Reply to HOAs overstep - watch yours carefully!

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[quote=Anonymous]We have a home in GF with a two acre buildable lot next door, which we bought at the same time as our home 20+ years ago. Small neighborhood, small HOA, but run by a couple people who don’t know their boundaries as provided by law.  We are thinking about selling our home and building a home to retire into next door. First we were told by HOA that “the HOA probably owns the land now” Zoning board looked up the property and laughed at them. Then they said they would reject anything put on that land unless it was built to their precise desires. Lawyer laughed at them - said they only have so much control. Of course we would go through the architectural committee for approval, but if they planned to get ridiculously difficult, they would have to prove why, and would lose. I reminded them that our properties are highly sought after for rehabs and that with almost 4 acres of land in a cul-de-sac, it would be the perfect place for one of these rehabs, and that since county law approves of them, their HOA could do nothing but watch property values in the neighborhood plummet. After a bunch of ‘you wouldn’t dares’ I told them that if it was between breaking us financially or them, I certainly would. That seems to have humbled them into considering our idea of building a home on a buildable lot. The idea that they could insist it remain green space is preposterous.

Every HOA meeting it’s the same thing. President and head of the HOA propose X or Y, only to be told by one of a couple lawyers in the neighborhood that what they are doing is illegal.  You can’t walk into people’s backyards without permission. You can’t tell people specifically what plants to put in their gardens. You can’t tell only a few people to buy specific product A and wash X or Y with it.  You can’t tell people during a political season to remove signs of the person you don’t like or plan to vote for. I did tell them that they are welcome to hand my husband a violation for the garage doors that need replacing, that he’s stalling on  :lol:

Bottom line - know your rights. I find the DC area to be particularly full of people who feel they can push others around. When a position on the architectural committee on our HOA became available, I joined. Some are not happy about that - most are, because they know I will be reasonable.[/quote]

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