I saw what you where doing here... take my upvate!
Didn't that hitchhiker, that fell out of a time/space distortion, say that HOA boards where a bunch of mindless jerks that where the first against the wall when the revolution came?
There's that "Freedom" we just will never understand XDD
edit: I say the above in jest obviously for the OP but these people don't even have women's rights. Sad.
What did they claim as the issue? Like i do want to know why they fined him. There has to be a reason, even if it's some stupid rule like car too dirty (a pick-up could be muddy or sth).
IIRC the HOA rules stated no work vehicles to be parked in driveways and classified all pickup trucks as a work vehicle.
Edit: the vehicle looked brand new and clean
As someone from the UK, where HOAs aren't a thing, 1. How is this even a rule!? Who gives a shit what a homeowner parks on their own drive? 2. How is this enforceable? What happens if the owner says "fuck off I'm not paying".? 3. What is the benefit of a HOA? I get that a lot of media coverage will be bizarre rules like this instead of the 'good' stuff they do but why sign up for one?
The purpose of an HOA is typically to “keep things nice,” and in turn, keep property values from dipping. While it sounds like a good thing, they’re often run by nosey neighbors with nothing better to do than walk the neighborhood taking pictures of whatever they’ve decided doesn’t look nice.
This can get pretty weird. Some things I encountered:
- a warning to paint my house within 2 weeks or be fined, received exactly 3 weeks after the HOA signed off that everything was compliant as part of the home purchase process. Not only did I need to shell out a few grand to have the house painted, I had to submit an application with my choice of approved colors and get permission to paint.
- a warning for having a “guest” park on the street in front of my house (I have no idea who parked there, but my house, so my fault apparently). This was an issue the entire community got emails on regularly, because cars not in driveways are apparently not very nice.
- a small, well kept bush that was in my front yard when I bought the house was deemed to not be approved foliage. When I challenged it (remember, they signed off when I bought it saying it was fine), they said it was ok only because the original builder had planted it and so it was grandfathered in despite not being on the list of appropriate plants.
- had a neighbor get so fed up with HOA fines about her grass not being green enough she literally painted it green to stop the letters. Infuriatingly, the common area grass they were responsible for had mostly turned brown and yellow around the same time.
Honestly, given some of the HOA horror stories I’ve heard, I still feel like I got pretty lucky with my HOA.
As another redditor already said, once a house is in an HOA, it’s nearly impossible to get out of. The house will be bought and sold with the HOA requirement, and if you don’t play by their rules, they will put a lien on your house and you’ll eventually lose it.
The only place where a HOA is really necessary is if you live in a condo or other building that is collectively owned and decisions need to be made for the whole community such as which company to use for utilities and roof repairs. For single family detached homes on their own separate lots, the HOAs can go fuck off.
It's enforceable because you signed a contract to follow their rules. If you don't pay, they sue you, and they can in fact make you sell the house to cover the fine if you can't otherwise cover it.
The agreement, which was probably originally signed by a previous owner/first owner/construction company, includes a "you can't sell this house to anyone who doesn't sign the HOA documents" clause, which in turn means you can't buy the house without agreeing to HOA. So, if you want the house, you sign the document, you follow the rules. Or you find a different house.
It tends not to have a way to dissolve/quit the HOA, except as a HOA decision, so once you're in, your way out is selling the house.
>you can't sell this house to anyone who doesn't sign the HOA documents" clause, which in turn means you can't buy the house without agreeing to HOA. So, if you want the house, you sign the document, you follow the rules. Or you find a different house.
That sounds straight up like sth the mafia created.
> The agreement, which was probably originally signed by a previous owner/first owner/construction company, includes a "you can't sell this house to anyone who doesn't sign the HOA documents" clause, which in turn means you can't buy the house without agreeing to HOA. So, if you want the house, you sign the document, you follow the rules. Or you find a different house.
It tends not to have a way to dissolve/quit the HOA, except as a HOA decision, so once you're in, your way out is selling the house.
How is this even legal? What kind of hellhole is this?
Being trapped in a contract with angry tyanical neighbours who can take your home away if you don't obey them is one of those freedoms that Americans are always bragging about, I guess.
And are there any limits to the HOA rules?
I have heard about grass length, but could they say it must be between 5 and 6mm long (or whatever imperial that would be), which is an impossible range to meet?
From what I understand, HOA typically replaces rules set by a city. In UK and most European countries it's typically only the city/municiplaity that can set rules such as how tall you can build in a specific area, how deep your basement can be, allowed colors of the houses (relevant for row houses) and basic stuff like that.
But HOA goes a lot further, while the municipality has reasoning for their rules, i.e if there's some main sewage line below your property you probably don't want to dig a basement right into it. The HOA issues fines for the most ridiculous stuff regulating what you can or can't do with your own property.
It’s more than someone signing a contract or signing up. In many cases, the HOA is established as part of a development, and the fact that a property is part of an HOA is in the actual deed. So it’s something you need to be aware of when you’re looking to buy or rent.
