Have you ever received a letter from the HOA reminding you to cut your grass, weed your flower bed, or fix a broken shutter? You might wonder why the HOA is 'hounding' you or as some people might say, 'minding your business.'
The reason is simple. One job of the HOA is to make sure that residents abide by our covenants AND keep our neighborhood a beautiful, well groomed place to live. Afterall, how our neighbors keep their homes and yards impact the value of our homes.
A messy, unkempt yard or house, boats and trailers parked in the yard, broken fences, waist high weeds....they all will affect property values.
Check out this recent ABC news report on messy neighbors. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/Story?id=5023589&page=1
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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6 comments:
I think everyone kinda understands that extreme cases like shown in this clip are bad, however, where I think people are getting offended is when they see a lot of REALLY horrible looking yards that are not being fixed and then others that just have a little faded pinestraw are getting notices. I can only speak from what I have heard others talk about and complain about. Also I know first hand because my own neighbors store their trash can in front of the garage, stack garbage up behind their back fence gate, and for a while parked a car in their back yard. Nobody wants to complain about a neighbor because we all want to get along so if you say you are doing this to help us then please truly help us and focus more on the really bad stuff. We keep hoping the HOA will step in before we have to make a complaint but nothing seems to happen so I do understand the frustration of the homeowners.
Just because you see your neighbors garbage cans repeatedly left out where they don't belong (or other HOA violations), don't 'assume' that the homeowner has not been contacted by the HOA or is not incurring fines for the violations. Unfortunately, some people would rather amass huge violation penalties and even liens on their homes rather than fix up their yards.
Also, the HOA isn't always aware of every violation. We have a representative that does regular drive-bys to check on the neighborhood. If you have a neighbor who repeatedly violates a covenant, such as leaving garbage cans out, you can go to Liberty Management's site and post a compliant, or you can call Liberty. Having a nice neighborhood also depends on the neighbors.
I live in what I call the ghetto of Bay Creek. This section is slowly going down hill and HOA is not doing anything about it. I live across the street from a house that has no grass only weeds. The weeds are six inches high. I try keeping my yard looking nice but, when you have someone like that living near you it just makes want to do nothing. That yard is making my house look bad. I moved here because I thought that the HOA would make residents keep their house and yard looking nice. Every section needs to look as nice as the front entrance. Sometimes I feel like my HOA dues go to making then look nice and not the whole neighborhood.
Dear Anonymous,
One thing many of our residents don't know or realize is how much time, money and effort goes into trying to get our neighbors to mow their grass, take care of their weeds, replace pine straw and just keep their yards looking nice.
Just because your neighbor has weeds in his/her yard, don't think that the HOA hasn't or isn't working to get that yard fixed up.
Homeowners in ALL sections of our neighborhood are fined repeatedly for not keeping up their yards. Liens have been placed on their homes because they haven't paid those fines.
For those homes that are in foreclose, the HOA is working with the real estate firms and the banks that manage the properties, trying to get them to take action and 'clean up.'
The last recourse the HOA has is to actually go in and mow the grass, clean up the yard, etc., and then bill the homeowner. Did you realize that when the HOA does that (JUST ONE TIME), the costs (including legal fees, etc.) equal what ONE homeowner pays in dues for a year...or $400.
Have you contacted Liberty to report the 'ugly' yard next to you? Have you contacted your HOA officers? Just anonymously responding to our blog doesn't let us know what yard you are talking about.
You can report 'anonymously' by calling Pat Tewalt, 770.554.5411 or Lamar Bates, 770.554.3466. They will work hard to represent you and do what can be done to keep your area nice.
Dear Sir/ Madam--I don't know which since you decided to remain unknown. Please send us the address of the "ugly" house/yard and the HOA can investigate if any letters have been sent asking the property owner to take care of his property.
Only after a very long process can any really drastic steps be taken to correct problems like you describe. And then, the HOA has to spend aproximately one address's yearly fees for a one time fix. This is not really a realistic solution to the problem.
Have you talked to your neighbor about his yard? (There may be a reason for the condition of the yard that you could help with a solution.)
The HOA is not a super police force that can swoop in and make people do what is right. We have to follow certain legal procedures that seem to take forever before anything can be done.
Right now, I can only ask that you send me the offending address and I can look into the problem.
Lamar Bates
President, HOA
I too appreciate what this homeowner is saying; quite often those who do not live in the Plantation (which has an entrance and is kept immaculately) are not reaping any benefit from our HOA dues which seem to be put up front. Some of our neighbors have been told they live in a construction area therefore the HOA won't do any upkeep in the area and if that's the case we shouldn't have to abide by your rules either. So if you are not going to use the monies fairly throughout the neighborhoods then don't hold everyone accountable either. FYI.. even the covenants state "Plantation at Bay Creek".. hmmmm.. don't seem to see anything about the cove, landings, landings 2 etc.. ???
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