# Neighborhood Associations



## Hellrazor (Jun 18, 2006)

Hi! I was wondering if you guys could shine a light on this whole neighborhood association thing for me. 

What do they do? Why are they there? Do you pay for them? What advantages do they have? Where would they be located? 

Im just dumbfounded at all the negative talk about them, yet they still exist. I have never heard of one before I joined this forum and I am interested... for interests sake to hear more about them. 

Thanks, 

Court

PS: im just curious


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## Wyatt Furr (Jun 5, 2006)

Court,
I live in an association. We are a gated community of about 200 homes.You need a gate code or garage clicker to enter. Some people who say you are "safer" from crime behind a gate,but we all know that really isnt true.It's more of a perception.
Our streets are private, which means that we pay dues to keep up matinence on them and the common areas.(we have a park and open space).There are fees for other stuff ,but I do not have my agreement in handy to tell you what they are.(some monies go to city services.(water,power,landscaping,ect). 
The dues also pay for community parties and/or prizes for contests(Holiday Decorating).
There main function is to "police" homeowners to make sure they keep up thier properties,(,lawns groomed ,weed free,ect).You also can not alter the outside of your home without prior approval.Not everyone has good taste,so the association has guidelines too keep things looking as "new" as possible. It is also to help keep propery values as high as they can be and not let Joe Shmoo paint his house purple and have naked statues on his lawn. 
Most communites are located in affuent areas,sometimes within master planned communities.(Which can have there own dues).The association board is elected by the homeowners.Anyone can run, as long as you own your home and live in it.The city and state have rules which the board must follow ,so it doesnt turn into a dictatorship. 
This is a brief summmary of what an association entails,I am in no way an expert,maybe someone else can provide the details.
There are also different degrees of associations with some being more restrictive and others less so.Living in an association is not for everyone.That said,I enjoy living here and feel a great sense of community.They have been very supportive of my Halloween and Christmas Displays over the years. I feel alot of the "rules" are common sense and the "do unto others, as you would have done to you" type thing. 
Hope this helps.
P.S. excuse any grammatical errors or mis-spells, I'm late for dinner!


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

They in our area vary greatly and some are extreme. I have a freind who cannot even hang a flag of ANY kind on the front of his house, Cannot park more than one car in the drive (he has a garage) cant work on anything outside car lawn mower home proj etc, no decorations more than 30 days proir to a holiday and 7 days post. He lives in a simple town house or row home no gates no walls no security. From my point of view they are not for me but that is simply because I take issue with any one who feels they can restrict what can and cannot be done on my own property.


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

Any neighborhood can have a neighborhood/civic association.

The advantage is they have guidelines to keep up the curb appeal of the property.
The disadvantage is you can't do what you want on your property.

Some are picky and have many restrictions, others just want you to keep your grass cut, your car off the street and no jalopies up on blocks in your front yard.


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## Brad Green (Jul 29, 2004)

In the extreme an HOA (Home Owner's Association) can limit the size and type of Halloween display you put out, or even your ability to have a display at all, and can levy fines for any violations. On the opposite side of the spectrum, neighborhoods without HOA's (such a mine) have no restrictions on how you can use your property as long as zoning laws aren't violated. The downside is that there are also NO restrictions on your 42 neighbors living next door to you in a single family dwelling with a chicken ranch in their backyard and a used car lot in the front.


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## Bloodhound (Oct 16, 2007)

Brad Green <--- You must live two house's down from me. I swear that we have the same neighbor.


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## tonguesandwich (Oct 13, 2006)

Mine sucks... got cited for dead grass in the winter. Zoning laws can be used to enforce most Sanford and son houses in Vegas. Never again will I be in a HOA! Remember your board of a HOA changes and can usually create new rules without a vote and they do. So think of your worst neighbor,,,she can be telling you, not asking, how to live in your home.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Some are good, some are asinine.
My wife is the President of our HOA. It's actually pretty good, not too restrictive, and some neighbors take advantage of that. Like putting up illegal structures/improvements without prior approvals, and then claiming ignorance or crying about how much $$ they spent on something that is going to be removed. You know, the old "better to ask forgiveness" thing. She keeps the rest of the Board honest, unlike the last Pres who would try to use his "Presidential power" to push through ridiculous and usually illegal rule changes.


