Today, I am attending our HOA’s monthly ARC meeting to ensure that our request to have a sun screen installed on our patio is approved. I think that will be a no brainer, but you never know with these ARC people. They can be capricious sometimes.
They have yet to approve our request to place a flock of plastic pink flamingos in our front yard, nor will they let me park an old school bus on the street in from of our house that I want to convert to a motorhome. Maybe if I put the wheels on it and stopped the oil leak, they will let me.
Who do these ARC people think they are?!? I should be able to do what I want to do with my own house, right? They say I must comply with the HOA’s Development Standards or they will fine me, and, if I don’t pay the fines, they will take our house away from us. How can they do this? This is America!
You may have heard about the case of a Medal of Honor recipient and veteran of three wars who got into hot water with his Home Owner’s Association (HOA) in Richmond, VA for flying the American flag on a pole in his yard. He was ordered by the HOA to remove the pole because it was in violation of the HOA’s Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs).
Was the HOA operating within its legal rights to order removal of this flagpole? If you’ve had no experience or prior knowledge of HOAs and CC&Rs, more than likely you would say no without hesitation, but the correct answer is the HOA demand was legal. The HOA’s board of directors refused to approve the pole because it was not, as a newspaper account stated, “aesthetically appropriate”, and their by-laws and CC&R gave them the power to take the action.
You can also find cases of HOA’s foreclosing on homes to collect unpaid fines and assessments. Yes, an HOA can level fines!
There was a case in California where an HOA foreclosed on a $300,000 home for unpaid assessments of $600. The home was then auctioned off for $2000.
Both of those cases were ultimately resolved in the homeowner’s favor, but they are good examples of the power an HOA can legally wield if they chose to.
Here’s what Nancy and I have learned about HOAs (Assuming you care.):
When real estate developer creates a common interest development (CID) such as a condo, townhouse, planned development (PD), etc., they create a common interest community (CIC) or HOA. Articles of incorporation, by laws and CC&Rs are created and are filed with local or state governments to incorporate the development. In effect, this creates what amounts to another form of government for the individual property owners in the CIC, and the by laws and CC&Rs have the full effect of the law. This is how the HOA Board of Directors are able to wield so much power if they so choose.
After the developer sells a predetermined number of units, the management of the HOA is turned over to the residents or a management company as specified in the by-laws. It is interesting to note that developers seldom, if ever, live in the CIC’s they create.
Nancy and I had our first encounter with a HOA after we bought a house in La Reserve, a PD in Oro Valley, AZ in 1994. When we bought the house, we signed documents that we acknowledged receipt of the CC&Rs and by-laws, but, as most people do, we failed to read and understand them. We had allot going on back then, and we couldn’t have cared less about a loose leaf binder full of CC&Rs.
After living there for a few months, in the middle of the rainy season, we received a letter from the HOA’s management company telling us we had too many weeds in our yard and we must remove them. I think we actually had two weeds. This prompted us to learn what we should have known about our PD before we bought. The letter wasn’t a bad thing. We just didn’t expect it. We pulled the weeds and never got another of those letters.
When we moved to San Diego in 2001, we bought a house that was also in a PD. A few weeks after we moved in, we received a letter from the HOA’s management company, but this letter was not about weeds. This letter would become a very big deal.
The letter said that the HOA had not received our landscaping plan as required by CC&Rs. This required the original owner of a home to submit those plans within so many days of taking possession. We immediately called them and informed them that our yard was already landscaped and we were the second owner, not the original. They informed us that the original owner had not complied with the requirement and it was now our problem. They would come over to inspect the landscaping to see if it could conform to requirements.
Well, it didn’t, so, after hiring a lawyer, arbitration, yelling and shouting over several months, we were able to compel the original owner to hand us a check for almost $10,000 to make the landscaping right. What a ton of fun that was.
When we moved to Bemidji, we bought a condo, which, of course, is another form of CIC. We had our by-laws and CC&Rs, but we four owners were the HOA. Except for most of the owners not initially understanding how a CIC is run, that was a piece of cake. We could do about anything we wanted. We didn’t even bother to tell my cousin, the owner of one of the condos, her dog put her in violation of the CC&Rs.
Now, we are back in Arizona in yet another CIC, a Planned Development (PD) called Sun City Vistoso. There are over 2000 homes in the PD. The HOA here does a good job for the most part. The common areas are beautifully maintained. The golf course and the other amenities are spectacular. Great swimming pools, tennis courts, craft shops, cafe, Posse Patrol, and, yes, a shuffleboard court, and all the rest are just great.
But we have this thing in the CC&Rs called Development Standards, which is another name for Architectural Standards which requires an Architectural Review Committee (ARC). It is with them that I will be meeting this afternoon.
If you are desperate for something to do, you can read the governing documents of our Sun City Vistoso HOA. Click here. The Development Standards are an especially good read.
One of the things we know now, and I would like to pass on, is this advice: If you contemplate the purchase of a home in a CIC, before you go into escrow, obtain a copy of their governing documents and read and understand them. Or, hire a lawyer to do it for you. Most problems people have with HOAs are the result of a failure to take this important step. If you feel you can’t live with the rules, this gives you the opportunity to back away while you still can.
I hope you know I was kidding about the bus, but we are unhappy about our flamingos. Maybe if we threw a terra cotta javelina or two in there with the flamingos, the ARC will go for it. I’ll let you know.