Help! The neighborhood BoD has gone power hungry / control crazy .. annual 'hood meeting is this Saturday

[Coiled]

Having only scanned some of the docs I am FURIOUS right now, please pardon my haphazard presentation.

In the past week the Board of Directors of my TINY neighborhood (<50 small lots) sent the property owners several documents including a 23 page draft to revise the Covenants & Restrictions, again. We just revised the original, 2-page 1970s C&R in 2016 and they became a whopping 6 pages. A portion of the additional pages was the newly formed Architectural Control Committee (their words, not mine). Compliance with the ACC has been widely ignored including by the 2016-current President. These are not expensive properties, I'd be surprised if the most valuable could fetch $160K.

The BoD is claiming "new" State laws require all neighborhoods update their restrictions. Unfortunately our annual meeting is on 9/4 so right now my question is, do such new State laws exist? Link please.

Thanks much for your input.

 

[candcallen]

Having only scanned some of the docs I am FURIOUS right now, please pardon my haphazard presentation.

In the past week the Board of Directors of my TINY neighborhood (<50 small lots) sent the property owners several documents including a 23 page draft to revise the Covenants & Restrictions, again. We just revised the original, 2-page 1970s C&R in 2016 and they became a whopping 6 pages. A portion of the additional pages was the newly formed Architectural Control Committee (their words, not mine). Compliance with the ACC has been widely ignored including by the 2016-current President. These are not expensive properties, I'd be surprised if the most valuable could fetch $160K.

The BoD is claiming "new" State laws require all neighborhoods update their restrictions. Unfortunately our annual meeting is on 9/4 so right now my question is, do such new State laws exist? Link please.

Thanks much for your input.

They should be able to prove the laws exist. If not move to table the changes till they can.

 

[Kar98]

Make them show you the alleged state laws.

 

[jrbfishn]

A; If it is actually a Law, you should have been notified long before this.
B; If it is Law, they shoyld know the statutes and be able to give them to the residents.
Otherwise I would be highly suspect.
A perfect example of why I moved into the country from town and won't join anything that gives others control of my property.
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[Axxe55]

If they can't list and state the applicable state laws that are in regards to the restrictions, I'd say bull puckey on them.

Going from 6 pages to 23 in just five years? That stinks of BS as well.

 

[TexasBB]

Bull. There is no such State law.


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[jjkukla]

A buddy of mine is an HOA "president" and told me the other day that there were some changes made recently at State level... I'll see if I can get a reference from him and update this post.

ETA
1st quick search:

New HOA Laws Go Into Effect Today

Several new REALTOR®-supported homeowners association reform laws took effect September 1. These...

www.texasrealestate.com

 

[Fishkiller]

I know of no such law. Does this shangri la have the dreaded HOA? Sure sounds like it. Not a real estate lawyer but sounds like some one is just trying to ram stuff thru. Sat there is a law and the sheep go along

 

[TexasBB]

There is a new law regarding HOA’s but it’s nothing about updating restrictions.

CBS Texas - Breaking Local News, First Alert Weather & I-Team Investigations

Latest breaking news from CBS11 KTVT-TV | KTXA-TV.

www.google.com

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[Coiled]

Thanks for the links guys, I will read them later.

While you were doing that I read some of my docs and found this:

EDIT: the POA below = Property Owners Assoc.

 

[Sasquatch]

The only possible things I could see they might have to update is changing the bylaws to allow for fences, security measures, and religious displays. Everything else seems geared toward dispute resolution, credit reporting, and administration of the HOA's. No reason to add pages to the rule book.

You could always bring forth a motion to disband the HOA, too. Would require a majority of the home owners to vote for it, but it can be done.

 

[Coiled]

A; If it is actually a Law, you should have been notified long before this.
B; If it is Law, they shoyld know the statutes and be able to give them to the residents.
Otherwise I would be highly suspect.
A perfect example of why I moved into the country from town and won't join anything that gives others control of my property.

Remember, our C&R was only 2 pages for nearly 45 yrs; people did what they wanted, within reason, and left each other alone. This massive control issue has been going on for 6-8 yrs.

The vast majority of owners are weekenders from Houston 'burbs. This is an "affordable" play pen to keep their boats and other toys but now they want it to look like their gated communities. 2 years ago during the annual meeting a lady on the ACC said "I don't want this place looking like a trailer park". From 10' away I looked her square in the eye and said, "Tracy, it is a trailer park".

That's right folks, a mobile home park. I didn't want to reveal that but perhaps that nugget will provide context.

 

[Coiled]

The only possible things I could see they might have to update is changing the bylaws to allow for fences, security measures, and religious displays. Everything else seems geared toward dispute resolution, credit reporting, and administration of the HOA's. No reason to add pages to the rule book.

You could always bring forth a motion to disband the HOA, too. Would require a majority of the home owners to vote for it, but it can be done.

