Posted on 06/05/2024 12:09:23 PM PDT by chickenlips
Florida residents with oppressive and obsessive HOAs, your day of freedom may be at hand.
Homeowner associations (HOAs) were created to maintain standards, uniformity and a sense of community while collecting dues to pay for common areas, services and general neighborhood improvements. But they also tend to attract people with strong opinions about what their neighbors can do.
It seems that everyone who has lived in an HOA has a horror story about petty or arbitrary fines that keep increasing, harassment, inflexible and overly restrictive rules regarding the appearance of homes and lawns, the lack of budget transparency, or just the ongoing grind of living under the watchful eyes of HOA busybodies with tape measures and a lot of free time who care deeply about where you park.
A new bill, signed Friday by Gov, Ron DeSantis, may change all that when it takes effect July 1. Or at least make life a little more manageable.
HB 1203, Homeowners' Association, was just one of several HOA bills introduced in this year's legislative session but it may be the most sweeping one, amounting to essentially a Homeowner's Bill of Rights. Under state law, HOAs will be restricted from some of the most complained-about rules and fines and required to be more transparent. This law comes just after another one forcing HOAs to allow homeowners to harden their homes against hurricanes.
Here's what changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at news-journalonline.com ...
“I guess I’m a conservative troll!”
A trouble maker. I knew it. Check out post 59 for some laughs.
In our community in Nevada County, CA, the most vocal HOA critics are the worst violators. Their homes would look like San Francisco if not for the HOA guidelines. Most people are slobs. Look at the floor under an airport urinal. I bet these people piss on the floor at home while chugging another beer.
“but it seems ludicrous to use the authority of a state government to override legally binding real estate contracts.”
much of what was outlawed were practices not codified in any document, but behavior designed so that a small group of HO-nazis could rule a neighborhood as their personal fifedom with little recourse from homeowners ... secret meetings, secret documents passed in secret meetings, secret rules, secretly changed rules, secret lists of homeowners, etc. ... most of what was passed as state law was simply the same sunshine and financial rules that apply in most states to most local governmental districts ...
Actually, with HOAs, they behave as judge and jury and work to disallow any court case.
Autocracy should not be allowed in an HOA.
I’m a big fan of our Governor, but isn’t this a case of “buyer beware”?
You read the fine print before you buy the place. Most HOA’s have a copy for prospective buyers.
I don’t want government at any level interfering in legitimate private commerce.
If you can’t live with the rules, don’t live there.
I looked at several, prior to deciding I would never live where there is an HOA involved.
I like your truck!
“Not defending HOA hegemony, but voting on issues can become problematic as most residents seems uninterested in participating in any decisions in my experience. Its often hard to get quorums for meetings.”
Good. Then the high and mighty minority pushing for new rules, under my law, won’t be able to get them adopted, and folks in HOAs will have more LIBERTY with THEIR PROPERTY.
“My HOA is wonderful. They do a great job of charging me. They do nothing else but they are efficient at collecting my money”
I live on a golf course in Florida. My quarterly HOA rates include the landscaping. When we first moved in, the neighborhood was new and the lawn care was great. Fast forward 20 years...they kept pushing annual increases, but then started (no pun intended) cutting landscaping services. If I ask them to come pull weeds or fertilize, it’s like I just became their worst enemy. I’m convinced I could take the HOA money and get personal landscaping service cheaper...
A bunch of Californians have moved into my neighborhood in Scottsdale and are talking openly about wanting to set up an HOA. I always say NO. But, what if a majority of my neighbors approve? Can they really start billing me for something I didn’t sign up for?
Obviously, I’d get a Liar (lawyer) but has anyone had this experience?
HOA mine is a scam.
A few years ago we elected a new HOA board and they promptly hired a property management company so they wouldn’t even collect our money. And we pay the mgmt company $12,000 per year. Our HOA does absolutely nothing and we can’t seem to get rid of them!
and you paid for the letter...
I asked m how rep what do they actually do I was having huge neighbor issue.
She said, we organize paperwork and get supplies in order to send you bills
Yep
She probably votes, too.
Busybody Karens walking around with clipboards looking for owners that have more than two potted plants on their deck so they can cite them. Watching where the dogs do their business. Making sure the Christmas wreaths are off the doors by January 6. It's pretty awful.
Other than that, living in a condo is great. I don't even mind the high fees. No yard work, no snow shoveling, pool, gym, billiards room, etc.
It's the insufferable shrews on the HOA board that my next home will be back to a house where I can do whatever the hell I want without their scrutiny.
It’s clear that a lot of people just don’t know what to do when they have a little authority ... and far too many times they lose perspective, any sense of fairness and they replace reasoned judgment with pure emotion ... and they become highly offended should someone point this out to them. I guess I missed out on the mini-tyrant gene. I don’t want to control anybody (”control” being the operative word here). I just want to be left alone for the most part unless approached with a resonable request to change something I’m doing.
The wind blowing through my giant oaks is all I hear.
Lol. Our HOA board PRESIDENT loves spending our money. A different board member was willing and very able to fix an irrigation leak by our front entrance. He just wanted the materials paid for which amounted to less than $50. HOA prez says no he’ll take care of it and he did. He hired some company to fix it for $900. Thanks!
Reader’s Digest June 2024 issue has an article titled:
True HOA Horror Stories
The HOA fees around about 3 miles from where I live can be over $500 a month! for townhomes!
My aunt & uncle owned a 2.5 acre property where you could not see the home from the street and the neighbors were hardly visible, just a corner of their home.
One day a woman showed up and told my uncle to clean up the property, had to do this or that. He said she went away and he did none of what she wanted and never saw her again.
At my 36 unit courthouse apt building we got a new “manager” who was useless in getting things fixed but did write up a list of rules for the pool.
It basically said you can have no fun.
Same for a new supervisor who came up with this idea or another that was not going to work but it was his idea and it was not going to change.
Summation, give some people a little bit of power and they go overboard and think they are Napoleon.
In a rural area, this sort of "voluntary HOA" doesn't go as far as having CC&Rs filed for recording.
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