dude just needs to get a roomate in the right age range.
Preferably someone who the HOA would despise.
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When Cobra Commander is ‘the only sensible one in the room,’ you have to know you’ve gone completely off the rails…
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We have leaseholds- but they account for only around 18% of dwellings, 70% of which are flats. A leasehold house is a rarity.
Land is rather scarce, so some people are loathe to part with it. Hence leaseholds.
Isn’t this in violation of the fair housing act?
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Some HOAs even restrict that. I’ve seen places that limit how long visitors are allowed to stay, and anyone who isn’t listed as an owner is considered to be a visitor. In condo communities, associations used to prevent owners from renting their units. That trend seems to have changed, because condo owners in my area are selling their units now to get away from the tenants in their neighbor’s units.
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What power an HOA has is heavily dependant on the State. Here in NY my neighborhood association can’t do a lot. There’s some rules against live stock, which can apparently be enforced. But only on lots that are residential zoned, a few of the houses are on dual use or agricultural zoned lots. We’ve also got rules against storing boats and RVs in your driveway or front yard. Those are apparently unenforceable, the current residents don’t care and had wanted to remove them but it turned out to be moot. Most things they might try to institute would be the same, NY state and our town and county don’t give much authority to HOAs of this sort.
Other than that they mostly exist to administer a couple of lots the HOA owns. Basically two small 8th acre parks, one with beach access. Your dues pay for gates, stairs for the beach, locks and maintenance. And then they just advocate for residents on behalf of the town. Like they were able to get us connected to municipal water quicker and at less expense to individual households by lobbying the town council and stirring shit with the county.
Which is not to say it’s all peas and carrots. People being people we have a resident who keeps insisting that the HOA “do something” about the Latino family on the corner because “gang activity”. Current scuttlebutt that’s not a real problem is that one of the members is Air BnBing their house. Which is perfectly legal with the town, explicitly allowed in the community compact, and the guests are apparently covered by our liability insurance for the parks. And no guest as of yet has caused a problem.
More concerning is the farmer around the corner is shotgun hunting deer on his property at odd hours. Which at base is just annoying, cause he seems pretty bad at it. So getting woken up by 10 shotgun blasts at 3am is a thing. But just as a base thing even with a pest permit you can’t hunt with firearms at night here. I don’t believe his property is large enough, and far enough from the nearest populated areas and residential lots for shotgun hunting to be legal or safe. And the guy is pretty crazy balls, so he might be playing the most dangerous game again.
Coop boards in condos and apartments seem to have more power here in NY. But generally when you hear about those draconian HOAs that dictate what kind of grass you grow it’s curiously in southern or conservative areas that are all about castle doctrine and freedom from oppression in the form of environmental regulations.
This is common code for “keeps the blacks and poors out”. The real root for that style of HOA along with coops in urban housing is segregation. That’s a big reason why the places they are most powerful are the places they’re most powerful.
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To start an HOA, take 10-20 of the most ignorant, angry, get-a-life people in your NextDoor feed and give them total control of everything that goes on in your neighborhood, in your yard and in your home. Paying rent and answering to a landlord gives you more freedom than ownership under an HOA.
Methinks they are the trollies.
In this case though, maybe they all think that senior orgy they’ve been dreaming of is just around the corner. If only that kid wasn’t around.
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I don’t know if you’d missed it or not,
but most of us are fascists and the rest of us are complicit.
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You would think, but no. “Senior” housing is one of those age discrimination things that are allowed.
http://communityhousinglaw.org/legal-topics/fair-housing/fair-housing-law-exemptions-senior-housing/
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Some of the true believers in liberty moved to the left to Mutualism and market socialism once they realised it was Marxism-Leninism they hated, and socialism could protect their freedoms.
I think there are still some agorists out there who seem genuine, even if I strongly disagree with their economic views. Too many are only in it for themselves though, which is why they become monarchists, fascists and reactionaries when it is convenient.
