Concerned Citizens of Mountain View

Are you tired of H.O.A (Home Ownership Association and Covenant Communities),

whether you are a owner or tenant? They are too much in your business and personal lives and try to govern your property like they are federal or a state government. I understand some rules or fees but this scrap is ridiculos, people move to areas because of the certain perks that may be available for and to them or because of change in neighbor hoods or it is a good community. Then you move in and they close down the pools talking about a liability, or because you want to put lighting around your property due to poor lighting for your own safety, or you can plant a certain flower or plant due to over eccessive height just to name a few things. The yearly H.O.A fees goes up every year and you can't get them to come and shovel the snow within state rule of 24hrs. after it snowed sidewalks aren't iced or the drive ways have not been paved. But let a owner or resident do something wrong they can get a written warning of what the problem is before they are being fined. How about them trying to vote you out of your home and community! What if a board member do not like you and you feel like they are out to get you and they find any and everything to write you up or call a hearing (knit picking, like they want to harrass you until you want ot move out. Then you got the senior residents who, just don't like kid and everything your kids do and they might have not done anything and the older people want to complain about your kids (because they are not kid friendly).I have been in my community for 9 years and have had all these problem concerning H.O.A, it's board member and people who don't have a dam life and in yours okay.

          My resent beef now with H.O.A is that I had flooding in my main bathroom ( I have two bathrooms), with the laundry room attached. For a week I did not know where the water was coming from and had to use bathroom towel and clothes to soak up the water. Everytime I soak up the water it would flood again, then one day while doing laundry I noticed rust, dirt and water. I thought it was my washing machine, but no water was under or behind the washer, there was two hose that came out the wall, put a bucket underneath the hoses (no water 2 days later). Still puzzled because the water was in the laundry floor and sitting in front of the sink which is located at the entrance of the bathroom. Think it was my sink I shut off the valve underneath the sink and water kept reappearing. Their was a water drain in the floor and never thought to check it since it was always dry and rust and never seen or heard water going into it, through it or coming out of it. One day I was washing and the wash cycle was on rinse (spinning), all of a sudden their was water coming up out of the floor drain (so I shut it off). That was where the water was coming from all the time! I contacted my landlord and told him the problem I could not take it anymore, I could wash and all the towels and cloths had begun to smell like mildew. My landlord was it still flooding at the time I spoke with him and I said no, he said he would fix the problem. Then next day I am in the kitchen and my dog was in the hallway (I had carpet in the hallway) and I saw dog prints embedded in the carpet and was like what the hell (it flooded again and now this time into my hallway). When I entered the bathroom it was about 1/2 to an inch of water, I said someone must be doing laundry. In my condo complex their are two side and it has 6 units on each side. On my side I begin to know on all the neighbors doors to see who was washing and it was the neighbor across from me. I asked her to stop washing because it was backing up into my unit and advise all the other units and notified the boardmember on the second floor. She called H.O.A and they said they were sending someone out. No one never came and the next day it flooded again , so after I got all the water up and the floor dried here comes the plumber (mind you also part of my wall in the laundry caved in due to the water damage). The plumber said it nust back up again for him to visually see it back up before he can snake it to see where it was comeing from. He seen all the wet cloths and towels in my bath tub and smelt the mildew. He begun running all the water in my home and went to the neighbors across from me to try to back it up again, only this time it did not back up and he said he could not snake it and left. Again the next day it flooded again and when he check again it would not back up for him, but said he would go ahead and snake it and told me (him and the dispatch on the phone) that H.O.A would cover the cost. Before I allowed him to snake the line I contacted my landlord for the plumbing company to repeat that H.O.A would be covering the cost, then we gave then the go ahead to snake the line. About close to a week later my landlord contacted me and told me that H.O.A sent him the bill for $315.00. He said he was not paying it because it was not an inside plumbing problem, but a mainline problem because it came for underneath the building. I had called the water department and the sewer line department out and they also said that it was a main line problem. That all the unit in the building has it's own lines, but connected to one hose which is know as a commonline that is interconnect to one flow underneath the building. Also I did research on line for government rules and regulations of H.O.A and found out the if you have a problem that consist of my type of problem and it is coming for underneath and not within that H.O.A is responsible for the cost. H.O.A still refused to pay the bill and my landlord is appealing it. I also contact P.U.C which is the public utility commission and they say if it is a common line and interconnected to one hose H.O.A is responsible, but they cannot make H.O.A abide by the rules. We have to either do the hearing or take them to court on it and my neighbor also wrote a letter stating she seen where the water was coming from when I stopped her from washing.-----------------So this is a shame that H.O.A cannot abide by it's own rules and not only that it stated nothing about things like this in their by-laws. But it is noted on the community board "Plumbing (commom line) H.O.A responsibility, so what is their problem and who regulates the H.O.A?????????????????/

