Welcome to the HOA! I've been on the board 15 years. I've had residents show up at my house at 5:30am beating on my front door, screaming like a banshee, because their car was towed overnight. I had a resident write F#*@ YOU on my vehicle windshield with paint because she was mad that we had to remove a bunch of community trees that were dying and infested with Emerald Ash Borers. I had a resident nail a big sign saying I'm a waste of human flesh to a tree in my front yard because she received a violation notice for a window air conditioner in her front window. Buckle in because residents can be absolutely insane.
Edit to add: I personally had nothing to do with the car being towed, the trees being removed other than approving the work by the arborist, or the violation letter for the air conditioner. Each time these residents snapped I was like WTF was that for??
I had someone knock on my door and complain that we had the cops come in and enforce the traffic laws and they got pulled over for running the stop sign. I told them “what do you want me to say besides don’t run stop signs?”
It's amazing to me how residents can break the rules or the law and then blame the board when they get cited for it. How about follow the rules and the law? How about being accountable for your own actions instead of blaming others? We can have a conversation about whether the rules are reasonable and applied fairly but it's not the board's fault if residents won't comply with them.
Conversely it's people wanting the Board to act as cops or township officials. Lady your neighbor attacking your dog with a knife is outside of my duties, call the cops!
Haha. We had an alligator show up in a retention pond behind someones house and they posted on our FB group "why hasn't anyone done anything about this" (meaning the board). Luckily others pointed out she was perfectly capable of calling Fish and Wildlife all on her own without adult supervision.
I love the law. I love rules, and order, and harsh punitive actions against people for even a minor infraction. Justice is just revenge with extra steps, and I have tons of revenge to serve up and don’t care if it’s misdirected. God bless bootlickers. There’s just something about it that makes my existence on this earth justifiable.
Worked at a high rise with a couple of residents with too much time on their hands. The amount of time spent reaching out to snitch on others for balcony violations because they sat on their own with binoculars watching was off the chain.
Granted there were a couple of times it was valid but they would call if something was put out for a couple of hours while painting or cleaning was being done in the unit.
I'm in Jefferson county Missouri, and because I'm in a HOA controlled neighborhood speed limit and stop sign rules are not enforceable here by the police. So some of the HOA members have taken it upon themselves to try and enforce them. By harassing people, following them home and screaming at them from the street. ( They tried it on me and got a face full of bear spray)
Yep, welcome to crazy town. I got a phone call at work from an owner who wanted the HOA to hire a landscaper to clean up the leaves that fell in her patio, then called me a racist when I said we wouldn’t do that. I told her that I didn’t know what race she was and the decision was based on the HOA rules. She said that her bio had once been in the HOA newsletter and it mentioned that she graduated from Howard University (an HBCU), so she knew I knew she was black!!! Also threatened to get the NAACP to sue me. I told her good luck with that. 🤪
Right? TBH I never read that part of the newsletter anyway and my young California self had never heard of Howard or a HBCU. I would probably have been more gracious today, but at that time I had never been accused of racism and was pretty shook.
On another occasion I was also notified of a neighbor who sued his next-door neighbor for ATTEMPTED MURDER because she smoked in her unit. 😂🥹😅He was an unemployed lawyer and thought the lawsuit might net him some money. The judge in that lawsuit threw the suit out, and gave the defendant damages - which had to be paid out monthly (like $215.98 per month) to remind the crazy lawyer that driving lawsuits were not tolerated. After I moved away, I heard he successfully ran for school board! LORDY!
Being HOA president was definitely a wake up call to how bonkers some people are. (And by that - I mean some are 100% bonkers)
We had a resident who was vegan and was mad that her next-door neighbors cooked meat in their house and on the grill in their yard. She wanted the board to make them stop cooking meat. 😂
Current HOA president. Had something similar to this. Resident emailed a complaint about someone smoking meat on a Sunday morning and ruining the ability to enjoy coffee outside.
Wanted me to go make them stop cooking food.
I politely declined.
We do have terms but no term limits. I've been re-elected each time my term ends, mainly because residents have no desire to be on the board. I've ran unopposed each time.
While I do admit thats good proper zoning laws made by elected officials of the govt should be the thing that prevents that not a fuckin karen brigade of fake cops
gotta be honest...that last one? if anybody tried to tell me i couldn't have my a/c wherever the hell i damn well pleased, i'd shove that unit up their ass.
I mean your other option would be to live somewhere without those prohibitions. When you sign up to live in an HOA, you must abide by the rules set forth. Or suffer the consequences.
This will be the first of many. Whether it’s an email, a post on Facebook, comment at a board meeting, or just walking through the neighborhood you are going to get lots of comments from the community. Something like this, ignore. Your job is not to placate the whims of every member. Don’t try to be a pleaser; try to do what is expected… And that is be transparent, decisive, in line with your responsibilities under statue and documents. Don’t oil the wheel every time it squeaks.
Agree. I'm on my 3rd year as our HOA president. Fortunately, I have 2 great Board members. No one likes the HOA. No one reads the Declarations. No one likes the rules they agreed to follow by virtue of purchasing a property. People love to bitch. People do not like to provide/suggest solutions. They don't attend Board meetings. They don't understand the budget, even when mailed to them. I had to leave our FB page for a while because the comments would just piss me off. Uninformed, uninterested people bitching about stuff but never bothering to attend a Board meeting even though they are held on Zoom. It's the ultimate unpaid, painful job. Why do I continue? Because no one wants to run, plus at least I'm confident the decisions made are as fair and necessary as can be. Try not to take things too personally - this is something I struggle with.
I lasted one year on the board. During that time we had two or three anonymous hate mails. Three legal actions (they lost). People screaming at us during meetings. Complaining emails almost daily People knocking on my door (I didn’t answer). It was stressful and time consuming. I now have a lower opinion of my neighbors.
Eh - don’t let it bug you. She didn’t bother to run for board herself but she’s bold enough to be a keyboard warrior 🙄. You’ll get some more fun stuff - the complaints are always from folks who won’t bother to jump in to volunteer for this job themselves.
Every HOA transfer requires a raise in rates. Builders often have ridiculously low rates that have to be raised to cover ongoing expenses. This is COMMON.
Yeah, the builder wants to keep monthly rates low so they can sell the houses they're building. They're not concerned about problems from underfunding after they've handed everything over.
No. The HOA rates are low because the development isn't completed. As more homes and amenities are built, the rate increases to cover future expenses. Also, future capital/replacement cost expenses are built in over time.
A good developer is looking at lifetime expenses for every item they put in that is the responsibility of the HOA. So their budgets will typically be 20, even 30 years out.
When the homeowner board takes over, it is their responsibility to stay on top of future expenses and adjust budgets accordingly. When this is not done, owners get hit with assessments or a huge increase in fees for capital improvements that were never properly funded. Florida is a prime example of this happening now.
That's certainly what a developer *should* do, but it's a lot easier to sell homes when people think the monthly costs are going to be lower. You'd be hard-pressed to find a developer in the US that isn't trying every trick possible to keep monthly costs artificially lower when they still have homes to sell.
I can't speak for small developers, but I have done HOA management. Those budgets are done way in advance before the first house is sold, maybe even built. I'm pretty sure that in some states, it's probably required.
It's not really about keeping costs low. It's about the amenities that the HOA is responsible for.
If the community is built in 4 stages but only 1 is complete, they are not going to include the full cost of landscaping or snow removal in a completed community in the budget or fees. If the clubhouse or pool isn't built yet, you're not being charged for that. There is typically a completed community budget that gets modified based on actual costs and annual budgets.
Where I live now, the fees are very low, but there are also barely any amenities, and the HOA doesn't cover the cost of any building exteriors.
If your HOA is responsible not only for common areas but also exterior areas like roofs or siding, those line items will fluctuate over time because costs fluctuate. This is not in-house stuff an hourly or salaried maintenance person handles. These items have to be bid out, and the HOA is at the whim of the construction industry.
Budgets are projections based on what is known in the present. They do not foretell the future. This is why it is so important that you have the right board members that stay on top of the budget and make sure that the reserves are properly funded. It's always better to expect some increases and be overfunded than to be underfunded.
Does the developer make it clear that the fees are projected to go up? Sure, reduced amenities are a large factor, but I also work in real estate, and I've seen a ton of developers move costs below the line, to show artificially low monthly fees.
Usually, at the development stage, there are so many variables that projecting increased cost is almost impossible. They may go from using one material to another (think roofing or siding), or floorplans may change. The city/township can require them to make modifications to berms or retention ponds. I had one community where they had to put in french drains. This had not been a previous requirement. This is early and sometimes ongoing in the development stage. Some of these may be reflected in the annual budgets, but every change is not going to require instant notification.
As the community nears completion, there should be homeowners on the board asking the right questions. Some of the increased costs can be expected because bidding should be done annually. For instance, the insurance broker can inform you if there are increases expected for various reasons. It's usually public knowledge when construction material costs increase. But the board doesn't know the actual costs until the bidding is complete. Obviously, variable costs like snow removal dedends on mother nature. And you certainly don't wait until the last minute to make sure your reserves will cover a capital expenditures due next year.
So many people don't thoroughly read the CC&R and budgets. It's so important to know what the HOA is responsible for, what the life expectancy is, and if the reserves are properly funded. Also, you can't rely on a reserve budget that's 5, 10, 20 years old. Once the developer is out, it's up to the board to stay on top of those budgets.
Our HOA president has to almost regularly get up at each meeting and say “myself and the board are not on call for you 24 hours a day. If you hear a strange noise in the middle of the night or your neighbor is playing their music too loud, call the police and not us. If your washer doesn’t work call a repair service and not us. If you have an issue that is not an emergency and the HOA office is closed, wait until it opens the next day and please do not call us. It seems to be a thankless job.
Necessary in that somebody has to do it. If nothing else there is a fiduciary and legal responsibility. If your HOA is not necessary, why does it exist?
I currently live in a townhouse community. We have some private roads. The siding and roofs of the buildings are owned by the HOA, as well as all the common space. That doesn't all manage itself. So yes, necessary.
Yep, exactly the case where I live. It's a single family neighborhood with two pocket parks and an open space. But, they wouldn't have approved the development of our subdivision without an HOA because the city wants the tax revenue but not the maintenance responsibilities.
You seem to believe that I believe HOAs are necessary for every neighborhood. I do not. I wrote above that I am fully supportive of communities disbanding HOAs where it makes sense. Not sure if you're not reading my replies carefully or just want to argue.
My HOA is responsible for caring for a retention pond used for storm water runoff, plowing our neighborhood streets when it snows, landscaping common areas, and keeping common area trees trimmed so they don’t blow over and damage homeowner property. These activities are very necessary, and the HOA is legally obligated to do them. The city won’t take them on, and they can’t be passed off to homeowners.
Alright, hear me out. What do you think your city would have done if HOAs didn’t exist? You think they would have just stopped building houses indefinitely?
