All home owner associations have rules. I am curious as to what standard or unique ones apply to you. A few of mine are trash, recycle @ yard debris stored out of sight. No unlicensed vehicles in sight, no commercial vehicles, no boats, trailers, travel homes etc. No cars parked anywhere except the street or driveway. Grass must be mowed on a regular basis. And finally no farm animals such as goats, chickens, ducks etc.

Ours has no more than 3 dogs or cats. No washing lines. That one I object to, so I put up the airer on the deck to dry clothes on warm sunny days. They're not paying our electric bill, after all. Keep the lawn mowed. Keep the dividing fences in good repair. There's more, but I can't remember them all.

Thankfully we don't have a HOA but our local council has very strict rules about what can and cannot be done to your house/property.

This is an amusing thread about HOAs.

No cars parked in street overnight, no basketball hoops at front without written permission, no washing hanging out, specific colours for outdoor paint, blinds had to be up within a month of moving in and had to be white or cream. There is a 1" book of 'rules'. Dogs have to be kept quiet from 10pm (I have had to use that to my advantage unfortunately for a neighbour who let their Alsation bark all bloody night!!)

The thing about that one is they might not have jurisdiction over city streets. If its in your drive, then its an enforceable covenant - we had neighbors who had an HVAC work truck parked at night in the street - wise ol' HOA tried to stop them but they told them to go (away) as it was a public city street and not a private HOA owned, maintained road. Its probably something which differs all over.

Threads like this are great learning material. No HOAs for me. I don't care how nice the house might be.

All of the above - I know they are trying to keep the neighbourhood up but some are just ridiculous.

When we first moved in they sent us a letter because we put the trash out "too early". Pick up is Monday morning and they wanted us to put trash out on Sunday but after 6:00pm??? A lot of us complained so they changed it to can only be left out for 24 hrs.

The other is they want to be notified if you are going to trim your trees - screw that. Unless they are paying for it I'll do what I bloody well want with my trees!

Ooo, also they want to be notified if we should get the following breed of dogs: pitbull, rottweiler or Husky's.

And you PAY for the luxury of these rules.

I live in a condo complex and I own my own unit, but still need to adhere to the HOA rules. Some years ago I needed a new patio screen door, and after looking around at the cheap ones, I decided to go with a heavy-duty metal screen door that covers the whole sliding door area, it has a door with a handle, is way more secure, and won't fall apart in the hot dry weather. It cost a bundle, but I paid for it and Home Depot put it on order.

A friend of mind asked if it was OK with the association if I put up a back screen door that was different from everyone else's. Ugh. I never even thought to check. So I called and had to submit specs, photos, and a letter requesting permission to install. I told the girl, I hope it gets approved, cause I already ordered the thing!!

Fortunately, this kind of screen door is specified as a security door. It took the association a while to get back to me, but they finally approved it. I'm sure they were thinking if we *don't* approve it, and someone breaks in, we're responsible because we denied a security door. So, approved it was, and it looks great on my door!

Rene

I forgot we do have a condo committee that issues rules for our condo in Toronto. Recently they sent a note out that only white window blinds were allowed.

Depends where you are. Not so easy to avoid here in Houston to be honest if you want to be in a good school district.

Ours is pretty standard; external changes/buildings require approval from architectural committee, trash to be put away, cars to be on drive or garage (I think there's a 48 hr exception for guests), no farm animals, yards to be maintained to a common standard, minimum of 2 trees in front yard etc.

I would never buy a house covered by an HOA. Bad news every time.

No HOA here which is just as well as our chickens seem to be 'free ranging' again. It seems to me that most HOA's are made up of buzzybodies with too much time on their hands.

Almost +1. Wouldn't actually rule it out, but it'd be a heavy negative in the decision.

Most of the sensible stuff the HOA covers.....is already in your city/town local ordinances. The rest is Margot insanity.

At one point ours had a rule that you could only fly an American flag, this was because the state brought in a law stating that an HOA could not stop you flying an American. It took me almost four years to get that rule thrown out.

I agree but....although it seems to take the city I live in a lot longer to actually make sure all ordinances are adhered to. We are living next to a "jungle" as the now foreclosed house is being ignored by the bank that owns it.Sad really because it was a beautiful property with over 3 acres of land and within 4 months of it being empty it is a haven for wild animals and crazy growing weeds and shrubs. I know a HOA would not allow that and right now the neighbours all around and us are all tired of complaining.


On the other hand it makes our property look really good