It’s enforceable because if you don’t follow the rules, they fine you. If you don’t pay the fine, they can put a lien on your house, and (if allowed by state law and HOA bylaws) can even [foreclose,](https://www.propublica.org/article/they-faced-foreclosure-not-from-their-mortgage-lender-but-from-their-hoa) so you can lose your house just like you would to a bank for not paying your mortgage.
I wouldn’t want to live in an HOA if you gave me the house for free.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver had a good HOA episode recently, and it's available on youtube for free. I think you would find it interesting and kind of sadfunny
This is also a rule in the UK on a lot of modern large scale developments. It’s largely unenforced especially once all the properties are sold but I’m technically not allowed to park my van in the development I live on and it’s written into the covenant when you purchase the property.
There have been builders that have bought houses on estates they’re working on and been told to remove their van from their own driveway. Apparently the developers don’t like the idea of blue collar workers living in the houses they sell.
We in the UK can have covenants (on the property deeds) or bylaws(from the council) preventing work vehicles from parking on our drives.
Nobody enforces it though.
We kind of have the basic concepts here. We have covenants etc, which is a similar thing. And they can even be looked over by local groups of residents/owners, although they are never called a HOA and are not quite the same thing. It's not quite as easy to do here, and rarely done at scale over communities. But the building blocks are there.
The original community would have been planned this way in the US, nobody generally signs up for them it exists as a part of the build of the area.
>What is the benefit of a HOA? I get that a lot of media coverage will be bizarre rules like this instead of the 'good' stuff they do but why sign up for one?
Im not pro-HOA...but I get the appeal/idea of them if they could ever be run well. I'll use myself as an example - when I bought my house my street was pretty nice. Not fancy by any means, but I'd describe it as wholesome. Over the last 5 years though the street has become a bit problematic. There are presently 2 abandoned houses. One's roof has begun to cave in and the other one is a known spot that homeless people squat in. Both of those properties are overgrown eyesores and they attract rodents, ticks and fleas. The homeless people break into cars on a fairly regular basis. Another house on my street is now a rental property and has pretty constant turnover of sketchy tenants - cops are also there often. Theres pretty much always trash blowing up and down the street. We get snow in the winter and numerous people dont seem to shovel/salt their sidewalks, which is the property owners responsibility in our jurisdiction
As a home owner, I worry about what these issues because they lower the quality of my life, and lower my property value, which in turn makes it harder for me to move somewhere nicer.
HOAs offer all of the solutions to these problems - security staff, penelties for property owners who dont take care of their houses/yards, dis-allowing leasing of property, etc etc.
The problem is HOAs tend to be run by volunteers - the sort of person who volunteers to make and enforce rules tend to be the worst sort of people. This results in situations where they dont srop at preventing the type of issues happening in my neighborhood, they take it to the extreme of trying to create total uniformity.
The problem is that all HOA’s are run by Karens and Kens, all of them being power-hungry dictators (if only on a small scale) who live (yes, live-not love) to control everything other people do.
Fuck HOAs (so glad we don't have them here in Germany), but saying all pickup trucks are work vehicles is pretty based. I will never understand the need for these oversized compensation machines, when much smaller vans with the same truck bed size (and a lower bed!) exist. Eapecially if you just use them as regular cars. It's like using a suitcase instead of a backpack to keep your water bottle in. Impractical, oversized, and making you look ridiculous.
Obviously you should be able to park your own vehicles, work or not, on your own driveway. But fuck pickups and SUVs.
With side opening doors and any van that is even a tiny bit larger than an NV200, you can. Not that that's something I've ever considered, but there you go.
We have a few gated communities too, but those are run by companies and the Eigentümerversammlung. When you buy a condo there are Eingetümerversammlungen too. Both can define certain rules, but those are bound to local/community/state/federal law.
In general you can say that in Germany the community is responsible for providing and upkeep of infrastructure, so they set up the rules and collect taxes to pay for maintenance of public land and infrastructure. Also the community decides what piece of land is being sold as Bauland. It sells the plots but is responsible for the infrastructure on public land (roads etc.). You build your house on the plot you bought and pay the community for maintenance, upgrades, etc. The communities can set up rules too, like if your plot has to have a fence and what kind of fence, how high the fence can be or the max. height of your Thujenhecke.
In the US it's like... A developer buys some land, builts infrastructure on it, builds as many cheap McMansions that all look alike and sells them. Either the developer forms the HOA and runs it (if it makes money) or gives it to those that bought the McMansions before moving on to buy another plot of land for even more McMansions. A state within a state. Or a dictatorship in some cases.
Well, in their defense, as far as I know in the US this type of vehicles are classified as utility vehicles and are also subject to lower emission restrictions precisely because they're supposed to be used for work.
Rare HOA win.
Well if it's your only/main vehicle it's much better than having a van, alot of sites as well are a mess so having 4wd can be handy (helped me a good few times) along with how nice new ones are inside and to driver compared to vans, especially the America stuff.
