Neighborhood Associations

lje62 · February 9, 2009, 9:28pm

Does anyone here have any knowledge or input on how to go about establishing one ? We live in a neighborhood that has never formed a formal association , but some not friendly folks who live on the street are trying to collect money to cut the grass in the entrance to the street and light up the signs as well…these people seem to want to fight with everyone…and have asked for $100 per house to cut the grass…that is three times what I pay a landscaper to do my entire yard on a weekly basis ( over 1 acre )

In my opinion, an organization must : have a tax id # or social security # in order to open a bank account to pay for services to benefit the assciation members

Must dislose the information ( i.e. landscaping and electric bills )

Must base the cost to each member with reagrd to the willingness of participation…in other words, if all 25 homes are willing, the cost will be ****

Our family is the newest to move into this neighborhood and their is definately issues with two households , which happen to be the ones who are trying to collect money with no accountability to everyone else
They are unfriendly, spiteful people
My next door neighbor called me today to let me know that when she came home from work today , she had a bag of dog crap with an anonymous note in it, accusing her of not abiding by the law and cleaning up after her dog…she walked her dog off her own property yesterday, and the dog pooped in a wooded area which is a vacant lot…no one walks or does anything else there.
When I told my husband , he told me he saw the woman do it…
These same people threw dog poop on my husband’s car last spring…didn’t see it happen , but they yelled at me when my dog got out of her gate accidentally and peed on their lawn. I didn’t think it was a coincidence when we found the mess the next morning…couldn’t prove it , but as far as I know , the stuff doesn’t rain out of the sky.

I am contemplating becoming the peacemaker and finding an honest way to maintain the common area…either by paying a fee or volunteering to cut the grass one week out of the season. Someone would obviously be profiting if the fee was $100 a week…the grassy area is much smaller than any given lot on the street
Sorry so long, kind of a rant while seeking advice:)

BCEagle91 · February 9, 2009, 9:51pm

Be careful what you wish for.

IMO, HOAs should be formed with lawyers involved and preferably before the neighborhood is built. You’d have to check your state laws on HOAs and I don’t know what you’d do if you had a few neighbors that refused to join.

I like living with an HOA as they set rules that the neighborhood has to live with. That said, if you don’t like rules - not just for your neighbors but for yourself too, then HOAs aren’t for you. What if the HOA said no dogs? Our HOA requires an application for those that want to have dogs. We’ve had numerous problems with dogs pooping on lawns. Usually it’s due to renters or new residents that don’t read the rules or don’t care about the rules. When that happens, someone has to catch them in the act, report it and they get warned and then fined. Same thing for running your dog without a leash or doing other stuff against the rules.

It takes care of a lot of problems that the police won’t bother with and makes living more pleasant - if you can follow the rules.

geek_mom · February 9, 2009, 10:12pm

We don’t have an HOA, thank God. We had a “design review committee” for a little while – a cul-de-sac full of not-too-bright California investors who bought in at the top of the bubble. Some folks in the neighborhood painted their homes in colors that didn’t blend especially well with the rest of the neighborhood; the investors, who were only interested in living here long enough to avoid taxes on a house flip, freaked out over the perceived impact on property values. So these new homeowners harassed the last original DRC member into appointing them to the DRC, then took it on themselves to pick out paint colors and threaten the rest of us if we used any colors other than the ones they’d chosen.

Most folks in the neighborhood ignored them. A few of the families that had painted their houses and taken a load of grief from these goofs… filed harassment suits.

Aside from the whiney letter taped to all our doors after those suits were filed… there hasn’t been a peep out of 'em since.

I’d love it if my neighbors across the street wouldn’t park on the street against the CC&Rs… but sometimes I let the weeds grow a bit too long in my front yard. We’ve all been pretty good at cutting one another some slack here and there, and it’s always been a friendly self-policing neighborhood. Only thing that concerns me now is renters moving in.

lje, I don’t know about your situation, but in our case all the non-private property is maintained by the city. If that’s not the case in your area, I think I’d just slip out there with a lawnmower one morning and steal their thunder.

I must say, though – although I obviously don’t approve of the way they’re handling it, I don’t have much sympathy for you on the dog situation. People walk their dogs in the neighborhood and let them crap in my yard on a regular basis. That’s unhealthy and inconsiderate. When I had indoor pets, I didn’t go around dumping the litter box on other people’s property.

As to the legal side of things… you need to start with the CC&Rs that your builder specified when developing your neighborhood. Absent an HOA (or present one), the CC&Rs are the rules that guide neighborhoods in stuff like this. Sometimes they’ll even include specifications for setting up an HOA (e.g., only can be done with a positive vote by 75% of the homes’ owners). You should be able to find a copy of those in your county’s recorded documents, if a copy wasn’t supplied to you along with the contract on your home.

Good luck. Step carefully, though; if you already have “Wives without Lives” trying to be neighborhood brownshirts, an HOA could be the next step on the path to abject misery.

somemom · February 9, 2009, 10:18pm

We had a road maintenance agreement on a private road and it was a nightmare when one neighbor sort of went crazy. It was a gravel road in the country and part of a nice horseback riding loop. The neighbor wanted to forbid any one who did not live on our road from riding. At one point he sued us all for giving some one temporary permission to use the road to access his lot (at the end of but not part of the private road) whilst we researched whether the could join as a paying member. The crazy neighbor won legal costs from all of us.

