HOA board is selective with who they "target"

Do your CC&Rs give owners the right to enforce the covenants themselves? (This is pretty common.)

But be careful. If you're not on the board, you have no way of knowing what is being enforced and what is being ignored. A violation that has not been enforced will look exactly like one that the board is pursuing and the owner is ignoring.

In your shoes, I'd want to verify this as well as your other assertions.

You said that about 1/3 of the homes aren't part of the HOA. Phase 2 of communities under construction generally are part of the HOA - the HOA exists as a legal entity before the first lot is sold. If it truly isn't in this case - for example, the original developer sold off this section and a new developer has created something new - then the board in your community would have no say in what these folks are doing (and neither would homeowners in your section). In addition, HOAs typically require board members to be a member of the HOA. This suggests that Phase 2 is part of your HOA. Finally, if the developer is still in the picture, then he may still be in control of the HOA, and the homeowner/board members won't be able to tell him what to do.

Buying property in a community that's under development is risky. Things don't always go according to plan, and there usually isn't anything the existing owners can do about it. Be thankful that Phase 2 wasn't re-zoned commercial - that also can happen, and having an unplanned strip mall next to your area can lower property values fast.

Listen to Cathy advice .

Do note Wendy's fine citation, Tammy.

I'm really curious too about the amendments that the Board wants to add to the CC&Rs? Can you show the exact wording of a couple of them that are troubling you & other ? Plus the wording about items in your Home? (I assume these are detached homes?) What is the % of owners that is needed to approve amendments to the CC&Rs/

I have read the replies and to be honest, I have a LOT of reading to do. This is the first time I have had to deal with an HOA. I'm still learning the terminology. As for the 1/3 of the houses that are not part of the HOA, that is, in fact, the case. The Board said that those folks don't pay dues, therefore, they aren't part of the HOA even though they are in the same community/subdivision. They said they can't enforce any rules on those homes. I went to a meeting in November. It was the first meeting that was held since I moved here in February. They have since not sent out minutes, nor have they posted them anywhere for anyone that couldn't make the meeting to read. I have requested a copy of them, so I am waiting to see if they comply with my request. The meeting was held on November 13th...the meeting agenda was just posted online on January 10th. I wish I could answer all of the questions that were asked of me on here, but I honestly don't know what a lot of it even means. I'm not ignoring any of your replies. I'm reading them all. I just have to figure out the differences between CC&Rs, Bylaws, and whatever other terms are used. It's all so frustrating and I hate that I feel like I can't enjoy my new home. They make me regret ever buying this house. I'm not the only one that feels that way, either. I know several of my immediate neighbors are sick of it all.

1. Before you purchased your home, it was your responsibility to determine if the declaration and HOA rules were acceptable to you.
2. It was also your responsibility to determine what homes were or were not part of the HOA. You are correct. An HOA can only restrict those members.
3. Yes, the Board can adopt regulations on what you do with your house beyond paint color and junk in your yard.
4. The management company works at the direction of the Board.
5. All the Board members must at least own property in the HOA. Your declaration may provide officers and committee members do not need to be members of the HOA. An officer who is not an owner may not vote on HOA matters.
6. A lot of times new homeowners uninformed about HOAs become unhappy when they figure out they can do what ever they want with “MY HOME THAT I MAKE THE PAYMENTS AND PAY THE TAXES” and consider themselves targets. Board members don’t sit in meeting trying to determine who they are going to make a target this month.
7. You have 3 choices, sell, obey the rules, or politically get other members to vote the bums out.

Many years ago my HOA sent me a letter saying my house had to look better than the rest of the neighborhood because it was near the entrance. It was for yard maintenance, grass cutting I think.
I waited 2 years to sue them in small claims court over selective enforcement. Judge didnt' let me get a word in, Just listed to the HOA lawyer who had proof they sent me warning letters. Judge just berrated me for waiting so long and only wanted to know if I got the letters, never even got to the part of selective enforcement. I lost the case.

It is very difficult to win in court even if you think you had a slam dunk case like I thought. I mean I literally had a letter from the HOA saying they were treating me differnet.

Tammy, do note Cathy's wonderful explanation about HOAs. What she termed "CC&Rs" also are sometime called covenants, the declaration deed restrictions. It's usually a fairly long document, but your'll learn a lot if you'll read it.