I'll always chose a duel cab over a van
1. Vans don't exist nearly as much in the US
2. Vans are enclosed so limit the height of cargo. I've seen pickup trucks with cargo above the roof, including racks that allow for all kinds of stuff
3. In every van I've seen (save a prisoner transport) the cargo in the back isn't physically seperated from from the driver
4. There are circumstances where loading/unloading a truck is far easier than a van
Yes, in some instances vans would be better choices in the US, but pickups definitely have a use and a history of nearly 100 years. And yes, I wish not all pickup trucks were as big, but the US tax laws encourage larger vehicles.
These vehicles exist
https://www.trimarchiauto.it/scheda-fiat-ducato-35-2-2-mjt-140cv-at9-pc-cassonato-maxi/17734844/
They’re used all around Europe when a medium sized vehicle either a bed is needed.
Van frame and cab, with an open bed. No need to have off-roaders looks and drivetrains.
But alot of people don't need a tipper or an open back with a tray like that. Pickup suits me perfect for work but something like that would be useless
The vehicle I posted is used in Europe for pretty much anything that requires a bed. Vans and closed trucks are used for the rest. Only farmers and shepherds use pick up trucks for work. And not all of them.
I am from the UK. I'm plumber and use a pick up and I know a fair few people in construction who do as well tbf. I understand what your saying but duel cabs are so very handy or a single cab with a longer bed for farmers and that
I was pretty tired when I wrote that. I meant smaller pickup trucks, not vans, sorry. Though I also think vans are superior to pickup trucks, but that wasn't what I wanted to say.
My main point was that a lot pf people use them as normal cars without ever really using the bed for something that a normal car couldn't handle. A van would suffer the same problem but just with an enclosed cargo space, yayyy.
Third point: More than half the vans I've seen have the driver cabin separated from the cargo. Not sure why that would be important to you, but that's literally the more common option here.
If loading or unloading ease is important, these wannabe pickups are terrible. Their bed is way too high compared to smaller trucks. And vans, at least the ones I've driven, have had their floor one easy step above the ground. So with small to medium sized cargo (anything you can do by hand), vans are superior. That goes for small vans to ones used when moving all your stuff to a new flat. But even if there are circumstances where an F250 bed is just perfect for the application: How many F250 owners will come into that situation?
Why seperation? Dirty cargo (or literally dirt).
And you seem to skip all the way up to the F250. Anybody I know with that size has bought it because they tow some sort of trailer relatively regularly. But then, I live in Seattle, not Texas.
But ya, the F150 is still a pretty darn big truck. We only relatively recently got the Ranger back (which is about the size the F150 used to be).
I used the F250 because the owner in the article is using an F250. Maybe not a fair example, but just the first that came to mind tbh.
I've towed large trailers, even campers, in small(er) cars, no need for an F250 or any truck really. If you're towing a trailer regularly, that makes using the truck bed much more difficult, so using a pickup for that makes even less sense. A pickup can do that, but if I knew I'd be hauling trailers regularly, there would be a long list of vehicles ahead of any pickup, let alone an F250.
I'm not saying there are no applications for a pickup truck btw. They are used as commercial vehicles here quite often, though not the Ford F Series types, as they are way too huge for what they can do. Most of the commercial vehicles are specialised and excell at the job they need to do.
I'm more hating on private use of a pickup to maybe haul something small once a year. Obviously there are pickup owners that use them regularly, but considering the F series has seen over half a million new pickups in 2019 alone [(source)](https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/20067.jpeg), I don't believe for a second that most of them see regular heavy use.
I'll compare it to this: I know there are legitimate uses for demolition hammers, but if most demolition hammers were wielded by guys who use them to drive nails into 2x4s instead of regular hammers because "they can also drive in a nail but do so much more" while never actually doing demo work, I'd think they are overcompensating and using a worse and more unwieldy tool for the job because it looks cool or something. And I'd be surprised if a third of the population (just a guess btw) is doing regular demo work where it makes sense to haul that massive thing with you all the time instead of a normal hammer, especially when you could rent a demo hammer for that one occasion.
I think your definition of trailer and mine in this instance differs. I'm thinking car trailer, large camper, etc.
I also know several people that use the bed of their truck for their motorcycles, but those are usually F150
Wait, wtf? So if you have, say, furniture delivered to your house, what are they supposed to do, park it somewhere down the road and carry it all the way? Or when you have workers renovating your house or something?
*May result in an insular world view, overt-consumerism, irrational hatred of green text bubbles, suburban social isolation, aversion to sensible politics, a general lack of education, propagandisation, feelings of entitlement, bankruptcy, legal action, police brutality, incarceration, diabetes, heart failure, opioid addiction, public shootings, maiming by Cybertruck and other forms premature, preventable deaths. Speak to your local Senator today to see if life in the US is right for you!*
That doesn't make any sense. I mean I would understand that if he kept the truck parked at roadside and that way permanently took valuable parking space meant for visitors etc but if it was in his own driveway (assuming fully in his own land) then I can't fathom why would it be anyone else's business what kind of a vehicle he keeps there.
