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I'm not your lawyer, and I am not a contract/housing lawyer. If it is important and may cause you to lose your home, get a lawyer who specializes in that area to look things over for you.

That said, it will generally depend on the charter, what YOU signed when you purchased the home, and how big of a bunch of dicks the HOA is. Last I looked court cases were all over the place, but mostly the HOA's won.

Nice, from what we see from our neighbors yards, etc. it seems to be a low key HOA.

Did they start with a fine, or just ask you to move the trailer? And do not go by what others have in their yard. Good old boy selective enforcement is a thing.

You should have been given a set of rules governing what you can and can not do with your property when you signed the HOA contract as part of the purchase. If not ask them for one ASAP.

When you bought the house you signed a document saying that you would follow the rules. What they can do is in that document, but normally what an HOA can do is fine you, take away any privileges like pool access and then put liens on your property if you don’t pay the fines.

We got the list of rules a week and a month after we moved, which was a week after we had the trailer in the backyard. It does say to have the trailer in a driveway. I was just curious on what people have had to deal with I guess!

That’s what I was wondering! We don’t have an issue moving it, just curious on what people have had to deal with!!

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well too late 😂

HOA's, the modern day Nazi!

Oh no don’t 😂

I was president of an HOA for many years. The concept of an HOA is to protect the values of that particular community. They each have different covenants, for different reasons. Our greatest concern was an owner doing something that would bring down the value of our homes. Managing one is a pain in the ass. Most members are on the same page, but you've always got some kind of personal issue going.

Our covenants stated that if a member broke a covenant the association could, by law, do whatever it required to bring that property back into covenant and the owner would be charged for that. And if they didn't pay the association could put a lien on the property which would be satisfied whenever it sold....be that a year or 50 years.

The only time we enforced this was when someone didn't pay their annual dues (a whole whopping $50). You bought into a community that cares about their property, presumably. I would think you would want to honor the association covenants, not because they are rules, but because it would put you in good standings with your neighbors. But legally, they're probably not going to tow your trailer, because that just opens a can of legal worms....and they're probably not going to want to spend association funds to on a lawyer.

It helps keep your property values up

Just curious, did you know what a HOA was before buying the house? Like was it all explained to ya?

The convent and rules should have been provided to you prior to you purchasing the home. They have direct bearing on if you had informed consent when you entered into the contract. The title company and seller fucked up if they did not disclose these to you.

We knew it was HOA, was it explained, no not at all. Literally on the paperwork it told us to reach out to the president via FB…nah

That what I said but now I’m sick of seeing my neighbors park their cars that aren’t running in the front yard. If they were in the country with land I wouldn’t care. It’s right in front of their house here in Springfield. Wish people cared more

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Oh, yikes. Basically, the HOA can govern everything. My friend lives in one and got fined for one of those political signs in her front yard. It was just for the local school board election.

Looks like you got advice already. But I'm gonna echo what some other people here have said. HOAs are absolute garbage usually ran by power tripping middle aged bored people. Avoid at all costs in the future.

I'll try to balance your downvotes a bit. Obviously nazis are a bit exaggerated but they're absolutely pricks 99% of the time.

We put I a bid on a house back in 2016...out down our earnest money.

The first disclosure indicated it was a HOA, (As is required). We ordered a copy of the HOA bylaws...and withdrew our offer the next day.

HOAs have legal authority to enforce whatever bylaws they maintain.

There will be a schedule of fines I'm your HOA agreement, of you refuse to pay the fines they may be aento charge interest amd eventual legal fees. They can also put a lien against your home if you continue to refuse.

My mentality is the same as yours. It's my private property; I will do what I want on my property. Which is why I'm not a good candidate for an HOA won't ever belong to one.

I feel the same way about code enforcement and zoning.

That's why I will always live in a rural county.

I might have a turkey barn pop up next door, but thays the trade off lol

I've genuinely never understood why people care about where people put their cars. Is there a legitimate reason?

https://seeclickfix.com/web_portal/5rjpvuKBWWnJ6oNpTq3mXkqt/report/category/

Is your yard fenced if so who told on you would be my question unless it’s not a privacy fence

If you're running an informal salvage yard out of your front yard that's going to get on your neighbor's nerves.

You may be able to install a paver driveway into your backyard, and parking your vehicle on that may satisfy the HOA rules.

Yeah but why? As far as I can see it's just some NIMBY nonsense but I genuinely don't know I've never been a homeowner. Is there any legit harm being caused by having stuff in one's front yard? Specifically cars?

