Homewoner's association and 2A preemption

[KLB]

Wow! I figured that I would get input here but it will take me awhile to reply/comment on the ones I saw that I would like to. I'm going to have to learn the "multi quote" feature here. Several interesting takes and ideas given. Thank you.

Most important thing to remember when using multi-quote is to go back and uncheck the messages after you post.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Well is it Chocolate or Vanilla?

Yes.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Really?! That was an issue?

Time to flush those folks out of office.

There are plenty more little Napoleons waiting to take their place.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Ice Cream flavors are a social construct and are not necessarily binary! I happen to prefer peanut butter swirl and chocolate butter toffee flavors!

You get Neapolitan DD. Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry will be in exact sized portions. Although it will identify as Butter Pecan.

 

[KellyinAvon]

There are plenty more little Napoleons waiting to take their place.

I hear what you're saying, Cm. Some of my co-workers in Florida told horror stories. Amazingly the Yorktown area in Virginia was worse. My wife worked for a HOA management company for a while. What was mandatory in one neighborhood was forbidden in the next. Way too many retired officers with nothing to do after playing golf.

We were the 10th house in our neighborhood. Four years later the neighborhood took over the HOA from the builder. Sheryl was on the HOA Board 2 years, I was on it for 4 after that. I tried to look at a covenants like the Constitution: it limits the authority of the governing body. Depending on the weather I'll be on a HOA board again. As long as the temperature in Hell is above 32 degrees I won't be on a HOA board.

 

[jamil]

Your HOA is not a governmental entity. The 2d Amendment is irrelevant as are state preemption statues.

...and if you think people will not spend too much of their own money to enforce the limits of freedoms on others....you don't know HOAs.

Do your bylaws allow for such an amendment? If so, you'll have to be political and make sure it doesn't get passed....or move.

Never underestimate the mob's capacity to punish non-conformers as thoroughly as they can. I've been on a couple of HOA boards. This was years before Parks and Recreation, but as I'd describe it now, I got on the board just so that I could be the "Ron Swanson" vote against the whims of the mob enforcing their purity tests.

 

[Bennettjh]

Never underestimate the mob's capacity to punish non-conformers as thoroughly as they can. I've been on a couple of HOA boards. This was years before Parks and Recreation, but as I'd describe it now, I got on the board just so that I could be the "Ron Swanson" vote against the whims of the mob enforcing their purity tests.

I know what you mean. Good for you.

 

[jamil]

In my dealing with HOAs, currently in a house without one, the board members are concerned with more than maintaining the value of the property (which should be there main focus). My homeschooling came up during a HOA meeting. I introduced the board to HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association). Last time that subject was discussed. Why they were concerned with my homeschooling I'll never know. Bunch of busy bodies that lack any significance in the real world, so they try to bully everyone in the HOA.

Why?

They're not homeschoolers.

 

[ditcherman]

Wow! I figured that I would get input here but it will take me awhile to reply/comment on the ones I saw that I would like to. I'm going to have to learn the "multi quote" feature here. Several interesting takes and ideas given. Thank you.

From a newb; it’s easy, just click that lower right icon on all the posts you want and then go down and click reply to thread. AND THEN GO BACK AND UNCLICK THE LOWER RIGHT ICON. It’s easy until it’s not.

 

[jamil]

From a newb; it’s easy, just click that lower right icon on all the posts you want and then go down and click reply to thread. AND THEN GO BACK AND UNCLICK THE LOWER RIGHT ICON. It’s easy until it’s not.

Multi-quote got broke awhile ago. It used to remove the checks when you replied. Now it doesn’t. I sometimes use multi-quote when I’m commenting on a common theme. But mostly I just reply to the individual posts. Plus. That way I can be a post whore.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Multi-quote got broke awhile ago. It used to remove the checks when you replied. Now it doesn’t. I sometimes use multi-quote when I’m commenting on a common theme. But mostly I just reply to the individual posts. Plus. That way I can be a post whore.

I usually go completely out of the sub-forum after using multi-quote, and that seems to clear them. For instance if I use multi-quote in a thread in the Break Room, if I just go to another thread (still in Break Room), then the multi-quotes seem to follow me. If I get all the way out and go to say, General Politics, then back into the Break Room, they're gone.

 

[Restroyer]

A couple friends of mine live in an HOA and they cannot shoot. However, it was in the original HOA document that they signed when they bought their homes. I will never live in an HOA. Their rules are so ridiculous whether it is can't grill in view of the street, can't burn leaves, can't fly the Flag, have to put a privacy fence around their boat, etc. A bunch of BS rules.

 

[KellyinAvon]

A couple friends of mine live in an HOA and they cannot shoot. However, it was in the original HOA document that they signed when they bought their homes. I will never live in an HOA. Their rules are so ridiculous whether it is can't grill in view of the street, can't burn leaves, can't fly the Flag, have to put a privacy fence around their boat, etc. A bunch of BS rules.

I'm scared to ask where your friends live Restroyer. We can't shoot because we're in city limits. Most people in our neighborhood grill in the driveway/keep the grill in the garage. I'm a charcoal purist so mine lives on the patio in back. Burning leaves is a within city limits thing. Storage can be an issue, boats, RVs, etc. We never followed the rather Draconian 24 hour guidelines. I think that was a typo and they spelled 7 days wrong.

Can't fly the flag? Seriously??!! That's actually in the covenants? Short of Hell freezing over that's one thing that would get me back on an HOA board. Long term: amend the covenants. Short term: properly display the flag(s). If anybody on that board says anything I'd move to have them removed from the board.

