Volunteer? What is it like to serve on a HOA board. Might be boring.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Volunteer? What is it like to serve on a HOA board. Might be boring.

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004; Out here, everything hurts.

Colostomy Bag posted:

See, told you this would be boring.

I'll talk to myself because just had my HOA board meeting this past Monday. Let me preface by saying that yeah, life in the midwest isn't exactly pleasant for scenery and weather...but there are advantages with cost of living. Ain't called flyover for nothing.

Anyways, PSA, if you buy a house read the covenants and by-laws. You always read the stories on the news such as "veteran told to take flag pole down" type stuff. Fortunately mine isn't like that, we don't go out looking for stuff like that. And when I say "like that," you aren't going to get a fine if you forgot to take your trash dumpsters from the curb. But at the same time we have three sets of by-laws depending on which section you live in. But anyways, I digress.

One thing that boggles my mind the most is the amount of apathy of the general public.

Or, be a smarter person and never, ever buy into an HoA unless you're living somewhere like row townhomes or condos with shared roofs and major mechanicals.

HoAs in single-family freestanding neighborhoods exist to let developers control who's allowed to buy in, and inevitably turn into petty tyrannies of the busybodies with nothing but time on their hands to make everyone else miserable in the name of keeping their property value up.

My Spirit Otter posted:

Is it possible to remove yourself from a home owners association? Or is this a forced membership you have no choice in and have to pay for forever, because that seems illegal and I never understood how HOAs in the US could do that.

To expand on this, US HOAs also generally have title encumbrances on every property in the HoA. Meaning they can place liens against your house for fines they levy, and in extreme cases force a foreclosure sale of the property. They are also often a mechanism of systematic racial redlining, as one of the selling points implied in many places is that they are a way to keep 'undesirable people' from buying into the neighborhood.

Never, ever buy into this bullshit.

Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Nov 4, 2019

# ¿ Nov 4, 2019 09:26

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 17:36

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004; Out here, everything hurts.

As a matter of curiosity, what exactly would be the rationale behind giving a poo poo what color someone's house is painted so long as it's in good repair and not causing a hazard to anyone?

# ¿ Jan 17, 2020 22:02

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004; Out here, everything hurts.

Shooting Blanks posted:

Property value for neighboring properties. The problem isn't necessarily the person who wants to paint their house very light blue rather than beige, it's the guy who wants to paint it black and red, or fuschia, or some other objectionable color. Whether or not it actually has an impact on property values is a completely different argument, it's more of a preventative measure because there are people out there who are just assholes and will push boundaries just because they can.

Just the usual bullshit that comes from treating housing as an asset that must appreciate.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2020 04:10

Liquid Communism: Mar 9, 2004; Out here, everything hurts.

corgski posted:

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

Yeah, at least locally that pressure is approximately zero because most house sales are going to flippers and investors rather than individual buyers... because there's a whole generation who either can't afford poo poo, or make enough that they want a custom McMansion, and nothing in between.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2020 05:50

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