HOA requires garage doors stay open all day

[cabanafrau]

We've had this...uh, debate...with our HOA. We never use our front door, almost exclusively enter and exit the house through the garage. They're whined about us having it open, my response is to go pound sand.

HOAs should be outlawed and abolished. Can't stand them.

I don't understand why they should be outlawed and abolished because of your preferences? I don't care to be restricted by one, so I simply don't live in a community or neighborhood with one, easy peasy. Just because I don't like them I don't need for them to be abolished and outlawed. For those who prefer to live that way I see no reason they can't choose to do so.

Hopefully you're at least considerate enough of your neighbors to keep your garage tidy.

 

[amberpi]

Yes, inside the Perimeter, I'd bet it's no HOA. But yes, you pay for it. The housing prices out here, 30ish miles northwest of the city, are insanely cheap compared to the mid-Atlantic. The rental community we first lived in was selling 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath houses on a slab, about 2100 sq ft, for around $160k. Insane.

Which is what a literally condemned house in either of those neighborhoods or my current one would go for. You'd have to pay more for a clear lot...lol. Quality of life and all that though.

 

[tvguy]

I have a garage but it's not super common (not rare either) and those old remodeled bungalows and craftsmans, and the big old victorians most often dont.

A lot of our older homes here either don't have a garage, or have a one car garage that is so skinny, only the smallest modern cars can fit in. My DS and DDL have a house with a one car garage that they can't get a car in because the washer and dryer are in their too at the entrance, so too narrow even for their Fiat 500

 

[wenrob]

I don't understand why they should be outlawed and abolished because of your preferences? I don't care to be restricted by one, so I simply don't live in a community or neighborhood with one, easy peasy. Just because I don't like them I don't need for them to be abolished and outlawed. For those who prefer to live that way I see no reason they can't choose to do so.

Hopefully you're at least considerate enough of your neighbors to keep your garage tidy.

It’s not easy peasy depending on where you live. Most new home developments here (and by new I mean 20-25 years and newer) are all HOA. The oldest and older neighborhoods have or are falling into disrepair with grocery stores and businesses now abandoned buildings. I wouldn’t live where I raised my older daughter now if you paid me. If your choice is your kid getting mugged on the way to school or dealing with an HOA to live in a decent neighborhood it’s about as close to no choice as you can get.

When we were looking for a house I read all the bylaws of every HOA top to bottom. I wasn’t signing anything until I knew 100% what I was getting into. It hasn’t been too bad. We have Mrs. Kravitz up the street who likes to “tattle” on people but our HOA is like New Years Resolutioners. All gung ho every now and again but mostly leave you alone. The vast majority of the neighborhood keeps up their property and we have no crazy rules which helps.

I wouldn’t think an HOA could just arbitrarily order people to leave their home unsecured like that. Even if it’s not illegal as the article states, take it to the media. There will be lawyers wanting to get their name out there lining up. I’d refuse and hit up my neighbors to do the same.

 

[amberpi]

It’s not easy peasy depending on where you live. Most new home developments here (and by new I mean 20-25 years and newer) are all HOA. The oldest and older neighborhoods have or are falling into disrepair .

I love this board for hearing about different parts of the world and country even (we're so big!). In Nashville, and in Atlanta proper for instance, the old neighborhoods are being re-gentrified as fast as builders can remodel and are some of the very hottest parts of towns with those old stores becoming juice bars, yoga studios, tattoo palors, bike shops, vegan candy shops, places serving artesian pickles and cocktails. Vegas is so totally different than that, I know, so the varied experiences are so neat to learn to about!

 

[Micca]

Our HOA takes care of the trash & manages the pool(which is open 3 months a year) they don't seem to do much of anything else. A neighbor had a total POS wrecked truck parked in his drive for nearly a year. The HOA contacted them several times but he refused to do anything about it. This leads me to think the HOA has no teeth.
The open garage door thing is counter intuitive, isn't this just asking for people's stuff to get stolen? And then the people sue the HOA.

 

[soccerdad72]

A neighbor had a total POS wrecked truck parked in his drive for nearly a year. The HOA contacted them several times but he refused to do anything about it. This leads me to think the HOA has no teeth.

Same with us, except the POS is constantly sitting out on the street, even through the city we're in has a law about overnight parking. It makes for an extra PIA this time of the year, because the snowplows can't clear the whole street when they have to go around their junk.

 

[mco65]

Many HOA rules can be annoying but keeping the door garage OPEN mandatory is just DUMB... i can see keeping the door SHUT, prefer mine to be shut most of the time because it can be a mess at times but do leave it open a lot.. doubt i would leave it open if i were not home.. dumb..

I live in a HOA community but fortunately its small and we don't have any silly rules like that.... for now.. knock on wood.

 

[Klayfish]

I don't understand why they should be outlawed and abolished because of your preferences? I don't care to be restricted by one, so I simply don't live in a community or neighborhood with one, easy peasy. Just because I don't like them I don't need for them to be abolished and outlawed. For those who prefer to live that way I see no reason they can't choose to do so.

Hopefully you're at least considerate enough of your neighbors to keep your garage tidy.

