HOA forces owners to keep garage open during the day

[madoka]

Wow, this is madness.

http://www.kcra.com/article/hoa-garage-door-policy-draws-auburn-residents-ire/14755270

A Placer County homeowners association is mandating that its residents keep their garage doors open throughout the day during the workweek.

The policy, according to a notice taped to residents' doors, states that people who live in Auburn Greens face "an immediate hearing notice and subjected to a $200 fine" if they do not comply. The notice states the policy was enacted in October.

According to board member Norma Brewer, the policy was put in place after it was discovered that a resident was allowing people to live in his or her garage. She would not comment beyond that.

"That's an issue that they should address differently, I feel," said Fred Waidtlow, who owns one of the units in the community.

Waidtlow cleaned out his garage Thursday and moved personal belongings inside his unit as he voiced frustration with the policy.

"If we have to have this open from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, anybody can help themselves and steal you blind. And they do it in this Auburn Greens complex," he said.

Others echoed that sentiment.

"This will just be an open door policy and saying, 'Welcome, take what you want,'" said neighbor Shally Ia, who plans to keep her garage door closed.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Interesting. I know a friend that was living in a garage at one point. In a warmer state. Personally, what's the harm?

This is an HOA, not a land-lord.

 

[Red Squirrel]

HOAs are an abomination and go completely against what our ancestors fought for.

So glad I don't live in one. City bylaws are bad enough on their own at infringing on freedoms but they're nowhere near as bad as HOAs.

I would protest and just build a wall to block the door. The door is still open! You would lose your ability to use it as a garage though. Though in HOAs you are not really allowed to build anything so that would go against those rules too. I guess yo could stack cinder blocks. You're just storing them. They're not mortared in. Actually that would be the best way to protest, just store really obnoxious stuff in it.

 

[brianmanahan]

i can see why they'd want to do it

 

[shortylickens]

Fuck em.
When they try to punish you, fuckem again.
Then fuckem with a lawyer when they try to make shit serious.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd get a huge banner of gay porn made up to hang on the wall, and after a couple days, I'd burn the HOA execs houses down...

edit:
All assuming I was stupid enough to live in an HOA neighborhood. I'd rather live in a van than subject myself to petty dictators who only have power due to force of the state, and not through any merit.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You could probably get away with that too because they'd have to try to hash out a new law to stop you from storing stuff in your garage that's related to gay porn.

 

[bfun_x1]

It seems like the issue of multiple families in one home could have been addressed by a city ordinance. Regardless that's another stupid HOA group making stupid rules. My HOA tried writing their own tickets for trailers parked in the street. They of course didn't have any authority over city streets so they got in trouble for it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Start storing your garbage in your garage... and don't tie down the tops.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Why should it even matter if there's more than one family in the same house. These kind of rules are retarded.

 

[Darwin333]

The problem with all of these suggestions is that if they aren't already against the HOA rules they can quickly be made to be against the HOA rules. When you bought your house in the HOA you agreed to not only follow all existing rules but the process for how rules get amended, added or changed. As long as they are within those rules you will very likely lose in court, if you win it will cost you a ton of money to do so.

Moral of the story, fuck homeowners associations right in their associated asses.

 

[shortylickens]

Why should it even matter if there's more than one family in the same house. These kind of rules are retarded.

This is gonna make me sound like a real asshole, but I have to relate a personal story.
We have a house on our block with multiple families, and they just cause lots of problems. They keep taking up all the parking spots, each of which is FUCKING RESERVED!
The leave trash all over their front yard. There's lots of screaming all day long and into the wee hours of the night. Their kids trespass all the time and in the summer tend to ruin the grass. Cops have been over there a couple times, for reasons I dont know.

So yeah, I'm prejudiced against houses with multiple families.

 

[Darwin333]

Why should it even matter if there's more than one family in the same house. These kind of rules are retarded.

If they can't afford their own house, much less in that subdivision, then they are "undesirables" to those assholes.Look at their reaction, they would rather put people on the street and subject their residents to theft than deal with a few of those "undesirables".

 

[bfun_x1]

Why should it even matter if there's more than one family in the same house. These kind of rules are retarded.

