I DON'T!
If you don't keep up your yard, I will report you. Like my next door neighbor who moved out and this is now his backyard. Sooooo mad. Thank goodness he has that fence or I'd be storming our HOA.
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who cares if its his backyard? how is it harming you?
we moved into a rental, and got 3 violations the first week. some people have way too much time on their hands! -
We normally try to talk to the neighbor before going to the HOA.
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I see the HOA rules as a means to protect our property values, so I don't worry about reporting people. Our neighborhood is only 2.5 years old, so everyone who lives here approved and voted in the rules.
But I guess since we are in charge of our HOA, I just tell my husband. Does that even count?
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I'd totally report someone who let their grass grow wild like that too. If you can't play by the rules like everyone else, move somewhere with no rules.
ETA: our condo HOA is only us and 1 other couple so reporting them would be kind of awkward
with our house, luckily everyone has the same standard of care so we've had no issues with anyone
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I would report that mess too. My frustration would be that we try really hard to stay on top of weeds in our garden and a yard full of plants gone to seed would mean a ton of extra work for us in a few weeks. Thankfully we have great neighbors and if their yard was looking crazy we would just go mow it and make sure they weren't dead...
Our city actually does random checks through the year to make sure no one is violating the rules. It is nice to know you don't have to worry about reporting people.
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Eh. If it's their backyard, and it's not visible from the street, I wouldn't care. Our backyard is a mess right now, but it faces a green belt and you can't see it from the street - I would be pissed if someone reported it.
And we actually live in a neighborhood with a super strict hoa - they send letters for the smallest violations (like we left out garbage bin out for two days and the max is one day). Hate them.
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@wheres_c: because it's right next door to my yard and who knows what could be growing or living (or dying) in that mess.
@Raindrop: we do too, if they haven't moved out and have let their house and yard to go to pot.
@pinkcupcake: that's like our HOA and I love it. People get violations all the time for stuff like that. It's great. Keeps our neighborhood looking good. -
@mediagirl: really? Someone's garbage bin out for an extra 24 hours warrants a violation letter?
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@pinkcupcake: my husband and I talk about this all the time when people leave theirs out. We don't get why it's so hard to bring it in. At least if people get a warning notice about it, we figure it won't happen again.
We've gotten warnings about our grass before when we were a week behind on mowing and just expected it because, we knew what we were getting into when we bought in our neighborhood!
We figure if people don't want hoa rules, they shouldn't live in an hoa neighborhood.
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I only think it warrants a complaint if it's a continual ongoing issue. We once got a warning from our HOA because we skipped ONE weekend of mowing our lawn. Why? Because I was in the hospital with pre term labor and then for the following week my husband was focused on caring for me in the evenings so he didn't get to mow until the next weekend. He went on a rampage when we got that letter (rightfully so).
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@mediagirl: but see, it was a ONE time thing. We always bring it in that night - but we had just had out baby, I was dealing with mastitis, we thought our baby was starving, so bringing in the trash can that night totally slipped my husband's mind. By the time he remembered and went out to get it, we already had an email warning.
I don't think a one-time violation warrants a warning. If it's continual, then yes, by all means people should get violations.
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@mediagirl: Im surprised at people saying they wouldn't report it. I would totally report a backyard like that! It attracts vermin and is just unsightly.
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I don't think I've ever been happier to not have a hoa. This sounds a little like hell.
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I hate our HOA. We just went through a really hard time (DH had a broken leg that required a rod to be put in his leg and I had a c-section for list third child in late December) and we were getting letters about our grass and "weeds." I wanted to scream because our grass was as long as everyone else's and neither of us could take care of that stuff at that time.
If I could, I would never live where I have to belong to an HOA again.
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HOA question... What happens with the "warnings" will people eventually get fined. Could you actually get fined for not bringing in your garbage can after 24 hours?
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@Mrs. Polish: we refuse to live in one because we know we'd break all the rules and be "those neighbors"
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@mediagirl: I hear what you're saying. People knowingly bought in your plan, knew the HOA by laws before they signed the closing papers, and by doing so made a commitment to abiding by those rules.
If I lived in an HOA, I'd have expectations that my neighbors would be abiding by those laws, too.. And yes, I'd be pissed if my neighbor (HOA or not!) had a meadow for a back yard.
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I've never reported anyone because I don't really give crap what anyone else's yard looks like. The whole "other people having a say in your yard" thing annoys me to no end.
The only thing I wish our HOA would enforce is people parking on the street. I don't care when people have guests and they park on the street, but we have some people who park on the street every day or just leave cars on the street for months on end and it is so annoying. Clean out your damn garage and put your car in there so I don't have to navigate around your car every.single.day (especially an issue in the winter when the cars get plowed in ugh).
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@Mrs. Polish: I'm with you.
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@Mrs. Polish: me too!
I love my neighborhood, and I love a pretty lawn. But when I had a colicky newborn, you better believe we had weeds in our mulch beds. If our neighbors lawns get a little disheveled, I just assume something else more pressing is going on and they will get to it when they can. (Always true).
Repeat offenders - yes, complain. Rare occurrence? Give people the benefit of the doubt.
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I'm not a fan of HOAs. I live in a neighborhood where one resident is growing wheat in his front yard. I love it. We'll be buying soon and I fear the HOA.
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@Reese: no, we didn't get fined, since it was our first violation. Put on notice that we would get fined if it happened again (never happened again). Just upsetting to get such a letter - made us feel like crap.