Because they're pointless, IMO.

And no, my garage is actually rather messy. I've got 3 kids, it happens.

 

[wenrob]

I love this board for hearing about different parts of the world and country even (we're so big!). In Nashville, and in Atlanta proper for instance, the old neighborhoods are being re-gentrified as fast as builders can remodel and are some of the very hottest parts of towns with those old stores becoming juice bars, yoga studios, tattoo palors, bike shops, vegan candy shops, places serving artesian pickles and cocktails. Vegas is so totally different than that, I know, so the varied experiences are so neat to learn to about!

I wish that were the case here. Some of the most amazing houses are in parts of town people don’t want to live in anymore. My DD’s mentor had a house I would have killed for, just amazing but it took her nearly a year to sell it because it’s right in the middle of the city. My house on the other hand was on the market barely three days with two offers ahead of us. We only got it because we offered more than asking and had cash in hand for our down payment. We live way, way, out. You can get to Mt. Charleston from my house quicker than you can get downtown.

 

[BrianL]

I love this board for hearing about different parts of the world and country even (we're so big!). In Nashville, and in Atlanta proper for instance, the old neighborhoods are being re-gentrified as fast as builders can remodel and are some of the very hottest parts of towns with those old stores becoming juice bars, yoga studios, tattoo palors, bike shops, vegan candy shops, places serving artesian pickles and cocktails. Vegas is so totally different than that, I know, so the varied experiences are so neat to learn to about!

And that's supposed to be an improvement?

 

[smiths02]

Our HOA is really a pain. The thing is many neighborhoods around here have an HOA, it's not like it is easy to opt out. The other thing is that it is hard to find out just how difficult the HOA is to deal with until you are living with it. However, for our HOA, they can't just change the rules like that.

 

[amberpi]

I wish that were the case here. Some of the most amazing houses are in parts of town people don’t want to live in anymore. My DD’s mentor had a house I would have killed for, just amazing but it took her nearly a year to sell it because it’s right in the middle of the city. My house on the other hand was on the market barely three days with two offers ahead of us. We only got it because we offered more than asking and had cash in hand for our down payment. We live way, way, out. You can get to Mt. Charleston from my house quicker than you can get downtown.

Like I said upthread, you have to pay to live in the city and street to street can still be interesting and used to be really "interesting." Here and pretty much the exact same place I lived in ATL, is almost entirely regentrified and pushing into the next neighborhood and the next. It's fantastic for cutting down urban sprawl and something I see as a real positive for the city. But Nashville is super "hot" right now, and the hipsters...jesus, the number of adults in onesies, glitter beards, or romphims I see at a bar (sometimes while dis'ing! I really want to take and post pics for ya'll but I wouldn't do that to strangers or sorta acquaintances) or a coffee shop is ridiculous; however the cocktails and coffee are great! Remodeling those old houses and the effort put into saving old tile, doors, windows, structures, etc. though is awesome. It's a weird time.

I wonder why downtown Vegas became unpopular, it seems like with the jobs closeby it'd be ready for a revitalization? I really enjoy Vegas for a tourist place. I'd love to move their just to not have to deal with allergies! I can't imagine being single there though, seems like it'd be super crazy.

ETA: because of work, I'm so glad that I don't have an HOA as I've been able to rent out my house at will when I needed to be in a different part of the country for a while.

 

[amberpi]

And that's supposed to be an improvement?

I was being funny. It's not quite that bad, yet. Being able to walk to restaurants, bars, coffeeshops and pilates/barre is pretty awesome though.

 

[smiths02]

If they are worried about illegal tenants then they should just make a rule that allows them to do random garage checks.

That would be a hard no from me as well.

To me that is like saying...police are worried about drugs, why don't police just get to search everyone and anyone's house at random?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We've had this...uh, debate...with our HOA. We never use our front door, almost exclusively enter and exit the house through the garage. They're whined about us having it open, my response is to go pound sand.

HOAs should be outlawed and abolished. Can't stand them.

Not all HOAs are bad. Believe me there are a few pretty bad ones in my area but majority are good.

I live in an HOA where I have pool access including a kiddie pool area plus a playground and 3 shelters with grills (like what you see at a park), the landscape is taken care of for the communal areas and makes the neighborhood look attractive, we have a waterfall that takes a lot of upkeep and water but is a very notable feature to the neighborhood, and we have Christmas lights put up on the trees lining the side of the street where the waterfall is on the main street to get into our neighborhood, numerous activities available for residents including Christmas hayrides in the neighborhood, Halloween events for the kids, 4th of July events for the kids, every year they also get a decent chunk of tickets to our minor league baseball team (which hey it's something) for a game so you can tailgate and enjoy meeting and talking it up with your neighbors and many other things.

That isn't to say everything is all peachy keen but by in large the neighborhood is great.

Our HOA takes care of the trash & manages the pool(which is open 3 months a year) they don't seem to do much of anything else. A neighbor had a total POS wrecked truck parked in his drive for nearly a year. The HOA contacted them several times but he refused to do anything about it. This leads me to think the HOA has no teeth.
The open garage door thing is counter intuitive, isn't this just asking for people's stuff to get stolen? And then the people sue the HOA.

