Why So Many Issues In HOA's

john
I have lived in a condo environment for 30+ years. I have served on boards and committees and have tried to just be a quiet homeowner. As i see it the problems arise out of a lack of understanding. We deal with volunteers trying to do the very best we can. We deal with volunteer homeowners, also. We are a diverse people and propably would have it no other way. And there will always be a small group of people who will make the most noise, and demand the most action. We don't know how to 'catch people doing something right'. We frequently don't know how to say 'thank you' As volunteers we hope to make things better for everyone and sooner or later we find out we can't. And if we are to continue to serve on committees and boards we have to come to realize that it is a big challenge. We hope we're up for it.

Lack of communication from the board to the Members. Newsletters stating what the board is working on, what they will tackle next, the general financial picture and any motions passed is information that should be given to the Members regularily.

One problem is havingg Board members (especially a President) who does not read the documents. Of course I have heard (only been here a little over 3 years) that in the past, no one (not even the Board) knew we had any documents to follow. How that happened I have no idea.

I think there are several issues which cause issues in an HOA:

Members
1. not fully understanding what they bought into and not reading the rules and regulations
2. not becoming fully engaged in their community and believing that someone else will take care of it
3. believing that once they bought their home it is their property and they can do whatever with it.
4. when issues do arise not confronting them head on and looking for a solution

HOA
1. lack of communication with members
2. treating an HOA like every other business, not fully understanding that your customers share in the association is probably the largest investment they will ever make which quickly escalates emotions in times of crisis.
3. not following through

I could go on and on but suffice to say there are issues and reasons on both sides.

I have been in an HOA for 11 years, 3 with one HOA and 8 with current and I have to agree a lot with what Brad says.

1) Member Apathy which manifest itself in not caring for the community, the property, or serving on the Board.

2) Members not understanding or absolutely not caring that they purchased into a common living development. This leads to not caring and reckless disregard to the Association and its governing laws.

3) Not wanting to enact policies that benefit the whole instead of the individual.

4) Complete lack of understanding of the costs associated with running a properly funded HOA. (Why are we paying so much in HOA fee's? Most don't realize the cost of reserves etc... and even when they are informed annually of the budget they still want to know why they pay so much. (in our case 34% of our monthly receipts go into reserves and because of extensive repairs this year our reserves are down to only 3K) (We are only a 8 unit complex)

5) Said by Brad but definately worth repeating: believing that once they bought their home it is their property and they can do whatever with it - and I add especially in the exclusive use common areas.

I have served 8 of these years on the Board and if it wasn't for the fact that I can't sell my property, I'm upside down as are most people on their mortgages, I would sell and would never in my life buy in a HOA property again. It is just not worth the hassle and problems that I have seen first hand.

Well, in my HOA, it's a matter of owner-occupants vs. off-site owners - if that's what you're referring to, than I would say the more off-site owners you have, the more problems, especially if the off-site owners live out of state. They howl about assessment increases, but don't see the everyday problems the owner-occupants have to live with. Those problems affect their homes too, but some seem to have the attitude that they'll sell and be long gone by the time things really go to (horse dooky), and so they resist putting anything in reserves, major improvement projects, and of course fee increases because that'll cut into their profit.

Then, there's the problem with making quorum for the annual meeting - the off site owners don't show up, nor do they send in a proxy to have someone vote for them or at least help make quorum so we can do things like elect board members. They don't serve on the board either and so everything gets dumped on the on-site owners (many of whom are just as apathetic and so more stuff gets dumped in the few who are willing to serve). Finally, it's hard to get the membership to enact rules that will address obnoxious landlords because many of them are - off-site owners.

i hit post before finishing my thoughts. the last sentence in the above post is why the framers created the constitution to make government accountable to the us citizens. HOA's/CCR's turn the constitution on it's head by not having to abide by most of it's paragraphs because an hoa is not a government agency although some may argue hoa are a government agent by default as most states/municipalities now require an hoa/ccr attached to all new subdivisions built. it's a very complex issue that will not go away. my issue with HOA's is their frothing hatred (or so it seems that way) toward radio operators and what seems to be in most cases their absolute unwillingness to work with a radio operator and compromise on antenna installs. it's killing the radio hobby and thinning out the pool of radio enthusiasts to help during time of area wide disasters that knock out traditional forms of communication. my personal opinion is this sect of society is an asset to a community and actually helps raise not lower home values. i hope HOA's and their residents will eventually take note of this and learn to compromise with their radio neighbors. long gone are the days of dirty tube type transmitters and poorly built over the air tv reception sets. modern technology has made RFI (which is what i understand the primary reason is for the HOA ban on radio) to neighbors devices pretty much obsolete.

i live in one in hunterdon county nj. it's one of the ones that will not work with anybody on anything. it's a pia. i have to drag my radio and antenna up to a friends rural property everytime i want to talk. it's a B**** in the winter time not being able to work from home and this is one of those areas i described that has been overrun with hoa's. there are no reasonably priced homes not in a hoa here. you would need to go into pa or go more north or more south for older neighborhoods (about 50mi) to find a non hoa community.

RobertC14 wrote: "imo when you give a small group (or single human) of humans over other humans they are going to abuse the crap out of their subordinates. it's just human nature."

