No nightmares… $100/yr and it mostly goes to landscaping at the entrance and repairing the wall when cars drive into it.
Had an tenant whose son was reportedly causing havoc around the complex. It was a case of my tenant (and me, as her landlord) vs the HOA and some statements that others had provided. My tenant denied the claims when I spoke to her about them. No evidence was given. I got pulled into a sham of a disciplinary meeting (which my tenant was not allowed to attend) and fined for not doing enough to control my tenant.
This wonderful service for $370/ month (and increasing each year).
They casually inform first time buyers that the roof needs to be replaced, all the piping leaks, the elevator is past its service life, and the previous management ripped them off so we’re critically underfunded, but the board didn’t get voted out.
Finally convinced one do-nothing to not run for reelection but it’s been a problem. I think we’re paying $450/mo, no amenities. There’s been a hole in the hallway ceiling for 3 months after the last plumbing repair.
We have a 4x15ft patch of grass that one day turned into dirt. I think we’re paying landscapers to maintain two bushes at this point because they haven’t touched that dirt pad.
Lived in a 1Br condo with one for 5 years. Didn’t have any major beef with mine.
Only issue was they didn’t allow anyone to install air conditioners in their units when I first moved in. Then they said they’d be allowing mini-splits soon, after which it took them 2 years to get that approved. Unfortunately they had designated locations where the condenser had to go, which for the unit I was in, was right next to the front door and kitchen window. I was all ready to purchase one until that detail came out…
Ended up toughing it out for the next year until I could afford to move out into a bigger house without an HOA. Now I’m happy to have full control over anything that goes on or through my roof, attic, and exterior walls.
I live on a crappy golf course, our fees are $89 a month they don’t provide anything, we can’t have fences over 4ft the fence has to be see through, we can only choose certain colors to paint our houses we can’t store trash cans outside we got a notice for a single weed there is constantly people driving around taking pictures it freaking blows we are selling and the next place will have no HOA
Whats an HOA?
Home owner’s association; when you buy a house and it is part of a HOA, you have to sign a contract to join the HOA as a requirement of buying, which means you have to pay dues and abide by the rules of the organization, and you have to require the next buyer to also join in order to sell your house.
*In the US.
No, this exists in other countries just as well. Here in Germany it’s called „Hausverwaltung“.
Could you elaborate? Does HOA mean something different in other countries?
It’s not a thing in other countries
Well, not by that name. There’s other sorts of legal agreements for shared buildings, though. People complain about condo boards up here too, but it sounds like the American HOA is particularly nasty. I don’t know why.
in the UK, you buy a house and you pay a council (county?) tax. If you collect junk outside of your house no one says anything, you just get assigned as a cooky neighbour.
If the rats come or its genuinely bringing down the safety of the area, neighbours might complain tothe council who may/may not do anything about it depending on how much they care. Council positions are safe/steady jobs but the pay isn’t great, so you can expect swift inaction at any time.
Norway has something similar, you own the inside usually and the HOA own the outside, including the houses themselves. Live in one, largely a good thing but some things come slow since they need to be voted for of course. Generally worth it, since you get good deals on things like internet. It’s cheaper but it’s also something you usually have to use and the only option. Eg only that provider of internet.
I’m my case, they are also responsible for my balanced ventilation, my exterior doors and my water heater. So when the time comes, they handle it. Shared costs cover snow plowing, the shared community building, upkeep of garage, outdoors and the buildings, and things like water bills and taxes paid. In particular, HOAs purchases do not need to pay a 2.5% of the purchase price fee when you purchase a home. This itself saves you quite a bit, and makes up for some of the extra you pay in monthly costs. (but pretty much all of those are at least going somewhere that benefit you anyways)
The downsides are, there are special rules so some people that have membership may have a right to take over the winning bid in a sale. I myself used this to purchase my place, having gotten 10 years of seniority in “HOA company”. You spend the seniority with your purchase, but also are not allowed to own more than one part. Also, no long term renting so there aren’t any companies buying and renting out and things like that. You have to live in the HOA.
I believe it is what Americans call what might be called an Owners Corporation / Body Corporate / Apartment Owners Association / Management Company in other parts of the English-speaking world.
In Canada we have strata for condos and town homes. Is it like that?
I took my trash to the dumpster. Later I got a photo of my trash bag in the dumpster because I had tied the bag closed incorrectly and a $200 fine for improper trash bag fastener.
Did you end up paying it?
I had to. It was included with my monthly fees.
That’s so fucked. I hate how even your neighbors can act like dictators.
someone in that HOA has shares in a trash bag fastening company, guarantee it
Perhaps! I’ve always found that people who participate in the HOA Governance are the kind of people who can’t mind their own business.
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I got a $100 fine because the curtains I decorated my bedroom with were visible to the outside and not an approved color.
Never again.
That it was in a state of total chaos: the management company wasn’t doing their job, one of the members wasn’t paying his fees (only 3 units so it was a major hit), and I found out we didn’t have any insurance. I ended up taking over, got rid of the shitty management company, sued the delinquent member, evicted one of his tenants (drug addicts that left the doors unlocked and would set off the building smoke detectors all the time), and sold/moved once the dust settled.
I feel bad for these folks.
My building’s HOA kicks ass, but admittedly, the people we elected to it are very ‘live and let live’.
