Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

tampabay28.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 186 posts

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#101

Post by reactordev »

LargeWu wrote: post #61
reactordev wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those things are usually rentals here in Florida. HOAs are a real problem here due to the legal protection they have. They can literally take your house because your mailbox is blue.

HOA's are ultimately run by the homeowners themselves. It's right there in the name. If the HOA is such a problem, elect different people to the board and change the rules.

You can't because they don't have elections... It's up to the documents to determine when elections can be held and often these HOA's in FL make it so that once elected, they don't hold elections again for 25 years.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#102

Post by reactordev »

TylerE wrote: post #55
bane wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the remedies HOAs typically possess is the ability to put a lien on your property. The end game to one of these liens can be complicated, but losing your house is among them.

There’s like 5 intermediate steps you’re just sort of glossing over there. This is like saying the inevitable result of a paper cut is losing the entire arm to gangrene.

HOA will put a lien on your house, you won't even know it, eventually when you don't pay it, they'll take your house through the courts. Happened to a friend of mine and almost happened to me until I sold my house and got out of the HOA. I'll never buy in an HOA again.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#103

Post by hollerith »

javier_e06 wrote: post #100
RandomBacon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, they missed their court appearance and a bench warrant was issued.

VISA cannot sue me for not paying my cc. It can ruin my credit history but it cannot sue me. Wells Fargo cannot sue me for missing mortgage payments, It may repo the house but not sue me. If HOA's can sue a home owner for breach of contract, who would like to live with that hanging over their heads.

In the US, VISA or the issuing bank can and routinely does sue card holders who do not pay. Well, usually they sell the debt to firms that specialize in collection of delinquent debts, but the effect is the same.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#104

Post by OutOfHere »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #68
qualeed wrote: post #27

As a non-American, I've always been surprised with how common HOAs are, and how over-bearing they seem. I know that I only hear about the crazy ones because blogs about normal/good HOAs aren't going viral, but I've seen enough horror stories that if I ever moved to the US I would do my best to avoid one like the plague.

You hear the bad stories. It all depends on who was elected and who votes. Most HOAs are not the horror stories you hear, just a quiet entity that maintains common property and is a backup solution for problems (when talking to neighbor does not work). Mine is cheap, like $300/year and we have a shared park, community space, and where I live lots of irrigation. They only send out letters for egregious violations and…

What's stopping them from charging you $3000 or even $10000 next year, or escalating progressively to these numbers? What's stopping them from adding ten new ridiculous rules? Nothing. It's about giving up your freedom.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#105

Post by propter_hoc »

firesteelrain wrote: post #45

I am a BOD and Officer in a HOA. This will be messy - we would have to sell all of our common amenities, parking lots, overflow parking lots, playgrounds, gym, pools etc to the government or a private company if this happens. County would have to take over maintenance of our platted common property and property that we mow (and get paid for) by the County. County would have to step up enforcement of parking on street…

I upvoted you despite entirely disagreeing with your premise. Yes - negotiate with the county to take over management of the playgrounds and lawn mowing. Yes - make the clubhouse and parking lots open, fee-based and voluntary, and controlled by a private corporation rather than an imposed, taxed service. Yes - return the excess money to the current homeowners, or use some of it to effectuate these conversions.

Honestly, the amount of money you have in reserve, plus the list of amenities you list, makes it sound like the HOA has been sitting on a spigot of endless cash for a very long time and finding nice-to-have things to justify the continued fees.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#106

Post by dgrin91 »

Ekaros wrote: post #99
dgrin91 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what GP is saying is that if I was a homeowner for 30 years, paid HOA fees all those years, then last year sold to someone else, who gets the HOA reimbursement then? I paid thousands over years and would presumably get nothing, while some other guy who just moved in all of a sudden gets a big check? That seems unfair.

Well any funds in HOA is part of the property. Could have reported it when selling and increase price correspondingly or at least some fraction.

Hoa funds practically never get redistributed back to owners. I've never heard of such a case. We are only talking about it here because a legislature is talking about changing something state wide (and realistically this won't happen anyways).

So there is no realistic scenario where hoa reserves factor into home price

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#107

Post by ocdtrekkie »

staticman2 wrote: post #95
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is most decidedly not legal, but they had the largest condo law firm in the Chicago area on retainer who made the statement they wouldn't provide it. (Literally the lawyer I was recommended to use until it turned out... it was theirs.) Their lawyer's own website basically said the HOA can't hide stuff like this from owners. Which is to say if I had had the time and money for a protracted court drama, I do think a…

There's an agency problem here. The building could have been perfectly safe but the lawyer wants to "win" so says "fuck you we won't provide the report". The lawyer has no stake in the health of the project, if they are a litigator they just care about "winning". Alternatively the building could have been about to collapse but the lawyer wants to "win" and doesn't live there so says "fuck you we won't provide it." Sa…

So in Illinois merely refusing to provide the report is illegal on its own. So it's unlikely a condo lawyer did this "just to win" for a safe building. Specifically if you take the HOA to court for not revealing a document they legally have to, and the judge sides with the unit owner, the HOA has to pay the owner's attorney fees.

The issue is HOAs and management companies have warchests for stuff like this, individual owners of partial-buildings generally do not have a lot of money to fund lawyers until the judgment happens.

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#108

Post by firesteelrain »

Ekaros wrote: post #99
dgrin91 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what GP is saying is that if I was a homeowner for 30 years, paid HOA fees all those years, then last year sold to someone else, who gets the HOA reimbursement then? I paid thousands over years and would presumably get nothing, while some other guy who just moved in all of a sudden gets a big check? That seems unfair.

Well any funds in HOA is part of the property. Could have reported it when selling and increase price correspondingly or at least some fraction.

What you are saying is not typically in HOA governing documents nor State law so law would have to be changed and / or governing docs updated which would take a majority vote by all homeowners (60% in some cases per State law)

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#109

Post by [deleted] »

dgrin91 wrote: post #97
RandomBacon wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are you charging $175?

I think what GP is saying is that if I was a homeowner for 30 years, paid HOA fees all those years, then last year sold to someone else, who gets the HOA reimbursement then? I paid thousands over years and would presumably get nothing, while some other guy who just moved in all of a sudden gets a big check? That seems unfair.

[deleted]

Re: Florida lawmaker floats ban on HOAs amid growing backlash

#110

Post by razakel »

javier_e06 wrote: post #100
RandomBacon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, they missed their court appearance and a bench warrant was issued.

VISA cannot sue me for not paying my cc. It can ruin my credit history but it cannot sue me. Wells Fargo cannot sue me for missing mortgage payments, It may repo the house but not sue me. If HOA's can sue a home owner for breach of contract, who would like to live with that hanging over their heads.

Your bank absolutely can and will sue you for not paying your CC. What they can't do is have you thrown in jail for not showing up to court - they'll just win by default.
Post reply on HN