Ticketed for parking in your own driveway!

I have never lived within a HOA, and never will, but I did get a call from on once. My old company had mobile road shows, and one of my sales reps parked it in front of his house overnight while it was passing through. (A Dodge Ram Truck pulling a small enclosed trailer, both clean and well maintained.) The company name and number were on the back, and I got a call from a completely pissed off homeowner, literally screaming about this illegally parked truck! He threatened to start a national boycott of my products and put me out of business based on the fact that a truck with a company name on the side was parked across from his house overnight. Where do people like that come from and why can't we have them put down?

carguy123 wrote: billy3esq I'm in Texas and I've seen HOAs start foreclosure proceedings to collect back fees. Then theres the liens they can place on the property and the costs to get them removed and straightened out, and probably paid a second time, so you can sell. Just starting a foreclosure proceeding, or at least getting the notice is cruel and unusual punishment.

I don't know what you mean by "fees," but the law in Texas is that you can only foreclose for not paying an assessment, which does not include chicken-E36 M3 fines, but does include the annual assessment and any special assessments.

You may have seen it before, but the law was changed a few years ago after that old lady got her house taken over a $100 or so fine for weeds in the yard.

The association can put a lien on property for the fines, and what will happen is that they'll get paid when you sell the house.

pinchvalve wrote: ... one of my sales reps parked [a commercial vehicle] in front of his house overnight while it was passing through. ... I got a call from a completely pissed off homeowner, literally screaming about this illegally parked truck! ... Where do people like that come from and why can't we have them put down?

I don't know, but we've got a few of them in our neighborhood. I try to stop them as much as I can, but every now and then, they find the telephone.

Billy I've got an attorney friend who deals with HOAs and the reason I said fees is that they lump them all together and start the proceedings which requires so much money to fight that the homeowner is forced to pay virtually anything the HOA says they need to pay.

And liens cost the homeowner money and you can't easily fight it. The time to fight it is before it becomes a lien. The HOA has way too much power when compared to the little old homeowner.

HOA's need BBSP's .

When we moved, we specifically looked for NO HOA. The last house we had south of Houston in League City had a HOA. On the day before we moved out, I got a letter in the mail saying that we had trailers and trucks in our driveway/front of the house. I called them up and rather impolitely told them we were moving out of their berkeleying neighborhood and how did they expect us to do that?

carguy123 wrote: Billy I've got an attorney friend who deals with HOAs and the reason I said fees is that they lump them all together and start the proceedings which requires so much money to fight that the homeowner is forced to pay virtually anything the HOA says they need to pay.

All that proves is that some HOAs file suits they can't win. People file suits they can't win every day. My statement of the law in Texas is correct. An HOA cannot foreclose for non-payment of anything other than an assessment. If an HOA attempted to do so, it would be very easy for the homeowner to win that case on summary judgment, and the homeowner would likely be able to collect attorney's fees.

Is it worth it to do so if the dispute is only over a couple of hundred bucks? Maybe not, but the fact that a homeowner isn't willing to fight doesn't mean that the law doesn't protect him.

Moreover, the issue in 99% of the cases I've seen is that the homeowners who don't pay their fines are also the ones who don't pay assessments, so they set themselves up to lose. You always, always, always pay your assessment, no matter what other dispute you have with the HOA.

carguy123 wrote: And liens cost the homeowner money and you can't easily fight it. The time to fight it is before it becomes a lien.

True, but anybody can put a lien on any property for any reason. If I knew your address, I could put a lien on your house. It'd take me longer to get to the courthouse to record it than it would to fill out the form. Whether the lien is valid or not is a different question. It doesn't necessarily cost any money to clear an invalid lien when you sell.

Example: when I sold my prior house, someone had put a lien on it relating to some civil judgment against some guy with the same last name and first initial. All I had to do was sign an affidavit saying I wasn't that guy. The title company attorney put together the affidavit, and I signed it. It didn't cost me anything (at least as an itemized charge).

People get their knickers in a twist when you use words like "lien" and "foreclose." There's no reason to. Yes, the HOA can file a foreclosure suit. It doesn't mean they can win. Yes, the HOA can file a lien. It doesn't mean they can collect. If you really want to screw with an HOA, have a lawyer respond to the nasty letter or, better yet, sue them first. You'd be surprised how quickly most of them will heel.

It's just like dealing with a dog or a bully (which is what most HOA board members really are). You can't ever show fear or let them think they're running the show. If you do, you've already lost.

carguy123 wrote: The HOA has way too much power when compared to the little old homeowner.

I agree with that statement. Its why I got on the board of mine. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. It was cheaper than moving, and the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

However, I don't agree that the homeowner is powerless. You just have to know your rights (and responsibilities) and be willing to defend (fulfill) them. Most people don't/aren't.

dyintorace wrote:

alex wrote: The best was the meeting he went to after he caught wind that the new board (major pricks) were 'strictly' enforcing Robert's Rules of Order, mainly so they could bark down anybody who tried to speak against the board. He knew those procedures like the back of his hand, and I don't think a single issue even made it to vote at that meeting. And he walked out chuckling quietly to himself.

Is he available for hire?? I'd like him to join me at some of our HOA meetings.

Hey he's a lawyer. For the right fee, he'll do just about anything.