MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL CRISIS, REAL ESTATE, MORTGAGES AND OTHER RAMBLINGS



Monday, May 24, 2010

More HOA Woes...

My mother-in-law recently ran into a problem with her Home Owner's Association. Again. This time, it was not an increase in fees or decrease in services or whatever. It was a lack of communication from the HOA to the property owners.

The HOA never paid the bill for the trash disposal service. They were not required to pay, so they didn't. However, instead of informing the property owners that they would have to pay for the disposal service themselves, they just kept silent. No invoices were sent. No mail notifications. Nothing.

So what happened ? She put her recycle bin and trash bin out to be emptied one day, and the the disposal service TOOK HER BINS...

She had to find out the hard way to whom and where to send the check to pay for the service, just so she could get her trash receptacles back and empty her trash.

Now this is pretty benign, but I wondered why HOA's are so notorious for being uncooperative. Maybe it's a power trip. Maybe it's because the property owners are just bad, and the HOA is just tired of dealing with them. All property owners and tenants can't be that bad, can they ?

Problem is, HOA property management companies seem to all to be the same - awful. Why is that ?

Well, I have not found the definitive answer to the question, but I did come across an article written online by Yahoo! Finance about the "10 Things a Homeowners Association Won't Tell You". It's horrifying.

I just thought I would forward the article to those who have clients that are purchasing properties with Home Owner Associations - pass this information on to them. It's good for the homeowner to know what kind of difficulties they could run across with their HOA in the future.

I will continue my quest to find the answers, but in the meantime - Home Owner Beware...

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