On 05/02/2012 11:17 AM, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
On 05/02/12 10:20 am, Nate Nagel wrote:

In my case it's more that the HOAs expect you to be a professional sort
- which I am - but don't allow you to do normal everyday stuff like work
on a project car in your own driveway/garage, etc.

I actually bought a pickup truck from a coworker whose neighbor kind of
pressed the deal by asking "when are you going to do something about
that unsightly vehicle" presumably with a straight face. I don't think I
could ever live with neighbors like that. (it wasn't that bad, really,
it's just a plain white Ford pickup. I don't love it, but I don't think
it's that much of an eyesore, either.)

I've read of two cases concerning HOAs and motor vehicles:

1. Resident got cited for changing the windshield wipers while the car
was standing in the driveway.

2. Guy bought used car and parked it in his driveway, took off old
plates, and went to the DMV (or whatever it's called there) to
re-register it and get new plates. Arrived back home with new plates to
find that his car had been towed away -- "A vehicle without plates is an
undriveable vehicle, and undriveable vehicles are prohibited by the HOA
rules from being left where they may be seen."

Perce

I definitely believe both of them. The general tone of some of the
newer communities around here - and all of the newer communities are
developments, and all of the developments have a HOA - is definitely
like that.

I'd far rather deal with the potential that some of my neighbors are
going to be less than scrupulously neat - land values are such that
nobody can afford to buy a place and actually let it get run down, an
acceptable detached home, even a tiny one, starts upwards of $400K -
than deal with the possibility that someone's going to get a hair up
their butt about my doing a normal everyday activity like changing my
oil in the driveway, doing a tuneup, etc. Why would I want to live in a
place where someone could complain about things like that and
technically be in the right?

The only downside is that to avoid HOAs you're limited to very old
houses, but the good news (for me) is that I actually prefer the
character and sturdy construction of an older home, although there have
been times where I might have considered trading some of that charm for
not having to deal with, say, pulling new wiring through plaster walls,
or freezing in the winter because the exterior walls are uninsulated and
I don't want to get insulation blown in until I'm completely done with
pulling wire (to give two completely random examples.)

nate

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