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