In the end he actually shot a gun at a woman riding, luckily she was the wife of the sheriff and crazy man ended up selling his house and leaving the state :eek:

mathmom · February 9, 2009, 10:35pm

Ouch, I don’t know if a homeowner’s association is going to help you with your neighbor problem, but it does seem worth a try. My neighborhood has a neighborhood association, but it is strictly voluntary. We lobby the city to pay attention to our local park, welcome new neighbors, organize block parties and occasionally fight developers with bad ideas. Recently we managed to raise money to get a parcel of vacant land purchased to enlarge the park. I don’t know how it was set up - it’s been around since the early 1960s when they formed to fight redlining by real estate brokers. Recently we set up a separate 501c organization so that donations to keep up the park can be tax deductible. There are bylaws and such - definitely find a lawyer (preferably a neighborhood one) who can help you set up something sensible.

lje62 · February 10, 2009, 7:09am

Thank you for the input. I don’t want to have any headaches , so I should probably not get involved. Out of 25 homes, only these two are unfriendly…and it isn’t just the wives.

They have fought with many people , and over silly things. I don’t want someone else’s dog poop on my lawn any more than the next person, but I realize that is a dog accidentally gets loose , it can happen…what really stinks is that one of these two neighbors are complete hypocrites about it…they have 3 dogs that they walk multiple times daily and let pee on neighbor’s lawns ( used to poop too, but when I called her out on it, seem to at least pick up solids )
I am thinking of just going over to the town hall and looking into the laws and getting a few facts
I can’t imagine having the kind of time on my hands to police the bowel habits of every dog on this street

goaliedad · February 10, 2009, 9:44am

lje62,

As a past HOA President where I live, but not a lawyer, I can tell you that forming one “after the fact” (after a subdivision has been platted and registered in the local governing body - city, township, county, etc.) is rife with problems, as it is next to impossible to impose anything on someone not legally bound to be in an organization.

That being said, I think your first place to do research about what to do about common areas, etc. would be with the local governing body (town, city, etc.) where your subdivision was platted and who control local zoning ordinances. Most governing bodies won’t allow a “common area” (i.e. land not owned by an individual lot owner or the governing body itself) in a subdivision without a responsible organization assigned to the maintenance of that property. You need to determine who legally “owns” that “common area” you are proposing to maintain. That should be documented someplace in the governing body minutes where the platting for the subdivision was approved.

It may point to a HOA that may have been abandoned or not properly launched by the developer (hard to redress long after the fact). In any event, in order to have a HOA that a governing body recognizes, it should have by-laws on file with the governing body. Those should have procedures for “electing” leadership, assessing dues, etc. that you will need to accomplish your task.

Now if you decide to pursue resurrecting an inactive HOA, you’ll probably want to know how enforcable the covenants are (can you collect dues, enforce maintenance standards, etc.). Your governing body attorney should be able to provide you a professional opinion about what they might support your doing legally and what you have to pursue as an organization in court. You might get lucky and have a local government that supports HOAs and will actually help you assess leins for mandatory dues, etc. More likely though is that HOAs are voluntary organizations or unsupported (from a governmental view). In this case, your only course for enforcement of anything is through civil courts (hope someone is a retired lawyer with plenty of time on his/her hands).

Now if the “common area” is not owned by a HOA, more than likely it is owned by the local governing body, in which case you call them up and remind them that it is their duty to mow the lawn and keep it within ordinance standards.

Wrapping this up, it is still better to achieve neighborhood detente through barbeque diplomacy. That is, get the local governing body to allow you to block off the street (or use the spare lot if suitable) and hold a HOA barbeque on a nice spring weekend. Everyone (who is trying to improve the neighborhood) chips in and brings out their grill/smoker and has a tastefest (open to all residents). The smell of good barbeque does a lot to soften the stance of the most hard hearted neighbors. It might bring them outside to talk and who knows maybe even bring a dessert.

Hope this is helpful.

lje62 · February 10, 2009, 9:21pm

goaliedad,
Yes it was helpful. I went to the township hall this morning to research if there are any guidelines in place that I could use as a base for seeing what steps , if any could be taken to find a peaceful resolution to the growing tensions in our neighborhood.

What I learned is that there is no protocol in place to govern such organizations. I spoke to the zoning officer, and when he asked me which neighborhood I was questioning, he exclaimed that he " knew " I was going to say**** *****…

What I did learn was that the town owns one half of the area that needs mowing, the other half is privately owned and therefore the owner’s responsibility to maintain.
I by no means want to stir anything up, but I will not pay money to a person or organiztion that doesn’t have a legal right to collect money…especially since there is no accountability to the so called members.
I am not alone.
Let’s put it this way…out of 25 homes, there are two who seemed to take it upon themselves to appoint themselves as mayors / caretakers of the street. They police without authority to do so, and harass the other homeowners for various reasons.
There is much buzz about it.
In all honesty, the other residents are friendly and we do have gatherings ( of course these folks don’t participate , though invited )
The zoning officer advised that the neighbor who was met by the bag of dog feces in their driveway call the police and report…
What kind of whackjobs do such things as leave bags of crap , I wonder ?

goaliedad · February 12, 2009, 12:03am

Must be a sick puppy. <pun intended=“”></pun>

Actually, it is a long standing juvenile prank. I guess you were lucky that it wasn’t the flaming rendition of the same (usually done at night while the residents are asleep with the door bell rung to get them to smell the results).

With regards to the lawn mowing, I’m not sure if your town has ordinances, but even in the backwards jurisdiction I live in, they do have rules on the books about the height grass can get before the government mows and places a lein against the owner for the cost. Don’t know if yours has gotten to that level. And perhaps a couple of complaints to the city about that high grass might get them to tend their part of own lawn at the same time.

We also have an ordinance NOT allowing cleanout of brush within 25 feet of a stream (we have one crossing through), which leads owners NOT to mow those areas. Lots of intrepretation here.

Good luck and thanks for posting your findings.

Neighborhood Associations

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