HOAs are micro government

Meet Our Producers Mosin Virus
1

We currently live in a HOA.
Before the pandemic, while we were still at work, I actively engaged in conversations with liberal coworkers trying to warn them and using my HOA as an example.

What happened in our HOA?
My wife was on the board of directors.
They were able to find ways to get things done without increasing dues and the reserves were growing.
When reserves grew enough the board was able to start thinking about starting a major repair job on the building. Something that had to be done.
So the board of directors sent out a packet explaining the work and potential costs and warned the HOA that a special assessment will be needed.

Instantly some of the homeowners became outraged. Why so much money, they asked. And opportunists started to suggest that the board was asking for money to steal for themselves.

Fliers with accusations were hung all around the building, secret meetings were held. Homeowners were told they will be better off with a new board that will make sure the project costs are lower. The “opposition” started a recall petition to remove the existing board of directors.

A recall vote was held and majority of the HOA voted to remove the existing board. Celebrations ensued.

Then came time to elect a new board of directors.

Fliers were hung telling people who to vote for and which apartments they should go to for ballot filling out parties.

An election was held to elect a new board of directors. One of the “leaders” of the opposition brought about 50% of the ballots to the election herself. And her supporters were the only people allowed to stand at the table to count the ballots.
We also learned that one of her supporters came to the office of the independent elections inspector before the election ballot count.

Funnily enough “the leader” didn’t get elected, and looked very surprised at the meeting. 2 days later they recounted the ballots in secret without allowing other homeowners to observe, and like magic they found an error and she was elected and became president of the board of directors.

Soon after all homeownes lost access to any and all documentation, including financial statements and contracts.

Then the new board, while continuing to blame the previous board for everything, fired all of the vendors hired by previous board, got their own vendors and started looking into the repair project.

2 years later they produced a packet saying that the repairs are going to cost 3 times more than the previous board was asking for in the assessment.

People had to pay. Same people that voted to remove the previous board came to my wife and asked what they should do now… her response was “Well, this is what you voted for, and since you just had us removed you should know how to remove any board”. The sheeple didn’t do anything.

Project went on for about 6 months longer than originally anticipated, and they issued another special assessment for another $5K per unit for overages. They apparently blew through the 15% contingency.

Project is done and no one except the “president” of the board of directors has access to financial data on how the money was spent.

The regular election for board members was delayed until after the project was done.

Meanwhile, that same president remodeled her unit.

That president didn’t even run for the new board, and instead sold her unit and moved out… so did some of her most loyal supporters.

And the rest of her supporters are now stuck with very high HOA dues, paying off the balances of 3 times the cost of the project.

All because they trusted liars without asking for any proof of any accusations

Want me to tell you how Biden presidency will be if he actually gets in?

17 Likes
2

I specifically avoid living in HOA neighborhoods, because I want to keep my freedom to do what I want with my own property. I didn’t know that HOAs could be that corrupt, though.

14 Likes
3

The issue is that the HOA lawyers are paid by all homeowners. So if an individual homeowner wants to challenge the HOA it will cost them a lot of money.

So usually you would need many homeowners to pitch in to a lawsuit. And after having already been slammed with higher dues people don’t have the money to put out.

13 Likes
4

My sis lives in one. They aren’t nazis about it, but they did have one board member years ago complaining about their willow tree being a willow tree and having long, slender branches that almost touched the ground. lol
My BIL told them “willow’s gonna willow, but while you’re here, what about the neighbor’s window screens ripped up and laying in the garden?”

They were told (off the record) by others that the black family who lived there had threatened lawsuits because they were told, but insisted it was because they were black.

I found this a few weeks ago. Revenge is nice. (there are many "Prorevenge HOA stories on YT if you’s like to look. I’m just post this epic result)

10 Likes
5

The reason I decided to post my experience with our HOA is because there are many similarities with what I am seeing happening with our national elections and the general atmosphere.

Many people are unhappy because they are being fed misinformation, so they want to change things (president) and are willing to throw rules and legal procedures out the window as long as they get what they are told will be better in the end.

But in the end they will suffer and regret their decision. Only it will be too late.

13 Likes
6

That is pretty much what happened to Venezuela.

11 Likes
7

But, but the oil flows there free like a summer shower.
They gotta be alright, right?

11 Likes
8

HOA is another thing I’m glad to be rid of since moving out of California.

11 Likes
9

Yup, never again.

Once we move into the house this unit is going bye bye.

10 Likes
10

I can appreciate both sides. First and foremost, I don’t like HOA’s. It’s a shame they exist at all. They would be completely unnecessary if a certain percentage of the population didn’t choose to live like asshat slobs. But because we all know asshat slobs live among us and aren’t going away anytime soon, I take the counter position that HOA’s are a necessary evil. And when run properly they can be very beneficial to the overall protection and valuation of your investment (home, condo, whatever). I’ll go further by stating something most overlook with HOA’s. There is the fact your collective community can easily fight off: a tyrannical outside entity (such as a City that passes some ridiculous ordinance having a negative effect on the community); a nuisance land owner that borders the community and hates the fact his deceased father sold part of the family farm to the developer (one that wants to put 1000 head of cattle in a 20 acre spread and installs a high voltage electric fence right on the property line in folks’ backyard -folks with young children I might add); a hunter that tries to sue when he gets hurt trespassing on community property -this same guy shot a raccoon in the middle of the night right in my backyard less than 5’ from my shed and dog pen and 40’ from my bedroom window. :man_facepalming:

