Home Owner Association

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Last Updated: Saturday, 01 March 2025 00:14

Published: Saturday, 01 March 2025 00:14

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Home Owner Association (HOA):

Wiki => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association

HOAs are Associations that a bunch of homes in a neighborhood form. In homes built before 1980's, there didn't use to be associations. The only associations that existed were for "Apartment" like housing complex, where a bunch of homes shared common wall, or common roof, or common ground. Associations were necessary in such cases, since no one owned the land, instead they owned just the air space. Any maintenance work needed for the building had to be shared. So, associations were needed, where associations collected some yearly fees from Homeowners. This money pooled in was used for pay for any ongoing expenses to maintain the "Flat system community". These "flat or apartment" systems are known as "Condo" and "Townhome" in USA. "Condo" are exactly like "flats" in India, where houses are built on top of each other, generally 2 storied. Bigger cities have Buildings which have 10's of floors. "Townhome" are little better than "Condo" in the sense that each house is built on it's own land. To keep price of houses low, houses are built next to each other, where they may share a common wall on one or both sides. However, the hmeowner still doesn't own the land. All of the land in a condo/townhome is owned by the Association (HOA).

Fast forward to 2000's and now even stand alone home with their own land have associations. Infact, no builder builds houses w/o HOA anymore. If you buy any of these houses, you have to become member of HOA and  bound by the HOA rules. HOA also have yearly fees to pay for common area maintainence, etc. These HOA dues are usually $1K/year, but in some neighborhoods go as high as $5K/year. Condos/Townhomes have even higher HOA dues.

HOA Pitfalls:

HOA is a legal "GundaRaaj" in USA. There is a Board for any HOA which comprises of couple of elected homeowners. They go hire a "Management Company" which provides services for a yearly fees. These "Management Companies" take over all the power, and Board members become mere "puppets" of the Management Company. Dues start going up, services start going own. Anh how does it become a "GundaRaaj". Because there is

http://www.poliakoffoncondohoaliving.com/2011/04/enforcing-covenants-rules-and-regulations-in-condos-and-hoas-the-concepts-of-waiver-and-selective-enforcement/

If r4ule hasn't been enforced in years, it cannot be enforced.

Ask for mediation or arbitration prior to lawsuit.

http://www.dallasbar.org/sites/default/files/October%202014%20-%20HOA%20Foreclosure.pdf

Texas property code :

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.209.htm#209.007

Sec. 209.0062.  ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT SCHEDULE FOR CERTAIN ASSESSMENTS.  (a)  A property owners' association composed of more than 14 lots shall adopt reasonable guidelines to establish an alternative payment schedule by which an owner may make partial payments to the property owners' association for delinquent regular or special assessments or any other amount owed to the association without accruing additional monetary penalties.  For purposes of this section, monetary penalties do not include reasonable costs associated with administering the payment plan or interest.

(12)  impose interest and late charges for late payments of assessments, returned check charges, and, if notice and an opportunity to be heard are given in accordance with Subsection (d), reasonable fines for violations of the declaration, bylaws, and rules of the association;