The in-laws's HOA dues pay for their trash but all they really have in their neighborhood is a pool and that's it as far as amenities though their communal areas are taken care of just like ours. And based on their interactions I'd say their HOA is a bit more nitpicky at least in neighbor behaviors than ours is (though complaints happen in ours neighborhood as well). But to be fair my in-laws also don't particularly like HOAs anymore as they've gotten older and in truth they caused some of their own drama.

 

[smiths02]

That’s insane! Here it’s more likely stuff will get stolen from your garage if it’s left open.

Also allows much easier access to your house as well. The doors leading into the house from the garage are generally some of the easiest to break in (plus the person would be in the garage so wouldn't look as suspicious)

 

[cabanafrau]

It’s not easy peasy depending on where you live. Most new home developments here (and by new I mean 20-25 years and newer) are all HOA. The oldest and older neighborhoods have or are falling into disrepair with grocery stores and businesses now abandoned buildings. I wouldn’t live where I raised my older daughter now if you paid me. If your choice is your kid getting mugged on the way to school or dealing with an HOA to live in a decent neighborhood it’s about as close to no choice as you can get.

When we were looking for a house I read all the bylaws of every HOA top to bottom. I wasn’t signing anything until I knew 100% what I was getting into. It hasn’t been too bad. We have Mrs. Kravitz up the street who likes to “tattle” on people but our HOA is like New Years Resolutioners. All gung ho every now and again but mostly leave you alone. The vast majority of the neighborhood keeps up their property and we have no crazy rules which helps.

I wouldn’t think an HOA could just arbitrarily order people to leave their home unsecured like that. Even if it’s not illegal as the article states, take it to the media. There will be lawyers wanting to get their name out there lining up. I’d refuse and hit up my neighbors to do the same.

I've heard about plenty of HOA battles at work to convince me I want to avoid them like the plague. That said, I think why they're so prevalent in some areas is because it becomes the norm for people to do as they want to the point where nobody wants to live there anymore and when people pick up stakes they are looking to prevent a lot of past problems from taking hold. If I were forced to pick my poison and accept an HOA I'd be doing my homework like you did and do what I can to honor my agreement with my neighbors and not decide my needs override theirs arbitrarily.

QUOTE="Klayfish, post: 58659285, member: 579080"]Because they're pointless, IMO.

And no, my garage is actually rather messy. I've got 3 kids, it happens.[/QUOTE]

You elected to move into an HOA. Not only can't you give the consideration of living up to your agreement, you can't be bothered to make a good faith effort to live up to the spirit of the rule by at least keeping the garage tidy. We don't have an HOA, but in our neighborhood if your garage looks messy people keep them closed so everyone else doesn't have to look at your mess. The house nextdoor to ours sold this past fall for the first time in 30 or more years. The couple that moved in told us they keyed in on our specific neighborhood because of details like this. Apparently they were told by various real estate agents that our neighborhood happens to be noted for a consistency in well kept homes over many years and it's resulted in an uptick of values in our neighborhood in particular. They decided to invest where the odds were high neighbors were invested in keeping things nice. The new people also noticed within two months of moving in the outlier on the block when the leaves came down, understanding how it forces everyone else to pick up the slack.

Still don't understand why you think something should be outlawed simply because you don't like it or you find it pointless?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I was reading about this from my local news and I get what they are tryiing to control with people living in garages but the story I read mentioned one of the homeowners who was interviewed didn't have a problem with setting up checks for illegal tennents but def had a problem with leaving their garage opened during the day. For our neighborhood as well as I'm sure majority of HOA neighborhoods this would be against the rules.

And honestly in this case I do get the frustration. People know HOAs can adjust their rules and they do but this isn't something that people signed off for when they moved into the neighborhood. It was a sudden drastic rule change that seems like it wasn't thought out. I wonder if they opened up any of their meetings for their residents to come and discuss their concerns or give alternatives for a solution before signing this into 'law'. I have no idea what the laws are there but I *think* here any change to the rules means you have to refile paperwork with the City and have it recorded as such.

Besides to me this is so far removed from a simple "you moved into an area where people can tell you what to do" type thing. Also there are city ordinances all the time that tell you what you can do from not parking inoperable vehicles, from not parking on the street and not moving your vehicle for X amount of time, from when you can mow your lawn or do construction on your home, etc.

 

[nkereina]

We live in an HOA and have had no issues with it. When done correctly, the benefit of one is that it helps to maintain the look of the community as well as property values, and it's proven to be really useful as a neighborhood watch/security tool as well. Every HOA is bound to have a couple rules you're not keen on, but its a trade-off.

The rule mentioned in the article in the OP is asinine though. There has to be logic and practicality behind the rules of an HOA or else it will always be a war with residents, like in some of the cases described here. This rule is clearly outlandish. And as far as the $200 fine, our HOA issues fines for various things but they have little leverage if the resident doesn't pay it. The only way they can enforce it is by filing a lien, which still doesn't elicit swift action from the homeowners.