Does anyone know?

I don’t know if it’s different in each state or not. I live in Georgia I’m curious to know. Are there a set number of meetings, required in a HOA? My community has had maybe one since I have lived here. I’m not informed about anything until it’s already done!

I guess it would be helpful for me to know what the responsibilities of a HOA are. I believe my neighborhood is not doing any of them! Please help me. I have read about a majority of the horror stories on this site. Many of the violation, I’m confronted with are small in comparison!

They are still violations; I don’t know where to turn. My neighborhood looks horrible. I figured when my neighbors have built and/or purchased a quarter of a million dollar home. They would have a very well manicured landscape (free of weeds). I understand that it’s an expense and of course time is always an issue. I’m required to find the time to atleast mow my lawn.
Regardless of the price of your home, I feel every homeowner, if living in a HOA should be required to mow their lawn. I’m not saying they should have a picture perfect landscape. If they are not going to pull the weeds or treat them with some sort of weed preventative or killer then just mow them down!

These weeds didn’t just sprout up over night. By their size alone, I would say these weeds have been growing for weeks, some even months.

It is bringing my property values down! I plan of selling my home in the near future. It scares me, to know that any improvements I may do or have already, when sold won’t be nearly as profitable.

My family and I work very hard to have purchased and to maintain our home’s appearance on a daily basis. I would think that they (my neighbors) would all have the same pride that my wife and I have for our home! It’s also shows respect for the neighboring houses. I maintain my lawn to the best of my ability. I do this for my personal satisfaction and because I respect my neighbors. I would like to think many of them respect me, for maintaining the appearance of my home and yard. Apparently not, though!
I thought maybe they would want to “keep up with the Jones” HMMMMMMMMMM
NOPE, wrong!

You all are always so helpful. I would appreciate any advice!
Thank you
Chuck W.

Julie,

I will be running for the board this Saturday morning! Since I’ve been home on disability, I have found myself spending a great deal of time getting myself more involved with the responsibilities of the BOD. I was encouraged to run. I can’t say I going to be everyone’s best friend, but I will make suggestions I feel will raise my me/ and my neighbors property values. That’s what homeowners want!
That’s what I want.

Thanks for the info.
Chuck W.

Charles,
You will need good luck to get this mess straightened out.
First thing to do is to get anyone who breathes involved in getting the Board to start doing their fidituary duty, which means to do what they were elected to do and that is to follow your protective covenants, articles and by-laws. You need a homeowners revolt. Are you paying assessments? Where is that money going? All associations are required to have at least an annual meeting and I hope that you at least have those. That is a not for profit corporation law. And if the Board balks at getting going on this, elect a new Board.
Your home is your single most expensive investment and to let it go down the toilet because of lack of any kind of enforcement is not okay in my book.

CharlesW1,

You have high ideals, the same as many of us who've been there, and done that. Before you jump feet first, I'd like to turn you around a bit and get inside your head, give you some food for thought. First let me just say, I wish you the very best of luck, it's caring noble people like you that honor the concept of volunteerism.

Now, look at your present situation. You have a board, you have homeowners (plural) that are probably violating the rule of maintenance, or WORSE your HOA has no rule on maintenance. In order to create a rule regarding maintenance your perhaps apathetic board may outvote you, or offer no assistance because it's their friends who are doing the violating. Remember, your feelings right now are autonomous, the structure of a board is either governed by a President that will or can overrule the other members, or it consists of members with like minds.

Therfore, what I suggest you do is join the board and observe, don't present your landscape agenda upfront, if you need to answer why you are joining the board, be innocuous and say that you love your community and want to devote your free time to help others.

If you've already let the cat out of the bag so to speak, then still pull back with the landscape agenda.

Once on the board, you'll uncover the real answer as to why the weeds are out of control and your neighborhood looks like crap. Maybe at that point you can figure out a method to slowly turn the tide to benefit your investment.

Hopefully your HOA doesn't limit you by not allowing for sale signs, just in case you learn that the problem is insurmountable.

Again, give it a college try and my very very best of success!!

GeraldT1

Chuck, the aspirations you espouse are ones which the Board members have a fuduciary duty to perform. It is people like you that Boards desparately need.

