Today, as I was walking my dogs around the neighborhood per our usual routine, I had a revelation. I am the neighborhood bitch.
It’s not a title I wear proudly. But it’s not exactly a title I’m ashamed of. After almost 8 years, my neighbors and neighborhood have given me numerous reasons to be bitchy. And most of them involve money. When people talk about the hidden cost of homeownership, they talk about maintenance, cleaning, repairs…things of that nature. Very rarely do they tell you how your neighbors can cost you money. And believe me, they can cost you money.
Here are just a few ways how my neighborhood, and my neighbors have (and can) cost me money:
- Homeowner’s Association dues. Let’s not even discuss how much I hate my HOA. It’s poorly run, the president (or treasurer, I’m not sure what she is) is incredibly unpleasant (as is her husband) and they have no concept of how to manage money. This is mainly due to the fact that over half of the houses in the neighborhood never pay their dues. And by never, I mean never. There are people who’ve been living in their house just a few months less than us and have never, not once, paid their dues. This is typical. And the HOA does nothing except…wait for it…raise dues. Yup, that’s right. They raise the dues to milk money out of those homeowners who do pay (like me) in order to cover the deficit left by the other houses. And schmucks like us continue to pay because a) it’s the right thing to do and b) we want to sell our house so we need to be in good standing. So, thanks, neighbors for never paying and for costing me $375 a year.
- Trash collection service. Where I live, we are responsible for paying for our own trash collection and recycling services. This doesn’t bother me too much, mainly because I’m used to it. When we moved in, we just kept the same service that the previous owners were using because we saw that there were 3 different companies that came through our neighborhood on varying days. The company we picked had the lowest rate and came twice per week. Fine. But when we found out that the rate could be lowered if the entire neighborhood would agree to one company, we were excited and we brought it up to the aforementioned president/treasurer She promptly told us that no one wanted to do that. So no one in the whole neighborhood wanted to save some money just by switching trash companies? People are so loyal to their garbage that they don’t want to save money? Really? I can’t wrap my head around this one.
- Community property. In my neighborhood, we have a community playground. When we moved in, the playground was in spectacular condition. Now, not so much. The older kids have broken half the equipment, it’s covered in trash on a regular basis, weeds grow through the mulch and, more than once, I’ve found empty glass beer bottles on the playground. Let’s not even mention the graffiti. What’s even more upsetting is that the parents of the children responsible for the damage rarely, if ever, supervise their children and certainly never bother to show up to help clean up. These children have no respect for what’s not theirs and the broken equipment means more money tacked on to our dues to help cover the replacement costs. I personally feel that the parents of the children who break the equipment should be responsible for paying to have it fixed. But I doubt that will happen.
- Neighborhood kids. Except for the broken playground equipment, the neighborhood kids don’t bother me too much. Overall, they’re quiet, polite and respectful. Except when it comes to my pets. I have two small dogs and an outdoor cat. Since my dogs are small, this means that kids feel that they have free reign to run up, pet my dogs, tease my dogs and overall, bother the crap out of them. Rarely do they ask if it’s OK to do so. I blame the parents on this one; if you don’t teach your kids not to run up to strange animals, regardless of how small, they’re going to think it’s acceptable to do so (note: it is certainly not acceptable to do so. Parents, make sure you teach your kids to ask before they pet a dog even if the dog is a 4 pound Yorkie). Now, my dogs are extremely excitable and they love to jump on people. My dogs may only weigh a collective 40 pounds but they can still knock over a kid, scratch a kid, or do something else. I don’t know what stories these kids tell and I don’t want them running over to my excitable dog who jumps up and leaves a mark and then Junior runs home and says the big bad dog bit him. These stories could cost me money in the way of legal fees, fees to the SPCA (per the law that if a dog bites someone, he must be kept at the SPCA, in isolation, for 10 days), or a host of other fees. Worst case scenario, my dog is taken from me permanently in ways I refuse to discuss. So now their stories may cost me money and my dog.
I could go on about reasons why I can’t stand my neighbors and neighborhood. In fact, I dislike most of them so much that I don’t even know most of their names. I just give them mean nicknames instead. And I assure you the reason I don’t like them has nothing to do with their rudeness, lack of manners, poor outside home maintenance or a host of other characteristics that make a person dislike someone else.