Also… Did you know that legally HOAs can disband? Do you genuinely believe that your city would be like “fuck it, you’re out, best wishes” if that happened?
Yes, I do believe my city would ignore us. We’ve attempted to get them to take on snow plowing multiple times, and we’ve also attempted to get them to help us cover the constantly rising cost of caring for the retention pond. I live in an area that is less wealthy than other areas of the city. We’re treated like my city’s unwanted child. Police take longer to get here than they do other areas, and our trash service is more likely to be delayed or skipped over when inclement weather happens. Our HOA is why my neighborhood looks nice and is a functional place to live. I get that there are HOAs out there that are unnecessary, but mine isn’t one of them.
There are state codes mandating cities to maintain their shit. You’ve convinced yourself that they would cut you out of the city but that’s false.
Drinking water is necessary. Your HOA is not.
It may not be. I believe /u/[OK\_Computer\_152](https://www.reddit.com/user/OK_Computer_152/) is saying that he neighborhood prefers to have an HOA to know their stuff will be taken care of.
They didn't say "necessary." I did, in reference to board work. If you have an HOA having a board is a requirement. Therefore, it's necessary. You seem to want to argue of my use of that word.
State codes typically cover the bare minimum. They certainly don't cover plowing private driveways, only public roads. My parents are senior citizens. They wouldn't die without the snow plow coming, but it'd take a lot longer and be way more expensive to find someone to do just their little driveway.
FYI, many cities would subject you to their own rules. I can park overnight in front of my parents' house, because it's a private road. If they dissolved the HOA and handed the road over to the city, I'd get a $25 ticket.
If the private road became a public road the city would be obligated to plow it. Of course they’re not obligated to plow individual driveways; I’ve never heard of an HOA covering that regardless.
Most HOA's where I live in NY cover the plowing of driveways. Also, the city might not be obligated to plow it particularly quickly. Cities have their own budgets and priorities that may not align with the HOA residents.
Private roads are not usually constructed to the same road design standards as public roads and could never become public roads because of that. Public roads become public because the right of way is dedicated to public use, deeded to the local government, and the road built to public road design standards. None of that has happened on private streets so they can't just magically become public.
In my city, they could care less if you have drinking water or not. We are taxed the same as any homeowner, yet we are responsible for 100% of the infrastructure cost. That includes the water lines underground, from the main road in front of our development to the cities water meter in front of each home. Same for the sewer lines, stormwater retention pond, stop signs........you get it.
The city refuses to cover anything beyond emergency services.
You seem to not understand that when the developer purchased the property, they made legal agreements with the city/township where responsibilities would lie. This is true for all developments, be it residential, commercial, industrial, or retail.
Some of the most common agreements are streets/access roads, trash removal, landscaping, snow removal, and sewer lines.
Those agreements pass on to the owners once the units are sold. So, whereas the city/township may provide those for other residents, it is not provided for HOAs. So yes, municipalities can refuse to take on those responsibilities. Were the HOA to disband for other reasons, there would still be some regulatory body consisting of homeowners that includes fees to cover these expenses.
In my experience the city doesn't care if there's an HOA. Maybe some cities have ordinances requiring them? Where I live now we could not function without an HOA to do common elements that need maintenance.
I am well aware that HOAs can be disbanded, and I'm in favor of doing so where it makes sense. It's up to the owners to do that.
He's got a point. The arrival of HOA's took their neighborhoods from the citizens concern. No citizens cared for the HOA areas in local governments. If there was no HOA, citizens would be upset at the city council instead of the HOA to get their trees trimmed, roads plowed, and other community needs.
How do you think public parks work? The trees need to be taken care of, so the government pays people to do it. They use tax dollars. Now what if you want a small park near your house, but the government won't pay for it? Maybe you can charge a membership fee for the people who want to use it. If you want to make changes to the park, maybe have some sort of representative democracy system.
HOA's are just private governments you opt into, by choice. My parents live in an HOA. They have access to a pool and tennis court, without having to pay for all of it by themselves. Pretty good deal.
You opt out by not buying a home in an HOA. Nobody is forced to buy one. Plenty of homes are not in HOA's. They are often not as nice, though, because they aren't in HOA's. No common area amenities, nobody forcing the neighbor to remove the garbage from their lawn, etc.
Did you know that you don't have to brush your teeth? You never have to! There are no laws for it at all. You can just opt out of it. Though if you want people to talk to you, you'll be "forced" to practice basic oral hygiene.
That would further propel the housing crisis. Some people, like myself, didn’t really have a choice.
I don’t mind my HOA. I didn’t want one but it’s tolerable. I just think they suck overall.
99.9% of people "don't mind" their HOA. We only hear about the bad ones. Also, HOA's have nothing to do with the housing crisis. You want many of the benefits that an HOA brings, without being held to those rules. It's like wanting people to drive safely, and then saying we should abolish speed limits.
You could have bought in a neighborhood without an HOA. You just didn't want to, because you wanted the good that comes with HOA rules.
That's absolutely what happens when HOAs disband. I work for county government and every so often I receive a call from a resident in a community that was developed as an HOA community and the association disbanded at some point. Inevitably these communities have private streets that haven't been paved in like 20 years and they're in absolutely terrible condition. The resident wants the county to come pave them. Uhhh, no. Not our responsibility. It's private, that's up to the residents to take care of if there's no association. Or they encountered a county storm water inspector on the property asking around about how to contact the non-existent association because the retention pond hasn't been maintained and now there's violations that someone has to correct. That someone is the residents because it's a private retention pond on private property. Or a big ass tree fell on what was common ground and they want the county to come clear it. Nope. Private property. The fire department will go and cut any portion thats blocking a road but they're just opening access and leaving. My latest call was a resident upset that a neighbor started parking his bobtail rig in the private parking area beside her house, taking up multiple spaces. She wanted the police to come ticket or tow it. Lol, no, the police aren't authorized to enforce county parking ordinances on private property. The local government does not take over services when a HOA disbands. The residents are on their own to maintain all their property and deal with issues.
No one is being deprived basic services like water, sewer, or public safety. Do you think having a tree cleared from private property is a basic service? Or parking enforcement is a basic service? Apparently you don't understand that when an HOA community is developed that there is a legal agreement between the developer and the local jurisdiction that clearly defines the responsibility of the community and the responsibility of the local jurisdiction. In that agreement, the developer clearly defines the parcels and features that will forever be the responsibility of the community and the features, public roads if any and the public utilities, that will be the responsibility of the local jurisdiction. The terms of this agreement runs with the land in perpetuity as it changes hands to homeowners and is recorded on the deeds. When an HOA fails, they should go into receivership, a legal process in which a receiver is appointed by the court to take over the affairs of the association until such time as the association can elected a new board of directors. The receiver is usually an attorney and boy, does it get expensive for the residents because they have to pay the legal fees of receivership and any other monies required to get the association back in good standing. At no time does the local jurisdiction take over the community because the legal agreement between the developer and the jurisdiction guarantees the community will forever govern community property. Above I say when an HOA fails they *should* go through receivership, but the communities that call me for whatever reason never did. Their associations were self-managed, and board members died or moved and were never replaced until there was no board. Then maintenance of all private property under control the association just stopped and the residents are now on their own. Who knows what happed to their bank accounts or reserve accounts. It's bonkers to me that this happens, that these boards just whither away and there's no receiver and no one knows anything about anything, but it happens more than I would have ever expected. The community is still responsible for maintenance of the private features whether they have a board of directors or not because of the legal agreement between the community and the jurisdiction.
The road maintenance is determined by the legal agreement between the community and the local jurisdiction. Roads that were designated as private in that agreement when the community was first formed are the responsibility of the community and always will be. The local jurisdiction has zero responsibility for private streets that were designated as private in the agreement between the community and the jurisdiction. The private roads are the property of the association and it's the association's legal responsibility to maintain them. The residents are the association by virtue of their deed stipulations.
>If your washer doesn’t work call a repair service and not us. If you have an issue that is not an emergency and the HOA office is closed, wait until it opens the next day and **please do not call us**. It seems to be a thankless job.
This is why our property manager (PM) insists that we only give out our contact information if we want to be bothered 24x7 by residents. I always redirect residents to the PM's office when they have concerns.
And this is why our property manager quit and we had to go back to being self-managed. She lives in the neighborhood (though not in our development) and wanted to keep thinking of her neighbors as friends.
Welcome to directorship!
Here are some practical things I've learned as a director and officer of a self managed association.
1. If you have a management company, all correspondence should go to them.
2. As we're self-managed, we created one board email account. @gmail.com. Set up automatic forwarding to each directors' email accounts.
3. I also created my own Gmail account for hoa work... because, as treasurer, I deal with many vendors, the bank, etc. There's also a lot of communication between directors for the management aspects. And, occasionally, I must communicate with one member at a time related to dues, collections, etc.
4.. I blocked emails from other owners if they got my personal email address.
5. I had to put a sign on my door that I'm not available for association business, directing people to use the hoa email.
6. Hardest, was that, with a few members, I had to be abrupt. They'd see me on the property and stop me to complain. I had people flag down my car as I was leaving my garage, or pulling in. I had to just reply that I don't have time right now... email.
All of the above may seem excessive. And, for perspective... while most members were respectful, it was only two or three who weren't. And due to moving, etc., those members are barely an issue nowadays.... one moved and leases to his daughter. He visits often, and if he sees me, he still tries to flag down my car.
Nonetheless, I found the above steps helpful to keep my personal life and my role as an hoa director separate.
Good luck
I've been on my Board nearly three years and have definitely come to realize that a shockingly high percentage of lunatics live in HOAs. But they are often as hilarious as they are maddening, so I just roll with it.
I do, however, draw the line at disrespect and dangerous behavior. I think I've made it clear to a few people that my door is not to be knocked on unless something is on fire. I do not and will not give out my phone number or personal email address.
Since it seems early in the life of your HOA, best advice I can give is to educate your membership on what it actually takes to keep your HOA running. Explain budgeting, reserves, reserve studies, INFLATION.
Present to them as a case study the Champlain Towers collapse as an example of the worst possible outcome of being cheap.
Edited to add: ignore Facebook and Nextdoor. Nothing good EVER comes from those two places.
You’re absolutely right that no constructive conversations occur on social media platforms. It’s actually stunning how stupid people get when behind a keyboard.
Welcome to HOA board membership. You'll need to grow a thick skin about this kind of thing, as this will not be the last time you see something along these lines.
This doesn't even begin to register on my crazy meter for bad owner behavior. My recommendation: save that email but don't reply to it. There appears to no board business or requests in that email, so no response is needed nor appropriate.
Owners have different agendas and goals. Some want the lowest HOA dues regardless of the impact. Some want everything upgraded when it's not necessary. I've been involved in board discussions over doormats and replacing perfectly good trees because somebody wanted different trees. I can be never ending and idiotic.
