I live in a small HOA neighborhood. There are 12 houses total.
We have a private road that has been in bad disrepair for at least 5+ years. The HOA doesn’t have enough money to re-pave the road, because our annual HOA fees have been too low for the past decade (I never thought I’d say that, but it’s true).
The cost to redo the road is about $300,000 and we have about $100,000 available to cover it. If we want to pay for the job, each property owner will have to come up with $17K. Yeah… ouch.
I’m okay with doing this, but some of my neighbors would rather die than pay this kind of money to repair their own road. They are perfectly fine letting it deteriorate into gravel.
It has created a bit of drama among us neighbors, and it has made me see some of the underlying flaws of the HOA concept, because there is no single person “in charge” of these decisions.
If this wasn’t a private road, our local township would just use our tax dollars to take care of the job at the appropriate time, but instead, we have to vote for these things to happen, and who knows if we’ll ever be able to agree on this.
It makes me wonder, if someone is stuck in a mis-managed HOA, is there a way to opt-out of a homeowner’s association? Back when I bought my house, I never signed anything opting into it in the first place. It’s like having to abide by terms and conditions I never agreed to.
Is there a formal way to say “no thanks” to joining an HOA when you move into a neighborhood? Likewise, if I’m already in an HOA, what would happen if I just said “no thanks” to my next HOA bill? What kind of legal recourse would they have against me?
I’m not saying I would actually do this, but it has just got me thinking. Aside from selling my house and moving away, it seems like there must be some legal way to wash my hands of this mess.