On Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:00:02 -0600, "gloria.p" >
wrote:

>Lou Decruss wrote:
>
>> If someone wants to paint their house orange, not mow the lawn and
>> keep old rusty cars and appliances on it then a HOA isn't for them.
>> Many others do just fine with the rules.
>>
>
>
>Exactly. People move in to a neighborhood because they like the house
>and the ambiance, then too many of them want to make radical changes in
>their own yards and resent the HOA enforcing the covenants the owner
>agreed to in the beginning.

We have no pools or fences allowed. Some bonehead bought a house and
then hired a lawyer to fight the pool rule. It cost the association
some money but he lost. You can have a small dog run but a couple
idiots a year want a variance of some sort to fit their own needs.

>HOAs (if run fairly) protect both your investment as well as your
>neighbors'. An Architectural Control subcommittee of our HOA
>fields requests for changes, mostly investigating whether the
>application meets covenants. Unfortunately too many people are happy
>only when the HOA applies the agreed-on regulations to OTHER people's
>houses or yards.

Ain't that the truth. We had a guy who was on a mission to change
guest fishing regulations claiming guests were fishing the lake out.
He went to the meetings and bitched a lot and wrote nasty letters to
the local paper for months. Someone got wise to him and video taped
his fishing habits. He was catching his limit several times a day and
taking them home as he did it. Then he sold them to a restaurant. So
it turned out he was the one fishing the lake out. He was fined $775.
He was busted just a few days after one of his rants was published in
the paper.

Lou