Honestly, it’s a good thing we’re planning on moving this spring. I do not how much more my wallet–and my sanity–can take.
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What a lovely neighborhood. 🙂
I bet you can’t wait to move. It sounds horrible. We have lived in very a similar type of situation. Where neighbors kids are all up in our business, like walking into our house uninvited asking for food. Or the woman who keeps all her trash (in bags)on the front porch until she feels like taking it to the dumpster. What is wrong with people?
My neighborhood now is amazing. I love it, all my neighbors are respectful and maintain their homes. It’s very nice. I hope you can get into a place like that.
Niki recently posted…Chocolate Covered Raspberries
Wait… they walked into your house to ask for food? What? Why?
Marissa @ Thirtsyixmonths recently posted…Link Love: Kristen Bell, Budweiser & The Superbowl Edition
No one has ever walked into my house and demanded food. If my neighbors did that, they would be ordered out, never to return. That is a level of rudeness I would not tolerate.
Wow, I think if I lived in your neighborhood I would feel the same way as you! The whole point of having to pay HOA dues is so that they enforce the rules in order to keep up property values. What a shame that yours isn’t doing anything to fix the problems, that would tick me off too. I loved your honesty, I think many people feel the same way, and I’m glad you won’t be stuck their much longer 🙂
Monica recently posted…Will the Unbanked Ever Become Bankable? Shocking Unbanked Statistics
Thanks, Monica! My HOA is terrible; laughable, actually. I’m not so much worried about them maintaining property values as I am with them maintaining property! When something is broken in the neighbhorhood, it’s their job to make sure it gets fixed. Same with lawn mowing and snow removal services. They just don’t keep up with their contractors. Makes me so angry!
Wow I would be so mad if hardly anyone else paid their dues. That would be extremely aggravating.
Michelle @ Making Sense of Cents recently posted…My friend’s wedding
The worst is having a conversation with a neighbor about it and he laughs at the fact that he’s never paid.It’s so aggravating!
Our HOA was lenient about collecting dues but finally started putting liens on houses that hadn’t paid in 2 years or more and that definitely increased the rate of payment in a hurry.
When we moved in we had the same garbage situation and it cost us $25 per month. The city finally put in a single hauler. Some people complained, mainly retirees who go down south for the winter and don’t use the service all year, but they did it anyways. The recycling program got better and the cost dropped by $10 per month. Plus, you only have one day where trucks are coming through, which is great. I can actually see why the neighborhood wouldn’t want to get involved in this one because it seems the enforcement would fall on them, and since nobody on the HOA has a full time stake in it, it’s probably not worth it. You’d probably have more of a case on the municipality level.
Money Beagle recently posted…The Financials of Freelance
Yes! That’s part of the annoyance. Trash and recycling trucks come through almost every morning. And there’s nothing worse than a school bus/garbage truck showdown.
Unfortunately, we have no recourse through the municipality or the city because trash collection/recycling are privately contracted services. They have no enforcement authority at all.
Oh my gosh, I hate HOA’s!!! When we used to own our townhome, we had to deal with them. I once received a letter from them because they said our trashcan was left out 5 minutes past the appropriate time on trash day. Really? It wasn’t even our trash can; it was the neighbor’s! But still, you had to write a freakin’ letter???? Jeez…
Mackenzie recently posted…Women Can Be Cruel
I would have gone to the president’s house and screamed at her for that. We’re not supposed to leave our trash cans out at all, except for trash colllection day, but about half the houses in the neighborhood don’t adhere to that. If they’re not getting in trouble, then neither should I. HOAs are so damn petty!
I loathe HOA’s also. Ours actually has roughly $400,000 in a savings account, and yet they won’t make simple repairs to the club house and pool area. We don’t live in a wealthy neighborhood by any means, but they also won’t lower the HOA fees. Even with that large of a buffer, it makes no sense. Very strange indeed.
MoneyforCollegePro recently posted…Surviving the College Dining Hall – InfoGraphic
At least your HOA discloses how much money it has. I could only imagine what would happen if we asked for that.
I don’t know why HOAs are so stingy. Makes me wonder what they’re really doing with the money.
