While house hunting many years ago, one thing I knew I didn’t want was to get involved with a Home Owners Association. From my experience of what others had said to me about HOAs, I had reached the opinion that they were something you paid lots of money for, that most of the time equaled lots of heartache for the homeowner.
I was again very happy that my home wasn’t associated with an HOA while watching the news a couple of weeks ago. The news showed a story about a disabled woman who lives in a home that has an HOA. She received a letter recently, because the Home Owner’s Association (HOA) felt that her car lift was a violation of one of their rules. Because it has the name “The Scooter Store” on the actual lift, the lift and the pickup truck it’s attached to was seen as a commercial vehicle. Because of her disability, she needs a lift on her personal vehicle to transport the scooter she uses while outside of her home. Now an attorney’s involved. If the HOA continues to send the woman correspondence about the lift, she could and should file a complaint with HUD under the Fair Housing Act.
Those who live in homes with HOAs pay a lot of money to live in those subdivisions. Maybe the individual HOAs should take some of the money they collect in the form of dues and research laws like The Fair Housing Act before they start sending residents what could turn out to be harassing letters. The more negative publicity Home Owners Associations receive, the less likely anyone will be willing to live in these areas.
What is your opinion of Home Owners Associations in your area?
For more information on this story you can go to the link below..
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/action-9-did-hoa-go-far/nZdmD/
Thanks for reading..
cr