Wendy can correct me if I'm wrong. In NC, I think board meetings only must be open to owners occasionally.-- I guess a Board could only open the meeting to owners once a year if they prefer. But, many boards will open all their meetings to owners to build trust via transparency and for other good reasons. If your board doesn't meet very often, it's possible that have not even approved the minutes for the Nov. meeting.

I had sold my house in another state and was house hunting in the new state I was moving to. I had come down on a weekend and spent the time looking at well over a dozen houses, many of which were not a good fit for me. I found one and put an offer in ($20k over the asking price), but they did not take my offer. I had to go back home without having found a house. My realtor called me the day after I got home and said she found a house for me. She told me the only thing it had that was on my list of "don't want" was the HOA. I told her I had never dealt with one but I've never heard anything good about them. She told me that it's a small community and the HOA fees are so low because the only thing they do is make sure the neighborhood isn't full of trash and houses aren't painted crazy colors. She told me that they wouldn't bother anyone around here because there are no amenities to be concerned with. Just keep the area clean, don't paint anything crazy colors, and don't have crazy parties disrupting the neighborhood. The rules were provided to me as I was signing papers to buy the house. I didn't know I could request them before signing the contract to buy the house. The realtor certainly didn't tell me. I was stuck because I had already sold my house and needed somewhere to move to. I had no idea that if I didn't like the rules of the HOA, I didn't have to buy the house. I still don't know if that's possible...I'm just guessing.

As for it being my responsibility to determine what homes were or were not part of the HOA, I didn't know that was even a possibility. I thought if the homes were all in the same community, they were all in the HOA. The Board refuses to tell anyone exactly which homes are not in the HOA/don't pay dues. I found out through neighbors about the mess with houses not being included somehow.

You're saying the Board can tell me what I can do IN my home?? They say people can work from home but can't run businesses from their homes. They say there can be no extra traffic to or from homes. How are they going to tell me who can or can't come to my home? Also, at least 3 of the Board members run businesses from their homes. They advertise on social media. "Do as I say and not as I do" seems to be the motto around here.

Yes. I make the payments and pay my taxes. I make sure my lawn is mowed. I keep my area clean. I know a few of my immediate neighbors. They are all fed up with the nonsense, too.

The only "common areas" in this community include the small strip along the main road at the entrance, a small grassy area in the middle of the roundabout near the entrance that really can't be used for anything, and a few other areas that can't be accessed without going through people's properties. There isn't even an area for the neighborhood kids to play...they play in the streets or run up and down the sidewalks in the summer. This place has nothing for an HOA to manage. They need to just stick to making sure there's no trash and home colors stay bland and leave people alone.

As for them not sitting in meetings trying to determine who they're going to make a target...don't be so sure. One of my neighbors was kicked off the board because she was asking questions and letting them know some of the things they were doing were wrong. Like I said, the president is blatantly violating rules, but let's go back to "Do as I say, not as I do."

If I could sell right now, I sure would. I'm a single mother and I worked hard to be able to buy this house. It makes me so angry that people like that can make so many others so miserable...and seem to enjoy it.

In my association, the Declarant had a procedure of having a buyer sign for a copy of the Covenants and Bylaws when putting a deposit down. Our issues arise from not the originals buyers as they signed for both prior to buying, but from 2nd and 3rd buyers who "paid attention" to what sellers and/or real estate agents "told" them versus the docs.

Who do you feel misleads/lied to you?

it's common my dumb closing attourney told me not to worry about the HOA when I asked what HOA papers were missing at closing 24 years ago. I should of sued him for missing paperwork and dumb advice.

Don't give up enjoying your house. It has taken us a while but we have changed the way the board conducts business without changing the board. You have to know the board's limits and hold their feet to the fire when they try to overstep their authority. Don't know about NC but in CA, if an association is a corporation, it has to file Articles of Incorporation. These articles can limit the powers of the association. For example, if the association's powers are limited to regulating common areas, and the homes/separate interests don't have any common components, the board can't tell you what color to paint your house. It is very common for boards to act outside their realm of authority. Just educate yourself and don't let them spoil your new home.

Thank you, Terri. I don't even care about the color of the house part. I understand that. It baffles me that there are homes that don't pay HOA dues and are not bound by the HOA rules. I'm not kidding when I say there are absolutely no amenities here. The only "common" areas are either very small, not in an area to be able to do anything in, or they are not accessible. There are so many homes that have fences that extend well beyond what the rules say. The rules make it seem like they are trying to have some kind of uniformity...but this isn't military housing. One of the proposed amendments says that the board can come on your property and remove anything they deem "unsightly". That's subjective. If I decide I want to plant flowers or create a decorative area in my front yard and someone doesn't like it, they can remove it? If everyone liked the same things, this world would be so boring! It just doesn't make sense.

