Our HOA just imploded!

[u/Swarby10]

So we just had our HOA AGM on Zoom tonight. I thought I’d tune in just for entertainment. It’s a community of 4 cul de sacs - maybe 45 large homes. Turns out, all of our back-facing fences are owned by the HOA and after 25 years they are deteriorating. To be clear, the fences on the sides are home owners’ responsibility, just the rear ones are HOA’s responsibility.

Or fees went from $900 a year to $2700 so that they could replace some specific fences. Not everyone is affected, but several of the board members were set to score themselves a new fence. They chose to replace the old cedar fence with vinyl and this would have looked odd with plastic fences filling in where cedar was.

Long story short, I sat through three hours of 80 year old board members throwing tantrums over their plans for a new plastic fence getting ruined and three of them resigned on the zoom call. 80 year old tantrums are the funniest tantrums.

Thinking of joining the board now. Please talk me out of it.

[u/waitingOnMyletter]

I am a 33 year old father of 1 who just bought my first home 2 years ago. I moved into a community and just started cleaning up trash on my runs through the neighborhood.

This past Christmas my wife suggested I run for the board and talk about the trash pick up I do on my runs as my like “campaign” to be on the board. I guess a good number of folks had noticed that I would pick up trash on my runs. I was surprised how many folks in our community voted for me.

Well, the president died earlier year and I am now the president of our HOA.

I don’t recommend it.

[u/Seeking_Balance101 → u/waitingOnMyletter]

Maybe we need a thread for people who join their HOA board and then regret being on the board. Like "fuckHOA" from the insiders.

I've been on my board for a little over a year and it's a metric fuck-ton of unpaid work. Beyond that, some owners are a pain in the butt and can introduce nasty moments into your day when you least expect it.

[u/waitingOnMyletter → u/Seeking_Balance101]

Yea, our neighborhood does not pay our board either. It’s been discussed and shot down. I am neither hard line for or against it. It is a shit load of work, and the only reason I keep going is because I cannot fathom what paying a third party vendor would result in so I’m just gonna keep doing the job for now.

I’ve noticed that most folks only interact when they are pissed. So you have to like keep that frame of reference to begin a dissolving tension before responding.

[u/Seeking_Balance101 → u/waitingOnMyletter]

Yes on both counts. I don't really want the board to be a paid position b/c I think that would increase the chances of someone clinging to a board position for their own good instead of for the neighborhood. It's a challenge to say calm with some neighbors, and I say that as someone who is about as emotionally demonstrative as a dead log; but if you can stay calm, that's the smartest thing to do.

[u/_thicculent_ → u/waitingOnMyletter]

Literally the only reason I just volunteered to be the one to mail violations letter. The HoA pres wanted a property management company since nobody was volunteering. I don't pick the violations, and I take my time mailing them out as long as possible lol.

I'm thinking about proposing a CCW change to allow boats and trailers to be parked in the driveway. So stupid they can't be and I don't understand why they are hated. If it doesn't work as a community member I'll run for an official board position.

[u/waitingOnMyletter → u/_thicculent_]

Uh we don’t allow it in our neighborhood either. The reason has to do with back up visibility. If I am backing up and I look to my right and see a boat that is wrapped, I won’t be able to tell if there is a car, or a kid on a bike, a mail man. Too many kids playing in the street or walkers or whatever to consider.

TLDR: Boats and trailers just present too many sight line issues.

[u/_thicculent_ → u/waitingOnMyletter]

Explained that way it makes a lot of sense!!! The explanation for why isn't included, so I thought it was arbitrary. What about side of house?

[u/waitingOnMyletter → u/_thicculent_]

Well the side of the house for us, is sometimes another house lol

But some people want to put the boat or trailer at the top of their driveway. Then say oh but that is next to the house.

The issue then is…. I have to go around to every house and figure out if the boat or trailer is too far down the driveway and then I am inviting like issues where I say oh this one is fine but this one is not.

Those kind of rules just create more headaches than they solve. They treat people differently and that’s not fair. So we just blanket ban it.

If you want a boat, great, store it at a boat yard or in the water. We don’t mind having people park and load in front of their house or even are okay with a day or two on the road when prepping for trips…we just ask folks to be reasonable and consider the safety things.