Ask Me Help Desk - HOA is driving me crazy!

Our HOA is pretty bad. We pay almost $200 a month in HOA fees for our condo and there are no amenities at all. There is no pool, there is no gym, nothing but a park between our condos and the apartments next door which I am fairly confident the HOA has nothing to do with. On top of that, they push all the snow to the back parking spaces so there are no spaces left to park and when we make our own to make do (not in the middle of the lot, but parallel to the horizontal parking spaces) they tow us. They also tow us the day our tags expire or if they feel your car has been in the same space too long and I had an incident where someone scratched off my month sticker and when they towed me, I had to go get a copy of my registration to show them my tags were not expired and they tried to get me to go almost 60 miles out of town to go get my car. I'm fed up! Is there anyway to over throw this HOA? Can we vote them out or seek legal action? I don't know much about the process but I know my neighbors feel the same. We pay way too much to have to live in fear of breaking one of their stupid rules. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Some HOA are bad but they provided their rules to you when you bought, did you read them. The HOA is made up of folks like you, voted by you and other owners. Do you go to their meetings and tell them about how you feel about their services, you should. $2400 isn't cheap but you get something for your money. You don't pay for plowing and walks shoveled, lawns mowed or common property upkeep. If your roof blows off the HOA pays for it and when it needs repair/replacing they pay for that too. In my locale $2400 is on the low side.

Remember, condo living is a community. So, this is your chance to shine as the community leader.

Being a condo dweller myself, here is what I would do.

Read and re-read the by-laws. And then read them again.
If you think they're violating a by-law, get legal council (the free kind preferably) to make sure, and also...
E-mail as many of unit owners as possible, as well as all board members, and state the issue. You said yourself your neighbors share your frustration, so you will get support. If the entire community is up in arms, the board will have to take action
If happening soon, go to regularly scheduled meetings and voice your complaint.
E-mail and call board members and property management guy directly, notifying them of the issue.

Don't hesitate, do this now!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ballengerb1

If your roof blows off the HOA pays for it and when it needs repair/replacing they pay for that too.

Not always true. If the HOA doesn't have the funds to cover the deductible of the master insurance policy, or worse, if the master insurance policy refused to cover the problem, the HOA can issue a special assessment to each unit owner, which can amount in the thousands.

"Not always true. If the HOA doesn't have the funds to cover the deductible, or worse, if the master insurance policy refused to cover the problem, the HOA can issue a special assessment to each unit owner, which can amount in the thousands.
" this statement may be correct but the situations described are far more rare than the HOA covering the cost. They must have insurance and cases where a blown off roof not being covered by insurance are even more rare. In some states like ILllinois, HOA dues are governed by law. Take your budget, divide by the number of owners and bill that amount. A HOA without an R&R budget or amounts set aside for sidewalk and roof replacements would be foolish, albeit, something they can be know for.

First, lets look at the facts, not the emotion. The rules probably state that only registered cars can be parked on premises. So if you allow your car's registration to expire is that the HOA's fault or your fault?

Next, let's look at the 60 miles to retrieve your car. Parking lot operators contract with a towing service. Do you know if there are any other towing services with closer impound lots? The HOA may not have had much choice in where the impound lot was.

Now we look at the complaint about snow removal. Every snow plow contractor has this problem. The plowed snow has to go somewhere. Often parking spaces are lost to piled up snow. I don't know the layout of the parking spaces but the contractor may not have much choice but to lose some spaces. On the other hand, it is possible the contractor is not being careful about preserving spaces.

As the others have noted an HOA represents the owners. The board of directors are owners themselves, elected by the other owners. So if you think they are doing a lousy job then run for the board yourself.

But if you decide to do so, make sure you do your homework first. Take pictures after a snowfall and prove that the contractor could push the snow to where it wouldn't lose spaces. Check tow services and see if there are ones close to the complex. Make sure you know what the tow contracts costs the HOA (or what they pay the HOA for the privilege). And don't complain about cars being towed when registrations expire.

Frankly your post indications you know very little about how HOAs work. You ask "Is there anyway to over throw this HOA?" which indicates you aren't aware that HOA boards are elected by the owners. And it isn't their "stupid rules". It is the rules that you agreed to abide by when you purchased the condo. It is the rules that were established when the condo was built. It is the rules voted on by the owners.

We're all guessing here. Guys, it is possible that she has a case.

sarahjune27, you need to get the by-laws STAT. Get them as a PDF and post them on Google Docs so we all can read them, that's the only way we can really help you, everything else you got to do on your own. We're all smart on here so we'll be able to help you figure out your legal rights. We also have some lawyers on here.

Also, read up on your state and local laws, too, but focus mostly on the bylaws.

@ballengerb1
True, special assessments are rarely issued in healthy HOAs that are managed well. My point was anything can happen and that the HOA isn't the saving grace every time.

No, we are not all guessing here. I have belonged to several POA and HOAs, currently a sitting member of a POA and past president. What case would this person have, we have heard nothing about their by-laws. You are bang on when you tell the OP to read the by-laws. If the HOA violates their own byy-laws they can be liable for suit but usually not as individuals. You can force a HOA to follow their rules with a court ordered injunction but I have only seen that once during 45 years of membership. Sounds like sarahjune did not understand what becoming a member of a HOA could mean, they make rules and restrictions, it's their job.

Yes, I would ask the poster, how many HOA meetings have they went to. Do they vote in the elections, have they ever ran for office?

Quote:

Originally Posted by slapshot_oi

We're all guessing here. Guys, it is possible that she has a case.

Case for what? If her car was towed because it didn't have a valid registration sticker, what case would she have?

As for the tow contract and snow removal, I dealt with those issues.

If you mean that she has an overbearing HOA that nitpicks and doesn't do right by thee owners, yes she may be right, but we don't know based on what she has told us.

And as I pointed out, its pretty clear she doesn't have much of an idea on what being part of an HOA means.