# Small victory over my HOA



## TylerStewart (Jul 22, 2010)

Some of you might know about my constant drama with the homeowner's association I have to deal with.... Like most, they are nags, send letters and threaten fines for any little weed you have in your yard, stuff like that. Anyways, we got a bill from them yesterday for $640-something and said they had a lein on my house which instantly infuriates me (I thought we were at a $0 balance). We have constantly struggled to get on the same page with them on anything. They will tell us something on the phone that never reflects on the paper invoices they send occasionally. I have e-mails from them contradicting what the paper statements say. Anyways, after the bill yesterday, saying they had a lein on my house, I sent this e-mail to them expecting to get a "yeah right" response:

_Steve,
We seriously need to get someone on the phone from your place about our account. We have been told 3 or 4 times in the past year that we are up to date. We were told in June of 2009 that $192 would make us current, so we sent $192. We were then told in November that we were behind again for some unknown reason, and it would take $175 to catch us up, so we paid it. I have $32 automatically going out to you guys every month and it always has been. You told me in this e-mail below at the beginning of June that I wasn't getting a $100 fine for weeds on my account, and we get a letter today saying that we are $642.32 behind and that there's a lein on the house? Are you guys insane, seriously? Why do I have a "landscape maintenance" fee of $100 on my account (on top of the $100 fine that was added a week later?) Nobody ever cleaned up my landscaping but me. This is the biggest pain in the *** I've ever dealt with in my life and we have done nothing wrong. This is 100% a problem within your office, and you need to figure it out. I am happy paying the $32 a month I've always paid, but looking at the bill, you guys have all sorts of charges on it that we have never even heard of or deserved. My next $32 will go out at the beginning of the month, and I expect that you will take care of the errors in the billing. Let me know when we have a $0 balance. 

Tyler Stewart
**** **********
Las Vegas NV 89131_

I got this response today while eating lunch:

_Hi Tyler,
Thank you for your email and we apologize for the accounting errors that were made on your account. It was simply an oversight and we are in the process of filing the lien release and reversing the fees. We will be reversing a total of $817.32 of late fees, interests, prior agent balance, collections fees, and fines from your account, which will leave your account with a credit of $111.00 after the August assessment charge.

Once we have all reversed all of the fees, I will email you an updated account ledger so that you may have this for your records. We have also closed out the compliance issue and we appreciate your cooperation and attention in getting it resolved. 

Again, we apologize for the errors and the inconvenience regarding your account. Please let us know if you have any questions or if we can be of further assistance. Thank you. _

Might take the wife on a date tonight to celebrate


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## Yvonne G (Jul 22, 2010)

What a bunch of idiots! I wonder how many others in the Assn. just pay the bill and don't question it. Good for you. Hope you can stay on their good side.


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## TylerStewart (Jul 22, 2010)

Well, and I think part of the problem is that right next to my house (I'm the last house on a dead-end street) there's this landscaped area covered in colored rock that is community property, but last summer they told me it was my responsibility to keep it weed-free (only because I'm the closest house to it), to which I told them to kiss it. They insisted that it was my responsibility, and I told them if it was my land, "I was building a garage on it starting next week." The next day they sent someone over to clean up the weeds. I think they are blaming me for it again this year, since every yard on the street is weed-free but this piece of land has 4' tall sagebrush growing on it again. They're telling me to pick my weeds, yet they haven't been able to tell me which weeds to pick. Irritating....


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## pugsandkids (Jul 22, 2010)

I'm glad you are getting resolution. I could not imagine dealing with an HOA. As a girl who grew up in the boonies, I have hard enough time just having neighbors.


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## TylerStewart (Jul 22, 2010)

I never had to deal with them until I bought my first house after college in 2002, but that HOA didn't bother us much.... I just paid the monthly bill, and they maintained the landscaping they were supposed to maintain. They never really got on us for anything, so I wasn't that concerned about an HOA when I bought my current house in 2006. At this point, I would never buy another house with an HOA. It's difficult in Vegas to find any new or newer houses that aren't in one.... You'd pretty much have to buy a 20 year old place or buy raw land and build one yourself to not have the HOA controlling it.

I'm on the end of our street, so I only have one neighbor now who we like and he likes us. He's an older retired guy. He buys clothes for our kids occasionally when he sees something with a turtle on it.


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## dmmj (Jul 22, 2010)

I generally think that people who on the HOA's could not tell the difference between their butts and a hole in the ground, I generally have a poor view of them, and think that most if not all are small peopel on power trips. I mean small in character not small in stature, glad you could win against them and I hope you take the wife out to a nice dinner.


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## TylerStewart (Jul 22, 2010)

It's still amazing to me that they can have this "little blip" in their accounting, and accidentally be $817 off. I pay $32 a month, which they've always got. How did it get turned into $817? It also amazes me how easily they forked it over (after getting a very different result in all past phone conversations), almost like it happens all the time.


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## Angi (Jul 22, 2010)

And how much do you think I cost the HOA to to send you those treatening letters, put a lien on your house and pay employees to do all this? I understand living in HOA hell. Ours is awful.


