On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:02:41 -0500, "Sanity" wrote:



Explain something to me. Someone buys a home in an HOA. Prior to buying
they are given the docs and sign a statement to abide by them. Then all of a

That's not always the case. In my case, I came from another state I
had no clue there even was an HOA until the closing, and it was either
the middle or the end of that. I didn't see the docs at that time, and
I don't think anyone in this n'hood has ever signed a statement to
abide by them. I don't think anyone in Maryland signs a statement to
abide by the rules, and some or many of my neighbors have completed
the closing and moved into the house before they see a copy of
anything (Articles of Incorporation, by-laws, and I think one other)

Actually I was pleased to see the papers, and I agree with everything,
or almost everything in the papers I got. These are townhouses and it
protects me from obnoxious neighbors. I suspect the typical rules for
free-standing houses are different, and I suspect if I saw a typical
set of them, I'd like them too.

Although some people might not. But even if one does know and
approve of the rules, the rules are often changed later by stupid or
excessively selfish or dishonest boards, or even a couple members of
the board. Or rules are imposed by a "Architecture committee" that
might only have one person on it if no one else voluteers, of if they
do but the chairman doesn't bother to call them under after he has
made the rules he wants.

There are many ways to screw over one's neighbors using the HOA rules,
some of which are inevitably judgment calls, and it's very hard to
show that personal malice was a motive, as it often is. Or at the very
list, "I like to do things my way, and I'm going to make sure you do
things my way too". The written documents rarely go into much detail,
so there is plenty of room for abuse.

In my case, the current pres of the HOA is a liar, a cheat, and a
thief, but no one wants the job but she. She does it for the
emotional satisfaction of getting her way and pushing people around,
and slightly for the graft she gets. Fortunately for me, her bad
traits have only caused me slight inconvenience, until perhaps these
past 10 months, and then only because an unreasonable neighbor moved
next door to me. But she's caused lots of other small and big
problems for others. Details on request.

But absolutely, I would say that 23 or 24 of my 25 years here were
good, and the HOA rules helped them a great deal to be that way,
rather than hindered them.

In theory there's something positive to be said for keeping some
amount of goverment almost as close to oneself as possible, and not
having the county government make one set of rules for everyone in the
county. Details on request.


As to why one would buy in such a place, surely that was a rhetorical
question. There are a dozen major factors to consider when buying a
house and this is only one of them. The usual way to avoid a problem
while still having the good things one wants is to spend more money,
and not everyone has more money. There is a constant theme in many
newsgroups that people are at fault when they don't just spend more
money to avoid problems.




sudden they scream, kick and cry when one of the regs from the docs are
enforced. Please explain why that person bought in an HOA in the first
place if he didn't want to follow their rules. Don't get me wrong, I don't
like HOA's but I sure wouldn't buy in one if I disagreed with the docs and
had no intention of following them.