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Hmmm..

Kinda hope this goes through

Like Pic I hope it goes thru. That said, you signed a contract and now you want out?

I loathe HOAs but they are voluntary. You don't need to buy a house in one.

Pretty much my thought as well. People complain about the power the HOA have, but they got the power fair and square - by people willingly giving it to them.

+1

(Unless that's the house mama REALLY likes )

Kinda like the citizens in a socialistic country, huh?

Yeah, HOAs are voluntary, but.......

I moved into this house (and HOA) some 16 years ago.  I didn't become and amateur radio operator until two years ago.  So I'm stuck with attic antennas.  Sure I could move, but then again, maybe moving isn't very practical or affordable. Plus, I'm not sure there is anywhere in the DFW area that I would live, that doesn't have a HOA.  Yes, there are some neighborhoods that don't have HOAs, but I would give up amateur radio before I would move into them.   My other option, is to move further out, away from the metroplex.  But that could put me 30 to 50 miles from where I worked (now retired), and where my friends are.  

So yes, HOAs are voluntary, but they are so prevalent around here, that you may not have a lot or practical choices.  That is especially true if you have kids, and are trying to stay in certain school districts.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but around here, finding a nice neighborhood without a HOA is tough.

I guess I missed the part where the government came in and made people move to certain neighborhoods or buy certain houses. Maybe if people read the fine print they would have a leg to stand on. But what do I know, my land came to me the old fashioned way. A forefather of mine in the family fought the Mexicans for it and created a nation and was rewarded with a land grant.
If people stopped buying houses in them they would disappear overnight. They're incredibly popular in certain parts of the country, the more left leaning the more popular they are.
There aren't any here for the most part. The only one I know of requires you to put up a certain style mailbox and that's it.
Lots of people bitch about them, but they don't mind buying a house in one. Personallly I would never even contemplate it. Of course for a long time I drove an hour and a half and across state lines to go to work everyday so I could get home and do whatever the hell I wanted to on my acreage and not live like that. I don't know how people live that close to another person to begin with, but that's just me.





A friend of mine bought a house in one in another city, on the golf course. I tried to warn him that his lifestyle wasn't going to fit in there but his wife "had" to have it. In the first week he owned the place while they were moving in they accumulated $3,000 worth of HOA fines related to their vehicles and moving trucks. Warned him. Then he had the nerve that the fence he "had to have" for his dog was going to cost $29,000 because it was adjacent to the fairway and "unfair" that was. I guess it was fair when it was spelled out in the rules that he signed and that they threw back in his face, but it was only fair when it applied to someone else and not him.
 

When we bought our house 7 years ago, I specifically asked if there was an HOA in the neighborhood. There wasn't. I've found out recently though that there is a neighborhood covenant that poses some restrictions on your activities. One of them concerns antennas, which means I'll be limited in what I can do and will have to be somewhat stealthy.

I didn't recall anything about a covenant being mentioned when we were buying, nor did a recent perusal of all our documents pertaining to our home purchase turn up anything about it.

It should have come up and presented to you by your title company (or whoever did the title research for you) if they were doing their job. Here it's also on file at the tax assesors office. I see them occasionally on file while looking up property info when I'm trying to locate an owner. Depending on how it was worded and your states laws it may have expired. I bought a chunk of land that had one that said no commercial timber harvesting was to take place, but it had expired and not been revoted on by those that put it in place to begin with. They got all pissy when I bought the land, sold off the timber and then resold the property because they had "convenant", but apparently nobody there that thought they were covered by it ever read it either.





I think that's the biggest problem, a lot of people don't read what they signed or take someone elses word for it. I'm sure some people get screwed but peruse general and see how often someone bitches about how they knowinly bought into a HOA and now are being bitched at or made to change something.



I haven't read the law, but I don't see how they can pass a law that will invalidate a legally signed contract between two private parties. Of course it depends on how it was written and worded in each state/location.





 

Yes HOAs and CC&Rs can suck but the Bill has nothing to do with them.  From the article in the OP:

"At present PRB-1 only applies to state and municipal land-use ordinances, and the FCC has indicated that it will not act to provide the same legal protections from private land-use agreements — often called covenants, conditions, and restrictions or CC&Rs — without direction from Congress."

Well how is zoning going to play into that then? Would that fall under a local/municpal ordinance?



I don't know. I plead ignorant on 99.9% of it because we honestly don't have any of it here. When I contacted the county about a building permit I was told there is no requirement for a permit as long as it's not a commercial building. So you can pretty much build anything here. I'm sure there are some state laws that apply to codes but without an inspector or permiting office it doesn't do much good.

HOAs do not all start out with Nazi like rules.


However, just as any regulatory agency  is eventually run by the industry it is designed to regulate, so are most HOAs eventually run by the neighborhood control freaks.


The majority votes! Yeah, that is called mob rule, and too often too many are willing to turn over control to those that want it badly, just to get the burden off of them.


Just like a dictator coming into power in some socialist countries, you didn't vote for them, but there they are.


This was one of the things that made America so unique. We were not ruled by men, but by laws which never gave the folks in power to power to control our lives.  Of course, one the majority abandons their duty and responsibility, even that no longer works.



Of course, as a traditional liberal, I have a had time supporting the government getting involved in private contracts.  It is rarely good in the long run to give the government the power over anything beyond securing your rights.





 

HR 4969 would be that direct action from congress...

I recently applied for a spot on my hoa's architecture board. They approve changes to homes (paint, remodeling, additions) I intend to approve everything, and try to get another on the board to do the same (its a 3 position board). May take a while, but once I get the second rubber stamp member, I'll get my antenna approved.