I made that very suggestion to a couple neighbors just 2 nights ago. We do have these community items though:
- road
- sewer plant
- boat stalls (primary walkways, stalls & roofs are individually owned)
- grassy areas



I didn't know it was this late. Later, thanks for the help!

 

[Sasquatch]

Well here's something to chew on. What is the monthly or annual dues for the HOA? What's the compliance rate with payment? What sort of savings does the HOA have? As a property owner you are entitled to statements of how much money is coming in, where its going out to, etc. My next question then is - do they have enough money to actually put up a legal fight, especially if multiple property owners say "F you" and just stop paying / stop complying with the petty bullshit?

We lucked out when we bought our place. Its one of 3 or 4 properties in the 260+ property development that is *not* part of the HOA here. We made friends with some of the people on the board. Hell, I volunteer and help out in making the place nicer - because we still use the amenities (lakes and park) since we do live in the neighborhood. The dues in the place are stupidly low, as far as HOA's go. A lot our size would be $170 *per year*, and we'd be in the top dues tier. The smallest lots pay about $90 a year.

Learning a bit of the inside baseball, and having attended a meeting (when it was warned that they were going to try pulling us into the neighborhood) I learned some stuff. I also learned that this HOA doesn't have a huge war chest when it comes to legal battles. I've made it clear to those I know who are on the board, *if* the HOA were to try pulling us in against our will, I'll go mortgage the damn property (its 100% paid for, no mortgage) and rack their legal bills up far beyond whatever dues they could ever extract from me, and the likelihood they'd prevail in court and rope us in would be low. Our deed mentions nothing about being in the HOA. It doesn't actually list that subdivision as where our place resides, because 20 some years ago, a prior owner was able to pull it out of that subdivision, then subdivide his property into three lots and *that* subdivision - not the actual subdivision that encompasses the neighborhood - is what is listed on our deed.

I don't feel a burning desire to have restrictions placed on my currently unrestricted deed. I think that would ultimately make my property less valuable, and would then cause me to have to get the stupid HOA's approval (and pay them a fee for nothing) to make alterations or improvements to my property. Their own building committee is full of snoopy bastards who I've witnessed trespass onto others property to see what sort of land clearing and materials are moving in and out may be going on.

Being in a trailer park probably makes sloughing off the HOA more challenging, but it might still be possible if enough of your neighbors hate it.

 

[TJjerry]

There is way too much to explain on this site. But Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act was started by the 82th Legislature. One can google the law as they are written at TPC 209. The legal guide one can buy that tries to explain in layman's terms is 800 pages long.
Every two years they add things to the law and it is mandatory that HOA's of certain sizes add those changes to their CCRs, Covenants Conditions and Restrictions.This ACT applies to Condominiums also.They then have to file those changes with the County and the State Real Estate group that is very powerful at getting those changes made every two years.

The recent changes included rules HOAs have to add, like emergency generator rules, Flag display rules, solar panel rules, they forbid a couple that reside together in the same home from serving on the Board and the ACC. Set rules and limits for advanced meeting notices, now one may pay their annual fees monthly and avoid foreclosure. Set fees for copies of documents you wish to obtain so the HOA does not make it impossible to get such by charging outrageous fees or troubling routines. Now takes 3 advanced notices of your violation before they can stick you with a fine, and the fine can be limited also. That can take 90 or more days.

This entire law was put in place to stop agressive and abusive HOAs from the dominance they once held and to inform the Owners that they have rights and what those rights are.

 

[m5215]

I am not planning on owning a home but if I did it would NEVER be part of an HOA. I have heard far too many nightmares concerning living in an HOA area.

 

[kbaxter60]

Make them show you the alleged state laws.

^^^ This ^^^

 

[Axxe55]

I am not planning on owning a home but if I did it would NEVER be part of an HOA. I have heard far too many nightmares concerning living in an HOA area.

Another consideration is that the ownership of the HOA and it's members can change over the years as well. Which means an HOA that started out with pretty lenient rules and restrictions can become a huge nightmare for the residents.

 

[kbaxter60]

Regarding TJs post, I would find out what "of certain size" means and If y'all meet that size, propose a discussion on "division of the subdivision".

 

[jrbfishn]

Remember, our C&R was only 2 pages for nearly 45 yrs; people did what they wanted, within reason, and left each other alone. This massive control issue has been going on for 6-8 yrs.

The vast majority of owners are weekenders from Houston 'burbs. This is an "affordable" play pen to keep their boats and other toys but now they want it to look like their gated communities. 2 years ago during the annual meeting a lady on the ACC said "I don't want this place looking like a trailer park". From 10' away I looked her square in the eye and said, "Tracy, it is a trailer park".

That's right folks, a mobile home park. I didn't want to reveal that but perhaps that nugget will provide context.

Does not matter what kind of home it is, it's home.
I bet my mobile home looks worse than yours.

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