HOA Experience

[SJGUSMC21]

Before I leap head first into some whoop-ass, who here has ever sat on a HOA board? Can you tell me your experiences? I generally don't have a problem with them, but our HOA has started doing stupid shit, and really the only way I see of stopping it is to run for a position on the board.

Just asking for advice. Yes, I realize many hate HOA's...I get that. That is not what I am asking. Thanks.

 

[TonyR]

My limited experience with an HOA in San Jose, CA and a similar governing board at property I owned at one time near Yosemite was not good. In both instances there were one or more members on each board that, in my opinion, were bullied in school by their peers and/or were bed wetters until after high school. Their unmet aspirations to lofty heights in their chosen careers or professions were fulfilled by a stint on the board, leading them to perform as big fish in a little pond. The sense of authority that being on the board gave them allowed THEM to wear the pants for the first time in their boring little lives and they relished every second of it. Making the lives of others in their circle of influence miserable was rewarding and by all outward appearances was their main goal....what was best, fair and reasonable for the occupants or the property being managed seemed to take a back seat.

There were others on the boards that were more reasonable, logical and approachable and they actually outnumbered the aforementioned A-holes but too often they were just overwhelmed by the sheer drama, charts and graphs the A-holes could produce and would just cave in so they could go home.

If you think you can make a positive difference by being on the board then go for it......you can't march in the parade if you're sitting on the sidelines.

 

[Ri22o]

Long story short, everyone in my neighborhood wants to complain about stuff, but no one wants to follow the rules. I was on our HOA board for maybe 6 months before I quit because of this.

Our CCRs are pretty lax, and people still complain. If you don't like the rules, you shouldn't have built/bought here. We also never get anyone to attend our yearly board meeting.

Our current board is fairly lenient/lax, but we also have no leg to stand on when it comes to fining or ultimatums for someone to fix something. Portable basketball goal in your driveway? We'll send you a letter or two, but then not be able to do anything about it because most judges throw out HOA violation cases because they deem it a waste of their time and, because of this, we don't want to piss away the legal fees taking someone to court.


Why can't neighbors just not be assholes and realize what they do affects everyone else in the neighborhood? Take care of your shit so my shit doesn't look like shit.

 

[bigredfish]

Before I leap head first into some whoop-ass, who here has ever sat on a HOA board? Can you tell me your experiences? I generally don't have a problem with them, but our HOA has started doing stupid shit, and really the only way I see of stopping it is to run for a position on the board.

Just asking for advice. Yes, I realize many hate HOA's...I get that. That is not what I am asking. Thanks.

7 years as Pres of our little 41 home HOA

I did it to protect my property values. It worked. I sold my place for right at 2X what I paid in 15 years, neighborhood next to us, built by same builder within a year of ours, disbanded their HOA early on, pickups on blocks in front yards etc..houses selling for 1/2 our street

Some notes:
1- Clearly written covenants. Approved by 2/3 of the residents
2- Consistent enforcement. I had two Board members resign because I wouldn't budge on allowing them to do shit that they admitted other homeowners couldnt do per the covenants
3- Very open meetings. We posted agenda, invited everyone, and even did live streaming on key issues, emailed minutes to all
4- Funding Reserves each month without excuse
5- keeping HOA fees low. Ours were $45 p/mo
6- Pushing through, with 2/3 signatures, a addition to covenants allowing max 15% of homes to be rentals at any one time and no short term rentals.
7- We were forceful about making sure new homeowners received a copy of the covenants and even sent a copy and a Board member to most closings
8- Hired Management company but only BOARD could make spending decisions
9- Enforcement- regular monthly property walk through's with at least 3 Board members and encourages homeowners to join. First offense was written notice w/14 days to correct, 2nd offense for same was another written notice and another 14 day warning that on the final day, penalty/fines would be levied (so 4 weeks to correct). Homeowner had a choice to come and make their case at an emergency Board meeting any Monday they chose
10- Always an odd # of Board members so no tie votes that went nowhere

 

[Ri22o]

Some notes:

6- Pushing through, with 2/3 signatures, a addition to covenants allowing max 15% of homes to be rentals at any one time and no short term rentals.

9- Enforcement- regular monthly property walk through's with at least 3 Board members and encourages homeowners to join. First offense was written notice w/14 days to correct, 2nd offense for same was another written notice and another 14 day warning that on the final day, penalty/fines would be levied (so 4 weeks to correct). Homeowner had a choice to come and make their case at an emergency Board meeting any Monday they chose

We aren't allowed to make changes without 70% (I think) of homes voting for the amendment. We wanted to add a rental cap and a 50% collection of dues from the buyer of any home sale. We didn't get enough houses to vote. It pissed me off because the HOA president said he would go door-to-door to make sure as many houses voted as he could get. I gave up trying to get people to participate when I saw he wasn't putting in any effort.

Our board also doesn't do any audits or walk-throughs, they rely on a weekly drive through from the management lady who is likely only looking for trash cans still out. I have been emailing for weeks trying to get a street light replaced.