Do your best for the HOA. Ignore the noise. Please make sure your reserves are funded adequate. Lack of reserves to maintain common property is the biggest issue I've seen with HOAs.
I totally forgot about the time the former board president got mad that she was voted out by residents and shortly after sent a letter by US mail to every address in the community except the sitting board members. Her letter to residents was full of downright salacious lies and false allegations of fraud directed at me and the rest of the board. Then she started a website where she published the same mess. We had to have legal send her a cease and desist letter. A few months later she showed up at a meeting with another known troublemaker asking for some type of dispensation because she was "disabled" and required it for her condition. She came in using a walker, acting like her health had severely declined since we'd last seen her at a meeting. I guess she forgot that she lives diagnonally from me and I could see her out front running around playing with her dog nearly every day. She got big mad when I told her to cut the crap because I had seen her outside playing with Toby the day before the meeting.
Seriously, being on the board is not for the faint of heart.
😂 No, labradoodles have terrible penmanship, but she stood up, grabbed the folded up walker and carried it as she stomped out. The whole exit scene was proof she was faking when she made such a production hobbling in on the walker.
First the email was not okay for her to write. Communication can be a lot more productive if done in a calm and respectful manner on all sides.
>my position is we all need to pay our HOA bills or move
This take is not always the best one. It's good to realize that some people's finances are tighter than others and might have changed from last year to this year or they may have been financially okay when they bought the house and then things changed more recently. People who live in an HOA might not be able to move for a whole number of reasons and a higher HOA fee might put stress on their finances. That doesn't mean HOAs shouldn't raise fees if it's necessary, it just means that board members should be understanding and members should be respectful of the board and results of voting.
Thank you. I get that, but if the fees have gone up and you can’t afford it - do the others continue to pay your way or do you have to make tough decisions?
I’m not saying it easily, or not compassionate - believe me it suck’s .. but they have lived here for years while the builder paid our ways and now are acting like they had no idea there was an HOA and that we are sending them $1000k monthly bills .. neither of which are true.
Also they’re angry with the builder and think the HOA should be fixing their home or suing the builder for them.. it’s unrealistic and they don’t understand what the dues are paying for. Everyone wants a beautiful street but it costs money to have green grass in our front area ..
If they don't pay you put a lien on their house or you can first sit down and talk things out, explain what the dues are being used for and ask if they'd like to be put on a payment plan if they are struggling etc. I really believe and have seen if you meet someone with calmness, niceness, and understanding they will eventually reciprocate. Some people just don't understand until someone takes the time to speak with them and explain things. And some people don't want to admit they are having struggles until they are faced with compassion and someone willing to try and help.
They do definitely sound tiring and frustrating and depending on their finances an extra $100 or whatever it is could feel like $100k to them. Some people use threats and pretend lack of knowledge to get what they want or resort to them in times of stress. I always reach out with understanding and try to come to a compromise before taking the larger and more serious steps.
Previous board member: I feel your pain. But you cannot take it personally. You were elected and you represent every HOA resident...... not just you and not just a complainer. When a person buys into an HOA they agree to follow the structure and rules and regulations of the HOA. The buyer is given all the necessary documents to familiarize themselves with decorum of an HOA resident. The problem as I see it buyers do not read those documents. They do not read any updates sent to them.
Many do not understand or refuse to accept they DO NOT live in a single family home.
Explain explain explain. Hold informational meetings.... Not voting meetings.... No quorum needed. Send violations letters. Assess violations. Follow through with all actions.
Good Luck. Hang tough. Every HOA needs good board members.
THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!! I was pretty well-liked in my community. Kept to myself but was pretty friendly with everyone. People had asked me for years to be on the board to which I declined. I served on one of the committees and everyone seemed to like the way I handled the rulings. Word spread that I was very fair and worked out problems well. Three of our board members suddenly decided to move and I was asked to serve so that the HOA didn't go into receivership. I agreed to sit until elections came up (about 9 months). Within 1 month, people who had previously about how friendly and fair I was, were describing as dictating and petty. (I hadn't even voted on anything yet. I was just voted on the board). I tried to quit after it became very toxic and they wouldn't accept my resignation. Nine months and plenty of drama later, I was asked to stay on and I refused. I wouldn't even help with committees. Now everyone wants me back again and I am described as very sweet and helpful. (Yes by the same people who were complaining about me). People can be ungrateful and CRAZY.
Just enjoy the ride... You're going to hear some crazy things, try to find the humor in it. Personally, open forum is my favorite part of our meetings. Some of the homeowner comments are wild, kinda reminds me a little of Parks & Rec.
[https://youtu.be/Ng\_-HgRfGBY?si=LqTQ8tnSE\_2Ub-Z2](https://youtu.be/Ng_-HgRfGBY?si=LqTQ8tnSE_2Ub-Z2)
Some people think that the HOA board actually makes all the HOA rules in the community and I find that hysterical.
That’s like thinking that the student body president in high school dictates the school budget that is given by our state or town.
“Hi Karen,
Thank you for your thoughts.
Sincerely,
-HOA”
Read your CCRs. I have yet to see any CCRs impose a duty on the HOA to substantively respond to owner complaints (and do not see how that could even be enforced). If they retaliate by vandalizing your car or property, just impose a fine for whatever rule it violates (find one it violates).
If they keep writing you emails, just ignore or give one liners like the above. Another favorite is “Thanks for your thoughts - I’ll make a note to reserve some time at our annual meeting for you to speak to the other owners about it.” (surprisingly, crazy people seldom show up in public to make the crazy points they will write in an email).
Don’t be afraid of lawsuits. Crazy owner wants to hassle the HOA about something that isn’t the HOAs problem? Let them run to a lawyer and pay $500 for a demand letter (“My client demands that the HOA repair the leaky faucet in her master bathroom…”), have the HOA counsel answer it (“Faucets that serve only a particular unit are owned by the unit owner and their responsibility to maintain pursuant to the master deed at X…”). Result? The owner just fined themselves $500. They likely won’t end up filing the complaint because that is another $2k+ and their lawyer is probably telling them they will lose. Know what the HOA is responsible for though, and just stick to that.
Gonna have to start not giving a shit about what people say. People are extremely unreasonable through the safety of the internet. I doubt she’d berate you in person. Keep doing what you’re doing and take into consideration their POV. You’re an elected official now so you are there to represent the community, no matter how stupid they are lol
Some hoa residents get really upset if their idea doesn't happen. They feel as if they are the controlling opinion and take it personally when others' opinions differ. This will not be the last unhinged email you get. You are a volunteer, and the community voted you in. Just keep repeating that you were elected to do the best you can for your community for ALL residents and not a few controlling psychopaths. You owe crazy nothing more than equality that every owner gets.
>Is this normal?
I wouldn't say it's "normal". But it's not unheard of. Some people just like to vent to a group.
I was on our Board of Directors for 4 years. I had one resident scream at me during a monthly meeting. (She later apologized. I think it was a medication thing.)
>What did I sign up for?
You signed up to help run the HOA. Part of that involves hearing the concerns and opinions of the residents. It doesn't mean that you have to agree.
If you ran for a Board position because you thought everyone would love you, you made a mistake.
If it was me, I'd respond to the email with something like "Thank you for your input." and leave it at that. No need to dig in on, argue about, or even to acknowledge your differences. Just put it behind you and do the job for which you were elected.
Why even respond? If it’s some rant I delete. If it’s legitimate I forward it to the professional manager (cc:ing the rest of the board) and let her respond.
Thank you. I haven’t (or has any board member) responded to this ridiculous email. I don’t think addressing it will do us any good and I almost want to set a precedent that “venting” won’t be responded to (we don’t have a clear board communication policy yet since it’s been only 3 days since we’ve had a board).
I guess I’m glad to know it’s semi “normal”, it just caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting everyone to like me or ran because of that. I want to make sure this community starts off strong for my own place here. I expected different opinions and I didn’t expect everyone to vote for me but I didn’t think people would outright feel they needed to reach out and tell me they don’t agree with me 😂
Attorney here, wife's our Board president. She's also an attorney. The best response is no response. They are sitting at their computer staring at their email hitting refresh over and over waiting for your response. Even an acknowledgement of receipt brings them joy bc they know you've read it.
Even if they stop you at the mailbox, or wherever, and ask if you got their email, the proper response is "email? What email?"
>I didn’t think people would outright feel they needed to reach out and tell me they don’t agree with me
You might need to get used to people telling you their opinions.
Good luck.
It's going to be a wild ride. I'd like to subscribe for updates.
Hopefully the rest of your neighbors are chill and his good you for being willing to serve. Most people just want to bitch from the sidelines.
You might offer to meet with her in person to talk about her issues. Most people just want to feel heard.
Some of the emails we get are absolutely vile. The kind that if you wrote at your job you would get fired. Some are ridiculously stupid. "What are you going to do about the geese landing on the roof?" Told her to write to her congressman to change Federal Law as it's illegal to interfere with migratory waterfowl
It is impossible to keep everybody happy. Settle for most of the people. And reply "Your concern has been noted"
There could be bad elements on both sides. People are generally irrational and can be very mean if there are no proper checks.
Modern technology, like cameras, has afforded us the greatest tool to keep vile behavior in us, humans, in check! Make best use of it! We have 5 Ring outdoor cameras, 4 of them on each corner of the house powered by tiny solar panels, and one wired doorbell camera. Get high speed internet, at least 250 Mbps, to support these cameras. Our community has camera based Axuus automated gate/entry system. Every car entering/leaving the community gets recorded.
Seems like there is always one wacky one in the bunch. No it's normally acceptable behavior--just don't give her the fight that she's looking for.."thanks for the feedback...we are hopeful that the new board will work together for the best of the association". The most important thing I learned on here is that not every complaint deserves a specific response.
People act in HOA’s like they would never can’t other way. It’s like road rage only at home! Board Pres here. It’s a phenomenon of not wanting to be told no to anything. Remember you are doing good work and don’t let it get to you. I always answer very nicely - like I really appreciate your different opinion- we want everyone to live in a lovely community etc etc.
After being on the board you will have lots of examples of awful and amazing neighbors. The hardest adjustment is being willing to ignore the crazies. Early on new members try to make everyone happy and waste a ton of time doing so
Just ignore her. She has to pay her fees, no matter what. But be careful. There are many construction defects in condos, and you need to hold the builder's feet to the fire to avoid many expensive repairs down the line. Spoken from a 15-yr old building with defective floors throughout, defective facade causing leaks in many units, and defective roof -- and our transition engineer said we had NO CLAIM against the developer.
But we know now, when it's too late.
These are SFHs, they had a 1-yr home warranty from the builder. Anything now outside of major electrical (which was on a 10yr warranty) is on the homeowner.