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@pinkcupcake: wow, sounds extreme. I would be upset under those circumstances as well.
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I think it's not worth my energy to nitpick people over their lawns and garbage containers.
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@Mrs. Polish: me too!
Yeah, no thank you to the hoa. I don't have enough time to worry about my neighbors yard, God forbid they judge me on mine. Yes I care about my home, but my Husband is gone for a year, I've got 3 kids, and a full-time job, it would be the least of my worries. This reminds me, I need to send my son down to get the glass bin he forgot to bring in.
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@Mrs. Polish: OMG I was just thinking the same thing. Remind me never to buy in an HOA neighborhood!! We'd end up breaking rules and be reported...sometimes there are just more important things going in than bringing in the garbage can or weeding every week.
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It sucks when you live in an area that is totally full of hoa communities. When we were looking we didn't see one house that didn't have an hoa!
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I don't bother to report my neighbors. I'm positive the HOA has someone driving around looking for violations.
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I live in an HOA neighborhood and some of the yards look like that right now, they are pretty lax about it. I don't report them, but I might if they were right next to me because we are townhomes with no fences.
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We just moved into a neighborhood and I don't think people are that strict around here. I do like HOAs because my dad would be a huge offender if he lived in a neighborhood that had one. I think it's good to tone down the crazy neighbors. You know the ones that have things you shouldn't have in a yard (trash, car parts, broken appliances). My whole family and the township looked down at my dad's yard but couldn't do much about it because no HOA. (My siblings all tried to convince my dad but he did not listen. The township even tried. Growing up, I was very embarrassed about my parent's yard and I'm glad I'm not living there anymore.) I'm sure my parent's neighbors praise HOAs and wished they had one. My sister lives in a nice neighborhood and has no HOA and I haven't seen any bad offenders. They all take care of their yards. So I think HOAs depends on your area. Some areas need it and some don't.
We don't own but I'm happy with my neighborhood. We looked at other homes without HOAs and we could definitely tell. Like a broken stove in the front yard with weeds growing around it and it looks like it's been there for at least a year? Umm, no. We just didn't want to see that.
I did briefly looked over the HOA rules for my current neighborhood and it doesn't seem too strict. It say my lawn must be maintained periodically.
So I think HOAs are good to keep the extreme offenders in line. We moved in in January but didn't have a lawn mower. We finally cut our grass around mid April.
I don't know about the previous owners but I have had a neighbor who came up to us and told us that they were happy to have neighbors to take care of the place. Not sure if they were talking about the home being vacant for a few months before we moved in or if the previous owners didn't maintain the property. I do know that our back yard has a lot of landscaping that could be hard to maintain (for us), so I don't think it was the previous owners. Maybe it was their attitude/ personality that neighbors didn't like. (I have no idea.) We have a fully fenced back yard so it's not viewable from the road. We do cut the grass in the back yard and front, but there are large areas of mulch beds in the back and if we continued to mulch them, it could get costly. At this point, we wished it was just all grass back there. For us, it would be easier to just mow. We have weeds back there and we are maintaining it with the mower and weed wacker. We are still trying to figure out what we want to do with the back yard.
Anyway, I don't think my yard is an offender of the HOA rules. I guess I'll find out if I get a letter. Compared to my neighbor's yard, that gets professionally landscaped each week, now I wonder if we are complying. Hmm...
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We didn't want to live in a community with an HOA, mainly because we didn't want to pay HOA dues. However, I kind of wish we had some sort of rules on appearance.
We have very, very nice neighbors for the most part but one of them decided to paint their home salmon colored and use light blue trim. No joke. It is such an eyesore. And I know how much it costs to repaint a home (I'm getting bids right now!) so I don't think the exterior color of their home is changing for a loooooooooong time!
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@sunny: ugggh. Same with us. We live three doors down from an old lady who thought purple was a beautiful choice for a paint color.
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Wow. I am legitimately shocked by some of this, especially @mamamoose & @Pinkcupcake ! I don't think HOAs are very common in the areas we've lived -- whenever something has come up and we've gotten behind on mowing or snow blowing, our neighbors have come over and done it for us.... not reported us to the city.
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@Mrs. Polish: ditto. Who knows the situations others may be in?
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I live in a neighborhood with a very strict HOA, and I wouldn't report a neighbor, unless what they were doing to their property was posing a threat to our well being.
I like that the HOA keeps the neighborhood really nice, but I don't like that I have to get permission to do anything to the outside of my house. I mean anything. Want to put in a new mailbox? Need permission. Want to replace the front door? Need permission. It irks me. I know it's to prevent people from doing ridiculous things, but I'm not going to do anything ridiculous! Haha.
We have to get new garage doors, and we will have to provide them with a brochure and color swatches for the paint. For the love.
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Adding - not implying that @mediagirl should go mow this lawn when the owner has moved out and left it unkempt; that is a different scenario in my mind.
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We purposely bought a house without an hoa. I don't like the idea of worrying about what other people are doing in their own homes
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I'm confused - if he moved out then why is he still required to make sure his lawn is kept neat?
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Most of the homes in my area are not part of HOAs, the neighborhoods are more than 50 years old in a lot of parts, so we do not have one. We looked very carefully at the streets where we purchased our home, because the fact of the matter is that your neighbors affect the value of your house.
@mediagirl: if I recall, you might be selling your house, right? If I were a buyer, no matter what the state of your home, if I saw that next door, I'd pass on your house. So I totally get where you are coming from.
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