Have you read your C.C.&R's and are they enforced?

[SamFaniam]

Our current home is in an area with no HOA. But about 20 years ago we had to get off base housing and decided to live in a condo to avoid the lawn maintenance and things. The condo association did have a relatively long list, none of which we thought was a problem. Until we got “the letter”. I had put up our curtains and hung window sheers in the bedroom and living room. I would describe the sheer color as ecru. The letter from the HOA said our window sheers had to be white. I swear that someone must’ve stood outside our window with a paint sample card or something. So, I went down to Sears and got some white window sheers. So silly!

 

[tvguy]

My HOA is self-managed. While no management company will touch us (too small) and we even had a difficult time finding a bank that would host an HOA account (we had one that was good until they changed their policies and required high fees without minimum deposits).

I guess it depends on how big you HOA is and what facilities you have to maintain. Our daughter was house hunting last year and one 36 unit complex disclosure statements listed over $500,000 in savings (or money set aside for the cost of new roofs, pool up repairs, parking lot paving, etc). I just have a vision of a well set up HOA having more than enough money set aside to waive bank minimum balance rules.

 

[bcla]

I guess it depends on how big you HOA is and what facilities you have to maintain. Our daughter was house hunting last year and one 36 unit complex disclosure statements listed over $500,000 in savings (or money set aside for the cost of new roofs, pool up repairs, parking lot paving, etc). I just have a vision of a well set up HOA having more than enough money set aside to waive bank minimum balance rules.

We could have gotten all fees waived with maybe a $100K average balance. Otherwise the fees would have cost about half our HOA dues. Before that bank we had a local bank that did a fairly cheap HOA service. I called once and the banker said they only handled two HOAs. Then large national bank bought them out, but kept the service for a few years before they transferred it to their lockbox service.

But it’s hard since we’re so small. We found one bank with a free service, but it requires direct deposit.

 

[tvguy]

We could have gotten all fees waived with maybe a $100K average balance. Otherwise the fees would have cost about half our HOA dues. Before that bank we had a local bank that did a fairly cheap HOA service. I called once and the banker said they only handled two HOAs. Then large national bank bought them out, but kept the service for a few years before they transferred it to their lockbox service.

But it’s hard since we’re so small. We found one bank with a free service, but it requires direct deposit.

Do you have reserve accounts? How many homes are in the HOA? $100,000 doesn't seem like a lot in reserve although doing a quick Google search I find several banks that offer free accounts to HOAs with direct deposit.

 

[DVC-Don]

Ours were from 1991. No window AC units that could be seen from the street, no marked commercial vehicles parked outside over night. No RV's and boats overnight and no antennas that could be seen from the street. That's all I can recall. There was no official HOA board, so to enforce you would of had to take someone to court. Moved out of there in 2013 and last fall I road through. One house next to my old house had an old RV all stripped down and the guy says he is restoring it. Another old neighbor told me he's been "restoring the RV for 3 years). Other than that the old neighborhood looked fine.