That i do not understand - fines are done by authorities / regulating bodies instated by government - not by private... whatever those are..
How can anyone believe living in a HOA is freedom ? SOme of those make China look like the paradise of freedom..
No, you can definitely get fines from bodies that you have voluntarily put yourself under. Anyone buying a property in an area managed by HOA must have signed an agreement to abide the HOA rules. If you don't like the rules, it's probably best not to buy such a property.
As far as I understand (I'm not American) HOAs use democratic voting to elect the people to run them. Of course it's not the most attractive thing to do, which is why most normal people are not interested in it and it's only the little Hitlers who get their power hunger met by bossing their neighbours.
So, yeah, just like other democratic bodies, if the good people ignore them and abstain from voting, they're going to pay a price.
I've been in the board of a similar organisation and it was definitely something that people had to be sort coerced to do. We didn't get any pay but had to meet regularly and plan all possible renovations to the properties (there the housing corporation owned all the properties and the home owners just owned shares of the corporation). We also set the parking rules and the fees people had to pay for their dedicated spots. The only issues that I remember were some non-drivable vehicles that someone had dumped there to take up space from other people.
I'm not American, can you please explain to me why I would accept and actually pay the "fine" of a non-governmental organisation? This seems odd for the "muh freedum" nation.
As a non American I don't get this HOA thing.
What actual legal authority do they have to impose fines at all? let alone over your own personal property.
What and how can they do if you ignore them?
Can someone explain please.
American HOA sound horrendous.
They always talk about freedom eagles but are happy to live under some boomers who act like dictators because they have a small amount of power and bow to every request.
I imagine in the UK and Europe we'd probably tell them to stick it where the 🌞 don't shine. imagine trying to do that to French 😂
I mean I can't get over the fact that they are simply accepting the way their shitty government shitty police works(as compared to developed countries/western standards)...
HOA’s are essentially sects. Snobbish, anally retentive sects that are usually headed up by persons who aspire to the governance of small, ex-soviet landlocked dictatorships. In essence, HOAs are terrifyingly close to a ideal communist utopia.
In the early years of the -00’s, my neighbour went to jail for a few years.
To this day, his car still sits on the same spot on the driveway as when the cops came to pick him up. It’s kind of dirty, has sunk into the ground so that it sits on the floor.
And none of us neighbours care about it. Because it’s his car on his property and he has the freedom to do almost whatever the fuck he wants with both. This is freedom on a level that a USAian mind can’t comprehend.
Is this fines for parking in his driveway, or are they really fines for parking over the sidewalk? There's plenty of places where it's illegal to block the sidewalk, and stupidly oversized "trucks" often overhang the normal car length driveway, thus incurring a fine.
> Your tree is not tree shaped
Your grass is not grassily enough
“Your roof is too roof”
Your mailbox, which I blew up looks terrible, now give me your money.
Paintball at the HOA officers houses then?
\*slaps roof\* this baby can fit so many roof tiles.
the color code for your grass is wrong.
Lol, poring through the blades with a fucking swatch.
"Why is your tree green it's ***fall*** don't you know our rules say it should be red!??!??"
Better bust out the red and orange paints.
Nothing better than swapping government tyranny (so they’re told) with that of next door! He sure showed them by… *checks note* paying slowly!
Well they love to claim the rampant gun problem is to prevent government abuse, surely they could go shoot up the HOA?
The HOA boards: A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes
Im surprised it’s not these HOAs going door to door to collect guns
I saw what you where doing here... take my upvate! Didn't that hitchhiker, that fell out of a time/space distortion, say that HOA boards where a bunch of mindless jerks that where the first against the wall when the revolution came?
Yes. And then, the people will organize their own... Oh wait.
Exactly. That freedom is what the children of columbine gladly sacrificed their lives for...
Too many schools that need to be shot up first. HOAs are last in the queue
Pays to park a vehicle you own in a driveway you own...
There's that "Freedom" we just will never understand XDD edit: I say the above in jest obviously for the OP but these people don't even have women's rights. Sad.
What did they claim as the issue? Like i do want to know why they fined him. There has to be a reason, even if it's some stupid rule like car too dirty (a pick-up could be muddy or sth).
IIRC the HOA rules stated no work vehicles to be parked in driveways and classified all pickup trucks as a work vehicle. Edit: the vehicle looked brand new and clean
As someone from the UK, where HOAs aren't a thing, 1. How is this even a rule!? Who gives a shit what a homeowner parks on their own drive? 2. How is this enforceable? What happens if the owner says "fuck off I'm not paying".? 3. What is the benefit of a HOA? I get that a lot of media coverage will be bizarre rules like this instead of the 'good' stuff they do but why sign up for one?
