These two thoughts are kind of a juxtaposition, in my opinion.
A good HOA prevents the second scenario...and I am not aware of any HOA that allows anyone to pocket money....your results may vary
yeah well unfortunately this is the case here.
two foreclosures on my street alone, eight in the three/four streets around us. real estate signs went up in the two yards surrounding my home, homeowners trying to short sell. Didn’t work, cops show up with papers, crying babies, blah blah. So the homeowners leave. Yards were not touched. Hoa called 15 times in 40 days by the other residents, nothing.
Letter from lawyer that lives across from a couple of us with the other homeowners concerns ignored (those of us that take care of our homes asked him being a resident to draft a letter to hoa, he gladly did)
Real estate companies pulled their signs; no one is going to buy an 11 month old when it cost 8-10k less to build a new one.
lawyers for banks that are suing ex homeowners - now have legal doc's taped to front doors of several homes. We have all called the lawyers offices, they don’t claim responsibility to take care of yards, says this defaults to hoa. hoa says "uh, well get on that" a lot, we can only guess they spent their days in a circle jerk. they didnt do anything else so who knows?
So our hoa fee of 85 per month was SUPPOSED to be based on a club house (tv's, pool table, kitchen, entertain area, grills, etc) with a pool, jacuzzi. Also next to that are three lighted tennis courts and a small playground for those with kids. A year after the pool was supposed to be open construction started; it finally opened with cracked tile around the rim, pump failed twice and no pool chairs. Two small children cut the hell out of themselves. Sad.
But the hoa wants that check each month on time!! Oh yeah and the hoa promised monthly or bi monthly board meetings, have residents on the board, etc. BS. Never happened. So me being the shy quiet mofo I am, I spoke with the lawyer across the street and we decided to do some digging. They (the hoa) were not able to produce hardly any records, had a laptop with homeowners private bank info that was "stolen" etc etc etc fukin etc. from what anyone could tell about 9k was "missing".
So there is a new hoa, they are just as worthless. Have a group of thugs that live with their grandmother a street over that park their cars in the yards. mind you all homes had amazing sod yards when new... the street all in front of those two homes are covered in a gulf size oil slick, beer cans in the lot across from their house, their garage door is caved in and there is a dumpster in their driveway.
So no. hoa's don’t always protect people from shitbag's dragging down my hard earned month and property value. we have looked at selling and being new into the home we would take a 15k hit which at this point I’m willing to write the check, move 20 miles from the nearest area that any city could ever annex, buy some land and start over.
Oh and side note. We have a small condo in tamarindo costa rica. We have better security and neighbors there than here. People there take pride in their homes. and the hoa will fine the shit out of you if you mess it up for everyone else.
So thats my story. I sold my xj cause it was "stationary more than 30 days" which was bs. I drove it like twice a month but the hoa by-law called "an eye sore/vehicle in disrepear" sat on 36s, all glass, non chopped top, etc. leaked ZERO oil. i had tags on it and ins. wasnt worth the fight but big saggy 40oz pants up the street can leave his dunk or wtf ever they call their rubicon express lifted cop cars in their damn yard.
living the american dream...
edit = we quit paying the fee two months ago. they sent us a nice letter about a lein. yep, they can lean that shit all they want. the home has 23 years left on it. when they provide what they said they would they get money. there are 7 or 8 homes not paying anymore.
