With a sea of homes left empty by erstwhile homeowners who couldn't afford the mortgage, a number of homeowner associations around the country have are stuck having to pay for the upkeep on vacant properties lest the value of the remaining homes be harmed any further.
And these HOAs must find ways to pay for this maintenance without collecting any dues from the former tenants. That means higher dues for the remaining owners.
"There was a foreclosure unattended for such a long time with a pool so dirty it could have created a haven for West Nile virus. So we had to get a pool service to come treat it," one HOA president tells the Atlanta Journal Constitution about his organization's ordeal. Just two vacant homes in his neighborhood have cost the HOA $23K in labor and lost dues.
6 comments:
Kind of sounds like how the county has had to funtion with the revenue cap. Take care of more things with less money.
I live in a community with a HOA and believe me, I would have loved to have walked away from my house payment a long time ago. My job now pays less than my house payment each month but I continue to work 50 plus hours a week to keep my head above water. I am told by others that I am working "too hard" and to start enjoying life rather than working all the time. I have enough pride for myself and my neighbors to keep working to maintain the upkeep of my house so that something like this does not happen. It's called "Pride of Ownership" even down to the end.
We have an HOA, that does not collect dues. We've had a couple abandoned homes, and when we all realized the bank/title holder wasn't going to cut the grass, we did it ourselves. No discussion, no one in charge. If we noticed it getting long, it'd get cut. One such home was abandoned for over a year and a half. Thankfully, it's been purchased this year.
Home Owner Association are nothing but a bunch of fascist little dictatorships.
Well at least the HOA in Nithsdale you get to sleep with HOA President Thanks Hayley!
Myself, I wouldn't live in a neighborhood that has a HOA - that's BS as far as I'm concerned. Tell homeowners what they can and cannot do on their own property is ridiculous. Certainly, HOA or not, you look at the properties around you and if they are vacant you do your good deeds as a neighbor and keep it looking as though someone were living there. That's the way I see it anyway.
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