HOA property management

Never lived with a HOA, but generally speaking couldn't they be violated/fined/forced out or something if not current on dues? What would the timeframe be per the average HOA to get caught up?

Same thing in Boston..I'm about 40 minutes south of it and will never live in the city for many reasons, this being one.

Regardless of the institution, I've always believed it's a rule and everyone follows or is held accountable or it shouldn't be a rule in the first place.

And yes re power. My parents moved into a senior living townhouse 11 years ago after a lifetime of houses. My dad and I went to the exercise room and a sign on the door said "please turn lights off when done". My dad rolled his eyes and said "you know who gets on these, especially in senior places, most of the time? People with no life. Someone feels important for hanging a fkn sign now"

 

Supposedly they had the power to put a lien on the property if you were one year behind or more. They frequently threatened but never enforced during the years I lived there. There was one house in the neighborhood that particularly baffled me: they wouldn't pay for garbage pickup, so they just threw their trash over the fence and into the bayou. That raised so. many. questions. How do you not pay your garbage fee? In that neighborhood it's tied to the water bill. I still can't figure out how they separated it, or maybe they just chose to live without water. Several of us went to the board meetings about it and things got testy. Accusations of toothlessness came out, someone asked "why even bother writing a letter when all it's gonna do is be tossed over their fence with everything else". We wound up just calling county law enforcement on a weekly basis about that shit. It still took a solid year of complaints from at least five houses before they finally got a fine big enough to quit. Infuriating fuckers.


I find it ironic that my current non-HOA neighborhood has much better enforcement than any of my previous houses that were under one. City code enforcement is on top of things here, they actually go out and patrol the neighborhoods. They also practice a soft approach- your first notice of violation comes in the form of a phone call where they ask "we noticed x issue with your house/lawn, do you need help fixing that," way cool for city government.

 

Yeah, you might have seen my earlier comment about my old landlord..and how the BOH finally stepped in but didn't really do a whole lot even with the documented history. UGH..though at least it finally got something done I suppose.

The soft approach is a wise one. Never know, sometimes people really do need help with things. I have a friend who knows nothing about houses and he calls me now and then for advice or help.