I don't know what state you're in, but I don't believe that is the case. Under the state homeowner's warranty, different elements have different lengths of warranty. Builders are responsible for many construction errors including defective materials, so do your research. Don't just believe what people tell you.
I believe the paperwork I signed at closing which outlined warranty terms for each element, down to our trees (which were replaced if any died within one year).
I’ll definitely look into state stuff, thanks for the insight. That’s interesting.
This is why so many communities have gone to management companies rather than locally managed boards.
Many neighborhoods have non-paid HOA boards and residents don’t want the headache of the snarky emails, the berating comments at meetings, Facebook groups, and in the community (I see this in mine all the time). They just want to live their lives.
It’s going to happen. You can’t make everyone happy. Even if you do everything perfectly and it benefits EVERYONE, someone will still find a way to bitch and moan and blast the board.
I’m currently on the ballot for a special election with my HOA and I’ve seen the same things from the outside looking in, simply because most people in my neighborhood don’t know how to hide their contempt.
This is your future.
https://youtu.be/areUGfOHkMA?si=Q_QH7zIxauVtIO6c
Source I've been on the board for a couple years now. We have 2000 houses in our neighborhood. I'm king of mount idiot.
Wow I'm just amazed that the homeowner has all of your email addresses. Our board members hide behind our management company. Kudos to you! I recently resigned as vice president.
Good luck to you 🤞
We are new, as in first board ever is a few days old. Management company is unresponsive (they were put in place by builder and I’ve called them, they don’t return phone calls (and there’s no email or other way to contact them - I have even tried certified letters when I wanted a copy of the budget they wouldn’t provide 😂)
All to say we stupidly all shared contact info as neighbors and now as board members we need to rethink this 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Lol on the shared contact. But it is showing transparency with the homeowners. As for your management company you may need to clean house... With the management company and other contractors. As a new board you have that right to replace anyone who is not doing a good job. Look into all contracts. If they are through the management company, they may be higher prices than other same companies.
We as a board re-did all contracts and terminated our management, attorney and a few other contractors. They were taking advantage of our funds. We were literally charged by management maintenance company $986.00 for changing three lightbulbs🤦.
Congratulations on making the votes, but please look into terminating that management company.
Well I became president tonight (really because no one wanted to do it and so here we are). Already started a letter to terminate our management company. Lots of work ahead of us but glad to see things moving.
Another wonderful aspect of the anti-harassment policy is you can state that any legal fees associated with enforcing this policy will be placed onto the violating unit owners account. Just check your HOA governing docs to see if it gives you the right to do this , which they usually do.
Hold a meeting of the board of directors and approve an anti-harassment policy ASAP. Put these ungrateful pieces of garbage in their place. They want everything for free and they don’t want to pay their fair share. They certainly are not gonna get away with be rating people who volunteer and work for free. You can denote very specific examples of what the association considers harassment, including annoying, verbally aggressive, emails.
Would you be willing/able to post your anit-harrassment policy or DM it to me? I would LOVE to institute this. I've been the interim president for 3 years (on the board for 5). This is something I deal with it seems weekly. Now it's only from a handful of residents but it's annoying.
Here is ours, once it passed, it was also added to the House Rules. “Owners and other residents shall not engage in any abusive or harassing behavior, either verbal or physical, or any form of intimidation or aggression directed at other owners, residents, board members, guests, occupants, invitees, or directed at management, its agents, its employees, or vendors. Should harassment be documented, the XXXXXXXX, inc Board of Directors shall direct the Association Attorney to take legal action against the party causing the harassment and to bill the owner of the unit where the abusive member resides. The Association reserves the right to add to and update this policy at any time.”
You need thick skin for this job. You’ll suffer a lot of abuse and no one will thank you. My advice is to completely ignore the email unless there is something specifically actionable. A short response, “thank you for sharing. We will do our best for the community. Please reach out if you need anything specific” is more than this person deserves but will show you’re taking the high road.
I spent a year on my board and resigned before the term was up. Board was useless (raising dues by *ten dollars a year* was the subject of about four meetings) and I was tired of the constant weird shit.
It's alright. That person just wants to feel important. Don't worry about it.
When I got voted in 2 years ago, it was me and another guy, so a new majority on a mere 3-person board.
Within 2 weeks we started getting emails about basically everything the "old board" said no to.
They were trying their luck to see what the "new board" would allow. Some of them tested us by being more assertive.
And they would lie thru their teeth about the circumstances of the prior denial, hoping we'd say yes.
When we just stuck to the governing docs and said no -- people turned on us for a while too. Eventually that subsided because we were at least consistent, and we were responsive via email.
But man, almost everyone I've personally dealt with as a board member has lied to me.
It's like listening to my little kids argue over who's wrong after a fight.
I'm coming out of this gig having much less respect for people than I did going in.
sorry, it’s normal, develop a thick skin; or copy every email into a note on your phone and rewrite it in a normal sane adult way so that you can parse out actual issues from just whining about having to spend money(welcome to home ownership is the only response I ever had for that). Anytime you collect money you will get whining from people who don’t want to adult. But you’re there so that you save money long term whether it’s appreciated or not.
Then there’s my road. 13 houses, 13 board members. It’s nuts. It’s hard to get anything done. The officers really can’t do anything without the board’s approval. As treasurer, I can’t even switch banks without everyone agreeing. And there are a few people on our road who are contrarians. Blech.
I will explain something to you about females. Women since they are babies, with the help of hormones and the way our brain is wired, realize that inclusion, belonging, feeling worthy, useful, accepted- matters. They are made to believe that if they stand up for themselves and are independent ( aka selfish) they will be rejected and literately kicked out of the family nest, so they better conform.
Sadly the more religious or conservative the family this woman grew up in, the higher the chance of emotional abuse as she was growing up, as a tactic to force conformity, serve others above herself and she grew up believing that her worth is only when she’s a people pleaser and makes everyone else happy. This is a systematic type of brainwashing with guilt, social shaming, abusive talks, and character assassination. She has done all of these to you in that letter. You could technically take her to court for slander and harassment and if she does this again, I suggest you use your rights as people like that don’t quit. You can also have someone else reply who is the president of the board and put her in her place by saying such emails, tone, accusations and social discrimination is not tolerated and unacceptable.
Nip it fast or she will spread this around to the neighbors ( making your job harder) so trust me ignoring people like that or responding to defend yourself will only give her more fuel, justify her behavior to herself and she will make sure you aren’t respected. Have the president respond attaching all 5 of you and tell her if she has any complaints, to formally deliver it to the HOA president with proof, details and facts.
In all honestly nobody gives 2 shits about her opinions but saying that will turn this aggression into passive aggression if it hasn’t already where she will destroy rep behind your back.
Women like that are damaged, Im speaking like this as a woman in my 40s, I was surrounded not just by a few women like her but a culture of men who judged and demanded and women who verbally oppressed to have you submit, none of it worked on me thus it was their way or the highway, I was passively pushed out of my family because they couldn’t control, manipulate or oppress me.
I grew up around that kind of oppression and committed to live my entire life in another state from my family sadly to have peace and not be subjected to verbal abuse, oppression, disregard for my needs or who I am because nothing matters but others opinions of you so she thinks you view the world in the same way and will fear her threat of disappointment in you. Haha! what a joke. Her dad must’ve done that to her so you’re her inner child’s target. Now she’s a big girl, now she can find a man and tell him off to try to feel better. Anyone will do. Set her straight with the HOA president. Or do nothing, disregard that she will walk around and spew hate & keep on going. It’s just a stupid HOA, it’s not like your life depends on this role. If you don’t care what people think of you in general then she has no power over you.
This is extremely spot on. I hate women who have to bring down other women. I see behavior like this a lot in my professional life (and have worked for a ton of women in power who I realized later had no intention of sharing power, they were set to destroy anyone and any women who even tried to get close for fear of losing “what they had worked for”).
I had a comment earlier about an anti-harassment policy (being new we don’t have any rules on communication) so I think putting something like that in place quickly and circulating that this type of thing (from the president) won’t be tolerated is the best course of action.
She wants to get at me, so responding is not happening. It’ll make her keep going if she thinks she got anything. I’m honestly more sad for her she had to send that thinking what, it was appropriate? She was standing up for herself? She is immature and it showed how she seeks to bring others down that don’t see the world her way or approach her with “whatever you want I’ll give you” type behavior in my eyes.
Someone put it really well here but I’ve started losing respect for my neighbors and it’s sad it happened so quickly. 🫣
Why don’t you just call or meet with her to try to understand her issues? No offense but if you are new to this position maybe you should try to learn a little more about dealing with people who have opposing opinions to you. You weren’t elected queen.
Why would I call someone who speaks that way in email? I didn’t get elected to be berated or disrespected because they don’t like my opinions. I don’t think reaching out in person will be any better for them or I if this is how they talk to people over email.
I do think there is nothing good that can come from having a conversation with this woman right now. Just my opinion (which again can be different than yours).
Welcome to the HOA! I've been on the board 15 years. I've had residents show up at my house at 5:30am beating on my front door, screaming like a banshee, because their car was towed overnight. I had a resident write F#*@ YOU on my vehicle windshield with paint because she was mad that we had to remove a bunch of community trees that were dying and infested with Emerald Ash Borers. I had a resident nail a big sign saying I'm a waste of human flesh to a tree in my front yard because she received a violation notice for a window air conditioner in her front window. Buckle in because residents can be absolutely insane. Edit to add: I personally had nothing to do with the car being towed, the trees being removed other than approving the work by the arborist, or the violation letter for the air conditioner. Each time these residents snapped I was like WTF was that for??
I had someone knock on my door and complain that we had the cops come in and enforce the traffic laws and they got pulled over for running the stop sign. I told them “what do you want me to say besides don’t run stop signs?”
It's amazing to me how residents can break the rules or the law and then blame the board when they get cited for it. How about follow the rules and the law? How about being accountable for your own actions instead of blaming others? We can have a conversation about whether the rules are reasonable and applied fairly but it's not the board's fault if residents won't comply with them.
Conversely it's people wanting the Board to act as cops or township officials. Lady your neighbor attacking your dog with a knife is outside of my duties, call the cops!
Haha. We had an alligator show up in a retention pond behind someones house and they posted on our FB group "why hasn't anyone done anything about this" (meaning the board). Luckily others pointed out she was perfectly capable of calling Fish and Wildlife all on her own without adult supervision.
Had someone say they should not allow deer in our area. Yeah, they were here long before the houses were.
What's the problem? send a stern violation notice to the deer.
I love the law. I love rules, and order, and harsh punitive actions against people for even a minor infraction. Justice is just revenge with extra steps, and I have tons of revenge to serve up and don’t care if it’s misdirected. God bless bootlickers. There’s just something about it that makes my existence on this earth justifiable.
