"SteveBell" wrote

If someone asks me to help plant shrubs, I'll be glad to participate,
but I'm not going to support setting up an HOA. About what do I need to
worry here?

Not to worry, as others said but peer pressure can be a problem. I think
they need to rename it as it sounds more like what I have here. Run this by
them?

We have a local NA (Neighborhood association). It is *not* an HOA. It is a
voluntary list of folks who with prior arrangement, help others with various
'things'. The most common one is helping get leaves up just now. This is
an older sub-division and many here are quite elderly. They wander down to
Karen's (local lady) or call her and she keeps an email list which she sends
out. 2 weeks ago, we showed up for the Garrison's (nice elder lady, husband
wheelchair bound now) and handled their leaves. Joe came over with some
leaf bags (Joe is next door, we handle his leaves as he's also older but
it's from our combined tree that grows maybe 6 inches deeper on his side but
pretty much 'on' the property line).

Ours is more a matter of fair sharing the help we have and the skills we
have. Now and again a project comes up that needs some materials which the
person can't afford but usually one of us has the stuff sitting about, or in
a few times, one of us just goes out to get it and donates it.

Samples of that since I came back stateside OCT 2007:

- Bad step, wood rotted, needed 3ft long 12 inch PT piece and someone with
tools to cut it to measure. (We had tools, another had the wood)
- Wheelchair ramp, wood again, needed several pieces replaced, 6 inch PT
stuff, we had wood and tools, others did labor
- Driveway resurface (professionally done), needed temp a place to park
nearby (we have a double and just about the only one near with that, 2 doors
down)
- Gutter and leaf cleaning, probably been about 15 of these, we've done
some, others the rest. They often borrow our gutter cleaner. (got Don a
nice one for his birthday)
- Wallpaper repair after water damage in bathroom (wall fixed professionally
after leak fixed, just needed papering and they couldnt afford it). Small
job, took me 1 hour if that. They had an extra roll of the pattern and it's
not the sort to worry about repeat lining up.
- Grunch of elders who use the local kids for 10$ to cut the grass (small
lots here, 1 hour to cut average lawn front and back).
- Spring several ask to borrow rototillers for gardens and someone always
seems to have one and happy to do a small bit in a known safe spot away from
any lines.
- Bush shaping (roses and box elder mostly)
- Fence repairs (we sometimes have the wood for this, others do labor) this
is minor repairs, not major which we will be contracting out in spring for
our own house

Best of all:
- Minor roof tile patching after a wind storm (this one was emailed out as
'who needs help with a few tiles and if they had matching ones, then we had
10 of us go door to door in teams of 3 as there were alot of replies. I
*think* we did about every 4th house in the end including 2 that came loose
on our own at the front of the garage.

Here's where a 'NA' really kicks off.
- Next door renter is a roofer and donated a day to check what needed more
than simple handyman. He is *honest* and we know it. He then (after asking
folks if they were ok with him asking for an estimate) called his boss and
negotiated a 'group rate' for some that needed more after he looked at
their roof. These were cases where the folks knew they needed a roof job
anyway and just hadnt worked out the details yet.

Great deal on both sides since they could do a big batch and just bring a
really big team (3 maybe?) over to one area for 14 days. *chuckle* we looked
like a construction zone with the roofers on 3 houses on my street alone but
the deal was really sweet. About 1750$ labor? plus cost of materials for a
whole house tear off (plywood replacement extra if needed). I believe the
talley was 19 houses in a 4 x 3 block radius needed some level of
professional care? (houses built 1960, most now at max number of tiles and
needing ripoff and repair if not already done).

If this 'sort of thing' is what you mean, then it's not an HOA but it is a
neighborhood association of another sort.