I live in a "HOA", I have antennas.



And if you don't know who Grace Hopper is you should.

from the OP Link:

Concealed means concealed?  

Doesn't your letter from the USCG trump this?

Putting pressure on the FCC to implement a change?

Maybe getting concessions from the Community Associations Institute and Associ.

 

Me too.

My wife says an act of congress doesn't mean she will let me do it.

I told her she was replaceable.

It always seems that the people that bitch about their HOA are not involved in it.  

My hood has one.  

I joined the board when I moved in.    We can now have antennas that are 6ft above the roofline, and we now have an emcomm plan for the neighborhood where residents report in via FRS to me and a local police officer.  Weather updates are posted also by our skype page.  

Its not perfect but its a start.

What you guys are saying is true and I thought of this thread when I came across this document at work today and learned something new, though slightly unrelated to the OP.

The last paragraph:


From:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1300-series/prod_white_paper0900aecd801c4a88.html

Joint Anti-Piracy Task Force.

I'd be outright stupid to use a legitimate federal agency for a sham like that. Stupidity like that deserves jail time.

A couple years ago I got hit by a semi drunk driver and she was a screaming bitch and completely out of control.

I simply asked her if she always spoke to the Chief of Police of Hull, Massachusetts that way.

Silence.

Now I never said I WAS the CLEO of Hull, I simply let her think I was by asking her if she always spoke to a CLEO that way. It was a somewhat thin edge but I was on solid footing. I had not misrepresented myself. I had just asked a simple question.

Same thing holds true for that letter. There IS no JAPTF.

It did, however get a gullible neighbor off my back

That's the BEST way to do it.

You make yourself valuable as a ham and they'll let a lot of things slide.

You don't even have to be valuable. You have to create the ILLUSION of value. You can likely even get the real estate people to POINT IT OUT to prospective buyers. "This guy is the local ECOMM expert. In case of a tornado...yada yada yada. It's all in marketing.

Take a couple HOA members to your shack and show them your shit and show them what it can do. If your rig is a simple IC 7200 or something beg borrow or steal a pile of stuff that LOOKS complex.

Show them PSK31. Show them SSB. If you can do CW show them that.

Get the guys on this forum to get on the air and QSO you during the show and tell.

Pick and choose the board members you show, though. Remember there are people that you can show something that can save their lives and still get shot down. I call these people the "But it's uglies."

I got my Hard Dog roll bar from a chick that bought a Miata. She saw it and when the salesman told her it could save her life, her reply was, "But it's ugly." (I got the bar for $100 from the dealer after he removed it)

This is the way to go.

 

I tend to agree with your reasoning, but there is one big problem with it. They have already done this. I live in an area with a couple of restrictions on the deed though there is no formal HOA. One of the restrictions is no antennas for TV on the exterior of the house. This has already been nullified by both federal and state laws. So I think there may be precedence for this to be implemented if it gets pushed hard enough.
Whether that is right or wrong is another story all together.

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/113/hr4969/report#nation

I'm in.

 

If you have to get an attorney involved it's going to be hard to "win" de[ending on your definition of win, no offense to any attorneys here.

I went there and had to go back one page to vote.

In!

That's why I'm still on double-secret link probation. I don't post them very well.

I'm in.
My rep is one of the 17 co-sponsors, but I'll pass this along to a couple local clubs.

In the central AZ area, liveable non HOA areas are far and few between.
Either they are way over priced, far out for a reasonable commute, or a total crap hole.  




I have kids and a wife and their necessities come first.  In AZ you need to pick your locations for a decent school.
When my kids are out of school i then have far more leeway.









About the only benefit I will have in a non-HOA is to have a tower.  
Right now I have antennas on my roof and visible in my back yard.  They are very low intrusive and do the job very well.  I also subscribe to do first and ask forgiveness later. I also have temporary and stealth antennas besides I like to do most of my hamming portable and mobile.
As I become an expert in portable/stealth HF, I realize I will have no problem in using HF bands if I had a nice tall tower, beam antenna, and a amp.  I'm sure God willing I will have one, even if I have to get a cheap lot way out in the desert and use it as a remote shack or temp site. Or become a board member (don't want that/brings on angry residents) or who knows.  There are many loop holes and there is always more than one way to skin a cat.





 

Where I am currently HOA's are non existent. Prior to that when I actually lived in town even there HOA were very limited. However convenant were popular. However I found many people thought they were covered by convenants but were not. Many were written that after X time period they had to be renewed and almost none were renewed, people moved out and new people moved in and nobody ever worried with it. Might be something to look at if anyone is covered by a convenant to see if it was written with an expiration date. My mom was a real estate agent for years and when people were listing their homes it was one of the first things she looked at to see if they were still in effect.

^^^^THIS^^^^    I'm the type who would happily live in a plywood shack in the boondocks, but people who want "nice" neighborhoods have made them according to their collective judgement and imposed conditions for entry, and everyone who bought into such a place signed a promise to abide.   My property in Oregon has a few narrow and specific covenants, mostly pertaining to keeping of livestock and that sort of thing, but not a word about towers or antennas, and I would not have bought the place if it did.   Such conditions are a property right themselves, beneficial to our neighbors, and we have free will to accept them or move on to a more suitable property.   It is illegitimate in almost all cases for government to step in after the fact and interfere with those contracts.

I would not be surprised if  these covenants are subject to change upon a vote of the governing committee and without your approval or disapproval.