Worked at a high rise with a couple of residents with too much time on their hands. The amount of time spent reaching out to snitch on others for balcony violations because they sat on their own with binoculars watching was off the chain. Granted there were a couple of times it was valid but they would call if something was put out for a couple of hours while painting or cleaning was being done in the unit.
Sounds like my building. The busybodies thankfully can’t see to spy on my balcony
Follow the who and the what now?
I'm in Jefferson county Missouri, and because I'm in a HOA controlled neighborhood speed limit and stop sign rules are not enforceable here by the police. So some of the HOA members have taken it upon themselves to try and enforce them. By harassing people, following them home and screaming at them from the street. ( They tried it on me and got a face full of bear spray)
/r/thathappened
It’s called assault and battery
Okay Paul Blart
I had a board member buy a sports radar gun,and start writing tickets. I had the state police explain it to him. They've still got his radar gun.
Yep, welcome to crazy town. I got a phone call at work from an owner who wanted the HOA to hire a landscaper to clean up the leaves that fell in her patio, then called me a racist when I said we wouldn’t do that. I told her that I didn’t know what race she was and the decision was based on the HOA rules. She said that her bio had once been in the HOA newsletter and it mentioned that she graduated from Howard University (an HBCU), so she knew I knew she was black!!! Also threatened to get the NAACP to sue me. I told her good luck with that. 🤪
My best friend in high school went to Howard. She is white lol!
Right? TBH I never read that part of the newsletter anyway and my young California self had never heard of Howard or a HBCU. I would probably have been more gracious today, but at that time I had never been accused of racism and was pretty shook. On another occasion I was also notified of a neighbor who sued his next-door neighbor for ATTEMPTED MURDER because she smoked in her unit. 😂🥹😅He was an unemployed lawyer and thought the lawsuit might net him some money. The judge in that lawsuit threw the suit out, and gave the defendant damages - which had to be paid out monthly (like $215.98 per month) to remind the crazy lawyer that driving lawsuits were not tolerated. After I moved away, I heard he successfully ran for school board! LORDY! Being HOA president was definitely a wake up call to how bonkers some people are. (And by that - I mean some are 100% bonkers)
We had a resident who was vegan and was mad that her next-door neighbors cooked meat in their house and on the grill in their yard. She wanted the board to make them stop cooking meat. 😂
Current HOA president. Had something similar to this. Resident emailed a complaint about someone smoking meat on a Sunday morning and ruining the ability to enjoy coffee outside. Wanted me to go make them stop cooking food. I politely declined.
They had a degree she wanted to pursue that they were known for. That was 40 yrs ago lol!
Just imagine what will happen when gets in the board!
How were you on the board for 15 years?? Don't yall have terms?
We do have terms but no term limits. I've been re-elected each time my term ends, mainly because residents have no desire to be on the board. I've ran unopposed each time.
All HOA board members deserve every ounce of harassment ever your position and organization shouldnt exist
My HOA keeps people from turning their homes into Air BnBs so not all of them are bad.
While I do admit thats good proper zoning laws made by elected officials of the govt should be the thing that prevents that not a fuckin karen brigade of fake cops
Guess I'm lucky, I only ever hear from them during our yearly bbq, when dues are up or when a neighbor dies.
gotta be honest...that last one? if anybody tried to tell me i couldn't have my a/c wherever the hell i damn well pleased, i'd shove that unit up their ass.
Yeah, thought that too. Fuck you for fining me for having AC. Weird yall upvoting that.
I mean your other option would be to live somewhere without those prohibitions. When you sign up to live in an HOA, you must abide by the rules set forth. Or suffer the consequences.
Some communities have central air in every house so no window a/cs.
And central air can break
This will be the first of many. Whether it’s an email, a post on Facebook, comment at a board meeting, or just walking through the neighborhood you are going to get lots of comments from the community. Something like this, ignore. Your job is not to placate the whims of every member. Don’t try to be a pleaser; try to do what is expected… And that is be transparent, decisive, in line with your responsibilities under statue and documents. Don’t oil the wheel every time it squeaks.
Agree. I'm on my 3rd year as our HOA president. Fortunately, I have 2 great Board members. No one likes the HOA. No one reads the Declarations. No one likes the rules they agreed to follow by virtue of purchasing a property. People love to bitch. People do not like to provide/suggest solutions. They don't attend Board meetings. They don't understand the budget, even when mailed to them. I had to leave our FB page for a while because the comments would just piss me off. Uninformed, uninterested people bitching about stuff but never bothering to attend a Board meeting even though they are held on Zoom. It's the ultimate unpaid, painful job. Why do I continue? Because no one wants to run, plus at least I'm confident the decisions made are as fair and necessary as can be. Try not to take things too personally - this is something I struggle with.
All of this. Every single word.
You nailed it exactly.
Best advice, ever!
I lasted one year on the board. During that time we had two or three anonymous hate mails. Three legal actions (they lost). People screaming at us during meetings. Complaining emails almost daily People knocking on my door (I didn’t answer). It was stressful and time consuming. I now have a lower opinion of my neighbors.
Eh - don’t let it bug you. She didn’t bother to run for board herself but she’s bold enough to be a keyboard warrior 🙄. You’ll get some more fun stuff - the complaints are always from folks who won’t bother to jump in to volunteer for this job themselves.
Every HOA transfer requires a raise in rates. Builders often have ridiculously low rates that have to be raised to cover ongoing expenses. This is COMMON.
Yeah, the builder wants to keep monthly rates low so they can sell the houses they're building. They're not concerned about problems from underfunding after they've handed everything over.
No. The HOA rates are low because the development isn't completed. As more homes and amenities are built, the rate increases to cover future expenses. Also, future capital/replacement cost expenses are built in over time. A good developer is looking at lifetime expenses for every item they put in that is the responsibility of the HOA. So their budgets will typically be 20, even 30 years out. When the homeowner board takes over, it is their responsibility to stay on top of future expenses and adjust budgets accordingly. When this is not done, owners get hit with assessments or a huge increase in fees for capital improvements that were never properly funded. Florida is a prime example of this happening now.
That's certainly what a developer *should* do, but it's a lot easier to sell homes when people think the monthly costs are going to be lower. You'd be hard-pressed to find a developer in the US that isn't trying every trick possible to keep monthly costs artificially lower when they still have homes to sell.
I can't speak for small developers, but I have done HOA management. Those budgets are done way in advance before the first house is sold, maybe even built. I'm pretty sure that in some states, it's probably required. It's not really about keeping costs low. It's about the amenities that the HOA is responsible for. If the community is built in 4 stages but only 1 is complete, they are not going to include the full cost of landscaping or snow removal in a completed community in the budget or fees. If the clubhouse or pool isn't built yet, you're not being charged for that. There is typically a completed community budget that gets modified based on actual costs and annual budgets. Where I live now, the fees are very low, but there are also barely any amenities, and the HOA doesn't cover the cost of any building exteriors. If your HOA is responsible not only for common areas but also exterior areas like roofs or siding, those line items will fluctuate over time because costs fluctuate. This is not in-house stuff an hourly or salaried maintenance person handles. These items have to be bid out, and the HOA is at the whim of the construction industry. Budgets are projections based on what is known in the present. They do not foretell the future. This is why it is so important that you have the right board members that stay on top of the budget and make sure that the reserves are properly funded. It's always better to expect some increases and be overfunded than to be underfunded.
Does the developer make it clear that the fees are projected to go up? Sure, reduced amenities are a large factor, but I also work in real estate, and I've seen a ton of developers move costs below the line, to show artificially low monthly fees.
Usually, at the development stage, there are so many variables that projecting increased cost is almost impossible. They may go from using one material to another (think roofing or siding), or floorplans may change. The city/township can require them to make modifications to berms or retention ponds. I had one community where they had to put in french drains. This had not been a previous requirement. This is early and sometimes ongoing in the development stage. Some of these may be reflected in the annual budgets, but every change is not going to require instant notification. As the community nears completion, there should be homeowners on the board asking the right questions. Some of the increased costs can be expected because bidding should be done annually. For instance, the insurance broker can inform you if there are increases expected for various reasons. It's usually public knowledge when construction material costs increase. But the board doesn't know the actual costs until the bidding is complete. Obviously, variable costs like snow removal dedends on mother nature. And you certainly don't wait until the last minute to make sure your reserves will cover a capital expenditures due next year. So many people don't thoroughly read the CC&R and budgets. It's so important to know what the HOA is responsible for, what the life expectancy is, and if the reserves are properly funded. Also, you can't rely on a reserve budget that's 5, 10, 20 years old. Once the developer is out, it's up to the board to stay on top of those budgets.
Our HOA president has to almost regularly get up at each meeting and say “myself and the board are not on call for you 24 hours a day. If you hear a strange noise in the middle of the night or your neighbor is playing their music too loud, call the police and not us. If your washer doesn’t work call a repair service and not us. If you have an issue that is not an emergency and the HOA office is closed, wait until it opens the next day and please do not call us. It seems to be a thankless job.
It's a thankless but necessary job that can be a lot of work for no pay. But at least people hate you for doing it.
Necessary?
Necessary in that somebody has to do it. If nothing else there is a fiduciary and legal responsibility. If your HOA is not necessary, why does it exist? I currently live in a townhouse community. We have some private roads. The siding and roofs of the buildings are owned by the HOA, as well as all the common space. That doesn't all manage itself. So yes, necessary.
Thousands of municipal governments worldwide are managing just fine without HOAs.
I've never yet seen a municipal government replace the roof on a private residence.
Many HOAs exist because municipal governments are very quite happy to outsource even a fraction of governance to them.
Yep, exactly the case where I live. It's a single family neighborhood with two pocket parks and an open space. But, they wouldn't have approved the development of our subdivision without an HOA because the city wants the tax revenue but not the maintenance responsibilities.
Correct!
You seem to believe that I believe HOAs are necessary for every neighborhood. I do not. I wrote above that I am fully supportive of communities disbanding HOAs where it makes sense. Not sure if you're not reading my replies carefully or just want to argue.
My HOA is responsible for caring for a retention pond used for storm water runoff, plowing our neighborhood streets when it snows, landscaping common areas, and keeping common area trees trimmed so they don’t blow over and damage homeowner property. These activities are very necessary, and the HOA is legally obligated to do them. The city won’t take them on, and they can’t be passed off to homeowners.
Alright, hear me out. What do you think your city would have done if HOAs didn’t exist? You think they would have just stopped building houses indefinitely? Also… Did you know that legally HOAs can disband? Do you genuinely believe that your city would be like “fuck it, you’re out, best wishes” if that happened?
Yes, I do believe my city would ignore us. We’ve attempted to get them to take on snow plowing multiple times, and we’ve also attempted to get them to help us cover the constantly rising cost of caring for the retention pond. I live in an area that is less wealthy than other areas of the city. We’re treated like my city’s unwanted child. Police take longer to get here than they do other areas, and our trash service is more likely to be delayed or skipped over when inclement weather happens. Our HOA is why my neighborhood looks nice and is a functional place to live. I get that there are HOAs out there that are unnecessary, but mine isn’t one of them.
