Home Owners Association Bull Shit
Mrs. C and I live in a town house community. As such we are required to follow the rules
of our HOA.
Now the association does a pretty good
job of snow removal, and the landscaping is always very neat and clean. The community always looks very nice. In my opinion they probably pay way too much
for the landscaping and snow removal, we often have plows show up for a
dusting, and the lawn is mowed, weed poisoned and watered more than
needed. I don’t complain, if someone
gets a little kick back for over-done service, I understand…that is just how
things work, I get it.
Somethings other things also bother
me, but I let them slide.
Our association fees were raised $150
a month a few years ago because they didn’t set aside money every year for roof
replacement. It is supposed to be a
temporary increase, but I know damn well no fee has ever been temporary, it
will be spent and 20 years from now they will not have any money set aside for
a new roof. I probably will not be
around for that.
It does annoy me that they installed
five speed bumps along the main road. It
is a pain in the ass and not needed. There
were no accidents from speeders that required the speed bumps…I friggin hate
them, but I say nothing. I’d prefer
parents teach their kids to look both ways when they cross the street, but they
don’t. Kids no longer know how to cross
a street, they just cross when they feel like it and assume any car will be prepared
to stop for them. Most of the adults don’t
know how to cross either; head down, slow your pace and never look for a car. It is just a matter of time, speed bump or not
that one of these cretins will lose the battle against 3000 pounds of steel.
Our streets have a sign about every
fifty yards telling people to pick up after their dog. In this day and age, if people do not pick up
after their dog, a sign will not change their behavior.
About every fifty yards there are also signs telling people where they can or can not park. In most cases there is no reason why people
can not park where they are told not to.
In most cases people ignore the signs.
The signs just aggravate me, but I say nothing.
Our community pool has signs telling
people to shower, what to wear, what not
to smoke and what not to drink. I no
longer smoke, and don’t feel like having a drink around the pool, and neither did
anyone else in the years before they put up about 15 signs. There are no signs saying not to pee in the pool. I still do not pee in the pool, see we do not need signs for everything.
The signs just piss me off.
Get off your power trip already, this
in not high school. I don’t need a Miss Gromowitz lecturing everyone about
chewing gum in assembly! Most of us are grownups!
Today I received an email that was
sent to every resident. It warned about
putting out garbage not in a can, and putting out garbage earlier than the night
before pickup. BTW yes, I have seen some
people put out garbage in plastic bags, I have never seen one torn apart by our
local wild life. And if someone puts out
their cans early, which I have not seen, I don’t think it would affect me or
anyone else one whit!
WTF!
Why not tell everyone not to walk around naked. piss on the lawn, or egg
bomb our neighbors!
I responded to this latest affront :
If on occasions my trash can might
be overflowing, I assume leaving trash overflow in a bag is acceptable and I
will act accordingly. If I will not be home the night before pickup and
am unable to make arrangements to put out my trash at the appointed time, I
might put it out earlier. I hope these special situations would not upset
protocol, I enjoy living in an association that does not nit-pick needlessly at
the detriment of a reasonable and relaxed living environment.
Thank you; just clarifying the rules
and how I will interpret them.
I hope
the ex-hall-monitor that sent that email tries to pick a fight with me. I am too friggin old to put up with this
petty crap.
I don't have to deal with this, but I've heard stories. Someone or some group is always trying to get others to do thing their way. Bless their hearts.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day, Joe. 😎
We have an HOA also. Trash is to be put out in their appropriate cans (garbage, recyclables, garden waste) on the left hand side of our driveway after 5 PM. the day before. Now that my husband has retired and has little to do, trash days have become a very important chore for him. He can’t wait till 5 PM; he can only hold off till 3. No letter yet from the HOA, but sooner than later, I expect to have our hands slapped.
ReplyDeleteI hate speed bumps also. There are none here, but lots of signs saying, “Slow Down, Children Playing”. I have lived here 16 years and can count the number of children on two hands who I have seen playing outside. They are all inside with their phones and video games.
HOA's are an abomination ....... they're like unions, at one time they were there to protect and assist workers but now many are only in it for power and money. Same for HOA's, they were created to protect neighborhoods and property values but many are more about power and manipulation.
ReplyDeleteWe have friends who were fined for sealing their own driveway even though it is not expressly forbidden. Since then they get regular warnings whenever they try to repair, paint, or update anything on their property.
My parents had many issues over the years with their various condo HOA's. Ridiculous stuff like what kind of bushes were allowed next to the house.