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## Neal (Jul 22, 2010)

That's awsome, I'm about as anti - HOA as they get so I'm happy to read this!


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## TylerStewart (Jul 22, 2010)

Talked to the guy today about that small patch of land next to my house, and they still are pushing it to become mine legally.... Apparently it's just a spare spot of land that nobody ever was granted, but isn't technically maintained by the association. It's probably 30x60' in size, and is kinda on a sidehill (pretty decent slope to it). I told him I'll own and maintain it in a heartbeat, but I'm going to put a wall around it and plant some fruit trees there. He said that might be something they are willing to do. I should hear back within a week or so.


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## Angi (Jul 22, 2010)

That is great. I would think fruit trees would be hard to grow in Vegas. Our HOA has a resturant, bar and golf course that is in the hole about 100,000 a year. Yet they worry about my RV being covered on my property in a cement parking space that can hardly be seen from the street Grrrrr.........


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## TylerStewart (Jul 22, 2010)

Certain trees do well here... My parents have a green apple tree that produces so much fruit it lost a massive limb last year from the weight of the apples. They get literally hundreds of apples each year from it. I have apricots, nectarines, peaches, grapes here, and had an apple tree at my last house. Plums do well, some cherries, lemons, stuff like that. There's a big orchard a few miles from me; I think it's mostly nectarines, peaches and apricots. 

We dealt with the parking issue here also. I used to have a gravel driveway that went around the side of my house that they would get upset if I parked on. I do concrete for a living, so one weekend I poured a concrete driveway there and they haven't said a word since (park there every day). Last fall when I was going to reptile shows every weekend or every other, I would take out my trailer usually on Wednesdays or Thursdays and start packing it for the trip Friday morning. I'd get home late Sunday night and unpack it on Monday, and it was in the back on Monday nights until I needed it again. They came a few times when it happened to be out, and sent me a nasty letter that it can't be parked long term in my driveway (when it was actually coming and going). They also tried to impose a rule where you could only park on the South side of the street, but not on the North side. They didn't paint the curb or put up signs - it was supposed to be verbal, so the people on the North always had to remind their guests to park across the street, and the people on the South got mad that everyone was parking in front of their houses. Once the towtruck driver got beat up the third time trying to tow people out of here, they stopped enforcing that rule.


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## movealongmosey (Jul 22, 2010)

THE HOA TOOK MY PLAYGROUND AWAY! 

Those bastards!


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## Maggie Cummings (Jul 22, 2010)

OMG! I couldn't stand that. And I sure wouldn't count on that $111 being correct either. I live in a park with a manager. But I own my house and I refuse to cooperate with them most of the time. My property is surrounded by a 4' chain link legal fence. My back yard has a $1000 2'.5" solid cedar very illegal Bob fence inside of the chain link and I am so afraid one day they will use that Bob fence to get rid of me once and for all. They'll have the hella fight on their hands first tho. 
I'd be a screamin idiot if anyone said they had a lien on my house. Sounds like the kind of place where you can't leave your garage door open. You have my sympathies...


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## Tom (Jul 22, 2010)

Glad to hear you won. The whole thing seems so arbitrary and ridiculous! I intentionally avoid any kind of HOA. Bad enough you have to fight with the Government about everything. I can paint my house whatever color I f' ing want.


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## jackrat (Jul 22, 2010)

Can't imagine living like that.


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## Jacqui (Jul 23, 2010)

jackrat said:


> Can't imagine living like that.



Neither can I! I was raised you bought your own home and then you could do anything you wanted with it. I love my little village. I am limited to 6 dogs, but other then that, there are no rules on animals. Other then state laws (such as noxious weeds), we basicly have no rules we have to follow. Everybody may know your business, but that also means they tend to watch out for you and your property at the same time. 

I just can't imagine paying to be harrassed like you do, if you live in a HOA.


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## TylerStewart (Jul 23, 2010)

It is pretty crazy the amount of control they get over it, but everyone buying here agrees to it when they move in, so I can't really blame anyone but myself for agreeing to it (which is why I suggest nobody else buy into one). I think the general idea of an HOA could be a good one, if done right - it's the abuse and over-use of power that turns me and many others off about them. I understand if your grass is 18" long, or a broken down car is leaking oil all over the street in a neighborhood that was built new in 2006, but I don't need a letter sent to me because a dandelion popped up or because my (new) trailer was in the driveway more than 2 days in a row. 

I've already bought my 2.5 acres in the wide open desert, just trying to get that land paid off in the next few years and I'll be out of here!


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## RV's mom (Jul 23, 2010)

I will never ever live in a place that requires HOA membership. Nosy picky folks would have an absolute cow if they had to deal with my front yard in the spring. We're loaded with african daisies and california poppies. Our neighbors snip a little, but we clean it up well and its done. until next year. when we hope for more flowers...

glad things got resolved.


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## dmmj (Jul 23, 2010)

HOA's were meant to enforce neighborhood guidelines, but what happens is a few small people get power and it drives them insane, I am sure you have all heard of the stories of vets being told they can't fly the american flag in their yard because the HOA say it violates the commuminty guielines. Yah right, give me a break.


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