I sooo disagree with you. If you've read many of the posts on this site, you've seen a large number of board members who are dedicated to their communities and work very hard to protect, maintain and enhance all of their HOA members' joint investment.

Those of us--volunteers--who wholeheartedly and seriously serve, do not view our fellow HOA members as "subordinates."

I apologize for typos my fingers are too big for the virtual Kb on my smart phone

That's assuming they even know there is a HOA - since I've been on my HOA board, I've met a number of homeowners who didn't know anything about the Association until they moved in (since it's a townhome association, you'd think they would have been curious as to who takes care of the common areas, but oh, well)

I knew my community had an HOA, but didn't really know what to look for. I was a first time homebuyer and looking back, I probably thought it was similar to a block club, except you HAD to pay fees. I remember getting a copy of the budget and some of the newsletters before my purchase, but really didn't kow what warning signs to watch for (if I knew then what I know now, I think I would have looked at a few more places before making a decision).

So, the realtors need an education and we need to make some basic information available to potential owners so they can decide if they want to investigate further. I imagine some people may complain about that because the prospect might reject the community simply because it has a HOA. In which case, it may be better for those folks to move on and those who stay have their eyes wide open about what to expect.

I think you got it correct. Property owners wanting something for nothing. Our building is over 30 years old and some needed repairs have been neglected. Now we are getting mega repiar bills.

We are raising fees this year. One of the owners asked me "what are we getting for our money" She said we do not have an up to date entry way. I mentioned she gets free laundry. We do not have a coin operated laundry.
I didn't mention it, bue we get repairs to our building, do not have to pay a water bill nor a garbage bill. We get free use of the cummunity room. It just amazes me that people don't understand what they do receive for the fee.

Even with a mortgage, I am paying under $500.00 a month. I doubt I could go anywhere else for that price unless it were some infested place. O yes, we get sprayed for bugs on a regular basis. We get once a week cleaning of the common areas and probably some other things I am forgetting.

This is a good post with concerns affecting HOA’s. We have a lot of HOA’s so most everyone is aware of their existence as most subdivisions here are governed by them. When discussions have come up regarding HOA’s and numerous individuals have stated they will not purchase in an HOA again … I have been asking those individuals … why.

The number one reason I have received back is they had no issue with the HOA in the beginning when they purchased regarding the CCR’s that they purchased under initially. The problems came into play when later individuals would want to change the CCR to suit what they wanted even though they purchased based upon the same initial regulations. Their contention is I purchased under a certain set of documents which should not be later changed to something that I am not willing to live under and did not agree to in the first place.

When you think about it they have a point. How many contracts can be changed later after an individual agrees to the terms initially stated in the original contract? What concerns me is the trend going back to individuals NOT wanting to live in an HOA, because if it continues then down the road that potentially will be detrimental to the property values for those of us who do live in these communities. This also can contribute to it taking longer to sell homes in an HOA compared to homes outside of an HOA.

We are a small city located just outside of a larger city. One issue that the new subdivisions are encountering is the city is issuing building permits to any “yahoo” who applies and they have not received Architect Control Committee approval. One subdivision was supposed to be colonial style homes and the last 6-8 lots now have stucco homes. The issue is a new subdivision generally does not have the monetary resources to pursue legal litigation as they have not yet built a proper reserve fund and the homeowners have generally put the majority of their money into their down payments.

I have been after the local government to implement protection for property owners who purchased based on the “implied and expressed warranty” or “development plan” a.k.a. the Declaration of CCR’s to avoid these situations. When an individual purchases a new home in a new subdivision there is not much money yet in a new development HOA to pursue legal avenues for these situations. This is why I am trying to get the city to better review building permit applications.

My suggestions have been for them to have a binder and a sheet for all the new subdivisions with the requirements stated in the CCR’s and as to maybe have the ARC sign the building permit, if in an HOA subdivision. LOL … at one of the last meetings I informed them that the builder does not issue the building permit, the architectural committee does not issue, and because the City issues they have an obligation to insure that what is issued does not violate the contract. In essence because they know or should know a contract exists, then they have some obligation to insure they do not aid in breaching the contract. Guess we will see where it goes …

So … my question would be … how do other local communities insure that building permits issued follow the development plan for the community? I would like suggestions or ideas on how to potentially better address this issue and protect property owners who purchase in these subdivisions based on the implied and expressed warranty or CCR’s.

I can sit here and write about every situation that comes to mind about, "why so many issues in HOAs," but don't have the time nor the energy, but I will let you in on a couple of issues that plague my association.

1. Mbrs are not informed of BoD meetings.
2. Falcification of documentation. (ex: I was working abroad when I supposedly signed a proxy for the BoDs?)
3. The Association was incorporated by the same individual that is the President of the BoD, Treasurer, registered agent (according to the filed documents) and a board member of the Master Association, etc.
4. The BoD has the annual meeting on a Wednesday night, once a year, at a Denny's around 730PM when there is a common area in our association (playground). We have elders that do not drive...

Did I answer your question?

The reason for "issues" is because of "push comes to shove" (to quote you) in HOA where the board/officers interpret CCR's to suit their needs or that of their buddies along with the fact most really don't know a whole lot about how things should operate but choose the "push comes to shove" method to get something done.