 

[Timokreon]

We aren't allowed to make changes without 70% (I think) of homes voting for the amendment. We wanted to add a rental cap and a 50% collection of dues from the buyer of any home sale. We didn't get enough houses to vote. It pissed me off because the HOA president said he would go door-to-door to make sure as many houses voted as he could get. I gave up trying to get people to participate when I saw he wasn't putting in any effort.

Our board also doesn't do any audits or walk-throughs, they rely on a weekly drive through from the management lady who is likely only looking for trash cans still out. I have been emailing for weeks trying to get a street light replaced.

Depending on your situation, street lights are normally controlled/maintained by your local power company.
If all else fails, contact your local councilman. Mine at first didn't do much, but once he realized I was going to keep contacting him weekly via e-mail and cellular and that I wasn't going away, he came around. Now he does his best on helping with anything I have, and he has actually started contacting me to see if everything is ok.

 

[garycrist]

HOAs were made for lazy cities.

 

[Clark Griswald]

HOA Members Caught Stealing

I understand this is a 2022 link, but HOA members stealing is still rampant.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

I have lived here in this community since 2016, and it has been great. Went to a open HOA meeting and I raised concerns about people flying thru a 4 way stop near my house. That is when one of the hoa members (with a mohawk) started talking over me. That went very badly for him. Never went back. I found out how lazy people really are. But now, they have given this towing company the gate code and free will (predatory towing). They only come between 0100 and 0400, as they don't want to confront the owners. Seems to be completely random on who they tow and for what reason. For example, there is a white car down the block from me that has been parked there for over a year with expired tags. You would think it would get towed....nope. A RV parked in front of two homes.....nope. They are going after people that are parked in the wrong direction, such as what I have done since I moved in here in 2016 (easier for me to step onto the curb). NOW all of a sudden they are towing every freak'n night. On top of that, we have had two cars stolen in the last week....yes, stolen, not towed. Hmmm, wonder how they got the gate code? Sick of this shit. 'Rules for thee, not for me' bullshit. We are holding community meeting tonight at the pool, hoa board members will not be there, I am sure. People have had enough. And the Board Member that is responsible for this, she will not answer her phone, email or texts/messenger. Just absolute garbage. With so many things wrong, they focus on this.

 

[bp2008]

Sounds like a lot of time and energy for a job that doesn't pay and everyone hates you for having. Good luck!

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Sounds like a lot of time and energy for a job that doesn't pay and everyone hates you for having. Good luck!

You are not wrong, and I don't truly want to do it. But I feel as though I have to. AS for my property value, I can sell my home for almost twice what I paid for it in 2016. Again, I have no beef with HOA's.....but I do when they start doing stupid shit.

 

[Sybertiger]

Kind of weird that your HOA is just now doing stupid chit.

I served 9 years as President of our HOA which includes two tightly knit communities comprising of 116 homes. I never had served on a Board prior to becoming President and in fact had not attended a single HOA meeting (after living here for 20 years) until the first one I went to which was an annual homeowner meeting. The reason I went to the annual meeting was because they were having elections and just prior to the meeting the HOA had sent out a letter where Board members were basically crying that no one participates or helps with anything then threw in the threat of the HOA going into State receivership if no one helped out. The way the letter was phrased with all their little bitch attitudes and threats of receivership was enough for me to run. If you're gonna cry and can't get things done then move out of my way and I'll fix it for you...you fucking dumbchit morons

My intent was not well thought out but I expected to participate for 2 or 3 years but it ended after nine years when I didn't run again. I never wanted to serve but did so reluctantly for all those years having put aside hobbies and other things I enjoyed doing. A major reason why I didn't run again was because it had been clear for the last 5 years of my stint that I was playing a game of whack-a-mole. People liked to buy into our nice little community because it's a cute little neighborhood of small custom-built homes but the problem is that while people like the look of it and like the rules the rules are for other people to follow. Every time you got a new homeowner in here they proceeded to do something stupid. No clue of the Covenants they signed up for.

In my opinion, 90% of all HOAs deserve the shitty reputation they have. One of several things probably happens with a lot of HOAs: Board members sit on the Board like little emperors not doing much but waiting for someone else to suggest or do the footwork on something so they can simply "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" without really putting any effort or forethought. Oftentimes you see HOA Board members doing things that personally benefit themselves; I see it all the time. Another thing is they will look the other way when it's their "buddy" or family member in violation but overly go after people they don't know for Adam. Board members are like your typical American looking for instant gratification without any planning for the future. The HOA is commonly like your typical gubermint; spending "other people's money" is easy to do when all you contribute is 1/116th of the money.