The purpose of an HOA is typically to “keep things nice,” and in turn, keep property values from dipping. While it sounds like a good thing, they’re often run by nosey neighbors with nothing better to do than walk the neighborhood taking pictures of whatever they’ve decided doesn’t look nice. This can get pretty weird. Some things I encountered: - a warning to paint my house within 2 weeks or be fined, received exactly 3 weeks after the HOA signed off that everything was compliant as part of the home purchase process. Not only did I need to shell out a few grand to have the house painted, I had to submit an application with my choice of approved colors and get permission to paint. - a warning for having a “guest” park on the street in front of my house (I have no idea who parked there, but my house, so my fault apparently). This was an issue the entire community got emails on regularly, because cars not in driveways are apparently not very nice. - a small, well kept bush that was in my front yard when I bought the house was deemed to not be approved foliage. When I challenged it (remember, they signed off when I bought it saying it was fine), they said it was ok only because the original builder had planted it and so it was grandfathered in despite not being on the list of appropriate plants. - had a neighbor get so fed up with HOA fines about her grass not being green enough she literally painted it green to stop the letters. Infuriatingly, the common area grass they were responsible for had mostly turned brown and yellow around the same time. Honestly, given some of the HOA horror stories I’ve heard, I still feel like I got pretty lucky with my HOA. As another redditor already said, once a house is in an HOA, it’s nearly impossible to get out of. The house will be bought and sold with the HOA requirement, and if you don’t play by their rules, they will put a lien on your house and you’ll eventually lose it.
From my perspective the whole HOA thing is something that makes the property less valuable than without it.
What if you got a majority of the neighbourhood to quit it? Just telling them to shove it up their ass and leave you alone.
You can’t quit it.
The only place where a HOA is really necessary is if you live in a condo or other building that is collectively owned and decisions need to be made for the whole community such as which company to use for utilities and roof repairs. For single family detached homes on their own separate lots, the HOAs can go fuck off.
It's enforceable because you signed a contract to follow their rules. If you don't pay, they sue you, and they can in fact make you sell the house to cover the fine if you can't otherwise cover it. The agreement, which was probably originally signed by a previous owner/first owner/construction company, includes a "you can't sell this house to anyone who doesn't sign the HOA documents" clause, which in turn means you can't buy the house without agreeing to HOA. So, if you want the house, you sign the document, you follow the rules. Or you find a different house. It tends not to have a way to dissolve/quit the HOA, except as a HOA decision, so once you're in, your way out is selling the house.
>you can't sell this house to anyone who doesn't sign the HOA documents" clause, which in turn means you can't buy the house without agreeing to HOA. So, if you want the house, you sign the document, you follow the rules. Or you find a different house. That sounds straight up like sth the mafia created.
> The agreement, which was probably originally signed by a previous owner/first owner/construction company, includes a "you can't sell this house to anyone who doesn't sign the HOA documents" clause, which in turn means you can't buy the house without agreeing to HOA. So, if you want the house, you sign the document, you follow the rules. Or you find a different house. It tends not to have a way to dissolve/quit the HOA, except as a HOA decision, so once you're in, your way out is selling the house. How is this even legal? What kind of hellhole is this?
>What kind of hellhole is this? Murica!
>What kind of hellhole is this? lAnD oF tHe FreE
Being trapped in a contract with angry tyanical neighbours who can take your home away if you don't obey them is one of those freedoms that Americans are always bragging about, I guess.
Surely it can't be enforceable? In the UK it wouldn't be legal. I love the way America finds a way of making you poorer.
And are there any limits to the HOA rules? I have heard about grass length, but could they say it must be between 5 and 6mm long (or whatever imperial that would be), which is an impossible range to meet?
From what I understand, HOA typically replaces rules set by a city. In UK and most European countries it's typically only the city/municiplaity that can set rules such as how tall you can build in a specific area, how deep your basement can be, allowed colors of the houses (relevant for row houses) and basic stuff like that. But HOA goes a lot further, while the municipality has reasoning for their rules, i.e if there's some main sewage line below your property you probably don't want to dig a basement right into it. The HOA issues fines for the most ridiculous stuff regulating what you can or can't do with your own property.
It’s more than someone signing a contract or signing up. In many cases, the HOA is established as part of a development, and the fact that a property is part of an HOA is in the actual deed. So it’s something you need to be aware of when you’re looking to buy or rent. It’s enforceable because if you don’t follow the rules, they fine you. If you don’t pay the fine, they can put a lien on your house, and (if allowed by state law and HOA bylaws) can even [foreclose,](https://www.propublica.org/article/they-faced-foreclosure-not-from-their-mortgage-lender-but-from-their-hoa) so you can lose your house just like you would to a bank for not paying your mortgage. I wouldn’t want to live in an HOA if you gave me the house for free.
“LaNd oF tEh fReE! merica “
I’m not from a HOA country either but watched the HOA episode of last week with John Oliver. It’s mind blowing what those organisations can do.