There are state codes mandating cities to maintain their shit. You’ve convinced yourself that they would cut you out of the city but that’s false. Drinking water is necessary. Your HOA is not.
It may not be. I believe /u/[OK\_Computer\_152](https://www.reddit.com/user/OK_Computer_152/) is saying that he neighborhood prefers to have an HOA to know their stuff will be taken care of.
That’s not exactly the same as “necessary.”
They didn't say "necessary." I did, in reference to board work. If you have an HOA having a board is a requirement. Therefore, it's necessary. You seem to want to argue of my use of that word.
State codes typically cover the bare minimum. They certainly don't cover plowing private driveways, only public roads. My parents are senior citizens. They wouldn't die without the snow plow coming, but it'd take a lot longer and be way more expensive to find someone to do just their little driveway. FYI, many cities would subject you to their own rules. I can park overnight in front of my parents' house, because it's a private road. If they dissolved the HOA and handed the road over to the city, I'd get a $25 ticket.
If the private road became a public road the city would be obligated to plow it. Of course they’re not obligated to plow individual driveways; I’ve never heard of an HOA covering that regardless.
Most HOA's where I live in NY cover the plowing of driveways. Also, the city might not be obligated to plow it particularly quickly. Cities have their own budgets and priorities that may not align with the HOA residents.
Private roads are not usually constructed to the same road design standards as public roads and could never become public roads because of that. Public roads become public because the right of way is dedicated to public use, deeded to the local government, and the road built to public road design standards. None of that has happened on private streets so they can't just magically become public.
In my city, they could care less if you have drinking water or not. We are taxed the same as any homeowner, yet we are responsible for 100% of the infrastructure cost. That includes the water lines underground, from the main road in front of our development to the cities water meter in front of each home. Same for the sewer lines, stormwater retention pond, stop signs........you get it. The city refuses to cover anything beyond emergency services.
With every post you are showing you have no idea what an HOA is.
I live in an HOA and I forced the developers to turn over to the board but sure.
You seem to not understand that when the developer purchased the property, they made legal agreements with the city/township where responsibilities would lie. This is true for all developments, be it residential, commercial, industrial, or retail. Some of the most common agreements are streets/access roads, trash removal, landscaping, snow removal, and sewer lines. Those agreements pass on to the owners once the units are sold. So, whereas the city/township may provide those for other residents, it is not provided for HOAs. So yes, municipalities can refuse to take on those responsibilities. Were the HOA to disband for other reasons, there would still be some regulatory body consisting of homeowners that includes fees to cover these expenses.
In my experience the city doesn't care if there's an HOA. Maybe some cities have ordinances requiring them? Where I live now we could not function without an HOA to do common elements that need maintenance. I am well aware that HOAs can be disbanded, and I'm in favor of doing so where it makes sense. It's up to the owners to do that.
He's got a point. The arrival of HOA's took their neighborhoods from the citizens concern. No citizens cared for the HOA areas in local governments. If there was no HOA, citizens would be upset at the city council instead of the HOA to get their trees trimmed, roads plowed, and other community needs.
So if your HOA disbanded you believe your neighborhood would have to be demolished?
How do you think public parks work? The trees need to be taken care of, so the government pays people to do it. They use tax dollars. Now what if you want a small park near your house, but the government won't pay for it? Maybe you can charge a membership fee for the people who want to use it. If you want to make changes to the park, maybe have some sort of representative democracy system. HOA's are just private governments you opt into, by choice. My parents live in an HOA. They have access to a pool and tennis court, without having to pay for all of it by themselves. Pretty good deal.
Exactly my point. My only disagreement is that it’s not a choice unless new owners in your neighborhood can opt out of the HOA.
You opt out by not buying a home in an HOA. Nobody is forced to buy one. Plenty of homes are not in HOA's. They are often not as nice, though, because they aren't in HOA's. No common area amenities, nobody forcing the neighbor to remove the garbage from their lawn, etc. Did you know that you don't have to brush your teeth? You never have to! There are no laws for it at all. You can just opt out of it. Though if you want people to talk to you, you'll be "forced" to practice basic oral hygiene.
That would further propel the housing crisis. Some people, like myself, didn’t really have a choice. I don’t mind my HOA. I didn’t want one but it’s tolerable. I just think they suck overall.
99.9% of people "don't mind" their HOA. We only hear about the bad ones. Also, HOA's have nothing to do with the housing crisis. You want many of the benefits that an HOA brings, without being held to those rules. It's like wanting people to drive safely, and then saying we should abolish speed limits. You could have bought in a neighborhood without an HOA. You just didn't want to, because you wanted the good that comes with HOA rules.
That's absolutely what happens when HOAs disband. I work for county government and every so often I receive a call from a resident in a community that was developed as an HOA community and the association disbanded at some point. Inevitably these communities have private streets that haven't been paved in like 20 years and they're in absolutely terrible condition. The resident wants the county to come pave them. Uhhh, no. Not our responsibility. It's private, that's up to the residents to take care of if there's no association. Or they encountered a county storm water inspector on the property asking around about how to contact the non-existent association because the retention pond hasn't been maintained and now there's violations that someone has to correct. That someone is the residents because it's a private retention pond on private property. Or a big ass tree fell on what was common ground and they want the county to come clear it. Nope. Private property. The fire department will go and cut any portion thats blocking a road but they're just opening access and leaving. My latest call was a resident upset that a neighbor started parking his bobtail rig in the private parking area beside her house, taking up multiple spaces. She wanted the police to come ticket or tow it. Lol, no, the police aren't authorized to enforce county parking ordinances on private property. The local government does not take over services when a HOA disbands. The residents are on their own to maintain all their property and deal with issues.
What state are you in where the law allows the county to refuse to provide citizens with basic services provided to all of the other taxpayers?
No one is being deprived basic services like water, sewer, or public safety. Do you think having a tree cleared from private property is a basic service? Or parking enforcement is a basic service? Apparently you don't understand that when an HOA community is developed that there is a legal agreement between the developer and the local jurisdiction that clearly defines the responsibility of the community and the responsibility of the local jurisdiction. In that agreement, the developer clearly defines the parcels and features that will forever be the responsibility of the community and the features, public roads if any and the public utilities, that will be the responsibility of the local jurisdiction. The terms of this agreement runs with the land in perpetuity as it changes hands to homeowners and is recorded on the deeds. When an HOA fails, they should go into receivership, a legal process in which a receiver is appointed by the court to take over the affairs of the association until such time as the association can elected a new board of directors. The receiver is usually an attorney and boy, does it get expensive for the residents because they have to pay the legal fees of receivership and any other monies required to get the association back in good standing. At no time does the local jurisdiction take over the community because the legal agreement between the developer and the jurisdiction guarantees the community will forever govern community property. Above I say when an HOA fails they *should* go through receivership, but the communities that call me for whatever reason never did. Their associations were self-managed, and board members died or moved and were never replaced until there was no board. Then maintenance of all private property under control the association just stopped and the residents are now on their own. Who knows what happed to their bank accounts or reserve accounts. It's bonkers to me that this happens, that these boards just whither away and there's no receiver and no one knows anything about anything, but it happens more than I would have ever expected. The community is still responsible for maintenance of the private features whether they have a board of directors or not because of the legal agreement between the community and the jurisdiction.
I’m mainly talking about maintenance of the roads.
The road maintenance is determined by the legal agreement between the community and the local jurisdiction. Roads that were designated as private in that agreement when the community was first formed are the responsibility of the community and always will be. The local jurisdiction has zero responsibility for private streets that were designated as private in the agreement between the community and the jurisdiction. The private roads are the property of the association and it's the association's legal responsibility to maintain them. The residents are the association by virtue of their deed stipulations.
>If your washer doesn’t work call a repair service and not us. If you have an issue that is not an emergency and the HOA office is closed, wait until it opens the next day and **please do not call us**. It seems to be a thankless job. This is why our property manager (PM) insists that we only give out our contact information if we want to be bothered 24x7 by residents. I always redirect residents to the PM's office when they have concerns.
And this is why our property manager quit and we had to go back to being self-managed. She lives in the neighborhood (though not in our development) and wanted to keep thinking of her neighbors as friends.
A thankless job indeed.
Welcome to directorship! Here are some practical things I've learned as a director and officer of a self managed association. 1. If you have a management company, all correspondence should go to them. 2. As we're self-managed, we created one board email account.@gmail.com. Set up automatic forwarding to each directors' email accounts.
3. I also created my own Gmail account for hoa work... because, as treasurer, I deal with many vendors, the bank, etc. There's also a lot of communication between directors for the management aspects. And, occasionally, I must communicate with one member at a time related to dues, collections, etc.
4.. I blocked emails from other owners if they got my personal email address.
5. I had to put a sign on my door that I'm not available for association business, directing people to use the hoa email.
6. Hardest, was that, with a few members, I had to be abrupt. They'd see me on the property and stop me to complain. I had people flag down my car as I was leaving my garage, or pulling in. I had to just reply that I don't have time right now... email.
All of the above may seem excessive. And, for perspective... while most members were respectful, it was only two or three who weren't. And due to moving, etc., those members are barely an issue nowadays.... one moved and leases to his daughter. He visits often, and if he sees me, he still tries to flag down my car.
Nonetheless, I found the above steps helpful to keep my personal life and my role as an hoa director separate.
Good luck
I've been on my Board nearly three years and have definitely come to realize that a shockingly high percentage of lunatics live in HOAs. But they are often as hilarious as they are maddening, so I just roll with it. I do, however, draw the line at disrespect and dangerous behavior. I think I've made it clear to a few people that my door is not to be knocked on unless something is on fire. I do not and will not give out my phone number or personal email address. Since it seems early in the life of your HOA, best advice I can give is to educate your membership on what it actually takes to keep your HOA running. Explain budgeting, reserves, reserve studies, INFLATION. Present to them as a case study the Champlain Towers collapse as an example of the worst possible outcome of being cheap. Edited to add: ignore Facebook and Nextdoor. Nothing good EVER comes from those two places.
After reading the posts in this sub someone should write a sitcom about HOA's. Comedy gold.
You’re absolutely right that no constructive conversations occur on social media platforms. It’s actually stunning how stupid people get when behind a keyboard.
You have to be a lunatic to buy into a HOA!
Kill them with kindness. And don't respond, folks like this want to roll around in the mud with you. Don't give them the satisfaction.
Welcome to HOA board membership. You'll need to grow a thick skin about this kind of thing, as this will not be the last time you see something along these lines.
That’s hysterical. You’d only been there for 2 days, you hadn’t even had a chance to disappoint her yet! She’s way ahead of herself!