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## strange1 (Mar 12, 2006)

I don't think I'd like the idea of a hoa.
Can't stand to have someone tell me how I can live and what I can and what I can't do.

But on the other hand I understand the reasoning behind a hoa.
To keep someone from having a Sanford & son yard or a chicken coop in their back yard.

Supposedly cities have building codes and other laws to keep people from piling junk in their yards and devaluating the other homes in the area.
But I honestly don't see the laws enforced.

My neighbors threw 2 mattersses out their back door and left them there for 5 months.
Yes, they could be seen from the street, but the police didn't say a word about it.
Finally, I talked to the police and told them I was concerned about rodents and bugs.
Within 2 days the mattresses were gone.

So maybe a hoa isn't such a bad thing.


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## Hellrazor (Jun 18, 2006)

Wow, so interesting. Thanks for the info. I understand the idea of it though. I used to live in a co-op. Kinda similiar but you dont own your own place so we HAD to do what the board said. 

I can see both aspects. Luckily for me, I live in a super neighborhood... but who knows how long that will be for.. .my favorite neighbors have put up a for sale sign.


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## HibLaGrande (Sep 25, 2005)

neighborhood association = communists.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

HibLaGrande said:


> neighborhood association = communists.


I wouldn't say that, and not just because my wife is on the Board. The last neighborhood I lived in (120 single-family homes, all new) had no HOA. For about two years all was well, then people decided that they needed to paint the exteriors of their homes. To look at some of them you'd think that they got the paint from the "oops" rack at Home Depot. Some of the colors were horrible. I'm not just speaking for myself here, either. One other thing that made the neighborhood look like crap was the proliferation of basketball posts. Some homes had two of them in front of the house. By the time I moved, there was very little on-street parking - most of the space was taken up by the damn poles. Our HOA has a restriction on that; you can't leave it out 24/7, it must be stored each night. I drove through the old neighborhood a month ago and the basketball pole problem is even worse, no kidding.

Bottom line - HOA's don't work for everyone, but they do have their benefits. I don't have to do any front yard maintenance at all, and I know that I won't have to look at sagging Christmas light strands all year.

No offense meant, Hib. THe HOA thing just works well for me.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Trying to keep property values high sounds pretty capitalist to me.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

For me, I don't like the idea of people telling me what I can and can't do with my own property. I think it's the artist in me.


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

Obviously nobody want their property value to go down but I think some of the associations go too far. That being said. I would take a close look at the restrictions before I would move into the neighborhood. If they are so strict you can't put a holiday flag in the yard it wouldn't be for me.

It is also my personality...like Sickie...I don't like being told what to do.


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## Ghostess (Aug 21, 2005)

There's a reason I call them the Home Owners ASSociation or the HOA-holes.

Ours used to be fairly laid back. Then right when I was getting divorced, it suddenly became overly annoying with constant letters for stupid crap (some of it wasn't even ours!)..... and of course, because of the timing, at first I thought it was my ex calling and complaining. (He still owns the big lot in the back of the neighborhood in the rich section.)

Now I know it's just because we have more busy-body retired people riding around taking notes than before and that ALL of my neighbors are getting letters over stupid crap like putting garbage by the curb too early in the day or parking on the road, grass being too high, too many weeds... yadda yadda.

In 9 years of living here, I NEVER ONCE got a letter. In the past 5 years, I get them at least once a month for some stupid crap... and usually it's something like my NEIGHBOR's friends parking in the road over night in front of MY house. (we live in a culdesac, the space between our driveways is right in the middle, but we get the damn letter.) Or I'll get a letter about having my yard trash out by the road too early (but they don't drive by while I'm OUT THERE PULLING THE WEEDS that are in the OPEN HALF FILLED bag, they drive by when I'm getting something to drink or checking the phone and not out there working.) 

Sorry, I know not all HOAs are bad. Ours didn't used to be.

/rant


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## scream1973 (Dec 23, 2007)

Court , these things are far more prevelant in the US than you would find them in Ontario. Probably the only places you would find them in Ontario would be in the gated communities as our city bylaws tend to enforce more of what the neighbourhood "watches" do persay.


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