Hopefully it stays that way. I’ve read horror stories about buildings hiring HOA management companies out of nowhere who take over and turn things shitty. 😔
Wouldn’t let me rent when the housing crash hit and I couldn’t afford the place, wouldn’t let me have friends over late at night because they thought my d&d group were a bunch of drug dealers. All around a miserable experience.
How the fuck do they keep you from having friends over? Also u need a new player for that group?
I lived in a failed HOA in California, 8 unit condo, slipped thru the cracks. We shared a water bill so that was getting turned off a lot. We had a large leak that we ignored for years until we couldn’t and had to collect $500 from each dirtbag to get it fixed. 3 of us cared, the others I hope have a painful demise.
I was the president of my HOA. Somewhat not intentionally.
It was my first home, a condo, and I bought it at launch right after it was built. After about 6 months of living there, a neighbor approached me and said the whole rest of the board had flaked out, and would I like to be president of the HOA?
I said sure, it seems interesting and I definitely want the value of my ownership to be protected.
So me, him, and another guy formed a new board.
Oh man, the messes we started to uncover. The super low dues didn’t even cover the trash removal, hallway electric lighting bill, elevator maintenance contract… Much less any landscaping. No wonder the place was looking rough.
And of course there was no budget to put money away for long term needs like reroofing or whatever.
So we worked hard on a plan to propose to the owners to increase the dues about 70% so that we’d have a well landscaped place and hopefully no surprise expenses ever because of an ample rainy day fund.
Less than 10% of the owners even showed up to the HOA meeting, so we didn’t meet quorum.
We tried again, and finally got quorum after knocking on doors and asking for people to please come and vote.
This was just one issue. I’d get regular calls like hey, somebody dumped an old mattress by the dumpster. Can you call the removal company (the regular trash service wouldn’t take that kind of thing). Or calls like “there’s some sick trees in the front yard, when are you finally going to get an arborist out here?” And so and so’s room is leaving trash in the hallway, can you please go talk to them?
I resigned within a year. Screw those guys and I’ll never co-own without getting to choose my partners again.
Why is an HOA looking after the building and public spaces? That should be either the landlord/building owner and the local council responsibility. HOA are bullshit which ever way you look at them.
The HOA is the owners. The owners vote in some board members who do the work on behalf of the majority of owners.
Sometimes the HOA hires some 3rd party management company to handle stuff, but in our case we felt it was wasted money because we would care more about the results. In the end I can see why a lot of owner boards do that as the day-to-day of running the place is obnoxious.
The public spaces were on our property, so our responsibility.
Yes, this is the unappreciated other end of shitty small-scale power tripping. Normal people don’t want to do jobs like internet moderator or HOA president, because nobody appreciates them and it’s boring. So, people who get a different kind of value out of it take their place, and around we go.
I’ve lived in 3 and had the luxury of them being fantastic and doing more than I expected, above and beyond and never being more than like…$50/mo. Included gym and pool access and stuff.
BUT, I have a family member who lives in one where basically everybody got hit with a roof repair bill of $30k partly due to previous management embezzlement, and it ended up being taken to the courts and crap and eventually got reduced but not eliminated. I think like half the residents sold and left in the year following.
So…it can be a crapshoot but I hear more stories that are bad than good.
Getting out of it is the hardest part for us right now.
We’re in a small 28 unit condominium, so our dues go towards insurance for all buildings (only exterior, have to have our own for studs in), water, lawn service, management company, etc. Our dues are almost $400/month.
Yes, per month. It absolutely blows, especially when we’re trying to sell our unit and it’s been on the market for almost half a year.
I’m the HOA president so I know what all our expenses are (and have fought to keep increases to a minimum, including negotiating the community water bill with the water company), and unless we kick out the management company (Not going to happen) the dues are just going to stay high. We’re preparing to refuse an increase for the next year.
Why can’t you kick them out? Wouldn’t it be cheaper if the hoa managed all that jazz?
It’d be cheaper, sure. But that assumes anyone actually wants to run things locally. My VP is an elderly woman who would love to get off the Board as well. We just don’t have volunteers to run things. I joined up so our HOA didn’t get handed to a lawyer to run, which would cost even more.
Prior to having a management company, the HOA treasurer embezzled about $40,000. It’s the reason they got the management company in the first place.
Yeah people don’t really understand that HOAs are a two way street in most states. Bad HOAs exist because of bad neighbors, neglectful neighbors, or both. All it takes to right a ship is to show up and vote (or fill out the paper absentee ballot…) when the yearly elections happen. And then show up to some meetings so quorum can be met.
My HOA has to reschedule important meetings several times a year because nobody can be bothered to show up for a 30 minute meeting every quarter so quorum is met. Bad HOAs are like bad local unions. They only have power because you let them have power. Lobby your neighbors to do something about it. Unfortunately my experience is such that the typical homeowner who chooses to live in an HOA does so because they want to be rorLly hands off as much as possible. Kind of the opposite of the default pictures people have of obsessive neighbors in HOAs.
Honestly, it sucks, but nowadays, $400 isn’t overly high for condo HOAs. At least not in my region of the state. For stand alone, detached homes, it’s insane. But fees are crazy high nowadays for everyone. That price for a condo HOA is not outrageous unfortunately.
