In many/most places you have the option of cancelling the sale within a certain time period of receiving the documents.
For those of you with a "pixie spirit" and time on your hands, you might want to make offers on property, "review" the HOA crap and then cancel the sale.
Only do this when you are making the purchase through a licensed broker: an individual seller might want to sit on your depostion. A "professional" will give your deposit back quickly and if he doesn't the state has a fund to back him up.
This is one of those "If the shoe fits then wear it!" circumstances. I am clearly stating that to NOT obtain a copy of the HOA rules and bylaws prior to making the commitment to purchase a home is just plain wrong and that anyone who would do so only has themselves to blame for it. Rather than complain, take cases to court, or simply live with the consequences whouldn't it be more prudent to insist on obtaining and reading all HOA rules prior to spending your money? I fully concur that many HOA's have some totally stupid and uncalled for rules but that apparently is what the residents desire for their neighborhood and anyone considering moving into the neighborhood should know them going in and be fully prepared to accept them...all! Hell, I even checked the city codes before purchasing my current home to make sure that there were no rules that I couldn't accept. The only problem with local city laws is that they can change at the whim of the city council without a vote of the residents. Most HOA's require a 2/3's majority to change the rules.
Not to worry. There's a rule of the universe called "The Law of Apostrophe Conservation." It states simply that an erroneous use of an apostrophe is simultaneously accompanied by a superfluous one somewhere else on the planet.
re: " Then they will have to live with the results and keep their mouths shut"
Exactly.
However, I gotta ask...Are you following the same thread that I am?
This arc of the discussion started with a simple statement by Steve B.
Somebody he knows bought a unit without getting a copy of the rules. That's all he said.
Nowhere do I see anything about people complaining or "making excuses for their own mistakes".
What did you read that made you say "Then they will have to live with the results and keep their mouths shut."?
As I said earlier "for all we know they knew the possible consequences of closing without seeing the rules" and are now happily (or perhaps unhappily) living within those rules with nary a complaint.
You are jumping on them (and anryone else who may have done it) without knowing any the facts of this (or any other) situation.
REDUX:
FYI, FWIW, and all that ............ the couple loves their condo, the neighbors are a nice mix of working people and semi-retired people, the HOA keeps up the grounds very nicely, and their CURRENT board is more of a California Liberal than SS Nazi flavor.
But yes, it could have been just the opposite. The CC&Rs that they finally got were reasonable. BUT, that has a lot to do with the governing board and the population mix, as those can be tweaked by added rules by the persons in power once the juggernaut launches.
Also FYI, FWIW, and all that, ......... they DID speak to some residents prior to buying, so didn't go into it totally blind.
Oren has stated that in his town, that currently buyers MUST receive the CC&R's before closing. Now, Oren is a smart man, so I'll take him at his word.
BUT, just for giggles and grins, I shall ask my boss, a HOA reserve specalist licensed by the State of Nevada Department of Business and Industry just exactly what the facts are. Maybe they changed from the time of when my friends bought, and now. Or maybe, like so many HOA related items, it is the way it is perceived, and not actually what the law is, and there needs to be a legal interpretation of the law.
BTW, Oren and I are speaking of the laws for the same town, that being Las Vegas.
Since Florida initiated the HOA concept, most of the landmark decisions regarding them originate there, then ripple through the nation. The law requiring HOAs to have a reserve study done every five years was instituted by Florida, then subsequently initiated by the State of Nevada. It is not a requirement in all states. I shall ask the boss just how many do require it now. We have done HOA studies in Utah, mostly for Nevada based property management companies, but there is no requirement under Utah law YET. The two we did were 1,100 acre golf course communities, and there was no one in Utah who could do them. BTW, the 1,100 acres was just the housing portions, and had nothing to do with ANY of the golf course portion. I do hope that changes soon, as it would give us a ton of work closer to home. Every one of them would need to be done, and that would be about two years of work.
Just some facts from someone in the biz.
FWIW. I'll get back to you on the topics mentioned as soon as I talk with the boss. He's on a cruise right now.
Steve
read about heart surgery and how to prepare for it at:
I fully concur that many HOA's have some totally stupid and uncalled for rules but that apparently is what the residents desire for their neighborhood and anyone considering moving into the neighborhood should know them going in and be fully prepared to accept them...all!
I would say that a majority, that is more than 1/2 of the buyers, either know someone already who lives in the community, or does some homework in investigating whether or not the HOA is a mellow place or a gulag. That's just a guess, but from what I've seen, people are attracted to nice places through friends, contacts, and word of mouth. People who run in, and sign in twenty minutes are the same type who buy bridges as an investment strategy.
Steve
read about heart surgery and how to prepare for it at:
Circumstances like that are what rental units are for. If I needed sleeping quarters in a hurry, and had family obligations that would suck up all my time and rational thought-power till they worked themselves out, I'd find a house-sitter, or a tenant, and store most of my stuff, and RENT someplace on the other end for the first few months or even a year.
Yup. DH has had 4 long-term contracts (he's a DBA) in the Hartford, CT area since 2007. Last year, after 5 years of this, he considered, for a nano-second, buying a condo. Nope. WAAAAY too much drama and too many rules. Since he is able to work from home 2-3 weeks a month on the current contract, it's easier to rent a small/cheap shit-box near the site. Bottom line is it has to be cheaper than a decent hotel 5 days a month. Plus...the shit-box has a kitchen.
Been there and done that for two years and it worked out OK. Even after we sold our house and started looking for a new residence we lived in the shit can apartment for 6 months and took our time finding the right home.
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