Here is an example of how. We have private roads and as such we are responsible for one day repaving the roads. It's not cheap but what you do is plan for that eventuality by building up a nest egg. See the chart below. It's a graph of our actual balance sheet updated only to when I left the Board. You can see that at one time we were approaching $100K in total assets but in 2003 we repaved the roads then you see our total assets drop as we wrote a check for that. Then you basically see the total assets just go sideways for 7 years; the nest egg was not building back up for SEVEN EFFING YEARS! That's the time period of when the President prior to me served. Him and his Board were just pissing away money on projects that mostly benefited themselves. In 2011 you see the assets start jumping up around $10K+ every year for 9 years. This is the period I served. The HOA dues were increased a very minor amount a few times when I served as we needed to make sure we were prepared for that road repave eventuality. The reason for the $10K+ increase in assets was not from dues increases it was from being smart about how you spend money and not pissing it away. In fact, things were going so well that my Board actually had it set up that if you paid your dues on time that you would get a "discount". The discount you received for paying on time was the amount that we had increased dues. Effectively, if you did your part to pay on time your dues did not go up at all and most people were FINALLY "smart enough" to figure out they should pay on time. The only thing people understand is money...in the sense that you'll get someone's attention quick if it's gonna cost them.

I went to total and complete transparency on everything and anything regarding the HOA. I had created a website with everything anyone would want to know about the HOA, what we were up to, how to contact Board member and I included the financials. A website is a great way to remove excuses from homeowners like "I didn't know....", "I don't have a copy of the Covenants", "I didn't know who to ask or call or email", etc., etc. Now that I put all the info out there you have no freakin' excuse!

So what happened after I left the HOA. Pretty much in one year not only was our nest egg not increasing by $10K+ per year the Board was spending $10K more. That's a $20K downturn in year to year assets...in ONE EFFING YEAR. Now you know why I call them fucking dumbchit morons. The one thing I learned while on the Board was a frightening realization that someone or some company actually gave most of these homeowners a job; one that they get paid to do....but it's beyond my comprehension of how these people stay employed. And these are the same dumbchits who get onto the HOA to serve as Board members. Making bad decision after bad decision. Oh, and the other thing the new Board did is they pretty much removed all transparency by getting rid of the community website; then they could operate in secret just like the Board prior to me. I can expand on all of this but don't feel like writing a novel right now. LOL

The one thing I would strongly advise is NEVER DO ANYTHING WITHOUT A COMPELLING REASON. Board members like to start changing things up and oftentimes in violation of the Covenant restriction because they are such fucking dumbchit morons they don't even know the rules. If there is not a compelling reason to change something then simply just don't do it. That's solid advice there.

p.s. DUMBCHIT FUCKING MORONS!!!! Yes, 90% of the time the HOAs deserve that bad reputation they have.

 

[bigredfish]

I'll add a note that I originally agreed to serve for 1 year. They were desperate to get people to volunteer.

I ended up doing that one year and 3 more 2 year terms SIMPLY BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE WOULD DO IT!

 

[Ri22o]

I'll add a note that I originally agreed to serve for 1 year. They were desperate to get people to volunteer.

I ended up doing that one year and 3 more 2 year terms SIMPLY BECAUSE NOBODY ELSE WOULD DO IT!

I didn't even need to be voted in. We were transitioning from the builder to neighborhood HOA and only 4 people volunteered to be on the board. No one cares. We never meet quorum for anything.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

Holy crap, A LOT OF good advice given! Thank you all! This though, is the Gospel...AND THIS is what my HOA is doing right now to the homeowners...

The only thing people understand is money...in the sense that you'll get someone's attention quick if it's gonna cost them.

 

[Sybertiger]

We aren't allowed to make changes without 70% (I think) of homes voting for the amendment. We wanted to add a rental cap and a 50% collection of dues from the buyer of any home sale. We didn't get enough houses to vote. It pissed me off because the HOA president said he would go door-to-door to make sure as many houses voted as he could get. I gave up trying to get people to participate when I saw he wasn't putting in any effort.

Our board also doesn't do any audits or walk-throughs, they rely on a weekly drive through from the management lady who is likely only looking for trash cans still out. I have been emailing for weeks trying to get a street light replaced.

The problem typically isn't the property management company rep. The problem is the fucking dumbchit morons on the Board. The property management company works on behalf of the Board and is directed by the Board. If you have a chitty property manager it's the Board's job to resolve that. Unfortunately, it was common for me to have to manage the property management company. Losers just want to collect their monthly fee doing as little as possible if you let them. Typically they are so lost they don't know how to write a proper violation letter. Common for them to send a confusing letter or send it to the wrong home. Last year I got a vague letter about mildew/algae on the home. Didn't say where and no pics were offered. I was advised that I could pressure wash or "paint the house with mildew" and "pressure wash the asphalt shingled roof". Fucking morons. And the Board members probably didn't even read any of the letters sent out. Fucking dumbchit morons.

Regarding the street light did you know that most HOAs rent street light poles from the power company and pay the electric bill on them? If it's not them then maybe it's the City who handles it. I tried to educate homeowners and empower them to resolve issues. Yup, you can tell the Board or the management company but sometimes that's more work than just getting on a website or making a call to the power company to have them fix it. I handled this by providing full transparency to homeowners on our website and empowered them to get it fixed fast by providing the link to Duke Energy's page to request street light repair. But, the fucking dumbchit morons on the replacement Board wanted to work in secrecy so they closed the website.