ReplyDeleteBig Brother? 1984? We live in a retirement community where most residents are in their 80s+, and the $$ increase is a true difficulty. We are the young kids on the block, being in our late 60s.
ReplyDeleteThe restrictions are overwhelming.
HOAs are run by Mr. and Mrs. Barney Fife, as Dave Ramsey would say. How glad i am we have a civic association and not an HOA, they can't do anything to you unless it is actually against city/parish ordinance.
ReplyDeleteWe pay nothing, and have no enforcers. Our speed bumps are potholes in the gravel road. We can wear what we want, and smoke, drink, and pee in the creek. We drive through the yard, and sometimes park there. Dogs take a crap wherever they feel like it, usually at the edge of the woods, and we do not feel compelled to pick it up. I could leave my garbage can at the end of the driveway permanently. We know not to set out bags, because the roving dogs (including our own) will rip them open. Nobody cares if our yard grows armpit-high, but when it snows, the road is sometimes impassable for a day.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah. Every 6 months or so, we take up a collection for $100/200 each, to buy gravel so Hick and other tractor-jockeys can fill in the potholes. It's a trade-off. Freedom costs as much as association fees, I guess.
You have to get your digs in somehow. :-) You're right too, those fees never go down (kind of like property taxes).
ReplyDeleteSign, sign, everywhere a sign, Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind..Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
ReplyDeleteTesty!
ReplyDeleteLeaving trash in a bag actually does grate on my nerves, I remember days of my childhood when most people had a metal bin with a lid, but few didn't and just put out the bags which were ripped to pieces with rubbish spread along the footpath and road by roaming cats and dogs overnight. These days animals are not allowed to roam, but everyone has a large wheelie bin for their rubbish. Many get so full the lids can't be closed! I have so little rubbish each week I often don't bother with my bin, just put my little bag of trash in a bin where someone else has only a little bag of trash in it. No body minds.
ReplyDeleteAll those rules and rising fees are the main reason why I will NEVER live in places where a corporate body sets the rules and manages the distribution of fees for services.
Our rubbish is put in huge containers which are then collected by bin men, unless of course they are not on strike which they are right now. This means the rubbish containers are put out in the hope that one day they might be collected. That said, I'm glad we don't have notices all over the place.
ReplyDeleteOver here, if your trash can is full, and you put your excess trash in a plastic bag next to your trash can; when the truck turns up, (like Randy's in your previous post), they empty the trash can and leave the plastic bag behind on the sidewalk. Rules are rules ... and our idiots only empty trash cans.
ReplyDeleteSome local authorities have a contraption on the truck which weighs your trash can as it lifts it to empty it. If yours is overweight you get an extra special charge to pay. Rules are rules.
Also, if your trash can contains recycling materials instead of just trash, you get fined for that too. Rules are rules.
Also again ... you are not allowed to put dead animals in the trash can. When my goldfish died I had to grill him and eat him on toast. Rules are rules.
God bless.
Goldfish should get flushed, so they can float out near radioactive waste and turn into Mutant Ninja Goldfish.
DeleteI am free of an HOA here in rural Arkansas but I do have to mow my yard, wash my house, pay for roofing repairs and buy gravel for the driveway. Sometimes I think you HOA'ers have it made but I get to do it on my own terms and time or not at all. Pluses on both side.
ReplyDeleteThere should be a rule that you cannot add a new rule unless you get rid of an old rule
ReplyDeleteWe lived in only one neighborhood that had an HOA and one be enough for me. It was when we lived in Prescott. We only rented the house because it took pets and then the irony of it was that the pet died a week before we were scheduled to move into the house. The lists of rules was a mile long. My "favorite" rule was you couldn't have outside lights on at night (hello, safety??). The landlords were supposed to take care of the gardening except the weeds which were our responsibility. We got a letter from the HOA because some of the bushes were too high and needed to be cut down. Hubby tried to explain to them that we were just renters and it was the owner's responsibility according to the lease, but the HOA didn't care. Basically you do it or you're going to be fined. We had passed the information on to the property manager but hubby got out one day and cut the bushes that needed to be cut. It was nice being in the gated community and not get the door to door sales people, but then everyone and anyone in the area knew the code to get into it, so were we really safe?
ReplyDeletebetty
I live in a neighborhood with an HOA. They're pretty laid back though. As my girlfriend once said, "I hate HOA's for what they tell me I can't to, but I love them for telling my neighbors what they can't do." No vehicles on cement blocks in our neighborhood, and no old couches on front porches!
ReplyDelete