Another busy-body HOA fines residents for flying American flag

[Harleyrider_50]

sum folks is ......STOOPID......NEVER, waste yer hard earn'd $$ buy'n inta the HOA bullsh**....

 

[SSGSAD]

The HOA better have back-up if the come to take the Stars & Stripes at our house.

AMEN to that !!!!!

Count me it, TOO !!!!!

 

[igotdiesel2]

Wow. I live in a neighborhood with a HOA and it doesn't do anything but charge every household $30.00 a year to plow the streets and mow the 2 islands at the entrances to the neighborhood. No restrictions other than what Marion County puts on every homeowner. I gladly pay my dues every year knowing my streets will be plowed every time we get snow. -Jason

 

[KellyinAvon]

I read this, I saw the news story from out there in Utah, this is utterly ridiculous. As someone who is both on HOA board and flies the Stars and Stripes along side either the USAF flag or a Gadsden flag I can tell you that wouldn't happen here.

And to the President of that HOA board, the US Flag AIN'T NO HOLIDAY DECORATION, AND HOLIDAY DECORATIONS AIN'T PROTECTED BY TITLE 36 US CODE, *****!

 

[DRob]

Chestnut Place condos. Murray Utah. $300 a MONTH HOA dues!

 

[HoughMade]

Why do people agree to give away their rights...voluntarily....and then whine when people do what you said they could? Sure the HOA is idiotic...which is why you don't agree to let them have power over you.

 

[JettaKnight]

It doesn't make my blood boil at all. If one moves into a home in a neighborhood with an HOA, they get what they deserve. The rules and regulations are up for constant addition and changes. What was fine one day may not be the next... and they signed an agreement. Too bad, take down your flag.... and then move.

Home owner associations are tricky things.
Usually the best way to effect change is to run against the current officers and fire the existing HOA legal council at the earliest opportunity.
The rules are made by the HOA and can generally be changed at any time.

A million years ago, I suggested this strategy at an HOA meeting. It surprised me at how quickly the a-hole lawyer who was being rude to little old ladies realized there were enough votes in the room to reduce his paycheck. And then took a more global perspective about personal taste, freedoms, and arbitrary rules imposed by bored housewives.

Sometimes people are are counciled to do what they can, rather than what they should.

Well, sort of, and not really. Rule and regulations are dictated by covenants that are recorded with the county. Typically, these require a majority* of the homeowners to agree to amendments. To do this you've got to get notarized signatures. I thoroughly reviewed those before we moved in - nothing I disagreed with and before we lived there one year I was a director myself. Most of the job is dealing with BS - people won't put away their trashcans, fences in easements, etc. The only contentious issue is the desire to use vinyl siding on the front of houses. But, to change that rule, we need to get 51% of 800+ homeowners to sign an amendment.

* May be more or less as defined in the covenant.

 

[femurphy77]

Well, sort of, and not really. Rule and regulations are dictated by covenants that are recorded with the county. Typically, these require a majority* of the homeowners to agree to amendments. To do this you've got to get notarized signatures. I thoroughly reviewed those before we moved in - nothing I disagreed with and before we lived there one year I was a director myself. Most of the job is dealing with BS - people won't put away their trashcans, fences in easements, etc. The only contentious issue is the desire to use vinyl siding on the front of houses. But, to change that rule, we need to get 51% of 800+ homeowners to sign an amendment.

* May be more or less as defined in the covenant.

True this! I lived in one briefly and to get a covenant changed was impossible due to the 50+1 rule. Hell they'd never had 50% of the property owners even vote on something much less get 50+1 to vote and support any issue. I spoke to one of the "old timers" and they specifically wrote it that way KNOWING they would never meet the requirements. "We did it that way so we wouldn't get a bunch of troublemakers coming in and changing the rules"! The funny part of that was that ALL of their funding limitations were in the covenants so they couldn't increase the fees and had to actually start cutting their limited services. Of course this didn't affect funding for supporting the lake!

 

[MacAttack]

Why do people agree to give away their rights...voluntarily....and then whine when people do what you said they could? Sure the HOA is idiotic...which is why you don't agree to let them have power over you.

It depends on the HOA, I guess. I live in one, and to date I've had one WTF moment with them, where I got a letter about my trash can being outside for too long. A quick call to the director of the board explaining my situation (I was in the middle of having the flu, the garage door opener took a dump, and I was waiting to get better to finish putting the new one in til I got better, so the door wasn't in a position where it could open), and things were smoothed over. Everything else has been smooth sailing, even the few change forms I've had to put in for my patio and fence. Average turn around time from submittal to approval was 5 days.

Other than that, they keep the common areas clean, the streets plowed, and make sure that no one does anything stupid with their property. I've had flags up and never heard word one. Hell, the people that aggrivate me the most here are the people with the teenagers they don't discipline and the banks that own the foreclosed properties.

 

[JettaKnight]

It doesn't make my blood boil at all. If one moves into a home in a neighborhood with an HOA, they get what they deserve. The rules and regulations are up for constant addition and changes. What was fine one day may not be the next... and they signed an agreement. Too bad, take down your flag.... and then move.

Home owner associations are tricky things.
Usually the best way to effect change is to run against the current officers and fire the existing HOA legal council at the earliest opportunity.
The rules are made by the HOA and can generally be changed at any time.

A million years ago, I suggested this strategy at an HOA meeting. It surprised me at how quickly the a-hole lawyer who was being rude to little old ladies realized there were enough votes in the room to reduce his paycheck. And then took a more global perspective about personal taste, freedoms, and arbitrary rules imposed by bored housewives.

Sometimes people are are counciled to do what they can, rather than what they should.

It depends on the HOA, I guess. I live in one, and to date I've had one WTF moment with them, where I got a letter about my trash can being outside for too long. A quick call to the director of the board explaining my situation (I was in the middle of having the flu, the garage door opener took a dump, and I was waiting to get better to finish putting the new one in til I got better, so the door wasn't in a position where it could open), and things were smoothed over. Everything else has been smooth sailing, even the few change forms I've had to put in for my patio and fence. Average turn around time from submittal to approval was 5 days.

Other than that, they keep the common areas clean, the streets plowed, and make sure that no one does anything stupid with their property. I've had flags up and never heard word one. Hell, the people that aggravate me the most here are the people with the teenagers they don't discipline and the banks that own the foreclosed properties.

Wow - do we live in the same neighborhood?

 

[HoughMade]

So because you like what the regime is doing right now you deem it wise to cede power over your private property to them?

Your choice, certainly. You have more faith in human nature than I do.

 

[JettaKnight]

So because you like what the regime is doing right now you deem it wise to cede power over your private property to them?

Your choice, certainly. You have more faith in human nature than I do.

Yup. As some on INGO will tell you, I hate freedom.

I'll agree to T&C regarding my property in exchange to knowing that my neighbors will also agree to those same T&C's. Life is a series of choices and trade-offs. For me, the down sides of covenants was outweighed by manifold upsides of this home.

And, I'm part of that regime (as you put it). And again, it's nearly impossible to change those covenants. At least in my association, trying to stop the flying of flags would have no legal leg to stand on.

Furthermore, there's a whole host of zoning laws, building codes, utility right-of-ways, municipal codes that supersede HOA covenants and apply to nearly all (not all examples are applicable to all) and can't be changed via a democratic process ...

I can't really tell is you're wholly serious or not.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

I just got permission from my regime to trash advertisements I see in the neighborhood.

Haven't had problems with them yet.