On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:59:03 -0500, Norminn
wrote:


Just out of curiosity - do you have the right to refuse to sign the
agreement if you buy the house? IOW, can you buy a house in one of these HOA
neighborhoods, but refuse to sign or comply?

Deed restricted........rules go with the land. There is a way to
dissolve condo. associations in Florida,
so probably also for HOA's.

In Maryland every development of more than x houses has to have an
HOA, although it doesn't have to collect dues or have meetings.

Don't know but I think that is largely to keep in force one important
part, which is that if a fire destroys a house or owners neglect it
sufficiently, and the owner wants to walk away, after following a few
rules, the HOA can make repairs to the home, can borrow money to make
the repairs (in normal economic times), and keep a lien on the house
to get the money back. And can foreclose on the lien and sell the
house to get the money back. I think the purpose of this is to
prevent one and then several houses in disrepair turning a
neighborhood into a "slum". No matter how expensive the houses, a
burened out shell is going to run down house values.

Different statutes. For condo, I believe
it requires assent by all of the
unit owners.

That would certainly be fair. But such laws vary by state. I don't
think there even is a Uniform HOA law, or Condo Law, or Co-op Law.

In Maryland Condo law is rather detailed, but the HOA law is quite
short and for everything not specified there, standard corporate law
applies.