I think the single family home laws were originally used to crack down on prostitution somehow but they still get enforced for other reasons. There is a home just down the street from me that got a ticket for having too many families in one home. I talked to the son that lived there and he originally said it was because his dad was a pastor who helped homeless families but over time his story changed. In the end I'm pretty sure they were using the home for migrant working families.

 

[madoka]

So yeah, I'm prejudiced against houses with multiple families.

I HATE houses with multiple families. They're undesirable for a reason.

I remember I lived in an apartment next to one. Everyone in the building complained about the noise, thefts, cruelty to their dogs, etc. The police actually invited us to a meeting at the station to discuss that one house. Told us that they once raided it and found 15 people living in the garage! They also found drugs and weapons. The police told us not to mess with them and that there wasn't much else they could do.

 

[MtnMan]

This is gonna make me sound like a real asshole, but I have to relate a personal story.
We have a house on our block with multiple families, and they just cause lots of problems. They keep taking up all the parking spots, each of which is FUCKING RESERVED!
The leave trash all over their front yard. There's lots of screaming all day long and into the wee hours of the night. Their kids trespass all the time and in the summer tend to ruin the grass. Cops have been over there a couple times, for reasons I dont know.

So yeah, I'm prejudiced against houses with multiple families.

So leave your garage door open all day, every day...

 

[stormkroe]

The problem with all of these suggestions is that if they aren't already against the HOA rules they can quickly be made to be against the HOA rules. When you bought your house in the HOA you agreed to not only follow all existing rules but the process for how rules get amended, added or changed. As long as they are within those rules you will very likely lose in court, if you win it will cost you a ton of money to do so.

Moral of the story, fuck homeowners associations right in their associated asses.

There has to be a limit to their power, and I imagine it lies in the land of physical and/or material damages.
They can't mandate that you leave your daughter's curtains open at night, or that you must leave your front door unlocked when no one is home (which is virtually the same thing as in the OP).
HOA loses this one, but it'll take a lawyer so really everyone loses this one.
Except the lawyer, I suppose.

 

[tommo123]

I'd get a huge banner of gay porn made up to hang on the wall, and after a couple days, I'd burn the HOA execs houses down...

edit:
All assuming I was stupid enough to live in an HOA neighborhood. I'd rather live in a van than subject myself to petty dictators who only have power due to force of the state, and not through any merit.

hmm would cardboard cutouts of nude people stacked in your garage being now visible to the public be an option. you have the right to store those i assume but not to display them to the kids in your neighbourhood by leaving the door open.

or would they just ban cardboard cutouts in general then?

 

[sdifox]

Are they also assuming all liabilities?

 

[purbeast0]

That article led me to this gem.

http://www.kcra.com/article/suspects-farting-shuts-down-interrogation/13518162

 

[Squisher]

Stupid HOAs are stupid.

If I could have found a newer house that isn't part of an HOA I would have, but they are few and far between. You are left with either a poorly insulated house, whose floor plan is cut up, and won't have a master suite or you can buy land and build your own.

We're empty nesters now and we'd love to down size. I'd love to find a modernish 2-3 bedroom house on a wooded lot. I might as well be looking for a unicorn.

 

[snoopy7548]

If a resident allowed people to live in their house, would they be required to keep all exterior doors and windows open throughout the day too? It only makes sense.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

hmm would cardboard cutouts of nude people stacked in your garage being now visible to the public be an option. you have the right to store those i assume but not to display them to the kids in your neighbourhood by leaving the door open.

or would they just ban cardboard cutouts in general then?

Why cardboard cutouts? Just go with real nude people, you have the right to be naked in your own home. Hire a bunch of 70 and 80 year old nudists to have a party in your garage. I can't imagine how this idiotic overreach of power wasn't struck down by a restraining order within 10 seconds.

 

[Humpy]

I'd get a huge banner of gay porn made up to hang on the wall...

Seems wasteful to have a new banner made up when you could use one from the living room.

 

[lxskllr]

Seems wasteful to have a new banner made up when you could use one from the living room.

Dude, that's my private collection. If someone wants to give me money, I'll give a private tour, but I'm not giving it away free.