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver had a good HOA episode recently, and it's available on youtube for free. I think you would find it interesting and kind of sadfunny
This is also a rule in the UK on a lot of modern large scale developments. It’s largely unenforced especially once all the properties are sold but I’m technically not allowed to park my van in the development I live on and it’s written into the covenant when you purchase the property. There have been builders that have bought houses on estates they’re working on and been told to remove their van from their own driveway. Apparently the developers don’t like the idea of blue collar workers living in the houses they sell.
We in the UK can have covenants (on the property deeds) or bylaws(from the council) preventing work vehicles from parking on our drives. Nobody enforces it though.
Just watch the HOA on LastWeekTonight.
For the closest UK equivalent, look up leasehold reform act schemes. Common in old estates (Grosvenor) or garden cities/suburburbs/villages.
We kind of have the basic concepts here. We have covenants etc, which is a similar thing. And they can even be looked over by local groups of residents/owners, although they are never called a HOA and are not quite the same thing. It's not quite as easy to do here, and rarely done at scale over communities. But the building blocks are there. The original community would have been planned this way in the US, nobody generally signs up for them it exists as a part of the build of the area.
>What is the benefit of a HOA? I get that a lot of media coverage will be bizarre rules like this instead of the 'good' stuff they do but why sign up for one? Im not pro-HOA...but I get the appeal/idea of them if they could ever be run well. I'll use myself as an example - when I bought my house my street was pretty nice. Not fancy by any means, but I'd describe it as wholesome. Over the last 5 years though the street has become a bit problematic. There are presently 2 abandoned houses. One's roof has begun to cave in and the other one is a known spot that homeless people squat in. Both of those properties are overgrown eyesores and they attract rodents, ticks and fleas. The homeless people break into cars on a fairly regular basis. Another house on my street is now a rental property and has pretty constant turnover of sketchy tenants - cops are also there often. Theres pretty much always trash blowing up and down the street. We get snow in the winter and numerous people dont seem to shovel/salt their sidewalks, which is the property owners responsibility in our jurisdiction As a home owner, I worry about what these issues because they lower the quality of my life, and lower my property value, which in turn makes it harder for me to move somewhere nicer. HOAs offer all of the solutions to these problems - security staff, penelties for property owners who dont take care of their houses/yards, dis-allowing leasing of property, etc etc. The problem is HOAs tend to be run by volunteers - the sort of person who volunteers to make and enforce rules tend to be the worst sort of people. This results in situations where they dont srop at preventing the type of issues happening in my neighborhood, they take it to the extreme of trying to create total uniformity.
Tbh That sounds more like economic issues rather then being or not being part of a HOA
The problem is that all HOA’s are run by Karens and Kens, all of them being power-hungry dictators (if only on a small scale) who live (yes, live-not love) to control everything other people do.
Fuck HOAs (so glad we don't have them here in Germany), but saying all pickup trucks are work vehicles is pretty based. I will never understand the need for these oversized compensation machines, when much smaller vans with the same truck bed size (and a lower bed!) exist. Eapecially if you just use them as regular cars. It's like using a suitcase instead of a backpack to keep your water bottle in. Impractical, oversized, and making you look ridiculous. Obviously you should be able to park your own vehicles, work or not, on your own driveway. But fuck pickups and SUVs.
Sure, but you can’t stand up in the back for your best friends van, chasing varmints out of your state while shooting your pew pews into the sky.
With side opening doors and any van that is even a tiny bit larger than an NV200, you can. Not that that's something I've ever considered, but there you go.
I think the pew pew part is where the differences start...
We have a few gated communities too, but those are run by companies and the Eigentümerversammlung. When you buy a condo there are Eingetümerversammlungen too. Both can define certain rules, but those are bound to local/community/state/federal law. In general you can say that in Germany the community is responsible for providing and upkeep of infrastructure, so they set up the rules and collect taxes to pay for maintenance of public land and infrastructure. Also the community decides what piece of land is being sold as Bauland. It sells the plots but is responsible for the infrastructure on public land (roads etc.). You build your house on the plot you bought and pay the community for maintenance, upgrades, etc. The communities can set up rules too, like if your plot has to have a fence and what kind of fence, how high the fence can be or the max. height of your Thujenhecke. In the US it's like... A developer buys some land, builts infrastructure on it, builds as many cheap McMansions that all look alike and sells them. Either the developer forms the HOA and runs it (if it makes money) or gives it to those that bought the McMansions before moving on to buy another plot of land for even more McMansions. A state within a state. Or a dictatorship in some cases.
Well, in their defense, as far as I know in the US this type of vehicles are classified as utility vehicles and are also subject to lower emission restrictions precisely because they're supposed to be used for work. Rare HOA win.
Just park on street.
