OT: HOA's gone wild

[Wilkinson4]

I got home tonight to a lovely letter of noncompliance complete with a picture showing the violation. Gasp, a 1" gap was visible at the bottom of the garage door. The letter referenced this bylaw, "Garages. The doors of any garage located on a Residential Site within the Property shall be kept closed at all times except when an automobile is entering into or exiting from such garage".


I usually will leave the garage door partially open when I am wrenching to get fresh air in so it isn't a mechanical.

I have lived in this house for quite awhile and over the last year I have gotten more ridiculous letters like this than in the +20 year previous. My response cited freedom and HOA laws not being synonymous along with other tidbits including "Are you serious"...


Who else has stupid HOA stories?

mIKE "Serenity now"

[Louis]

Open the door completely and park the car halfway in, halfway out. They don't say how fast it has to be moving as it's entering or leaving.

[Wilkinson4]

They say I must comply by the 26th! Now I know exactly what I am going to do. I'll post a picture!!!

mIKE

[AngryScientist]

the in-laws live in a complex riddled by ridiculous power hungry fools like you describe. some of the rules are just silly. you should see the list of "do's and dont's" for "allowable" holiday decorations.

[Dekonick]

Originally Posted by Louis

Open the door completely and park the car halfway in, halfway out. They don't say how fast it has to be moving as it's entering or leaving.

26000 mph - rotation of the Earth... think thats right...

[Dekonick]

http://www.autopia.org/forum/hot-tub...tion-ever.html

How is this for decoration?

[BumbleBeeDave]

Originally Posted by Louis

Open the door completely and park the car halfway in, halfway out. They don't say how fast it has to be moving as it's entering or leaving.

I really LIKE that suggestion!

BBD

[Steve in SLO]

Originally Posted by Louis

Open the door completely and park the car halfway in, halfway out. They don't say how fast it has to be moving as it's entering or leaving.

And make sure to cover it with a blue tarp...nothing says HOA-compliant like a covered car.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . has way, WAY too much time on their hands. They need a hobby. Maybe you could get him/her interested in cycling? Take them for a ride . . . a, uh, one-way ride?

BBD

[lemania]

Our Township and many others bought into this business oriented generic rule book system. Scary stuff if you read it. Check your location below..........
My first violation was flat tire in the morning and a picture of the car with flat and a threat of 90 dollar fine if not fixed in 30 days from date of letter the next day. Not sent with registered mail of course due to fact they are BS ordinances. ......

http://www.municode.com/Library/Library.aspx

[onekgguy]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

. . . has way, WAY too much time on their hands. They need a hobby. Maybe you could get him/her interested in cycling? Take them for a ride . . . a, uh, one-way ride?

BBD

Are you sure you want to do that? They'll probably be the one in the group ride pointing out every tiny stone and crack in the road.

Kevin g

[RPS]

What can they actually do to you? Did the letter state what their recourse is?

I’ve had communications with my HOA twice over a period of 20 years and the first time I responded very poorly because I allowed their notice’s threatening tone to get under my skin big time. The first time I was so angry over the injustice of an unfounded accusation and the condescending threatening letter that I wanted to escalate the confrontation. Instead of trying to defuse the issue I mostly wanted an excuse.

Much later after I had cooled off I realized I was almost provoked by morons into doing something stupid, and promised myself next time I would stay calm no matter what. Years later I heard from them over a different issue and I simply ignored them. My fence replacement must have not been that important because they didn’t contact me with a second notice. What were they going to do, make me take it down because it was identical to the previous one except for the rotten wood? Give me a break.

[garysol1]

we got "the" letter for putting our trash cans out 2 hours earlier than allowed

[Louis]

On the other hand, being able to enforce what most folks in a subdivision want is a useful thing.

One guy in our subdivision bought an empty lot on a relatively important corner (ie lots of visibility for passing traffic, not in an isolated corner) and has signed an agreement with a local cell phone tower company to put up a huge tower, a support building and a big fence around the whole thing. The county zoning board ruled in our favor to stop it, but the cell-co lawyers said that the Telecommunications Act was in their favor and threatened the county with a federal lawsuit. The county caved and now we are fighting it ourselves in a number of jurisdictions.

We also hired a guard service and posted them at the only entrance to keep cell-co trucks out. We do have some ability to control who uses our roads, but have to enforce that ourselves. The whole thing has been going on for two years and still no end in sight. Of course the existing houses and property owners right next to the lot in question would be affected big time, but those farther away are less keen on spending money to defend against it. Yesterday we received a letter from one of the homeowners who seems to be very much against spending more money fighting this so it looks like the subdivision may be splintering.

All in all a bad scene.

[Clydesdale]

A garage door skin. Let them figure that out.

garage poster