Tammy

You do need to do some reading. If you have trouble finding your governing documents, they should be on file at your county office. But you do need to find and read them carefully - because some of what you have stated is almost certainly not true.

* Your Board of Directors can only include members of the HOA. Theoretically there could be an officer, such as treasurer, who is not a homeowner. But they would not be on the BOD and would have no vote.

* You mentioned a Board member being "kicked off" the board. Again, this is almost certainly not possible. Homeowners elect the BOD and only homeowners can remove them.

* The idea that 1/3 of your community is not in an HOA, while possible, also seems suspect. Especially given that one of the board members supposedly is among that group. There is a very good chance that the rumor mill has spread misinformation. Reading the documents could clear all of this up.

Also, as others have mentioned the board may "consider" updating the CC&Rs all they want, but only the homeowners - and almost certainly a super majority - can approve any changes to the CC&Rs. The board can make changes to "rules" but those rules have to be consistent with the CCRs.

Another recommendation: I completely sympathize that you had no idea what you were getting into. Don't let people get under your skin when they tell you it was your responsibility to find these things out. 99% of people who buy into an HOA don't know any of these things - because they aren't real estate experts and have no idea what to ask for. You don't know what you don't know! Unless this is your forever home, this is a learning experience. Don't dwell on what happened because the people who let you down (and they did let you down) are pretty well protected from recourse. The past is done, focus on moving forward.

I would also advise you not to get too wound-up emotionally with all of this. A lot of the mischief by board members is petty nonsense, and does not directly affect you. With no amenities to deal with, unless they are forbidding you from doing something to your property that you really want done - and are doing so in violation of your governing documents - the other stuff does not materially affect you, so don't let it emotionally affect you.

TammyL3, maybe it would be helpful to know that the newer a house and subdivision are, the higher the probability that a HOA is in place. If you sought a relatively new home, then chances are there were few non-HOA choices. Why? Because nationwide state law and/or city ordinances typically require a HOA. It saves the taxpayer money, shifting certain maintenance responsibilities to the HOA.

That's something I wish I had known a year ago!! Where I moved from, there were plenty of homes that didn't have HOAs. I didn't actually seek a newer home. It was one of the only homes in this area that was available in my price range (at the time) that wasn't falling apart and/or in a bad neighborhood. As for HOA maintenance responsibilities, what might that include?

The only ways I'm aware of where a portion of the community is not part of the HOA are either a voluntary HOA or one where a different section is entirely under a different set of CC&Rs. What I have seen happen is a large community where all sections are under the same master association but some sections amy have a second set of CC&Rs in addition to the master set. Example: a large community with detached single family homes with a small section of attached homes (condos or townhomes) whose owners pay a second assessment for services such as lawn care. These are definitely all one HOA, though. I've also seen large communities where multiple builders are working, and these may or may not be a single HOA. (My employer actually is building in a number of such communities, and now I'm curious so I should do some digging.)

As David noted, I also suspect there is a lot of misinformation floating around the community. The angriest homeowners are often ones who don't understand how HOAs work and who see normal practices as nefarious deeds. I don't know how to fix the problem of uninformed owners without forcing buyers to pass a course in "HOAs, condos, and how they work" (which will take a lot longer than one three-hour lecture). And that will never happen. Builders and realtors may do a good job of preparing someone to buy a house. But if that house is in an HOA, the person is also buying membership in a corporation which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. In some ways HOA membership is like owning shares of individual stock or being a small business owner, which the average person probably hasn't done and wouldn't know where to start. And I've criticized realtors before because they often gloss over the details of living in HOAs - but they often don't know the details themselves.

It's a bit of a mess and I don't know how to fix it without some draconian measures which will never fly.

A well-managed HOA can provide real benefits to the folks living in it. But holy cow, do you have to know a lot and have the right skills and temperament to do the managing.

Thank you, Kerry. I will work on that.

To add to David's insights. It's possible that the woman who thought that "the Board" voted her off the board was mistaken. She may have misunderstood. Oh, they certainly might have bullied her into thinking she was off the Board. To learn what happened, rad the minutes of the meeting when this was said to have occurred. It might be illuminating.