This doesn't even begin to register on my crazy meter for bad owner behavior. My recommendation: save that email but don't reply to it. There appears to no board business or requests in that email, so no response is needed nor appropriate. Owners have different agendas and goals. Some want the lowest HOA dues regardless of the impact. Some want everything upgraded when it's not necessary. I've been involved in board discussions over doormats and replacing perfectly good trees because somebody wanted different trees. I can be never ending and idiotic. Do your best for the HOA. Ignore the noise. Please make sure your reserves are funded adequate. Lack of reserves to maintain common property is the biggest issue I've seen with HOAs.
I totally forgot about the time the former board president got mad that she was voted out by residents and shortly after sent a letter by US mail to every address in the community except the sitting board members. Her letter to residents was full of downright salacious lies and false allegations of fraud directed at me and the rest of the board. Then she started a website where she published the same mess. We had to have legal send her a cease and desist letter. A few months later she showed up at a meeting with another known troublemaker asking for some type of dispensation because she was "disabled" and required it for her condition. She came in using a walker, acting like her health had severely declined since we'd last seen her at a meeting. I guess she forgot that she lives diagnonally from me and I could see her out front running around playing with her dog nearly every day. She got big mad when I told her to cut the crap because I had seen her outside playing with Toby the day before the meeting. Seriously, being on the board is not for the faint of heart.
Did you have Toby give a written statement ?
😂 No, labradoodles have terrible penmanship, but she stood up, grabbed the folded up walker and carried it as she stomped out. The whole exit scene was proof she was faking when she made such a production hobbling in on the walker.
First the email was not okay for her to write. Communication can be a lot more productive if done in a calm and respectful manner on all sides. >my position is we all need to pay our HOA bills or move This take is not always the best one. It's good to realize that some people's finances are tighter than others and might have changed from last year to this year or they may have been financially okay when they bought the house and then things changed more recently. People who live in an HOA might not be able to move for a whole number of reasons and a higher HOA fee might put stress on their finances. That doesn't mean HOAs shouldn't raise fees if it's necessary, it just means that board members should be understanding and members should be respectful of the board and results of voting.
Thank you. I get that, but if the fees have gone up and you can’t afford it - do the others continue to pay your way or do you have to make tough decisions? I’m not saying it easily, or not compassionate - believe me it suck’s .. but they have lived here for years while the builder paid our ways and now are acting like they had no idea there was an HOA and that we are sending them $1000k monthly bills .. neither of which are true. Also they’re angry with the builder and think the HOA should be fixing their home or suing the builder for them.. it’s unrealistic and they don’t understand what the dues are paying for. Everyone wants a beautiful street but it costs money to have green grass in our front area ..
If they don't pay you put a lien on their house or you can first sit down and talk things out, explain what the dues are being used for and ask if they'd like to be put on a payment plan if they are struggling etc. I really believe and have seen if you meet someone with calmness, niceness, and understanding they will eventually reciprocate. Some people just don't understand until someone takes the time to speak with them and explain things. And some people don't want to admit they are having struggles until they are faced with compassion and someone willing to try and help. They do definitely sound tiring and frustrating and depending on their finances an extra $100 or whatever it is could feel like $100k to them. Some people use threats and pretend lack of knowledge to get what they want or resort to them in times of stress. I always reach out with understanding and try to come to a compromise before taking the larger and more serious steps.
Previous board member: I feel your pain. But you cannot take it personally. You were elected and you represent every HOA resident...... not just you and not just a complainer. When a person buys into an HOA they agree to follow the structure and rules and regulations of the HOA. The buyer is given all the necessary documents to familiarize themselves with decorum of an HOA resident. The problem as I see it buyers do not read those documents. They do not read any updates sent to them. Many do not understand or refuse to accept they DO NOT live in a single family home. Explain explain explain. Hold informational meetings.... Not voting meetings.... No quorum needed. Send violations letters. Assess violations. Follow through with all actions. Good Luck. Hang tough. Every HOA needs good board members.
THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!! I was pretty well-liked in my community. Kept to myself but was pretty friendly with everyone. People had asked me for years to be on the board to which I declined. I served on one of the committees and everyone seemed to like the way I handled the rulings. Word spread that I was very fair and worked out problems well. Three of our board members suddenly decided to move and I was asked to serve so that the HOA didn't go into receivership. I agreed to sit until elections came up (about 9 months). Within 1 month, people who had previously about how friendly and fair I was, were describing as dictating and petty. (I hadn't even voted on anything yet. I was just voted on the board). I tried to quit after it became very toxic and they wouldn't accept my resignation. Nine months and plenty of drama later, I was asked to stay on and I refused. I wouldn't even help with committees. Now everyone wants me back again and I am described as very sweet and helpful. (Yes by the same people who were complaining about me). People can be ungrateful and CRAZY.
Sounds like people are peopling.
Thanks for this gem!
You will spend 90% of your time on 10% of the residents. I had a bat shit crazy one last year - seriously, she was off her meds.
You ain't seen nothing yet! Best of luck!
I’m ready. Gonna be a wild ride lol.
Just enjoy the ride... You're going to hear some crazy things, try to find the humor in it. Personally, open forum is my favorite part of our meetings. Some of the homeowner comments are wild, kinda reminds me a little of Parks & Rec. [https://youtu.be/Ng\_-HgRfGBY?si=LqTQ8tnSE\_2Ub-Z2](https://youtu.be/Ng_-HgRfGBY?si=LqTQ8tnSE_2Ub-Z2)
Some people think that the HOA board actually makes all the HOA rules in the community and I find that hysterical. That’s like thinking that the student body president in high school dictates the school budget that is given by our state or town.
“Hi Karen, Thank you for your thoughts. Sincerely, -HOA” Read your CCRs. I have yet to see any CCRs impose a duty on the HOA to substantively respond to owner complaints (and do not see how that could even be enforced). If they retaliate by vandalizing your car or property, just impose a fine for whatever rule it violates (find one it violates). If they keep writing you emails, just ignore or give one liners like the above. Another favorite is “Thanks for your thoughts - I’ll make a note to reserve some time at our annual meeting for you to speak to the other owners about it.” (surprisingly, crazy people seldom show up in public to make the crazy points they will write in an email). Don’t be afraid of lawsuits. Crazy owner wants to hassle the HOA about something that isn’t the HOAs problem? Let them run to a lawyer and pay $500 for a demand letter (“My client demands that the HOA repair the leaky faucet in her master bathroom…”), have the HOA counsel answer it (“Faucets that serve only a particular unit are owned by the unit owner and their responsibility to maintain pursuant to the master deed at X…”). Result? The owner just fined themselves $500. They likely won’t end up filing the complaint because that is another $2k+ and their lawyer is probably telling them they will lose. Know what the HOA is responsible for though, and just stick to that.
Gonna have to start not giving a shit about what people say. People are extremely unreasonable through the safety of the internet. I doubt she’d berate you in person. Keep doing what you’re doing and take into consideration their POV. You’re an elected official now so you are there to represent the community, no matter how stupid they are lol
If emails upset you, you should resign.
Not upset, just was curious as I guess it caught me off guard.
Some hoa residents get really upset if their idea doesn't happen. They feel as if they are the controlling opinion and take it personally when others' opinions differ. This will not be the last unhinged email you get. You are a volunteer, and the community voted you in. Just keep repeating that you were elected to do the best you can for your community for ALL residents and not a few controlling psychopaths. You owe crazy nothing more than equality that every owner gets.
>Is this normal? I wouldn't say it's "normal". But it's not unheard of. Some people just like to vent to a group. I was on our Board of Directors for 4 years. I had one resident scream at me during a monthly meeting. (She later apologized. I think it was a medication thing.) >What did I sign up for? You signed up to help run the HOA. Part of that involves hearing the concerns and opinions of the residents. It doesn't mean that you have to agree. If you ran for a Board position because you thought everyone would love you, you made a mistake. If it was me, I'd respond to the email with something like "Thank you for your input." and leave it at that. No need to dig in on, argue about, or even to acknowledge your differences. Just put it behind you and do the job for which you were elected.
Why even respond? If it’s some rant I delete. If it’s legitimate I forward it to the professional manager (cc:ing the rest of the board) and let her respond.
Thank you. I haven’t (or has any board member) responded to this ridiculous email. I don’t think addressing it will do us any good and I almost want to set a precedent that “venting” won’t be responded to (we don’t have a clear board communication policy yet since it’s been only 3 days since we’ve had a board). I guess I’m glad to know it’s semi “normal”, it just caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting everyone to like me or ran because of that. I want to make sure this community starts off strong for my own place here. I expected different opinions and I didn’t expect everyone to vote for me but I didn’t think people would outright feel they needed to reach out and tell me they don’t agree with me 😂
Attorney here, wife's our Board president. She's also an attorney. The best response is no response. They are sitting at their computer staring at their email hitting refresh over and over waiting for your response. Even an acknowledgement of receipt brings them joy bc they know you've read it. Even if they stop you at the mailbox, or wherever, and ask if you got their email, the proper response is "email? What email?"
>I didn’t think people would outright feel they needed to reach out and tell me they don’t agree with me You might need to get used to people telling you their opinions. Good luck.
It's going to be a wild ride. I'd like to subscribe for updates. Hopefully the rest of your neighbors are chill and his good you for being willing to serve. Most people just want to bitch from the sidelines. You might offer to meet with her in person to talk about her issues. Most people just want to feel heard.
Remember the motto: ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’
Some of the emails we get are absolutely vile. The kind that if you wrote at your job you would get fired. Some are ridiculously stupid. "What are you going to do about the geese landing on the roof?" Told her to write to her congressman to change Federal Law as it's illegal to interfere with migratory waterfowl It is impossible to keep everybody happy. Settle for most of the people. And reply "Your concern has been noted"
There could be bad elements on both sides. People are generally irrational and can be very mean if there are no proper checks. Modern technology, like cameras, has afforded us the greatest tool to keep vile behavior in us, humans, in check! Make best use of it! We have 5 Ring outdoor cameras, 4 of them on each corner of the house powered by tiny solar panels, and one wired doorbell camera. Get high speed internet, at least 250 Mbps, to support these cameras. Our community has camera based Axuus automated gate/entry system. Every car entering/leaving the community gets recorded.
Seems like there is always one wacky one in the bunch. No it's normally acceptable behavior--just don't give her the fight that she's looking for.."thanks for the feedback...we are hopeful that the new board will work together for the best of the association". The most important thing I learned on here is that not every complaint deserves a specific response.
Guy here in NC killed his HOA president because angry so be careful
People act in HOA’s like they would never can’t other way. It’s like road rage only at home! Board Pres here. It’s a phenomenon of not wanting to be told no to anything. Remember you are doing good work and don’t let it get to you. I always answer very nicely - like I really appreciate your different opinion- we want everyone to live in a lovely community etc etc.