So yeah, I was the Vice President of an HOA for 14 years. I feel your wife’s frustrations @Mosinvirus. Most members of the community appreciate and respect the all volunteer Board, but there’s always a small faction that claims corruption or mismanagement of funds -despite all of this information being very transparent and available for any homeowner to review whenever they like. Usually it’s a retired homeowner with a large amount of time on their hands that got hit with a late fee that makes it their life’s mission to bring down the HOA. Or it’s a new homeowner that didn’t read the Covenants and Restrictions that gets butt hurt when they realize they can’t park an RV or boat in their front yard (true stories). These people can create a lot of trouble and discontent if left unchecked. :roll_eyes:

I won’t go into any more details because I could write for hours about what our little HOA of less than 40 homes had to endure. It’s no fun serving on an HOA Board, but again, when run properly the community is usually better for it.

7 Likes
11

Anything that can be corrupted, will be corrupted. It’s human nature, unfortunately.

11 Likes
12

I’ve never lived in one but see/hold county ordinances in the same light

8 Likes
13

@spook

I don’t disagree.
What i was trying to point out is the difference between a good board of directors and the bad. Much like the difference between bad presidents and the good presidents for the nation.

My wife was on the board for 9 years and people didn’t even feel like they needed to come to the meetings because things were handled and dues were not going up.

Of course as soon as that board said there is a special assessment in the future they became the most corrupt board on the face of the planet and had to be removed. Lol.

9 Likes
14

Yep, I’m with you on that. Board membership makes a huge difference. The only reason I decided to get on the Board in that community in the first place was because shortly after we moved in I noticed there were two ladies walking around every night with a clipboard writing things down. I became really curious when I found them in my backyard one night after work looking at my gas grill on the patio. Mind you our house was new, we had no neighbors on the only buildable side yet, and the only way to see my backyard (heavily wooded) was to physically trespass to get to it so I knew no one had complained about anything. They were aggressive. I joined the Board to put a stop to this practice -putting in place a policy that the Board could only act on bonafide complaints tied to a homeowner, not of the Board’s own accord. It’s funny how quickly you can kill petty complaints when they cannot be submitted anonymously. The problems among other homeowners complaining about the Board ceased after this (until the next best thing, lol) and the two lady’s left the Board when their terms ended.

8 Likes
15

Technically, in my city you aren’t supposed to be allowed a boat in your driveway. Even in the high-end neighborhoods it goes on. Recently one of my float mates (of our parading krewe) had an issue with a new neighbor who moved in from out of state. He called enforcement over the boat.
Now the boat is nearly out of site on the side of the house and covered with a house matching cover. They tried to explain that St. Bernard Parish has a long history regarding boating, fishing, crabbing, shrimping, etc and this is the sort of thing that everyone just accepts as every other house has some sort of boat.
He wouldn’t accept it, so my friend moved it back 4 feet. Still visible, but behind the front of the house. This neighborhood is very tight. I mean they actually rotate who throws the next party (and we find any reason to have a party). And i do mean big parties- cops out to barricade the street, bandstage set up, etc.
They have been told they are not welcome. They have been ostracized to the point where i’ve seen with my own eyes sitting and drinking a beer in the driveway 2 neighbors on the other side of anti-boat guy walk past them on their porch and ask if they want to have an impromptu crab boil (cousin dripped off 3 hampers of crabs).
20 minutes later 8 households worth of folks are in their huge carport and party area passing a good time.
The newbs never bothered to apologize for causing so much disharmony so no one bothered to let it be water under the bridge.

I’ve had it happen to me because of my 84 Regal (which actually still looked pretty good) and the wife’s 88 Grand Wagoneer , which looked just as good, just a few square inches of metal needing to be replaced.
Onspector slapped a tow sticker on both years apart. I had her show up and tell me WTF.
“These are junk vehicles and cannot stay. You don’t move them”
Show me where in the law it says a vehicle has to look pristine or must be mobile. And how do you know i don’t move them? They have up to date registration, brake tag and they are insured. YOu will be back in a day or 2 to apologize and personally scrape the sticker off.
I went to the gov building and spoke to the parish pres (a member of our car club and told him what happened).
The next day she was there doing what i said.
I then got into the jeep drove up the street and returned the opposite way,parked it and went inside.
The kicker to all of this was she did it again 2 years later with the regal. The day i was suppoes to see the pres again i came out to a tow truck driver. Not his fault. I explained the situation and he called her. He said “why am i supposed to tow this again? It has up to date brake tag , registration, etc.”
He even told her “ma’am, this is a classic T-type Regal in original condition. It isn’t junk.”
She came down to my house.
I was LIVID. I asked her how could she have forgotten what happened with the jeep? I was on the phone with the pres’s secretary in 3 minutes and she was told to never even drive down this street again.
He told me at the next meeting she was fired for not following directions and insubordination. Turns out she was a diversity hire and had an accent so thick i expected to see water dripping down her feet.
BTW that regal provided protection when the cops had a swat standoff. It was sold to Devery Henderson, receiver of the N.O Saints.
Sorry for the tome, but i hate people who just can’t live and let live. :wink:

8 Likes
16

I still cannot access my cloud account, but i managed to send myself these pics of what i was talking about (I know. I know. I have some weird stories):
jeep regal Riv

9 Likes