Cars kill grass by of course blocking the sun and likely they'll be leaky and that leads to permanent dead spots and soil/water contamination. Rodents think it a hotel too and any water that pools gives you mosquitoes etc

You bother reading through the paperwork?

That's Code Enforcement, not traffic. You can report it online.

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>We just got our first violation due to a flatbed trailer in our backyard..

having moved from a few HOA's in colorado, yeah, welcome to the HOA life, you fucked up big time lol

we all learn eventually, you don't own your home if it's in an HOA. Not really. Welcome to the bullshit.

You should have gotten a copy of your HOA rules when you purchased a house. If you didn't you should be able to get one from the property management company. There's probably a portal through the property management company that has everything listed and where you can pay dues. What happens typically is first warning which sounds like you just received. After that wkll come fines. If you refuse to pay the fines then lien. Of you still refuse they could foreclose on your house.

If you don't like an HOA don't move to neighborhood with one. They have their good and bad aspects. One thing to remember is the HOA IS your neighbors. Don't like the rules. Go to the meetings. Volunteer for the board. Vote. Be an active participant in your community. It isn't a dictatorship. There are laws regulating HOA's but most people would rather bitch than do

I'm a homeowner and the home I'm in is in an HOA and was a significant investment. I pay my dues, follow the rules, and mind my own business. I don't go around nosing into other people's lives or whatever. Anyone that has made the kind of investment I have should reasonably want to protect that investment. There is a level of shitheaddery that will drag property values down and depending on the severity, make selling more difficult should it ever come to that. That's just a fact. Luckily that's not a factor and in part because I'm in an HOA.

Is it also just annoying that the guy across from me regularly has 6+ huge vehicles parked in front of his house and congesting the street like some frat house used car lot hybrid? Yeah. Yeah it is fucking annoying since he signed the same line I did and presumably read the rules. But more importantly, it's just in violation of the rule they agreed to follow. Those same dipshits likely run to reddit to whine about how big of a scam HOAs are and how they're always getting hounded and blah blah blah. Clean the fucking ping pong table and beer bongs out of your garage and park your car in there like an adult. But maybe more importantly - just follow the rules you agreed to follow, or kick rocks.

If you don't want to cut your grass or you have to park your old Camaro that "you're totally going to fix up" in your front yard or just in general have a problem with following some really basic rules, do the rest of us a favor and stay out of an HOA. Buy some land, park an RV on it, and eyesore to your hearts content.

That was a failure on the part of your realtor. You should have been fully informed of the rules. You did sign them during closing

I'm on my HOA board. One rule is you have to pull your trash can up and keep it out of sight. Dude decided that was tyranny after a letter. Put up signs and flags while refusing to pull his trash can up. After being fined he decided he's going to sue us. Loses law suit and has to pay our court cost. Owes the subdivision just south of 10k. There's a lien on his house and the 10k is accruing interest. We could foreclose but the consensus is right now to let it go. He's not allowed on community property (pool) until he pays it. He vandalized (unproven) a board members home with spray paint and made some threats. Board member frequents pool with family so this person not being allowed gives people some peace

Except every household has a vote no matter their religion , race, gender or nationality

I suppose there are millions of similar situations with HOAs. We had a member (Don) once tell us that he wasn't paying his $50 dues ($50!...that's all!) because the association didn't have any teeth. He was trying to prove a point that if he didn't pay the association wouldn't do anything. 60 days past the due date I let him know we were filing a lien if he didn't pay. He dared us. We filed, he got the notice, then paid his fee plus a $100 filing/late charge. Fucking idiot.

Don owned another lot in the subdivision. The lot next to his was always maintained and mowed. That person sold the lot to another party, who subsequently began his build. He poured the slab foundation and then the Don came over and said it was his lot. It turns out that for 10 years Don let someone else mow his property, allowed the new owner to pour a foundation, and THEN decided to let him know it was his property. There was a deed mixup and the realtor didn't catch it and the new owner neglected to do a survey...so it was ultimately the new owners fault for not being more diligent. The new owner told Don he'd trade him lots and pay extra, but Don, being the asshole he was, decided to strong arm the guy...told him that he'd sell him the lot for $20k more, now that it had a foundation on it! Can you believe that shit?! The new owner was so disgusted he sold the lot next door, as he said he didn't think he'd ever be able to live a day in that house looking at the lot next door and being reminded of the situation.