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Had I known, I NEVER would have bought a house with an HOA. The Nazis come and go over the years, but this year - GRRRR!!! I’d just had my kitchen remodeled when I got a notice that I had to have about $2K of work done on my house. In one month. One of the items - a “leaning” back fence - neither my handyman nor I could tell WTF they were talking about.
Nazis. I HATE Nazis.
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The racial makeup of over-55 people in the USA is “whiter” than the racial makeup of children. It is only a matter of time until these adult-only or senior-only housing restrictions are rules unconstitutional.
Stats can be found here https://statisticalatlas.com/United-States/Race-and-Ethnicity
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Soveriegn Sherrifs* are a pretty good microcosm of the cognitive dissonance, as are many States’ Rights movements. It mostly seems to boil down to “No big government is going to tell me how I can or can not govern/oppress the locals!” It’s certainly contradictory to our propaganda, but has been internally consistent since the puritans fled for the freedom to be more inwardly oppressive than England would allow…
*https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/the-renegade-sheriffs
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Are you from Illinois by chance?
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Only if we get a dem majority Senate and/or vote Mitch McConnell out of office.
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I’m betting they die out do to lack of interest first. There’s apparently a huge problem in the over 55 housing market. Anticipating huge numbers of retiring boomers developers built a ton of the damn things in the classic model. Restrictive HOA/Coop boards, expensive maintenance fees and all. But two things happened. Boomers didn’t retire on time thanks to the econacalypse, and *they don’t want to live in these places. Lot of people hanging on to their houses rather than “downsizing” to condo style, outlying retirement communities. In part because lots of Americans in the 30s on down are still living with family, in part cause they don’t want to. And those that are aquiring retirement homes are opting for downtown housing in denser areas (like everyone else), second part time homes, and shit like RVs or spending that money on extensive travel. With the draconian resident boards being a major reason a lot of people refuse to buy in.
As a result there are apparently thousands of entirely vacant over 55 developments sitting around. With owners at a loss for what to do. Some are just sitting on them expecting people to get there eventually, which doesn’t appear to be working as it looks like these people are gonna keep on doing what they’re doing till they hit assisted living situations. And there are pushes to redevelop vacant ones as low cost housing for younger folks, and add in commercial space and other features of down towns, make them leas isolated and do away with the HOAs, rules and fees to make them more attractive.
A lot of the developments by me have been swapped over to more routine apartments and condos. Though they still have weird rules. Like my brother wasn’t allowed to have his work van parked in a visible spot, do maintenance work on his vehicles, or use power tools when he lived in one.
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Be careful with that now! These days real Nazis from Illinois will probably sue you for oppressing them if you show that clip.
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Where we are, some of them are because of restrictions on new developments being approved vs developers desire to build something now. Basically, farm land is turned into suburb housing faster than community infrastructure can keep up. Plopping down new houses faster than the schools can grow. This leads to restrictions on new developments while new schools are built and expanded to catch up and be ready for the next expansion. One way developers can get approval for new subdivisions is by restricting them to 55+. This way, there’s no pressure on the school system. Still have fire, police, water, and other infrastructure issues that need to grow.
It must be a regional thing where we have just the right mix of farmland making the conversion. Big enough for enough housing to be an issue, but not so big that it’s an entire town. Compared to stories out of the midwest where a developer builds an entire suburb town with schools, shopping, fire, water, everything all at once out of some prior huge farm.
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The 55+ (a/k/a “active adult”) community that I’m familiar with has a similar rule. I don’t know about the HOA in the article, but this one makes it very clear who can and can not live in the community and length of stay for “underage” visitors. They do allow for extensions, if the house is actively for sale.
I know this sounds cold, but this situation is clearly contemplated and the consequences spelled out to prospective buyers. My guess is, she bought the house and didn’t consider the rule… until it affected her. It’s unfortunate, but she needs to call a real estate agent.
Yes, for sure. And I find it interesting that the HOAs are just crazy here in suburban Atlanta (very diverse area) whereas they were only in the fancy neighborhoods up north in the Detroit suburbs (which is already a very segregated area). IDK if they’ve just become more popular in the time since I moved here or if it was a response to diversity.