Good Luck,
Roger

Charles,
Do you live in Gwinnett county. If so, the county has a code violations dept. that handles things like weeds,broken windows etc. Other counties may have a Clean and Beautiful program also. Having the county fine you for not reasonably upkeeping your home is a great tool.
I used it in our subdivision for people running business, weed problems, excessive cars and construction equipment parked in driveways.

I do live in Gwinnett Co! My neighborhood is disgusting. Cars let me tell you about cars. We have a couple of homes in the community that without a doubt on any given day will have four cars in their driveway and two or three cars in the road. I can understand if this was once in a great while. Perhaps when they have company over and there just isn’t any more room. That I understand but, it’s pretty unsafe for my wife and I to even leave our street. They are parked on a hill facing opposing traffic. If another car comes down the street, that makes it all that much more difficult. I don’t know what the answer is but that can’t be all that can be done………… NOTHING!?

Chuck W.

Great, If you are not afraid You can start reporting. I say not afraid because the freedom of Info act allows the people being cited to know who reported them.

http://www.co.gwinnett.ga.us/cgi-bin/gwincty/egov/ep/gcbrowse.do?channelId=-536882117&channelPage=%2Fep%2Fchannel%2Fdefault.jsp&pageTypeId=536880236
As the president of a HOA I find this more effective when I talk to covenant violaters. I give them a copy of the county violation as well as our cov's. If they do not respond I report them to the county. The county does follow up. Non compliance is 1000 dollar a day fine.

As for parking, cars are allowed in streets but not boats, motorhomes etc.
Good Luck

CharlesW1,

I too live in Gwinnet County. Your neighborhood does not have to be in disgusting conditions. You can affect change - it requires consistency and diligence.

I am the President of our HOA and would like to suggest that you not go in with hidden agendas. It creates a feeling of distrust (been there and experienced that). You have nothing or no one to be afraid of by running for a seat on the Board. There is nothing wrong with observing and being reserved while having your ideas for improvements; just be careful to do it the right way. It is your right as a homeowner and your responsibility to your community. Your Covenants and bylaws should detail the responsibilities of the Board. If they are ineffective, encourage change. They (The Board) is a legal obligation to the community and to act in the best interest of the community not just a certain few individuals. If your community has Rules and Regulations in place, it is imperative that they be enforced in a manner that is fair and consistant to everyone. No one is exempt.

Once on the Board, I would like to suggest that you join your Rules and Enforcement Committee (in our community each Board member chairs a committee because we do not have enough participation). I wish I had someone like you in my community, maybe then I wouldn't have to work so hard. My Guidelines and Standards committee needs someone like you.

Communication is key. Although our Board has the ability to make decisions and amend our Rules and Regulations without community sayso, we are always sure to communicate. We have an annual meeting at which elections are held. We also have a quarterly HOA meeting for the community and the Board meets pretty much each month. In addition, we have a quarterly newsletter as well as community updates as necessary. Communicate - communicate - -

As the others have stated, Gwinnett County is good about Enforcement of County Codes and Ordinances and I have also contacted the Quality of Life Unit. I have contact names and numbers within the Quality of Life Unit, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, as well as Gwinnett Code Compliance. let me know if you need them as they have been most helpful. Right now I am struggling to get a Neighborhood Watch Program going

As for parking on the street, we have found that enforcement varies depending whether your streets are public or private streets. We have public streets and we work hard to enforce our community rule which states no parking on the street. We are aware that sometimes you have several people over and some may be required to park on the street but we ask that it is for no more than 3-4 hours and that you be courteous enough to give your immediate nieghbors a heads-up. However, I suspect that your problem is the individuals that have a garage(s) but use them for storage, park one or 2 cars in the driveway but they have 4-5 drivers or vehichles that belongs to their unit. Here, residents are not allowed to use their garage for storage if it requires the occupants or regular visitors to park on the street. They are issued a friendly reminder or I may sometimes ring their bell and ask them to remove the car from the street. For those that repeatedly violate this rule, I have found that a notice which highlights the make, model of the car, the tag number, along with the threat of TOWING AT THE OWNER'S EXPENSE - - well it tends to result in better compliance.

As for maintance of the lawn, I do not know what we would do if we did not have a landscaping company. Yes, it is our largest expense each month but it solves the problem of having apathetic neighbors that care nothing about their own property values much less their neighbors and neighborhood.