We no longer live in a subdivision, and I don't miss it at all. But, HOAs have a value, and the people buying property that comes with rules should abide by those coventants...or just not buy the property. Or, spend time getting to know the other members in the community and see if others feel the same way about a rule. Often times the members can vote to change or alter them...but you gotta engage....which is where I saw the greatest challenge. People didn't seem to care. We had a 100 members and it was like pulling teeth to get them to come to the annual meeting. At best, we had a half dozen couples show up...mainly next door neighbors who saw this a great opportunity to hang out and eat well :-). Ah...the days of HOA. :-)

That’s our question because the people we became friends with actually tore down their connecting fences so they could hang, but they rent their homes and not own. But no it’s not a privacy fence it’s just a chain link. I’m sure it’s from one of the older women across the street

Yes I get it! I wasn’t trying to bitch I just have extreme anxiety and worry about everything! We moved the trailer this morning because like I said it wasn’t a big deal

Yeah, if you had a realtor or lawyer representing you in this purchase, u/LeeOblivious is very correct. That's a huge no-no for anyone involved in the process, and can't believe the Title Co didn't pick up the slack either.

One of those documents you signed said you agreed to a list of provided HOA rules. There's a chance you didn't see them in the pile of papers that you initialed?

Now, past that - HOA's can be annoying, and they can be a godsend. I know the overwhelming response is "Never be in an HOA!" I've been in them, I've been outside of them, there are pros and cons to each. Inside an HOA, I was told I couldn't build a brick mailbox considerably nicer than the requirements, because it had to match the others. Outside an HOA, I had a neighbor who let his family member live in a 6 foot utility trailer on the front lawn for years, and seemed to not have a septic tank for their house - a waste pipe just ran into the woods out back.

If you were a board member of an HOA and you issued a lien on someone's house for $50 or a lien for any reason tbh, you're a straight up sack of shit. We live in the stupidest fucking country in the world. Hoas are a fucking blight on society.

What if I back out of a parking spot carelessly and drag my front bumper all the way down your passenger door. Your door still works fine, but now there's this huge scrape down the side. Would you care? Your car still drives fine; it does all the things that a car needs to do to be useful.

No, you would not be ok with that. Why? Because you don't want to look at a big old gash down the side of your door every single time you get in and out of your car, and it greatly decreases the value of your car.

It's the same thing with neighborhoods. You can park an old dead El Camino in your front yard and my house still does everything it's supposed to do. It keeps me warm and the rain off of me just like it always did. But I don't want to look at that dead El Camino with weeds growing up through the engine compartment every time I go in our out my front door, and it reduces the value of my house.

I guess it's a NIMBY (NIMFY? NIYFY?) thing to not want to live near unpleasant things. I don't know what to tell you if that baffles you.

Dang, why so hostile!?...and especially a fellow Ozarkian? Geez dude, did you get up on the wrong side of the keyboard?

I'm all about breaking rules, just ask that HP who gave me that last speeding ticket :-). At the same time, I also like to protect my investment, which is what an HOA fee is designed to do. Granted, some HOAs are overly strict...but if you sat on one of those boards, or any board of directors, you'd see there's a lot going on behind the scenes, most of it not very glamourous. Lots of selfish people out there that don't care about their neighbors. Personally, I'm all about neighbors, and I'm usually the first one to bring a welcome plate of cookies to a new neighbor. I think it makes a better world around me.

You're only about neighbors if they do as your authoritarian regime sees fit. How people feel so entitled to tell others they can build a shed or not or if their work truck is an eye sore or not just because you bought a 1/4 acre of land is fucking hilarious.

For all of you that down voted this comment; Yes I over exaggerated just a tad. But seriously, any organization that can and will fine you for having your mailbox painted desert sage instead of desert sienna, goes around measuring your grass to make sure it's not even a micrometer over neighborhood code and will either ticket or tow your car for parking it in your own driveway instead of your garage are nothing more than purveyors of human misery. Last time I was house hunting I made it very clear to my realtor that I did not even want to see homes in an HOA. I ended up with a nicely cared for 120 year old home. And guess what? Even without an HOA my neighbors still take good care of their homes as well. As far as I'm concerned HOAs are useless and mostly used to bully people.

Everyone remember that story about the guy who'd go out in the yard every so often and fire his gun into the air to keep property values down?

Idk if property values have anything to do with the costs of living and rent right now, but if they do, I might say we need more guys like that tale, and everyone /fortunate/ enough to be able to own a home can check their privilege.

Your #1 rule when buying should be “is it in an HOA?”.

If yes, buy elsewhere.

You could prob deal with the random situation…but if it’s people out there fining you for a trash can not recovered from the curb within 10 hrs or grass 1/8” over acceptable…fck that Karen energy. That energy will exist your entire ownership.