I’m pretty young. I bought my first house just a tad over 2 years ago. Everything was new to me.
I didn’t know how to maintain a house. I didn’t know anything about homeownership. I didn’t know that buying a house meant I was to become a slave to random people.
But that’s what it is when you buy a house. You spend your money to by a house, but you are limited in what you can do with your house.
I speak of Homeowner’s Associations. Until recently I had a rough idea of what they were. I signed a contract with them (I had no choice otherwise) when I moved into my townhouse.
In theory, it sounded good to me. They’d make sure crazy things didn’t happen like people building bunkers in the front yard to ward off nuclear annihilation, or our trash not getting picked up. In return, I give them money and promise not to build nuclear bunkers.
It seems reasonable. And it could be reasonable… If it were run by reasonable people. In truth, it is not run by reasonable people.
It is instead run by people on a power trip who I could describe in far worse ways than I’m willing to commit to digital writing.
Talking with people, I find that I actually receive a fair amount of callousness towards my situation. They remind me that I signed a contract, and that I should have moved somewhere else if I didn’t like what I was agreeing to.
They remind me that by signing that contract I have forsaken any right to celebrate heritage, personal choice, or free speech.
Well I say to hell with that. I should never have to forsake those things no matter what club or organization I’m FORCED into joining simply because I want to live somewhere.
I listened to a broadcast by NPR about people who try to fight their HOAs. The HOAs maintain that joining them is like joining a private club — you agree to their rules and are obliged to abide by them to stay in their club. At least some courts have agreed, claiming that is a purely contractual situation.
But is it? Yes, there is a contract, but do contracts free you from your unalienable rights? Unless I misunderstand the definition of unalienable, I think not.
The difference between this and a private club is that I can quit a private club anytime I choose to. I can simply stop paying dues and steer clear. If I fail to comply with the rules of a private club, they can bar me entry.
The HOA cannot bar me entry into my house. They cannot kick me out of the neighborhood. They are not a private club.
They write unprofessional and rude letters. They do not return phone calls. They give lectures about how you suck when you ask them questions. They are not a private club.
They go out of their way to send you a certified letter on Saturday that requires verbal response within 48 hours. Due to their schedule, that literally leaves only 4 hours in which you could possibly verbally respond. They are not a private club.
They are an oppressive regime that bully people into signing their contracts, striving to take rights away from their “members,” while refusing to be professional about the entire thing.
I know there are many people in support of HOAs… many people who I know personally and have the utmost respect for.
But on this topic we will have to agree to disagree. HOAs are about as un-American as anything I have come across in this world. I can’t pretend to know how it feels to live in oppressive countries, but dealing with my HOA gives me a small glimpse of what that must be like.
Though I doubt it will ever be read by anyone in the Ashburn Farm Association, I hope they realize how completely and utterly asinine they really are. Although my hands may be tied, I hope that the world repays them someday for the stupidity that they exhibit on a daily basis.
EDIT: To show just how unprofessional and rude they really are, I give you this link on their own website posting pictures of homeowners whose mailboxes are not in compliance.
That’s right. They put peoples’ mailboxes up for display to make an example of them. That should be illegal.
my guess is the rock garden didnt fly, that’s lame. if so, sorry akaemi i bet it looked nice.
I’m sorry man, they’re not all aholes like that. Maybe you should move near us. Tell akaemi I’d be happy to help with the next application.
Brian-
Yah. If you click the “My Situation” link, she wrote up an explanation of what happened.
Hemisphire-
If I move near you, will you approve my rock garden? :)
Sure, I could tell a story about my own issues with HOAs; or even talk about how easy they are to manipulate with cookies, sweet tea, and fake genteel behavior. Or I could offer to help you move to my current neigborhood, where the HOA sends stupid letters, but has no follow up at all. But instead I wil offer you something else…
I will be spending the next few weeks staying at the National Conference Center in Landsdowne VA. It’s like 10 minutes tops from your HOA. They don’t know me. Heck, you don’t know me. You couldn’t pick me out of a lineup. So let’s talk midnight fun. Nothing hurts a member of a HOA more than having their own home brought up over and over again for various mid level infractions. We can start small, fork the lawn, or do the plastic flamingo thing. Then we can build. Ruin his siding, crack her driveway, repaint his door at night, hang a basketball backboard on her garage, cover their lawns in gravel, and repaint the fences. Heck, you wanna have some fun without me, go on a walk every day after work. Bring a camera. Take a picture of all of the board member houses every day. Every day. Someone will be sure to notice. When they ask, you’re just “documenting” some troubling violations and had no idea it was their house. Leave them guessing.
People with just a little bit of power are often meaner than people with lots; that just makes poking the bear more fun. hehehe
Pretty young. Living in DC and not knowing politics? I’m guessing this was nothing personal-just kingdom maintenance. Couple a little power with a big ego and it’s always trouble. I think your mistake was in not saying “mother may I”. Questions-is the board elected? have they annoyed anyone else? are the rules ever voted on? are you a pol activist? I like the overt surveillance idea. Everyone makes mistakes. Poking bears can be fun-if your hiding spot is good. And revenge is a dish best served cold.
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I’m sure it was nothing personal. I’m sure they weren’t singling us out, other than maybe doing so because we didn’t ask permission ahead of time.
But they should realize that they are affecting real people and oppressing real people and hurting real people. We aren’t little ants on their ant farm. We’re people with the same desires and worries as they have.
Also, they should be professional about it — which they have definitely not been. Overtly rude letters and blatantly disregarded phone calls is no way for any organization to act.
As for questions:
I’m not sure if the board is elected, but they do have a monthly meeting that anyone can attend. The catch in this case is we’re going to be out of town at the next meeting which is when we were told we had to appeal it if we chose to (which we’ve already given up on).
They’ve annoyed others in our neighborhood. Something not mentioned on any of our blogs is that we actually got a petition signed by almost every neighbor within view of our front yard. The petition stated that they felt the rock garden was increasing the value of the neighborhood.
I couldn’t find any documentation on how the rules are set. I’m sure there’s some process that enough effort could get me involved in it.
I’ve never been a political activist before, but this sure does make me wanna be one. Part of me wants to take it all the way to the top, but reading things about other HOA cases, I think we’d ultimately lose.
As an addendum, I’m not much of a gardener — rock or otherwise — but there is absolutely no worse feeling in the world than seeing your wife so completely upset because something she’s poured her heart and soul into is denegrated and basically spat upon.
Nothing worse than seeing a symbol of your wife’s heritage treated like a gravel pit.
If all of that would have been done directly to me, I wouldn’t be nearly as angry.