Homeowners Association In Alpine California
Homeowners’ Associations, or HAs, are legal entities created to maintain common areas and maintain deed restrictions. Most condominium and townhome developments, and many newer single-family subdivisions, have HAs, which are usually created when the development is built. Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CCRs) are issued to each homeowner, and Homeowners’ Associations are established to ensure that the CCRs are adhered to in order to maintain the quality and value of the properties involved.
Features of Homeowners’ AssociationsMembership is mandatory for all property owners within the development.
Members are charged mandatory fees.
Many HAs publish newsletters.
HAs have the authority to enact and enforce maintenance and design standards in order to those established by City ordinances.
HAs are corporations with formal bylaws. There is usually a governing body that hires a property management company to handle maintenance and enforcement issues.
What is provided forEach HA is a little different. Some are a little more uptight about governing the individual homeowners – for instance, banning clotheslines or nets, or requiring that all lawn decorations or furniture have to be pre-approved by the governing body. Nevertheless, it is common for a Homeowners’ Association to take care of some or all of the following:
Maintain community landscaping
Maintain recreational facilities
Provide space for events or neighborhood functions
Provide security
Arrange for street maintenance
Establish and collect maintenance fees needed to run neighborhood operations
Enforce deed restrictionsThings that are restrictedStreet parking
Landscape approval or types of plants
Fence and pool restrictions
Erection of basketball hoops or tree houses
Storage of boats and RVs
Number of pets
Age of residents
Garage door being open (seriously)Prospective home buyers should:
Read the CCRs for the home and make sure they can live with the restrictions. Some people don’t mind, because it means they won’t be stuck next to a neighbor whose house brings down their own property value.
Find out what the current dues are. Once the home is bought, the homeowner can’t decline to pay the dues.
The homeowner can be evicted and the house could be liquidated to pay the debt created by the refusal to pay dues. Homeowners’ Association dues can range from $20 a month to hundreds of dollars, depending on how much stuff is provided for (for example, trash pickup and lawn care will drive the cost up).
Find out how often the dues have been raised during the history of the Homeowners’ Association. Are there cash reserves?
Do the governing board members have term limits?
Have they attended training sessions on governing Homeowners’ Associations?
Is there pending litigation involving the Homeowners’ Association?
There are an estimated 50 million Americans living in some sort of association-governed community. The estimated real estate value of homes in community associations is about $2 trillion. Annual operating revenue for U.
S. community associations is $30-35 billion.
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