I have owned my condo now for about five years, knowing full well that it came with certain "restrictions". Many of those restrictions come from the laws and by-laws of the HOA.
Now, I know all of the arguments in favor of and all the arguments against an HOA, but I am generally in favor of having one. The grounds of my development are truly some of the nicest in the neighborhood. I also take great pride in keeping my yard as nice as possible, and have been known to be outside keeping it clean as often as three or four times a week.
Times have been tough on just about everyone of late however, and I suspect that HOA's are not excluded. In fact, I remember a recent conversation with the former president of our association who enlightened me on a few issues. Primarily, even though our monthly dues are quite high, and are raised annually to the tune of $5/month, he laid out an argument that suggested that they needed to be higher than that. Due to restrictions in the by-laws though, it was impossible to raise them any more than they already were.
As such, in many months the association actually saw a budget shortfall.
I don't know if any of this is true or not, but I do know this: 2009 has given us the first new HOA president in several years and he has taken to new and creative ways of finding the extra cash the association needs to make its operations budget (and make sure that the propane for the nice new BBQ they purchased for the pool is always flowing).
(artist's representation of new HOA BBQ)
This month I received two letters from the HOA. The first was the monthly newsletter, describing among other things, how proud the association was of the many new improvements to the pool area.
Tucked away in all of the self-adjulation, almost hidden, there was also a brief article on the refusal of some residents to respond quickly to "friendly requests" from the HOA to bring their domiciles into compliance. As a result, the association was going to act more quickly and aggressively to fine residents. Even though they had been lenient in the past, fines would now be attached to a second notice.
In five years I have never received so much as a "friendly reminder" for anything, and certainly have not been fined. As I said before, I have gone through great efforts to make sure that my yard is neat, and have even made improvements to it, most recently adding decorative gravel to the dirt flower beds. But with that said, there have definitely been times that I worried I might be fined, especially when I was out of the house for extended periods of time. On those occasion I came home and it looked as though Hurricane Katrina had come through, depositing layers of overgrowth from the surrounding mature trees.
So you can imagine what was going through my head as I sat there reading the newsletter, thinking slyly to myself that the HOA was ramping up efforts to collect additional funds in tough economic times, and looking ever so inquisitively over at the second letter knowing full well what it had to be...
It was my first friendly reminder, ever, to clean up my yard. Not that my yard was any cleaner or dirtier than it ever had been. But now I am one step closer to a fine, which is what they are after all along, right?
I am not living in my condo right now, but I am living near by. I have a tenant though who understands that his lease makes him responsible for any fines levied against me for not adhering to the rules of the community. He does not keep the yard as clean as I would were I living there, but he keeps it clean enough to keep the HOA happy, or so I thought.
When I went to investigate, I was happy with what I saw...
Then I looked at the neighbor's yard...
It is much cleaner in this photo than the day I dropped by, but you can still see a washer a dryer, what I think is a car battery, and a number of other objects cluttering the yard.
Could it be the HOA made a mistake?
It wouldn't be the first time. After all, whenever I want to use that expensive new BBQ down at the pool...there never seems to be propane in the tank.
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