The Annoyed at the Neighbors post.

Just get a pet dog (Pitbulls are wonderful family dogs), he will keep the kids out and at a minimum stop the hens laying.

Just from what I've read on internet forums, I'll NEVER live in an neighborhood with an HOA. They breed brownshirt busybodies. The mentality of it would be intolerable to me.

Love my neighborhood when I read these threads, even though I drive 40 minute to get back to it every afternoon. There's a massive gully between me and the neighbor to the east, full of woods so we can't see each other's houses except in the winter. The lady to my west is mom to the woman and her family that live in the NEXT house. All are just good country people, minding their own, just as we try to do. All it takes is a little physical space (all our lots are at least an acre, most are two or more) and a little common courtesy, and everybody does great.

HOAs attempt to force the outcome of a strong community (everybody taking care of one another) without having a strong community. I think they're all doomed to fail. I've lived with and without them, and I'll never willingly sign up to live in one again. Next house from this one (if it ever comes to pass) will be in the middle of 10 or more acres of woods, even if I have to drive an hour to get it.

I never lived in a place with an HOA.. but I can sympathise with the nosy neighbor BS.

When I was doing a lease/purchase on a home a number of years ago (that fell through RIGHT before the crash) my neighbor across the street was an older retired gentleman who knew everyone's comings and going.

He was the one who remarked that I had to have a new G/F as I was constantly coming or going at 5am (was working, and the car was stock and quiet) and he was the one that called the cops on me when I parked a box truck on the street for 6 hours.. from 10pm till 4am just to save myself an hour trip to and from work for an early morning delivery.

I don't miss him. He was a right PITA even though I kept the property nice and neat and trimmed.. did all my car work in the garage out of sight, and our little dog was kept to her "job" in the backyard. I even would help my neighbors with raking leaves... but then this guy had something bad to say about everyone.. including the couple next to him who were both police officers (and I went to school with the one)

We have an HOA but we have not had an issue with them. My Alfa sat out in front of my house in my drive for like 6 years and we did not get any letters.

i don't have any issues with my HOA, but with the morons that run the management company.

the neighbor next door put in a drain vent or something that went through the roof in their garage. one day the g/f is leaving and theres a guy in the driveway looking at it. he asks her "hey whats that for?" she says i have no idea its not on our unit. few weeks later i get a letter saying that i am not allowed to modify the exterior of the building and have to get permission to add things to the roof, they're going to remove it and we are charging you an inspection fee to come look at it. i realize that the guy obviously made a mistake and call them to say that they sent the letter to the wrong person/address and give them the address is should go to. the lady says well before i can remove the charge i'll have to send someone out to look at it and verify that this is true. What? i just told you its not in my house, and the invoice says the place is for sale, my place is not for sale, the neighbors is. we go back and forth and i finish by saying tell me when this idiot is coming out because i want to be there to make sure they don't screw up again, and hang up. she calls back about 5 minutes later and tells me they figured it out and took the charge off my account.

few months later, they sent me a letter saying that they had someone inspecting the property and they said i had limbs "within 12" of the building or fence"

now, most of the places are smaller than mine and have one or two small trees at most, but i have three pretty big trees, a pear, japanese plum, and magnolia (i think) that all were planted in the 24" wide "flower bed" on my patio. so by default, they are already within 12" of the fence.

i get the first letter, assume they're talking about my trees being close to the chimney, which they are. so i go out and trim a bunch of limbs and get things looking much better. then i get another letter. do some more trimming, then go out of town, and get a third letter stating that i still need to cut my trees back and if i don't they'll hire someone and send me the bill. at this point i've had it, call the lady up and leave a VM saying they keep sending letters, no pictures of what needs to be trimmed, and i'm not playing the guessing game anymore. they can call me back and tell me where i need to trim my trees, send pictures or go jump in a lake. i still haven't heard from them since, that was in the spring. i guess so much for their "we will call you back within 48 hours or blah blah blah"

anyways, sometimes its not the people running the HOA, but the people hired by the people running the HOA that are the PITA

No HOA stories of mine (my parents have some) but I have a nosy neighbor one. I was working on the brakes on the Camaro when I was a teen. I was having trouble with something, so I went in for lunch. The neighbor called in the 15 minutes that I was inside for because I had left the tire off, and next to the car in the yard. My stepfather told them to go to heck.

Barky dogs. Barky berkeleyin dogs. How the berkeley do you people put up with that E36 M3?

poopshovel wrote: Barky dogs. Barky berkeleyin dogs. How the berkeley do you people put up with that E36 M3?

I know. Im surround by barky dogs. Two big labs that snarl and bark at me when they are in the house and Im in the yard. The owners are renters, even. Keep my .38 on me, as these dogs are not friendly. The funny thing? These labs are the meanest things on my block. The nice dogs are: 1, an Akita, 2, a boxer, and 3, a trio of pitbulls.

Funny.

Joey

wlkelley3 wrote: Now they have built chicken coops right behind my property barely on their property. When I first saw it a couple months ago all it was was a small coop and a couple exotic chickens. Figured if it kept the boys out of trouble then fine. But it has grown to 2 coops about 10X12 each and around 2 dozen chickens. They are raising chickens, they have a heat lamp going all the time that I can see. They built it at night, which was irratating enough. Rooster crows day and night. But the worst for me is the smell, I can't open my window without smelling chicken poop. Can't go in my backyard without smelling it and sometimes can smell it in the front yard. If I wanted to smell and hear chickens I'd have moved to a chicken farm. We are within City limits but on the edge of town.

I was looking into chickens a little while back... I know in my town you can have hens only... no males = no rooster calls at 2am-3am-4am-5am-6am and everything between... the HOA says none at all though lol...

I used to live at the edge of the "hood" (drivebys and fun like that had us move away as soon as we could)... the dang roosters would keep us up all night long... and we all know the only reason to raise roosters in the hood is for cock fighting...

I live in a townhome "community." My HOA only does three things: 1. Make sure your shutters are painted. 2. Mow the grass. 3. Plow the streets when it snows.

It's worth the $100 a month to not have to do yardwork! But if they ever start enforcing stupid rules, I'm outta here. (I only rent.)

I live in an area that can be described as "Ghetto going to Gorgeous". In other words, it has a way to go. We have a 6' chain link fence out back. 8' from that fence is a 35 unit apartment building housing a number of "Interesting" people. Section 8 tenants. We average 1 police drug raid a month. Domestic disturbance twice a month. Loud discussions every other night. I set cameras up in the back yard to check low light performance, watched two drug deals go down. We have had as many as 11 P71's parked out front at a time. Yesterday I saw two episodes of patting down young guys on bikes. Interesting police cars. A new Avalanche and a new Malibu. We have an excellent landlord, but can't wait to get out of here. Our visiting big dog is an effective deterrent to over the fence excursions. It's sad, but several of the tenants are quite nice, calling us Mom and Dad!