You can do this! it's hard work and it may be a rocky road lined with stumbling blocks and naysayers. It will not be perfect but you can help to make it effective. By the way, you are right. You may not be well liked but that's not your problem and it should not be of great concern. Just act fairly and consistently in the best interest of your community and things will work out fine (hopefully without your family being forced to sell).

Best wishes!

~ ValerieS

Don't forget to consult your state statutes for non profit corporations or perhaps a statute specifically on associations. The statute may dictate the minimum number of meetings you need to hold.

I have moved 25 times since leaving home the first time (my job caused all the moves). I felt like you did--that people buying a big-bucks home would have the wherewithal to maintain their property. One thing I have learned, however, is that there are homeowner slugs in every strata, including HOs in houses that cost $1M +. Laziness and slobs cross all boundaries and income levels. Selfish comes to mind, too--they don't care at all about preserving the property values of the entire community.

I ran into a problem with a neighbor in a community of homes ranging up to $775K. His yard (each HO had at least 2 acres) looked more like a vehicle and scrap junkyard. When I wrote to the Board for relief, and cited the covenants, the response I got was: One man's junk is another man's treasure. They found no violation of the covenants. (When I asked some of them how they would feel if my neighbor was theirs, and they just lowered their heads. Spineless if you ask me, and afraid to cause conflict, since my neighbor was a volunteer on the board.) The County ordinance in this case was useless.

My recourse--to sell. I moved, and put the house on the market more than 2 years go. The asking price is now barely above what it will cost to pay the realtor's commission, and I have owned it for 10 years; I dropped the asking price several times, and the house is still on the market. Realtors have provided feedback from potential buyers and renters: the condition of the neighbor's property is the reason. I know it is hard to imagine that a beautiful property with beautiful scenery would not have appreciated SOMETHING in 10 years. But this is what can happen when the covenants are not enforced and the board is reluctant to do anything about it.

Check your CC&Rs for HO responsibility on maintaining their property. Having said that, your county ordinance is probably not strong either vis-a-vis grass height. I lived in one place where the grass had to reach 12" before it was declared a nuisance. Good grief!

I sympathize with you completely.

CharlesW1,

Hi! I am curious. How did it go - - your run for a seat on your HOA Board of Driectors?

~ ValerieS

ValerieS,
I also am a HOA President in Gwinnett Co. I was voted in only a few months ago. I've already realized that I had to use Gwinnett County's Co. code enforcement people and their Quality of Life Unit. Our taxes are being put to good use with them.

What I am responding too is the parking on the street situation. I have been getting my husband to place Notice of violation sheets on their cars that are on the streets quoting our HOA covenants. However, we do not have anything in our covenants that "residents are not allowed to use their garage for storage if it requires the occupants or regular visitors to park on the street." I would love it if it did. We have an attorney on retainer who is high dollar and has informed us to amend anything on the covenants, it will not only cost us, but we have to have all the homeowners vote on amending our covenants. Please reply. We have a bod meeting tomorrow and we are trying to get the ACC committee together. I also want to get an enforcement committee going asap. When I got voted in, we only got to vote in three BOD. It is hard to do anything with only three people. I am overwhelmed. Everybody wants to point fingers and give their input, but when I ask them to be on the committee, they back off and say no.
Please reply.
KathyG

Hi KathyG,

I'm sorry that you are having such a difficult time. Unfortunately, it appears to come with the territory.

Yes, it does cost to have the covenants ammended but it may be a necessary expense. We are planning to have ours ammended to place a limitation on renters and we are told that it will cost about $750 to do so. However, it may not be necessary for you to ammend your covenants to enforce rules and regulations if your covenants allows the BOD to establish community guidelines (details of all rules and regulations) without homeowner approval. Please review your covenants carefully and consult with your attorney.

As for establishment of the committies, I understand the struggle. We can not get enough people to care enough to participate so right now, each BOD member heads a committee with 1, 2, or 3 members. Without homeowener participation and dedicated involvement, the job is sometimes difficult and often time-consuming. Thus, YOU will be forced to hard hard and keep the community afloat. If you can get more participation, things will run more smoothly.

I wish you much success. Please feel free to contact me anytime and I will try to share with you what I have learned over the past 2 years. Good evening.

~ ValerieS