I've never lived in a home in an HOA (development with a Home Owner's Association) until we moved to Las Vegas. Needless to say it will never happen again. Nearly all homes in Las Vegas are part of an HOA and the news regularly covers HOA horror stories (examples here and here). We sometimes get notices from our HOA saying "there are five weed in your yard please remove them or you will be fined". And in our friend's HOA, they get notices any time there are black marks from tires in people's driveways which means the homeowner somehow needs to clean rubber marks off of their concrete driveway (?!?).
A few days ago I got a notice from our HOA which I figured would have something to do with the weeds that just popped up during our recent warm weather but no, it was a notice to paint all of the fascia and trim around our house because it looks faded. We have 25 days to comply and when I got the first estimate to do the painting it was $1000!!! I would have done the painting myself but we have a two story house and both hubby and I are in the "prone to falls" age group and the last thing I want to do is roll off the roof so I asked some friends for recommendations and found a guy who will do the painting for $350 which is a lot less than the original estimate but for people who live on a fixed income and don't have any savings something like this could be a major financial disaster for them.
I guess the take away from this is to not live in an HOA (we are planning to move), to have money in savings (we do), and if you are a homeowner, be prepared for unexpected expenses to pop up.
Our condo HOA sent me a notice because there was a broom on my balcony. I kid you not! My notice threatened "legal action" if the broom were not removed. I promptly wrote a letter telling them how grateful I was that they had nothing better to do with their time than to make sure there were no brooms on balconies! I also mentioned how grateful I was that my HOA fees were being used so judiciously. Old, nosy ladies with sad, lonely, pitiful lives.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, love your blog. One of the few that is actually a frugal blog and not a whiney pontification on how hard life is. No time for people who feel sorry for themselves! Take action-exactly like you do. Keep up the good fight!
Thanks for the nice comments! I've heard condo HOAs can be pretty over the top as well...a broom?? Yikes!
DeleteI am learning from you to NEVER even consider living in an HOA - way too controlling -shouldn't living in the "land of the free" be a little less restrictive - If you get people making everything about your home a crisis (five weeds - really?) being a home owner would not have much joy - I'd move - Mary Ellen
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to move. Las Vegas is definitely the land of HOA horror stories!
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