Neighborhood Ass-ociations

Ours is optional, thank God, mostly there to manage the four little lakes in our neighborhood (I live on one; an SportsJournalists.com favorite lives on the one next door).

We joined when we moved to town, midway through the year. But when the next year came and we never got our beach passes and canoe sticker until the end of the summer ("We'll drop it off tomorrow," was the membership coordinator's oft-used refrain), we decided to forget about it. We're out the $400 we spent for that year, since the only real tangible benefit is use of the lake. But the way I look at it, we went one summer without the beach and lake; we can go another.

It's now been four years, and I haven't once wished I was a member.

 

Why would you want to own in a house in an association? It sounds like hell. I mean, I understand apartment condominiums where you pay maintenance fees but jeez, why would you want to live in a neighbourhood where the fucking developer sets the rules?

 

As I said, where I live you really don't have a choice. Most of the new developments have associations. When we were shopping for houses, I asked some questions about the association in each development so at least I had an idea about how strict they were. There were some places we ruled out because of their associations.

We could've avoided one if we'd bought in an older existing neighborhood, but we were pretty much looking at new houses. So we were stuck with one.

 

OTD:
Understood.
I guess it sucks to be beholden to some group that wants to make the neighbourhood totally vanilla.

 

I've been in my house for about two years and haven't had a problem with mine. Very low key.

But they were helpful when needed. A walkway lies between my property and a neighbors, but the developers tore it up near the sidewalk to put in the fire hydrants and utility boxes so we could have power, water, gas, etc. (I built in a new development.) But they never repaved, and for months we demanded that they repave the sidewalk and removed the chunks of concrete they had left near the road and were too large and heavy to lift. I filed a complaint with the associations and it was finished within a week.

 

My in-laws live in an upscale neighborhood. Very classy place, except for the guy who runs a home remodeling business out of his garage. He's on the corner where you turn into the neighborhood and he always has his garage door open so you can see the crap and crud in there. I understand at the last homeowners association meeting, people were complaining about him, so his wife decided to run for president. When she didn't win, she threw a screaming, cursing fit in front of everybody. When we were over there on Thanksgiving, the door was still up. Perhaps coincidentally, a house on one side and one across the street are now up for sale.

 

All we are saying, is take down that goddamn peace wreath.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/27/peace.wreath.ap/index.html

My guess is at least to some extent, the houses might be for sale to establish that adjacent homeowners are in fact being materially harmed by the guy's actions. If that can be established, all of a sudden the association rules grow some teeth, and the affected homeowners might be able to sue for damages.

Needless to say, I'd bet they have lawyers combing every page of the local ordinance books to find out if the dude is, in fact, breaking the law. If they can find some kind of blight law or zoning regulation against home businesses, he's in the soup.

 

this is the stuff i am focusing on law school so i don't mean to sound like a complete dickhead but anyone arguing against the tyrrany of associations is missing the point. i agree that they have absurd rules and they often act like housing nazis. and they go too far, but you chose to live there.

you can toy with semantics and tell me that you bough the house because of other factors (safety, near good schools, liked the deck, etc.) but you chose to buy a house that was in an association. you knew it was in an association when you bought it. you can argue that you had no choice, but that's simply not true - even if every house in your city is part of an association, you chose to live in that city. this isn't communist russia where you were assigned to a unit.

this means, like it or not, that you chose to give up some of your freedom to do what you want with your property.

in fact, this is the fundamental point that we learn in first year property class: although americans think they are free to do what they choose with their property, they aren't and haven't been since the days of the revolution. through zoning and regulation, there are tons of restrictions on what you can do with your property. this applies even if you don't live in an association, but if you live in an association, there are even more restrictions.

 

Good post, Leo.

Complaining about associations reminds me of people who buy houses out near the Toronto airport and then after they move in, complain about the noise.

Yeah, this idea, that it's your property and you can do what the hell you want with it is nonsense.--association or no association.

 

As the VP of my condo association, I was very interested in this post.  I would challenge everyone who disagrees with their association to run for the Board and then you'll see why there are certain procedures in place for unit owners.  I also think that sometimes the association takes things too far.....we actually have a rule that you can't park a pick-up truck in your driveway---your own or if it belongs to a guest.  It can go in the garage, or on the street (which is owned by the Township and prohibts parking on the street from 2-8 AM subject to ticketing).  I have been fighting this rule for 5 years.  Not only are pick up trucks the #1 selling vehicle in the U.S., I think it's ridiculous that if I bought a Cadillac Escapade with the truck bed for $70k that I can't park it in my driveway.  But, back in 1983, when the rule was written, pick-up trucks had a certain "connotation" that people didn't like.  I continue to fight the fight and it's looking like the rule may be changed that if the truck belongs to a guest, it will be allowed.  Baby steps.....

Edited: By the way, I don't own a pick-up truck.

 

We can all see through this condo association president's BS. This isn't about property values, it's about politics.
With all the religious right organizations based in Colorado, I'd bet this happens elsewhere in the state. God save the poor family in that development with the temerity to put a menorah in the window.

 

I once caught my next-door neighbor -- who put up a spite fence and was selling his house -- shoveling snow off of his roof. I yelled, "Hey, Claude, you're lowering your property value!"