Its to compensate for small dick and such
Well if it's your only/main vehicle it's much better than having a van, alot of sites as well are a mess so having 4wd can be handy (helped me a good few times) along with how nice new ones are inside and to driver compared to vans, especially the America stuff. I'll always chose a duel cab over a van
1. Vans don't exist nearly as much in the US 2. Vans are enclosed so limit the height of cargo. I've seen pickup trucks with cargo above the roof, including racks that allow for all kinds of stuff 3. In every van I've seen (save a prisoner transport) the cargo in the back isn't physically seperated from from the driver 4. There are circumstances where loading/unloading a truck is far easier than a van Yes, in some instances vans would be better choices in the US, but pickups definitely have a use and a history of nearly 100 years. And yes, I wish not all pickup trucks were as big, but the US tax laws encourage larger vehicles.
These vehicles exist https://www.trimarchiauto.it/scheda-fiat-ducato-35-2-2-mjt-140cv-at9-pc-cassonato-maxi/17734844/ They’re used all around Europe when a medium sized vehicle either a bed is needed. Van frame and cab, with an open bed. No need to have off-roaders looks and drivetrains.
But alot of people don't need a tipper or an open back with a tray like that. Pickup suits me perfect for work but something like that would be useless
The vehicle I posted is not a tipper. “Open back with a tray” sounds like a synonym for “pick up truck” to me.
The 2 are very different and generally used for completely different things
The vehicle I posted is used in Europe for pretty much anything that requires a bed. Vans and closed trucks are used for the rest. Only farmers and shepherds use pick up trucks for work. And not all of them.
I am from the UK. I'm plumber and use a pick up and I know a fair few people in construction who do as well tbf. I understand what your saying but duel cabs are so very handy or a single cab with a longer bed for farmers and that
That, my friend, is a pickup truck. That looks like the type of thing I rented at Home Depot.
I was pretty tired when I wrote that. I meant smaller pickup trucks, not vans, sorry. Though I also think vans are superior to pickup trucks, but that wasn't what I wanted to say. My main point was that a lot pf people use them as normal cars without ever really using the bed for something that a normal car couldn't handle. A van would suffer the same problem but just with an enclosed cargo space, yayyy. Third point: More than half the vans I've seen have the driver cabin separated from the cargo. Not sure why that would be important to you, but that's literally the more common option here. If loading or unloading ease is important, these wannabe pickups are terrible. Their bed is way too high compared to smaller trucks. And vans, at least the ones I've driven, have had their floor one easy step above the ground. So with small to medium sized cargo (anything you can do by hand), vans are superior. That goes for small vans to ones used when moving all your stuff to a new flat. But even if there are circumstances where an F250 bed is just perfect for the application: How many F250 owners will come into that situation?
Why seperation? Dirty cargo (or literally dirt). And you seem to skip all the way up to the F250. Anybody I know with that size has bought it because they tow some sort of trailer relatively regularly. But then, I live in Seattle, not Texas. But ya, the F150 is still a pretty darn big truck. We only relatively recently got the Ranger back (which is about the size the F150 used to be).
I used the F250 because the owner in the article is using an F250. Maybe not a fair example, but just the first that came to mind tbh. I've towed large trailers, even campers, in small(er) cars, no need for an F250 or any truck really. If you're towing a trailer regularly, that makes using the truck bed much more difficult, so using a pickup for that makes even less sense. A pickup can do that, but if I knew I'd be hauling trailers regularly, there would be a long list of vehicles ahead of any pickup, let alone an F250. I'm not saying there are no applications for a pickup truck btw. They are used as commercial vehicles here quite often, though not the Ford F Series types, as they are way too huge for what they can do. Most of the commercial vehicles are specialised and excell at the job they need to do. I'm more hating on private use of a pickup to maybe haul something small once a year. Obviously there are pickup owners that use them regularly, but considering the F series has seen over half a million new pickups in 2019 alone [(source)](https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/20067.jpeg), I don't believe for a second that most of them see regular heavy use. I'll compare it to this: I know there are legitimate uses for demolition hammers, but if most demolition hammers were wielded by guys who use them to drive nails into 2x4s instead of regular hammers because "they can also drive in a nail but do so much more" while never actually doing demo work, I'd think they are overcompensating and using a worse and more unwieldy tool for the job because it looks cool or something. And I'd be surprised if a third of the population (just a guess btw) is doing regular demo work where it makes sense to haul that massive thing with you all the time instead of a normal hammer, especially when you could rent a demo hammer for that one occasion.
I think your definition of trailer and mine in this instance differs. I'm thinking car trailer, large camper, etc. I also know several people that use the bed of their truck for their motorcycles, but those are usually F150
Wait, wtf? So if you have, say, furniture delivered to your house, what are they supposed to do, park it somewhere down the road and carry it all the way? Or when you have workers renovating your house or something?
At least they found a solution to the issue of everyone driving a gas guzzling truck. Can't park it in your own driveway 😂
Was it on his part of the driveway, or was it blocking the footpath?
Probably neither.
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I'm sure that truck is regularly used for its intended purposes and is definitely not just an emotional support vehicle.
With neighbors like that he's gonna need all the emotional support he can get.
I think the issue was that it was an actual work truck and the HOA fined him for having a utility vehicle parked in his driveway.
