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JohnS111 (New York)
Posts: 228
Posted:
Just curious:

In your experience as a HOA board member, property manager or otherwise, what generally makes HOA residents the happiest?

And what generally makes HOA residents the maddest?

* High HOA dues?
* Maintenance failures?
* Fines?
* Lack of accountability?

Thanks, everyone!
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059
Posted:
From my experience, what makes them the maddest are:

1) Dog poop not picked up
2) Trees (lack of, pruning, etc.)
3) Special Assessments
4) Lack of, or perceived lack of, repairs/maintenance

What makes them the happiest:

everything happens as it should, their violations are not enforced and they don't have to be involved with running the Association.
MarkM19 (Texas)
Posts: 1,459
Posted:
Okay I will contribute.

Maddest

Parking issues
Pool violations like fence jumpers, rowdy homeowners kids who are raising their selves.
Facebook posts that only tell have the Story- Their half

Happiest

When we finally get credit for doing the Job nobody else cares to do

What I tell anyone that will listen is based on my current HOA. My current HOA has nearly 1500 homes and we have a board of 5 Board members. I remind them that they have well over 4000 eyes. The Board members have on 10 total. Our Property Manager only has 2 eyes. We can not possibly see everything every time. Give us a break and if you see something you should report it. If we don't work on correcting then we should be held accountable.
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
Maddest:

Just living in a HOA that has "Rules/Restrictions"

Happiest:

"Ignorance is bliss"... Being apathetic and still things seem to get done...

Former HOA President
KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239
Posted:
I don't know whether to give the Blue Ribbon to Tim or Melissa. Both have it covered.

The most frustrated person in an HOA is the newest board member, who always thinks the sitting board's experienced members are incompetent, who finds everything that needs "urgent" repair and runs into the lack of the mythical HOA Money Printing Machine.
SheilaJ1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 291
Posted:
I’ll extend what Melissa stated.

1) apathy
2) complainers that don’t want to volunteer or
3) a board that doesn’t want the complainers to volunteer but votes their friends on the committees
JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265
Posted:
Our main complaints are landscaping issues. We are 112 standalone, patio homes and the HOA does all landscaping (except privacy fenced in backyards). Vast majority happy with the landscaping but a few complain about not liking how the landscaper trims the bushes, edges the lawns, etc. Usually very petty things but still, landscaping is our #1 complaints.

Otherwise we have no ongoing complaints.
CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By MelissaP1 on 05/31/2019 6:08 PM
Maddest:

Just living in a HOA that has "Rules/Restrictions"

Happiest:

"Ignorance is bliss"... Being apathetic and still things seem to get done...

They're "happiest" until the consequences of apathy make themselves felt - and then they're OUTRAGED and it's all someone else's fault.

Cynically, I think many people believe:

* they should be able to do whatever they want
* nobody else can do anything that annoys them
* the community is maintained to their exacting standards, but...
* somebody else has to pay for and do the work that allows this happy state of affairs to continue.

I think the unhappiest folks are those who don't understand what they're buying and refuse to learn when they run up against their mistaken beliefs. There are regrettably many of them.
NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216
Posted:
Maddest: Too many voices, not enough hands.
Happiest: People who respect that I have a life too.

Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.
BobD4 (up north)
Posts: 1,002
Posted:
If only this question came with some sort of METER for anger / joy. . The highest frequency may widely have been "people /parking / pets" - the 3 Ps complaints. But "frequency" is not what was directly asked.

Respectfully the sad truth may - MAY - be that the infringement of property & civil rights, is NOT the concern of the majority of owners nor investors nor lenders. At least not until they themselves are materially victimized.

Then - one by one - there MIGHT someday arrive a sad discovery that forms of shared ownership might be lots more hassle / lots more expense / lots less free time ( ie : the very opposite of what most buyers hoped for or were led to expect . . ) Then it may be a different story.

TimM11
Posts: 354
Posted:
IME, the issues that have made people the most upset have been 1) snow and ice removal (I live in a northern state), 2) perceived unfairness when assessing fines (sometimes they've had a point), and 3) issues around renters. Pets and parking haven't been huge issues in my HOA, though they've sprung up occasionally.

The things that make people the happiest have been seeing improvements and proactive maintenance made to the property, a responsive management company, and a communicative BOD. All of these have varied over the years.
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059
Posted:
John,

Obviously, you are getting a mix of what makes members happy/angry and what makes board members/volunteers happy/angry.

What is the point of this exercise?
SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964
Posted:
I'm not on the board anymore, but I noticed problems come and go, depending on who lives here (we have a lot of renters)

The top three things that make people happy most of the time:

Relatively low crime rate (although we're across the street from a busy strip mall and next door to an apartment complex that had its own issues a few years ago)

Relatively low dues (compared to what similar communities are paying)

Community amenities. By community, I mean the one at large - we're not far from the expressway and have access to a bus line. There are also banks and community services close by, along with several schools (including a high school), and the township fire department headquarters is next door, which I suspect helps with home insurance rates.

Top three things that make people unhappy:

Disputes between neighbors (they don't like it when the board says it's not an association issue unless several people or the common areas are affected)

Parking

Dogs (a week ago there was a report of a large dog running around terrorizing people, but I think it was caught)


If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius
BarbaraT1 (Texas)
Posts: 821
Posted:
I don't know if I would put it in terms of happiest or maddest - while I've seen individual homeowners happy from time to time, as a body, I think the best you can hope for is homeowners who don't actively hate the HOA.

In my experience what makes the homeowners the least happy is lack of communication and lack of understanding what the HOA is, and what it is for. I created website for the HOA I manage, I send out quarterly printed newsletters and monthly email news. I also email the residents if there is a maintenance issue that they need to be aware of, like the fountain not working or the landscape crew being behind. I answer emails promptly, within 24 hours. It makes a huge difference.

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