Homeowners Association
A homeowners association consists of the units/properties in a development, and has the power to implement the conditions, restrictions, covenants, and manage the common amenities of the development. Since the fastest growing type of housing today in the United States are common interest developments you will find that the developer will record restrictive covenants on all properties in the development before the first unit is sold. Homeowners associations do actually provide services to residence as well as levy taxes or assessments, regulate activities, and impose fines. You will also see that homeowners associations have control over what color you can paint your home, what kind of storage units, if any, you can place in your yard, as well as what kind of landscaping you do in your yard. Most homeowners associations have association boards which are made up of volunteers from the community, and they usually do not have any formal training, credentials, or certification. The developments developer will be the head of the homeowner’s association board at first and usually for a year or two before volunteers from the community take over.
You will find that if you move to a community that has a homeowners association then you will more than likely have to pay some sort of share or fees. These fees will usually pay for things within the community like private roads, utilities, amenities, services, pools, and community buildings. Many states are now allowing residents who live in a homeowner association community specific tax breaks so that they do not pay double taxes.
Homeowners associations are like a mini form of government too many people now, and they do not have a check and balance system. Many states are trying to regulate homeowners associations by making them provide residents with basic protections, but homeowner association directors do not always comply with the state’s laws.
If you are having problems with your homeowners association, whether it be because of what they are doing or what they are not doing, there is really not much you can do. If your homeowners association is not keeping the commitments they said they would in the offering plan then you can contact your state’s Attorney General with your problem. Many people figure out after they have bought a house in a homeowner’s association community that they are sometimes inactive. You may find that you have to pay the fees but you never see where the money is actually going, you do not ever get notices about meetings, and some people are allowed to do things to their homes that other residences are not permitted to do. Homeowner’s associations are not known for being fair to all the residents in a community, but rather for the unfairness that seems to surround the organization in general.