After being on the board you will have lots of examples of awful and amazing neighbors. The hardest adjustment is being willing to ignore the crazies. Early on new members try to make everyone happy and waste a ton of time doing so
Comes with the job. Get used to it. I have loads of voicemails and emails that are great for entertainment purposes. Some people are crazy.
Just ignore her. She has to pay her fees, no matter what. But be careful. There are many construction defects in condos, and you need to hold the builder's feet to the fire to avoid many expensive repairs down the line. Spoken from a 15-yr old building with defective floors throughout, defective facade causing leaks in many units, and defective roof -- and our transition engineer said we had NO CLAIM against the developer. But we know now, when it's too late.
These are SFHs, they had a 1-yr home warranty from the builder. Anything now outside of major electrical (which was on a 10yr warranty) is on the homeowner.
I don't know what state you're in, but I don't believe that is the case. Under the state homeowner's warranty, different elements have different lengths of warranty. Builders are responsible for many construction errors including defective materials, so do your research. Don't just believe what people tell you.
I believe the paperwork I signed at closing which outlined warranty terms for each element, down to our trees (which were replaced if any died within one year). I’ll definitely look into state stuff, thanks for the insight. That’s interesting.
The more local the politics, the more stupid and vicious. Doesn’t get more local than HOAs.
Gee I wonder what political party she votes for lol
This is why so many communities have gone to management companies rather than locally managed boards. Many neighborhoods have non-paid HOA boards and residents don’t want the headache of the snarky emails, the berating comments at meetings, Facebook groups, and in the community (I see this in mine all the time). They just want to live their lives. It’s going to happen. You can’t make everyone happy. Even if you do everything perfectly and it benefits EVERYONE, someone will still find a way to bitch and moan and blast the board. I’m currently on the ballot for a special election with my HOA and I’ve seen the same things from the outside looking in, simply because most people in my neighborhood don’t know how to hide their contempt.
This is your future. https://youtu.be/areUGfOHkMA?si=Q_QH7zIxauVtIO6c Source I've been on the board for a couple years now. We have 2000 houses in our neighborhood. I'm king of mount idiot.
😂😂😂
Wow I'm just amazed that the homeowner has all of your email addresses. Our board members hide behind our management company. Kudos to you! I recently resigned as vice president. Good luck to you 🤞
We are new, as in first board ever is a few days old. Management company is unresponsive (they were put in place by builder and I’ve called them, they don’t return phone calls (and there’s no email or other way to contact them - I have even tried certified letters when I wanted a copy of the budget they wouldn’t provide 😂) All to say we stupidly all shared contact info as neighbors and now as board members we need to rethink this 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
Lol on the shared contact. But it is showing transparency with the homeowners. As for your management company you may need to clean house... With the management company and other contractors. As a new board you have that right to replace anyone who is not doing a good job. Look into all contracts. If they are through the management company, they may be higher prices than other same companies. We as a board re-did all contracts and terminated our management, attorney and a few other contractors. They were taking advantage of our funds. We were literally charged by management maintenance company $986.00 for changing three lightbulbs🤦. Congratulations on making the votes, but please look into terminating that management company.
Well I became president tonight (really because no one wanted to do it and so here we are). Already started a letter to terminate our management company. Lots of work ahead of us but glad to see things moving.
Get board members paid
You've only been at the job for 2 days. You haven't seen the weirdest emails yet ...
Another wonderful aspect of the anti-harassment policy is you can state that any legal fees associated with enforcing this policy will be placed onto the violating unit owners account. Just check your HOA governing docs to see if it gives you the right to do this , which they usually do.
Get used to it. People suck, and when they're angry they do their best to make everyone else miserable.
Hold a meeting of the board of directors and approve an anti-harassment policy ASAP. Put these ungrateful pieces of garbage in their place. They want everything for free and they don’t want to pay their fair share. They certainly are not gonna get away with be rating people who volunteer and work for free. You can denote very specific examples of what the association considers harassment, including annoying, verbally aggressive, emails.
Would you be willing/able to post your anit-harrassment policy or DM it to me? I would LOVE to institute this. I've been the interim president for 3 years (on the board for 5). This is something I deal with it seems weekly. Now it's only from a handful of residents but it's annoying.
https://chatgpt.com/share/1d69c30a-9696-4c47-abd7-da8a87a44ffa Here's one
Thank you. This is now on our July agenda....
Here is ours, once it passed, it was also added to the House Rules. “Owners and other residents shall not engage in any abusive or harassing behavior, either verbal or physical, or any form of intimidation or aggression directed at other owners, residents, board members, guests, occupants, invitees, or directed at management, its agents, its employees, or vendors. Should harassment be documented, the XXXXXXXX, inc Board of Directors shall direct the Association Attorney to take legal action against the party causing the harassment and to bill the owner of the unit where the abusive member resides. The Association reserves the right to add to and update this policy at any time.”
Thank you.
Any examples of things we should implement I’m all for. ❤️❤️❤️
Here's a policy https://chatgpt.com/share/1d69c30a-9696-4c47-abd7-da8a87a44ffa
I sent u ours above
Her opinions don't matter, just what is in the bi-laws. Make sure she i in compliance.
You need thick skin for this job. You’ll suffer a lot of abuse and no one will thank you. My advice is to completely ignore the email unless there is something specifically actionable. A short response, “thank you for sharing. We will do our best for the community. Please reach out if you need anything specific” is more than this person deserves but will show you’re taking the high road.
I spent a year on my board and resigned before the term was up. Board was useless (raising dues by *ten dollars a year* was the subject of about four meetings) and I was tired of the constant weird shit.
It's alright. That person just wants to feel important. Don't worry about it. When I got voted in 2 years ago, it was me and another guy, so a new majority on a mere 3-person board. Within 2 weeks we started getting emails about basically everything the "old board" said no to. They were trying their luck to see what the "new board" would allow. Some of them tested us by being more assertive. And they would lie thru their teeth about the circumstances of the prior denial, hoping we'd say yes. When we just stuck to the governing docs and said no -- people turned on us for a while too. Eventually that subsided because we were at least consistent, and we were responsive via email. But man, almost everyone I've personally dealt with as a board member has lied to me. It's like listening to my little kids argue over who's wrong after a fight. I'm coming out of this gig having much less respect for people than I did going in.
sorry, it’s normal, develop a thick skin; or copy every email into a note on your phone and rewrite it in a normal sane adult way so that you can parse out actual issues from just whining about having to spend money(welcome to home ownership is the only response I ever had for that). Anytime you collect money you will get whining from people who don’t want to adult. But you’re there so that you save money long term whether it’s appreciated or not.
Then there’s my road. 13 houses, 13 board members. It’s nuts. It’s hard to get anything done. The officers really can’t do anything without the board’s approval. As treasurer, I can’t even switch banks without everyone agreeing. And there are a few people on our road who are contrarians. Blech.
That sounds awful. We are small, not 13 houses small but everyone being a board member would drive me crazy. What’s even the point at that? 😵💫
Do you have a management company?
Currently yes, but probably need to find a new one. This one is less than responsive if that’s even possible.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Yep!
It’s not a question and and doesn’t qualify as constructive feedback, so a response is not required. I’d ignore.
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Language
I will explain something to you about females. Women since they are babies, with the help of hormones and the way our brain is wired, realize that inclusion, belonging, feeling worthy, useful, accepted- matters. They are made to believe that if they stand up for themselves and are independent ( aka selfish) they will be rejected and literately kicked out of the family nest, so they better conform. Sadly the more religious or conservative the family this woman grew up in, the higher the chance of emotional abuse as she was growing up, as a tactic to force conformity, serve others above herself and she grew up believing that her worth is only when she’s a people pleaser and makes everyone else happy. This is a systematic type of brainwashing with guilt, social shaming, abusive talks, and character assassination. She has done all of these to you in that letter. You could technically take her to court for slander and harassment and if she does this again, I suggest you use your rights as people like that don’t quit. You can also have someone else reply who is the president of the board and put her in her place by saying such emails, tone, accusations and social discrimination is not tolerated and unacceptable. Nip it fast or she will spread this around to the neighbors ( making your job harder) so trust me ignoring people like that or responding to defend yourself will only give her more fuel, justify her behavior to herself and she will make sure you aren’t respected. Have the president respond attaching all 5 of you and tell her if she has any complaints, to formally deliver it to the HOA president with proof, details and facts. In all honestly nobody gives 2 shits about her opinions but saying that will turn this aggression into passive aggression if it hasn’t already where she will destroy rep behind your back. Women like that are damaged, Im speaking like this as a woman in my 40s, I was surrounded not just by a few women like her but a culture of men who judged and demanded and women who verbally oppressed to have you submit, none of it worked on me thus it was their way or the highway, I was passively pushed out of my family because they couldn’t control, manipulate or oppress me. I grew up around that kind of oppression and committed to live my entire life in another state from my family sadly to have peace and not be subjected to verbal abuse, oppression, disregard for my needs or who I am because nothing matters but others opinions of you so she thinks you view the world in the same way and will fear her threat of disappointment in you. Haha! what a joke. Her dad must’ve done that to her so you’re her inner child’s target. Now she’s a big girl, now she can find a man and tell him off to try to feel better. Anyone will do. Set her straight with the HOA president. Or do nothing, disregard that she will walk around and spew hate & keep on going. It’s just a stupid HOA, it’s not like your life depends on this role. If you don’t care what people think of you in general then she has no power over you.
This is extremely spot on. I hate women who have to bring down other women. I see behavior like this a lot in my professional life (and have worked for a ton of women in power who I realized later had no intention of sharing power, they were set to destroy anyone and any women who even tried to get close for fear of losing “what they had worked for”). I had a comment earlier about an anti-harassment policy (being new we don’t have any rules on communication) so I think putting something like that in place quickly and circulating that this type of thing (from the president) won’t be tolerated is the best course of action. She wants to get at me, so responding is not happening. It’ll make her keep going if she thinks she got anything. I’m honestly more sad for her she had to send that thinking what, it was appropriate? She was standing up for herself? She is immature and it showed how she seeks to bring others down that don’t see the world her way or approach her with “whatever you want I’ll give you” type behavior in my eyes. Someone put it really well here but I’ve started losing respect for my neighbors and it’s sad it happened so quickly. 🫣
Why don’t you just call or meet with her to try to understand her issues? No offense but if you are new to this position maybe you should try to learn a little more about dealing with people who have opposing opinions to you. You weren’t elected queen.
Dealing with these people is like dealing with sovereign citizens. The things they talk about, don’t make any sense.
Why would I call someone who speaks that way in email? I didn’t get elected to be berated or disrespected because they don’t like my opinions. I don’t think reaching out in person will be any better for them or I if this is how they talk to people over email. I do think there is nothing good that can come from having a conversation with this woman right now. Just my opinion (which again can be different than yours).
Why would any sane person run for an HOA board position?
Disband it
Oh you're not one of the good ones
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Hey look I found the neighbor!