I have to laugh because I am that neighbor here and we dont even have a hoa since I live in a Philadelphia row home. But I did always tell my kids to never go up to anyone’s dog and just pet it, I asked them if they would like if I let strangers just come up and pet their heads? Of course not. Lesson learned.
Good luck!
I am so glad to know that I’m not the only neighborhood bitch around!!! And thank you for teaching your children not to go up to people’s pets.
I got some good laughs out of this, and I can’t blame you at all for anything in this post. The whole HOA structure seems like a joke and just a waste of time and money. I’ve never lived anywhere with a HOA, but it always sounds like a nightmare.
Jeffrey recently posted…37 Must-Read Posts for Tax Savings
It is a nightmare. I was young and naive when I bought my house and I didn’t think that it would be this much of a headache. But I’ve learned my lesson and I can’t imagine ever living somewhere with an HOA ever again.
I got a pretty good laugh out of the title, but you made some good points here. I dont own a house but will never live in a place with any sort of HOA – it’s my property and I plan on doing with it as i please and dont want any flak or gossip from anyone else.
As for the garbage, all I have to say is “really?”
Jeff @ Sustainable Life Blog recently posted…Will your CSA Save Money?
That’s how I feel now. About a year after we moved in, the president/treasurer lady went door to door with a petition to amend our bylaws to allow vinyl fences. Seriously? You can’t get the streets plowed but you want an amendment for fences? That almost no one has? So. Unbelievably. Annoying.
And let’s not even start in with the fact that I can’t get a fence without HOA permission…
We’ve determined that we will never live anywhere with an HOA again, no matter how much I like new construction.
But your HOA dues are low. The MIL’s (for the property that we rent out) are $155/month. But it is a condo association, and they also have to cover building maintenance
shanendoah@The Dog Ate My Wallet recently posted…My Brother’s New Venture
Condo maintenance I can understand. But if I’m paying that kind of money every year, I expect things to get done. Which it doesn’t, in my neighborhood at least. I, too, will never live anywhere with an HOA ever again.
HOA’s are universally reviled. Even if the HOA leadership starts out good and decent, they eventually degenerate into surly and bitter unpaid public servants. At least that’s what happened recently in our own HOA.
It’s the nature of the social arrangement, I think. It’s not really “free” association, like in an Elks club or a quilting bee. People seek out these organization as a way of belonging. People belong to a neighborhood association by default, by consequence of having purchased a home. And people generally resent being told what to do by people they feel no loyalty to.
101 Centavos recently posted…Kiss Real Estate Goodbye – A Real Estate Appraiser’s Viewpoint
I think this is the most eloquent and spot on assessment of an HOA. Ever.
For what it’s worth, I’m sorry your HOA sucks, too.
I totally feel your pain. I used to live in a neighborhood similar to that, and now I live in a gated apartment complex. My next door neighbors used to have 9 (or 10 or 14) dogs, inside and outside all the time. Our city limit was 4.
Everyone in the neighborhood hated them, and since I lived right next to them – the smell coming from the yard was HORRIFIC! I can’t imagine what it smelled like inside the house.
I felt sorry for the dogs too, they were always being rotated in and out of cages. People don’t seem to comprehend that their choices affect others.
Carrie – Careful Cents recently posted…Your Bad Financial Choices Affect Others
I have some choice words for those people but I’m going to keep them to myself. You’re absolutely right, though. People don’t realize the impact their choices have on others. And the ones that do realize it, for the most part? Don’t care.
Though our HOA has had annoying streaks in the past (they were letter happy when we first moved in), we’re lucky in that they generally do a good job keeping the community up to par. But, I have some pretty decent neighbors, so that helps. I can see it having the same power to suck royally if the president is no good. Glad to hear you’re able to move soon. I would be a bitch under the same circumstances.
I’m a tad jealous you don’t have a sucky HOA. Do you think they’d provide training?
I wonder if HOA fees is an American thing since Ive never heard of it in Canada. Btw, your dogs sound adorable.
Marissa @ Thirtsyixmonths recently posted…Link Love: Kristen Bell, Budweiser & The Superbowl Edition
Thank you! My dogs are adorable (not that I’m biased or anything). I never thought about HOAs being an American thing but now you have me wondering, too…