Hello Tired Too. I am curious where you live. I am in the Foxdales and having a heck of a time with the HOA there. I have constant sewage floods (almost every five months) and they are refusing to fix the issue. I have had to vacate the property as my baby was born at 25 weeks and has chronic lung disease so I cannot remian there nor do I feel comfortable renting it out and making tenants go through that every five months (plus the liability I would have if something happened to their health). So here I sit, an empty condo and an HOA who could care less. :{ I am trying to find other people in this area that may be experiencing the same issues. And yes, who regulates them!? 

First of all,  no one "regulates" or controls HOAs, but there are laws that govern their operation, chief of which is the Colorado Common-Interest Ownership Act.  The association, through its elected board and the community manager, as well as every owner, must comply with the covenants as contained in the community's Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions.  Whenever a person buys a unit in a common-interest (covenant-controlled) community, he agrees to be bound by the covenants and to pay the assessments.  The association, for its part, must maintain the common elements.  This includes sewer lines that serve more-than-one unit.  No one has mentioned this, but is the association alleging that the blockages were the result of something that the residents had flushed?  If that is the case, then the unit owner would be liable.  Is the owner delinquent in his payment of assessments? Otherwise, the association should man up and accept responsibility for the cost of clearing the line.  The bill comes from the property manager or management company's accounting department, who may not be aware of the particulars of the situation.  In that case, a call to the community manager should take care of it, but, if that doesn't work, then the owner (NOT a tenant) should attend the next board meeting and address the board directly and appropriately.  The board is probably not at all aware of the incident.  Board members represent the owners, and most want to do the right thing.  The board will probably direct the manager to pay the bill out of association funds.  If not, then the owner may need to contact an attorney in order to enforce the covenants and all laws.  One letter from him or her will probably do the trick.

HOAs, just like individual owners, are experiencing grave financial difficulties, due to high delinquencies, rising costs, failing infrastructre, and foreclosures.  Most people probably don't realize this.  So the manager is trying to look out for the interests of the entire association by keeping dues down and allocating bills to the responsible parties.

If a person does not want to subject himself to the authority of an HOA and be bound by its covenants, rules and regulations, then he should not buy a home in that community.  By buying that home, the person has agreed to be bound by all the regulations.  And if he does not like living there, he has the option of moving to a community which is not covenant controlled. 

I wanted to mention that of course the management company initially blamed the tenants living in these units stating it was items they were flushing. Once the sewage floods became reoccuring though, that's when they informed me of the actual issue with the plumbing (I could not get them to put it in writing). As it was later explained to me by the management company, due to the low-lying spot in the plumbing, things get "caught up" more easily than they should. I will see if I can attend this meeting that everyone there acts so secretively about and see if I can confront the board members, as they apparently denied fixing the issue but that was told to me by the managment group so perhaps they don't have any idea. If anything, I would at least like a reason why they won't fix it if they don't feel like paying to fix the damage every 5 months... as it stands right now I am paying for everything. 

I have remained current (for seven years) on my association dues up until three months ago when I was forced to move from the property and am now looking to short sale it. That didn't seem to help anything remaining current on the dues. 

I also understand that perhaps the association does not have the funds to fix this issue due to the scale of the problem but I feel that I deserve an answer as to why. Then they should pony up and pay for the damage that occurs every five months... and find someone to live in those conditions that don't mind being in a hotel for one month each time while the damage is being repaired.