First, I must say (and I have) that I am not an HOA basher. I love my HOA. Our board does the right thing the vast majority of the time (disclosure: I am a Director on our HOA board, but it was well managed long before I arrived).

But let’s face it; there are many HOAs out there that do the wrong thing. Whether it’s poorly set up CC&Rs, poor management companies or power hungry Directors, there are some horrific HOAs running amok.

Sarah Lynch of the East Valley Tribune ran a story yesterday titled, “Stucco wall splits homeowners association“. In this piece she highlights the trials and tribulations of a couple that stucco’ed their block wall. Now the HOA is all over them. It’s ridiculous.

For those not from around here, stucco is king. EVERYTHING is stucco. You can’t swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a stucco house or wall.

Yet here’s an HOA that is all twisted out of shape. They claim the homeowners didn’t properly apply for permission. The owners say they did (twice), and the HOA never responded–until they fined sent violation letters and demanded the stucco be removed. (my bad, I originally thought they fined them, thanks for the correction Sarah!)

This despite the HOA President saying he has no problem with the way the wall looks, and more importantly, despite the fact there are other homes with stucco block walls in the neighborhood. This Board of Directors need to look up the word “precedent” in the dictionary…

Read the article; shake your head in amazement. HOAs like this give all HOAs a bad name.

I hope the homeowners stick to it and don’t let these nimrods run over them. Good grief, it’s not like they painted their wall chartreuse…

[tags]HOA[/tags]