when there is absolute proof of corruption, it may STILL take an act of God to right the wrongs. The reason for this, IMHO, is that when a new subdivision is built, the HOA is governed by representatives of the BUILDER. It is, therefore, in their best interest to see that the subdivision is spotless so that they can sell more houses. Once they've built their last house, then and ONLY then are the powers of the HOA passed on to the homeowners. However, the original rules are still in place.
Still, though, the HOA's themselves know that they have all the cards and can predicate whatever they feel like, barring the trampling of one's federal rights. From the state on down, they have all the backing they need. That's why when my wife talked to the dimwit at the PM company, the lady told her that hiring a lawyer would be useless.
The ONLY ray of hope in these circumstances is that a person can only serve for two years in the same position. Therefore, *I* could submit my name for the next President/Vice President vacancy and have more power (not absolute, but at least maybe power enough to trump some decisions).
It's crazy and goes against any common or moral sense, but that seems to be how it is. You just hope the clowns that are on your BOD have the audacity to realize that their ignorance of power today may be their undoing tomorrow.
If it were me I would definitely go after them. It's obvious, for whatever reason, that they are singling you out.
Go through the subdivision and compile others that have violations the same as yours. Send them a strongly worded letter stating that with the numerous other houses that have violations existing, compounded with the multiple violation notices you have received while living there, that you feel you are a victim of discrimination. State whatever you have to, white, black, hispanic, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, old, young, have kids, don't have kids, gay, straight, you name it. As long as it is one of the protected classes from the federal government you can state it. From what you are saying, the fact that you are young and have children could be a viable option. State that you feel your civil rights are being violated and that with all the pressure form them you may need to bring legal action against the homeowners association.
Second thing I would do is turn the tables on them. State that the reason the bushes have become diseased and why the tops of the bushes died was due to improper care of the landscape. State that it was improper maintenance of the lawn that caused these problem so not only should the diseased bushes be replaced by the HOA, but you expect replacement of the bushes that needed to be trimmed because of the improper lawn care.
If anything, it will make them think twice about coming after you in the future. they probbably think they won't get a fight on anything so they keep after you for everything.
Good luck!
Patrick - Yes, I've already gone through the neighborhood and taken pictures of the other utility boxes. While ours is definitely the largest by far, it still contradicts what the by-laws say in that there are no size regulations. What burns us is that it appears some people are given preferential treatment by the board while others are not. For example, we've witnessed our neighbors-from-hell out checking the mail, or whatever, with their dog running around without a leash, which is not only in violation of our subdivision's by-laws, but also the city ordinance.
Unfortunately, the only thing we can do to overcome this would be to file a federal suit, however, I'm not sure we have enough fodder to do much damage.
We haven't gotten a response yet, so I'm not sure what the verdict will be. At this point, if they still come down on us, I *MAY* submit a letter outlining MY charges to the HOA for time spent making the plans and MY costs for labor and materials to actually do the work. In lieu of that, I'm wondering what the laws are concerning Mechanic Liens and if the HOA does not pay, if I can slap a lien on the HOA nad/or it's board members for nonpayment.
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