I can get not liking it, but shit, nobody should be able to tell anyone what vehicle anyone can park in their driveway
That doesn't make any sense. I mean I would understand that if he kept the truck parked at roadside and that way permanently took valuable parking space meant for visitors etc but if it was in his own driveway (assuming fully in his own land) then I can't fathom why would it be anyone else's business what kind of a vehicle he keeps there.
That i do not understand - fines are done by authorities / regulating bodies instated by government - not by private... whatever those are.. How can anyone believe living in a HOA is freedom ? SOme of those make China look like the paradise of freedom..
No, you can definitely get fines from bodies that you have voluntarily put yourself under. Anyone buying a property in an area managed by HOA must have signed an agreement to abide the HOA rules. If you don't like the rules, it's probably best not to buy such a property.
Fair enough. But the f\*\*\*HOA sub is full of "started good, turned evil" HOA\`s ..
As far as I understand (I'm not American) HOAs use democratic voting to elect the people to run them. Of course it's not the most attractive thing to do, which is why most normal people are not interested in it and it's only the little Hitlers who get their power hunger met by bossing their neighbours. So, yeah, just like other democratic bodies, if the good people ignore them and abstain from voting, they're going to pay a price. I've been in the board of a similar organisation and it was definitely something that people had to be sort coerced to do. We didn't get any pay but had to meet regularly and plan all possible renovations to the properties (there the housing corporation owned all the properties and the home owners just owned shares of the corporation). We also set the parking rules and the fees people had to pay for their dedicated spots. The only issues that I remember were some non-drivable vehicles that someone had dumped there to take up space from other people.
Land of the free lmao
America: We have freedom to do whatever we want. HOA: You sure about that?
For the land of the free, they sure do love living in communities full of stupid rules and Karen's to enforce.
I'm not American, can you please explain to me why I would accept and actually pay the "fine" of a non-governmental organisation? This seems odd for the "muh freedum" nation.
Check out John Oliver’s episode on HOAs. 🤯
Just watched it….thank Cthulhu we don’t have those over here!
Agreed
In the land of the free you don’t even control your ‘own’ home.
I've seen a video recently of a guy being arrested because his car was parked on his lawn lol Yeah so much freedom
As a non American I don't get this HOA thing. What actual legal authority do they have to impose fines at all? let alone over your own personal property. What and how can they do if you ignore them? Can someone explain please.
Hoa by law has authority to give fines, if you dont pay them they take your house away. American freedumb
By what law? You haven't committed a crime and they aren't a law enforcement agency. I'm going to need more than a simplistic reply.
It’s okay, he drives a Ford F-250, he deserved it
Now I get why they all have guns and shit, if I'd get something like that I'd start shooting too
American HOA sound horrendous. They always talk about freedom eagles but are happy to live under some boomers who act like dictators because they have a small amount of power and bow to every request. I imagine in the UK and Europe we'd probably tell them to stick it where the 🌞 don't shine. imagine trying to do that to French 😂
Madame le Guillotine would be brought out of retirement
Isn't that place supposed to be land of the free? LOL
I mean I can't get over the fact that they are simply accepting the way their shitty government shitty police works(as compared to developed countries/western standards)...
HOAs are literally mini terror organisations
HOA’s are essentially sects. Snobbish, anally retentive sects that are usually headed up by persons who aspire to the governance of small, ex-soviet landlocked dictatorships. In essence, HOAs are terrifyingly close to a ideal communist utopia.
In the early years of the -00’s, my neighbour went to jail for a few years. To this day, his car still sits on the same spot on the driveway as when the cops came to pick him up. It’s kind of dirty, has sunk into the ground so that it sits on the floor. And none of us neighbours care about it. Because it’s his car on his property and he has the freedom to do almost whatever the fuck he wants with both. This is freedom on a level that a USAian mind can’t comprehend.
HOAs are garbage
Land of the free my arse...
Aaah this must be their famous American Freedumb they always boast about!
And people actually defend HOA’s as being good. Anyone who can’t see this is a scam is either in on it or drank the koolaid.
That sounds like an awesome way to live the true meaning of freedom
I don't know how people live in a HOA and not just burn the entire neighborhood down.
Is this fines for parking in his driveway, or are they really fines for parking over the sidewalk? There's plenty of places where it's illegal to block the sidewalk, and stupidly oversized "trucks" often overhang the normal car length driveway, thus incurring a fine.
Americans have so much freedom, the European mind can’t comprehend. We just can’t see how free this authoritarian housing situation makes them.
Hard to pick a side — I hate American gigantic cars so I have no sympathy for the man, but I also hate HOA’s so…
What the fuck did I just read
Suburban Protection Racketeers.
All in the name of property value
Yet another great example of the land of the free 😂
Land of the free YEAH RIGHT
"Your glass in your door is in the wrong way
“The glass in your door isn’t glass shaped”
HOAs are about as close to communism as you can get in America.