Wasn't there something in Greenwood a while back on these lines? Korean War Vet?

 

[femurphy77]

HOA's have a purpose, to maintain property values through conformity. Most of you sound unable to conform to get the value, and I get it. Millions of owners reap the benefits of that conformity. It is true some can get out of control but the vast majority do not if one wants too follow the covenants.

BUT, when you have a house worth several hundred thousand and your one neighbor paints theirs like a kaleidoscope they saw on a vacation in the Caribbean with a monument to an Aztec God, the other has a truck on blocks in the drive and a car with the hood up in the yard and no one wants to buy your house because of them. That might change your mind...

I actually liked the Caribbean paint scheme! Honestly though for the most part I believe city ordinances cover a large portion of issues that HOA's take to the next level. Having dealt with code issues and HOA issues I'll take code enforcement any day. the HOA I moved into had a board comprised of retirees with nothing better to do than ride around on their golf carts all day looking for violations then leaving "anonymous" notes in your mailbox threatening legal action if you didn't comply.

Personally I was brought up to believe that if your neighbor was doing something that needed addressing you knocked on their door with a couple of beers in your hand and discussed it. These exchanges typically led to barbecues, using their pool, watching each others house while on vacation etc. But I do understand it when people prefer to drop a dime also.

 

[femurphy77]

IIRC when I first moved to the Indy area there was an HOA tiff about a plastic multi-colored playset in a backyard in the HOA area. Seems the covenants required out buildings to be the same color as the house. Said homeowner hired a paint crew to paint the house to match the multi-colored playhouse! I "believe" it ended with the HOA approving the playset AND paying to have the house repainted to fit their mono-chromatic view of life.

 

[MarkC]

The retiree board members riding around in golf carts terrorizing the neighbors for perceived covenant violations reminds me of our former home in a decent but modest neighborhood on the far south side of Indianapolis, in Perry Township. When we moved in Mrs. MarkC and I reviewed the seemingly-reasonable covenants, and thought it would be okay.

HOWEVER, the HOA had hired a professional management company from Carmel to manage the common area and review compliance. They were worse, in some ways, than the retiree neighbor HOA vigilante. We would get violation notices for stupid crap, such as when Mrs. MarkC put the Green Bean bins on the front porch for Friday's pickup and delivery. We got a notice of violation for "storage items" on the porch. Apparently the enforcement goon was not familiar with fresh delivery companies, like Green Bean or PeaPod.

We would receive the notices by mail, which arrived several days after the alleged violation.

The part that galled me the most is that they were signed only with the inspector goon's first name; if you are going to call me out on something, at least have the guts to stand up for yourself. Before I retired from law enforcement, I made it a point to sign tickets legibly, as I felt that if I were going to accuse someone of violating the law, I should stand behind what I said and let them know who I was.

The last straw was when an earthwork between two of the retention ponds failed, draining the water into the lower pond. The HOA had Billy Joe Bob's excavation company restore the dam, which promptly failed again. A special assessment was needed to have the work professionally done, which doubled our HOA dues for a year.

Enough was enough. We moved to rural Morgan County, with reasonable zoning and far enough away from any municipality to outside of their control. It is unlikely that we would ever move from here, let alone to someplace with an HOA or covenants running with the land, but if we do, I'm putting the HoughMade level of scrutiny on it!

 

[terrehautian]

HOA = Communist/Socialist

The history of the HOA comes from a dude that was a devoted Socialist and compounds from that point. It’s usually a “entity” set up by the developer or builder often to attempt to control the area. It is a “board” that decides what goes on often regardless of what local laws state. The concept is in un American and restricts the personal freedom of the individual.
HOA’s have banned firearms in some areas doing “inspections” of homes that included opening safes. The basic deal is you live on a commune your personal freedoms get checked when you step foot on the communes land “not your land”.

I think the OP did the right thing the ones more equal than the others cannot enforce something that’s not in the bylaws so I say you did good!

Not all hoa’s Are bad. The one I live in is great, very few rules and not strict. Cheap and yearly dues and they go towards things like mail box posts, mowing of a lot that the community uses for recreation, and snow removal.

 

[Brad69]

Just wait till they complain when you are mowing the grass in a thong and straw hat terrehautian!

 

[femurphy77]

Just wait till they complain when you are mowing the grass in a thong and straw hat terrehautian!

Uh, you know that "might" be a covenant I could see the validity of.

 

[Thor]

The one time we lived in an HOA neighborhood we moved in being told it was basically to maintain the roads, snow removal, sewer and access to the resorts amenities. First day we are there cleaning out the yard the HOA president (the states retired Col. National Guard facilities manager) walked up and his first words were..."When are you going to bring your house into compliance?" and it only went down from there. He would walk around the neighborhood every day with a clipboard taking notes. Petty tyrants gonna spread tyranny.

We asked and got approval to put up a storage shed, same color as the log home we were living in. After putting it up he found a clause that said it had to be the same exterior not just color, and retroactively convinced the management company of that; so log shed or no shed. There was no restriction on play sets though (I'm sure he saw that as an oversight) so I took the shed apart and reassembled it in the back yard about 10' up anchored between 3 oak trees and put a rope ladder up to it for my son to use as a tree house. It stayed there till we sold the house and moved. ..i.. you facilities guy. I was active duty military at the time but there were no exceptions in his very closed mind.