jibsymalone

I do, I am not denying that, I have only been here since July, and have not been able to work yet (still waiting on EAD). Consequentially have not had too much interaction with a lot of folk really, and no one who seems to know or care about little laws, HOA's, and all that other good stuff that is different over here! That is why i was asking what legal rights they have and what action they can take, I don't live in a HOA (thankfully) and would like to be informed before I move so I am more aware what to look out for! So any information would be useful!

Thydney

Thing is the USPS don't really give a toss about it as long as your not stealing from it I had this issue with my neighbour it shit him when the plods turned up though

TouristTrap

The only thing you need to know is:

Don't buy anywhere near an HOA.

jibsymalone

Good lad! , just don't like the though of someone having the opportunity to go through my mail, much prefer the old English letterbox in the door thing!

jibsymalone

I kinda gathered this by reading this thread, but there seems to be so many of them over here! might be easier said than done, but will definitely watch out in future!

TouristTrap

There are many good neighborhoods that don't have HOA's, but they tend to be the older, more established places, as opposed to the cookie cutter 'hoods.

snowbunny

And in many places they are prohibitively expensive. If you buy into certain areas in Texas, you can be hit with "historical neighbourhood" restrictions on houses less than 100 years old, that prevent nearly any change to a residence.

Jerseygirl

I thought 'historic' meant anything over 15 yrs old here.

snowbunny

okay piss taking over....

In NJ the bar is probably set higher than in Texas, where "civilisation" arrived much later. I don't remember our actual guidelines for qualifying as a historical property, but I seem to recall that intact dwellings more than 100 years old definitely qualified.

Point is -- seems to be two kinds of neighbourhoods without HOAs, both built before the rise of the Nazi Neighbourhood. One is the posh gentrified neighbourhood and the other is the urban blight neighbourhood. The first is unaffordable for many, and the second? I'd rather battle an HOA than worry about a random bullet through my front window.

AmerLisa

I've seen many fine neighbourhoods that didn't break down into your "examples" of neighbourhoods without an HOA. I know you can't always pick your neighbours, but I think going to the extreme of an HOA (even though we live under the rule of one now ) a bit OTT. Whenever we decide to sell and buy again, I'm going to look for a house that doesn't have that attached to it.

snowbunny

Most neighbourhoods have deed restrictions whether or not they have a funded HOA to enforce them. I can't think of a single person who's bought property in the city limits that didn't have some sort of restrictive covenants or deed restrictions. Perhaps this is a Southern thing, I don't know.

The problem with HOAs and abiding by their rules is that they purposely make the rules vague in order to try to cover all the bases. Yet they end up covering nothing if you're willing to fight them and take all the boos and hisses from fellow neighbours and possibly court costs for a lawyer.

AWP's example is typical: you *can* fly a "non-offensive" country flag. By wording it in this way, a homeowner or prospective homeowner has no idea what a "non-offensive" v an "offensive" flag would be.

In my case, the deed restrictions state that all plants must be on a restricted "palette" list. Before I closed on the house, I insisted on receiving this list. I was eventually told that such a list didn't actually exist, but not to plant a mimosa or a mesquite or any other "trash tree." Once again -- no guidelines other than two examples and a sweeping reference to "trash trees."

The garden police have objected to sweet peas because they thought they were weeds (they were not in bloom yet) though they were new hybrids imported from England. They have objected to the overall appearance of my front yard without being able to make a single recommendation as to what exactly I had to do to remedy the situation. They threatened to sue me over it, though they wouldn't say what I had to do! Toon did doing some random tidying up and that seems to have made them go away for the time being.

Once you go through this, you lose all respect and patience for HOAs. At one point I had to have my attorney go through the deed restrictions and write them a letter that a greenhouse was NOT the same as a storage shed and not subject to the same restrictions.

Lisa, I hear you: I would buy in a non-restricted area if I could find one. Rete -- maybe the HOAs you know of are sane, but as you can see from the examples given, there are plenty of HOAs who seem to relish threatening their members with fines and lawsuits. Trouble is they have no firm legal basis in most of the cases and are just bullying you to see if you'll give in or spend the money to fight them.

Angry White Pyjamas

Here we go again.

A merry half hour on the doorstep with the president and his crony demanding I take down the UK flag immediately or else!

After comments to me like "Hey buddy can you read American?" whilst looking at the covenants and veiled threats about what would happen if I didnt comply he got a trespass warning from me about aggravated trespass if he didnt get off my property within 10 secs. The Union Flag still flies and the bastards can piss right off. I've told him if I see him on my property again without a sheriff I'll consider it trespass. I've also told him that I consider it racist that I'm being harrased over my flag.

A few of our non-American neighbours have got wind of this and now they are getting and flying a Pueto Rican flag, an Irish flag, another Union Flag and an Italian flag.

Looks like being a fun time. Especially on April 23rd.

TruBrit

morning awp and good for you for standing up to the nazis yet again...they've probably just bailed out of church and all that ...so much for love thy neighbour

Jerseygirl

Good idea to knock on someones door that early in the moring, that would really brass me off for starters. Pity they've got nothing else better to do. Good luck AWP and good morning.

Elvira

I'm not a flag person myself, but if I lived in your neck of the woods I'd be sorely tempted to start flying the Union Jack just to teach these *****ers a lesson!

I like the fact that your feelings seem to resonate with others in the neighbourhood. Y'all keep up the good fight!!