The Gaming Den

I remember getting a phone call like that a week after moving into the first house I owned demanding that I take down a chain-link fence in the backyard or face lawsuit.

Funny thing was, I had signed no HoA. So I told him so. Turns out it was a lawyer who lived down the street that hated the fence and couldn't bully the last people to take it down so he started with us. Good times.

My dad knew a guy that bought a house in a local resort community after retirement. One day, his grandchildren put a tent up in the back yard, and had it down by lunch. That evening he was served with an eviction notice because he violated his HoA.


On a related note, I don't know how much power an HoA has in Texas (in VA they are only shy of Obama's Death Squads in power), but unless they are completely toothless I'd advise letting it slide.

Shy of Obama's Death Squads in power.. so that means they're completely toothless and ineffective?

sabs wrote:Shy of Obama's Death Squads in power.. so that means they're completely toothless and ineffective?

I was trying to be funny. No, Homo wners associations tend to be vindictive and have the power to enforce lots of things, even booting you out of a house you own.

FBMF: You, sir, are for Good or for Awesome!

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

sabs wrote:Shy of Obama's Death Squads in power.. so that means they're completely toothless and ineffective?

I was trying to be funny. No, Homo wners associations tend to be vindictive and have the power to enforce lots of things, even booting you out of a house you own.

I know I've already lost. Unless the HoA just rolls over, I'll take the hooks down.

Game On,
fbmf

Fuck Homeowners Associations. But hey, maybe this will cheer you up.

Such stuff is why I never really buy into the "the USA has far less regulations than the communist european states" propaganda. The very idea of a HOA having such power is absurd over here (I am not even sure we have HOAs).

Fuchs wrote:Such stuff is why I never really buy into the "the USA has far less regulations than the communist european states" propaganda. The very idea of a HOA having such power is absurd over here (I am not even sure we have HOAs).

No, see in the US, you have the freedom to make exploitive contracts that allow you to evict other people from houses they own if they have clips for lights on their deck or a pup tent in the back yard. I'm not really sure how that qualifies as freedom, but the Cato Institute assures me that it is.

-Username17

Well by comparison where I live just getting neighbors that agree with the whole basic rule of law thing is hard enough.

Here are things our neighbors have done in this semi rural area. Most of which center around a right of way access across our property (a piece of our land which we own and control, but which we are obligated to let neighbors travel across as basically an extended driveway within various strict but reasonable limitations.

1) Suddenly demand property boundaries be moved in their favor to match how they were nearly 100 years ago, and absorb the entire right of way and about half of our dams (vital watersources for the farm, and literally half, as in half way down the middle of the dams) despite the fact that is totally not how property law works around here. Proceed to push the matter right to the edge of a court case over a period of years and spread shit with our other neighbors. Note this is NOT actually the neighbour granted right of way access over the land in question, and by taking it they would actually either A) Deny right of way access to that neighbour, or B) Leave us and the neighbour in a situation where we had to build a much larger access way across about 2x the land area and distance.

2) When offered right of way access as part of an attempt to make the annoying land claim go away in a amicable manner refused quiet strongly. We assumed they might want it to grant access to a future subdivision and sale, or because they were panicking because they suddenly realized a tiny 3 meter portion of their driveway access was on our land and they didn't have a legal right of access through our property. Later they DID subdivide... and built a SECOND ROAD parallel to and within 2 meters of the existing one. In the act of building that road modify the 3 meters of access through our property without permission in a way that significantly changes water drainage into our main dam.

3) The neighbors WITH the right of way access tried to sign documents GRANTING OWNERSHIP of the land the right of way was on to the neighbor trying to claim that land in return for guaranteed right of access. Which is mad because they didn't own the land and already DID have guaranteed right of access, AND since even if the land did change hands basically the local council WILL force SOMEONE to give your right of access.

4) New Neighbors move in at the place with right of access. They decide to land low flying helicopters there regularly. (Also land claim neighbor had a Death Metal Band in a tin shed, everyone has dirt bike tracks around the fence lines, all neighbors dogs are let loose so they can voltron together and slaughter entire sheep herds)

5) New Neighbors Decide to refurbish the road across our land. Which would have been fine if they told us. It would be nice if they also listened to our advice about not burying that vital drainage pipe. Which led to the driveway and all its gravel washing directly into our main water supply. It would be even more nice if they would EVER ACTUALLY FIX THIS instead of just repeatedly burying that fucking pipe every time.

6) Now messing with dams, particularly enlarging them or building new ones is these days a BIG CATCHMENT NONO. But new neighbours dropped a bunch of building scrap along our fence line at such a place as to effectively create a second, HIGHER dam wall for one of our dams. This did several things.
A) make that dam a lot bigger and deeper.
B) submerge our petrol water pump under a meter of water.
C) Flood the driveway again (blocking their own access) and washing even more of it into the bottom of the dam.
D) Flooded a location they were storing heavy machinery and construction vehicles in for really bad reasons.

7) New neighbors outright threatened us with actual violence. Also every time we go shoot rabbits on our land, typically on the opposite side to them... they call the police and tell them we are shooting at their house. They have vandalized the gate to the right of way so it cannot be shut (a requirement of right of way access being that there is a closable gate for various reasons, like to keep stock animals in, stop kids from wandering in and drowning in that fucking dam, etc...). Then in further retaliation to the daring to expect a closable gate to our own property they closed the gate to the access to OUR property and business... locking it with a high tension knot of barbed wire. Oh, and called the police AND the local council and accused us... of what they actually did...

8) New neighbors started an illegal unapproved cement slab laying business in their backyard. Breaching ALL local rural residential zoning restrictions. Now run massive amount of high speed trucks and cement trucks along the tiny gravel road and wash off cement trucks directly into the local creek.

9) They Also enlarged house to shopping mall proportions, all without any form of due process and proper local government approval. But thats fine, local government gave them carte blanche for the construction and the business later despite strenuous advice to the contrary from their own professional staff, our councilors are just that fucking bad. Recently they tried to sell the house and land FOR TWICE THE HIGHEST PROPERTY PRICE OBTAINED BY ANYONE IN THE AREA. Sadly it did not sell.

10) Land claim neighbor subdivides and sells to a new subdivision neighbor. New Construction Neighbor tells Subdivision neighbor that HE owns the right of way land, and gives subdivision neighbor permission to use it for access, cut down our fences and build a shed with facing/access onto the right of way driveway instead of his own. Subdivision neighbor gets very very pissed off when we ask him to put our fences back up thanks.

11) Bunch of other stuff, I can't manage to keep track of it gets so ridiculous.


Our nice neighbors just ride motorbikes around their fence lines, have noisy parties, clear every scrap of the local scrub wiping out untold native wildlife, build ugly houses, don't have anything resembling gardens and litter their blocks with shipping containers and excess cars. Those guys are nice, I like those guys they are fucking AWESOME neighbors, I want more of THEM.