Sabra....

I read about your landlords overdue fees and had a thought.
You might check the law and see if you paid it, you take possesion...
Just a thought...

*smiles*
Ken

That is an interesting thought! I'll have to look into that. The laws around here regarding Home Owners Associations are so odd. Last summer an elderly lady hadn't been paying her Home Owners Association Dues; she owed somewhere around $900. She had received notices that the money was due but she didn't have the money and since she owned her home 100% she didn't think it was possible for them to take her home. Well, the Home Owners Association foreclosed on it and sold it for a third of it's value. She didn't find all of this out until she came home one day and her locks had been changed and she could get in. It got all sorts of news coverage and a month later the courts reversed the foreclosure. Evidently, due to this incident the laws have changed for Home Owners Associations but I don't know how it has changed. I called and left a message for an attorney so that I could set up an appointment to get some legal advice on the matter because I want to know my rights. Well, they don't call me back. Now I'm just trying to figure out a way that I can find out what are the "rules." I have the number to the home owners association but they may only tell me what they want me to know.

Sabra~

It's the same here in Florida. I remember at closing when it was made clear to me that if association dues weren't paid that they can foreclose on your house.

It makes you wish you just owned your own land, outside of a subdivision, and had a house built. Home Owners Association Dues are so expensive. Most people have the dues included in their monthly mortgage so they don't have to pay a couple hundred dollars at one time each year.

Sabra - is there a consumer reporter or troubleshooter on a TV or radio station around there? Here in Denver there are a few of them, and they have teams of people to help consumers know their rights and fight for them if/when they get ripped off. It is free of charge, and they may use your situation on their show.

I really want to know more about these things and see if they have one in Utah. I hope not.

I never quite did understand why someone would want to own a home in an association where you don't legally own the property. We had the opportunity when we were house hunting a while back to look at this sort of thing and we decided against it. It seemed silly to me to spend all that money on the house and all you own is the house. And to have to pay more money in addition to your mortgage is ludicrous to me!! Can any of you tell me if there are benefits to it though? I mean, I am not well educated on this at all, but I just can't think of any reason for it.

We chose to buy on a regular lot of land where we own the land and the home and after reading all of this I am glad!! I can't imagine going thru the idea of having your house forclosed on even if its paid off cause you missed your association dues! Holy cripes!

All I can say is that in my area nowadays, all you find is subdivisions. It is rare to find just plain land anymore where you can buy and build, unless you are so far out in the boonies that you need half the day to get to work. Plus, being on a "limited" income, so to speak, I can't personally say that I had money galore to buy up some land and then build a house. I was lucky to get what I have. The proponents will tell you that the advantages are having a set of rules that the whole community follows, so that property values are kept relatively intact, ie, you don't get a neighbor with 75 rusted out cars parked in his front yard. Plus in my community, the fees also pay to maintain common areas, provide for a pool, clubhouse, athletic facilities, and yes, a lounge within a half mile of my particular house!

Same here Deb, it would be nearly impossible to not live in a subdivision if you wanted to live in a house.

Heidi, there is a newspaper column that comes out on Sundays that strictly deals with landlords/renters and their rights. I just don't know how long it would take after I wrote in to have my issue addressed even if they picked it to address; sometimes they doen't even address people who write in. Houston isn't known to have any "talk" radio and the news stations only take those who have extreme circumstances. Anyways, if we did get news coverage our landlord might find out about our pets which we aren't supposed to have. No body in Houston wants to rent to some one with more than one animal or a dog that is bigger than a toy poodle!

I'll figure something out. I'll see if maybe I can get an e-mail contact for the lawyer guy who does the newspaper column.

We have a HOA, too. We pay $100 every quarter, but most of the times it's a big inconvenience on us. Usually, when it's due, I cannot afford to pay it when it's due, so we end up payig it a month late. I know $100, equals to be around $33/month. Last October, when it was due, I didn't pay it for almost 2 months, and we ended up getting a pre-demmand lette, saying if we didn't pay it, they were going to take us to court So, I called and left a message saying it would be in the mail the next day. We were late because we had had our hours slashed at work, a few weeks prior to that. They can be rude on the phone, too.

I think it is nuts that they can foreclose on your house....... I mean, you have a mortgage for a house...... The guy at work says it's legal extortion, lol. Hasn't anyone ever looked at what the money goes towards? Stupid stuff, imo.

I agree that the money seems to go toward stupid stuff...and a lot of times I think the restrictions that the deeds impose are beyond ridiculous. Around here, most deeds have restrictions against having a clothes line in the yard, for example. But....on the other hand, I have seen neighborhoods without. All too often they fall into disrepair and look crappy. My street alone is kind of on the border of being "eh". As my termite guy tells me the story, the original developer of the development went bankrupt. The builder on my street quickly bought up the lots some 25 years ago and built houses like the one I own. They are very small (I'm a little over 1000 sq. ft.) and many have zero lot lines on one side. In the rest of my development, the houses have a ton of property, by subdivision standards, at least. Anyway, for a long time renters occupied many of the houses on my block. The termite guy says that the "deed restriction police" don't even bother coming down this street anymore. Fortunately, most of the houses are owned now, and since an affordable house in a decent neighborhood is getting harder and harder to come by, the place is looking better.

Sabra, I missed the first post so I don't know what your specific problem is, escpecially since you are saying "homeowner" and "landlord" in the same discussion, but the entire Texas Property code is online right here:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/pptoc.html

Perhaps you can find your answers there.

Those homeowners' associations have turned into dictatorships. Bill and I didn't even consider buying in an area with one. We have a neighborhood association, that coordinates neighborhood watch and monitors the city council. Some of our streets have islands and the association has taken responsibility for turning those into "miniparks", with landscaping and a bench. They, also, report derelict houses to the city and push to get something done about them. We are in a postwar neighborhood, that's being gentrified. Our house was built in 1953 and doesn't look like anyone else's. No cookie cutters here!