Do you live in a neighborhood with a homeowners’ association? Do they ever make you want to scream or beat your head against the wall due to their strange/obnoxious/seemingly random/all-of-the-above requests?
Our homeowners’ association has apparently decided that we should REPAINT OUR HOUSE. The first letter had some vague legal-speak about the necessity of getting our paint color approved by the HOA before repainting, and a form was enclosed for submitting colors.
Foolishly, I asked my husband if they thought we were in the middle of repainting and failed to get color approval. “No,” he answered, in a slow and somewhat confused manner, “I think they’re telling us we need to repaint it.”
It may have taken us five minutes to pick our jaws up off the floor, and then we laughed. They wanted us to submit our request for paint approval within fifteen days but “at least sixty days before the projected project start.”
Now it’s not so funny. We received a second letter yesterday.
And it costs how much to paint the exterior of your house?
We purchased this home brand new from the builder six years ago and I think it still looks pretty good. We don’t want to repaint our house. Shouldn’t it be our decision? I repainted the front door a couple of years ago (and didn’t know that my color choice should have been approved).
What’s the most outrageous letter you’ve ever received from your homeowners’ association?
Thank goodness for the good ole countryside!
NO worries about HOA’s and their wild requests…
Hope this works out for you, economically speaking they need to mind their own business.
That garbage cans need to be 2 feet from the curb and not right at the curb because it’s unsightly. Garbage….on trash pick up day
Wow! That is crazy.
My homeowners association once sent us a letter telling us that on garbage day, we put our trash cans too close to the road. We needed to put them back another foot or so.
Oh that is so funny! And I agree with Tonya…thankful for county living.
We sold a custom-built home a few years ago. The homeowners’ association had to issue letters “approving the sale of our home” which cost us $60. We were informed the tree that had been planted for a few years was not allowed, and the flower beds we had out front (since we closed on the house) were not allowed because we did not get permission to plant them and we did not get permission to plant those specific plants. Talk about angry….
Um what? Wow. I’m so sorry. What do they expect you to do if say, you couldn’t afford to paint your house? We wouldn’t be able to. I think HOA’s were designed by some power hungry neighbor so they could control everyone else. You own your home for a reason. You should have control of your own property, you’re paying for it!
Blessings,
Mel
Please feel free to stop by: Trailing After God
That’s nuts!! We could not live in a neighborhood with a HA we would get kicked out. No our house/yard is not a wreck but bgosh between our rabbit hutches etc…
I think HOAs are ridiculous and should be illegal! I agree that if you own your property, what you do with it (within the law) should be your business! You do have legal rights against HOAs though. I researched it a little when we received a bill for their yearly fees a few years ago (for the first time after living her several years!). We don’t have anything in our neighborhood that an HOA would need to maintain but yet we have received a bill for it. I sent a certified letter requesting information about the association – which they are by law required to give me. That letter was never picked up from the post office and was returned to me. Would you pay a bill that came in an envelope with a PO box as a return address – no name – and a bill that looked like a Word document that anybody could have printed?? I sure won’t!
That is precisely WHY we moved out of a subdivision with an HOA! We received letters for not getting approval before removing a DEAD tree, painting our house (the same color) without getting approval, and all kinds of ridiculous stuff.
The whole paint thing is extra stupid, especially when you realize that someone DID approve that ugly puke colored house down the street!
Personally, HOA board members are generally the neighborhood power-wielding busy bodies that have too much time on their hands and want to feel more important than they really are. Makes me want to egg all their houses… but that wouldn’t be very Christian of me, would it? Grrr….
no, i’m not bitter!
Tonya, we managed to get a mix of countryside and HOA. {sigh}