HOA's are for the Birds!

This post isn't truly about Godot, but it will affect him/her at some point so I thought I'd share a snippet about it.


Earlier this year the Home Owners Association that governs our neighborhood switched management companies. Since this change in management occurred I have received three letters of violation within the last 3 months. The first letter was directed at some oil and rust stains left on the driveway by Cheryl's aging 1997 Toyota Corolla. This vehicle has nearly 170K miles on it! Therefore, it is understandable that it has its drips and drops. I promptly responded to the violation notice via email.

Here is my response:

"October 6, 2009

Dear Karen Matthews,

Let me start by apologizing for the late response to the letter I received on Saturday October 3rd regarding the oil and rust stains on my driveway. I appreciate your diligence in attempting to keep our community looking beautiful and I will resolve the situation as soon as possible. However, I would be grateful for some extra time to do so. The stains in our driveway are caused by an aging automobile with almost 170k miles on it. Unfortunately the condition and value of the car conflict with having it repaired; basically the repairs would cost more than the automobile is worth. Also, the economic downturn has affected our financial situation to such a degree that my wife and I are focused solely on paying our mortgage, therefore, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to afford having the driveway professionally power washed at this time. Add to that, a Monday thru Saturday (6 day) work schedule and our first child on the way, and I have a perfect recipe for little time and even less money. As I have stated, I will make every effort to clean the stains from the concrete driveway. I have found some do-it-yourself cleansers online that have great reviews and look very promising. I compassionately beg your forgiveness for allowing my driveway to become unattractive. I value the community I live in and ensure you that I will make my best effort to remove these unsightly stains from my property. I would ask for your patience while I wait for the cleansers to arrive and some additional time for them to do their work after I treat the concrete. However, I must request that after the concrete stains are resolved, we be temporarily permitted to place a drip pan on our driveway. Otherwise, we will simply run into this same problem repeatedly until we can afford to replace the vehicle, and our current finances will not allow us to repeatedly treat recurring stains. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your response.

Respectfully,
Tyson Keith."

This was their response:

"Hi Mr. Tyson,


Congratulations on the pending birth of your child. I can both identify and empathize with your situation and have marked the lot file records to indicate that you will have the stains resolved by the end of October. If you feel that additional time is needed, please let me know. I can defer things up to a point, after which time I would need to submit a request for additional time to the Board of Directors. As far as using a drip pan moving forward, that is perfectly okay. The drip pan does, however, need to be stored out of view (slid into the garage perhaps) when the car is not parked over it. The drip pan is, after all, a mobile oil stain and no less unsightly than the stained concrete when it is not hidden by a vehicle.

Thank you so much for your reply to the reminder notice. Communication is key and I greatly appreciate it. Please do not hesitate to let me know if I may be of any additional assistance to you.

Best regards,
Karen

Karen Matthews
Association Manager"
(Notice they fail to proved me the dignity of getting my name right.)

I did order some products online to remove the rust and oil stains. The rust stains have all been removed, and the oil stains are slowly fading (I bought a biodegradable product online for the oil stains; it is working much more slowly than anticipated.)

I did disregard moving the drip pan out of sight when there isn't a car parked over it - that is ludicrous. Every time we want to leave our house we have to move the drip pan in to the garage, and pull it out of the garage when we return, really? That seems a little excessive, and a petty item to complain about.

Fast forward to December, I received a violation notice for the drip pan being left in the driveway, which basically said that I am still in violation of the CC&R's (Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions), just a fancy acronym for rules, and that they have scheduled a hearing on Friday December 18th at 3:00pm (of course, nobody works on Friday at 3:00pm!) to determine whether a fine should be imposed, and the amount of that fine.

It is my belief that the HOA does not want anyone to attend these hearings and have their voice heard. Otherwise, why would they schedule them at such times? Especially at times during the end of the week, right around the hours when many parents will be picking their children up from school and such. To add to that, this is December, you know, the holiday season! Why is the HOA trying to generate revenue by imposing fines in this economic state during the month of December? Could it be because they have bills that are due January 1st and are running short on community funds? Does the Board of Directors want a raise in the New Year...Hmmmm, sounds fishy to say the least.

According to the letter, I am in violation of CC&R Article 5, Section 5.6 Garages and Driveways.

This is a direct quote from the CC&R's Article 5, Section 5.6:

"Article 5, Section 5.6; Garages and Driveways - The garages situated on a Lot shall be used for parking vehicles and storage only, and shall not be used or converted for living or recreational activities. Garage doors shall be kept closed at all times except to the limited extent reasonably necessary to permit the entry or exit of vehicles and persons. All driveways must be made of concrete construction. Detached garages shall not be permitted."

I don't know how one could interpret from this Article that it is a violation to have a drip pan on the driveway, let alone oil and/or rust stains!

At any rate, I am going to make every effort to attend the hearing. It will be a hardship with my work schedule due to the lack of personnel to provide coverage so I may attend said hearing at 3:00pm on a Friday. However, I will follow-up on this rant with the results of the hearing after Friday December 18th. Stay tuned; I'm sure it will get messy!
-T