Quote Originally Posted by psprowler View Post
Gotta be more to the story than this. I can't imagine not paying a bill and then just a month later the house forecloses and sells right out from under your nose. Just has to be more than what is being reported. A 300,000 house that is paid for but couldn't pay the HOA fee?

If there's not, well then I don't know what to say other than avoid HOAs or pay the bills on time.
No there doesn't have to be more than what was reported. I bought a house through a real estate agency and nobody told me that it had a homeowners association. You will not find a HOA that isn't made up of hotheads who run roughshod over the homeowners. That's the only kind of people who will serve on the board of directors. They are required by law to have a Charter but nothing is said about the rules changing with every meeting.

We bought a new house and moved in, removed a side deck and added a carport. The president of the HOA drove by daily and didn't stop or say a word. When the job was finished he came by and asked me how much it cost me and I said, "None of your business." He said, "you were supposed to clear that through ME and get my approval before you made any changes to your house." That's when I learned of the HOA and that I was 2 months behind on my fees and they were making plans to sell my house. All hell broke loose and I backed the old goat up against a light pole and told him that he wouldn't live until the sun went down the day he sold my house. I pushed him down in a bush beside the light pole and told him to get his a** off my property and don't come back. I paid the back fees and paid on time every month as long as I lived there.

He didn't bother me again but he got the neighborhood bully to start harassing me during the middle of the night. He would go behind the house and shine a light on my bedroom window and damage lawn furniture. I hid in the dark and met him out there one night and unloaded a .357 Magnum right at his feet and told him I would aim for his chest the next time. Never saw that guy hanging around after that.

An elderly widow on a fixed income lived a block away. She had a heart attack and it took all her money to pay utilities and buy medicine. I bought food and carried it to her so she could eat. She couldn't pay her homeowner's fees for three months and they auctioned her house off for $5,000.

My advice to anyone moving into a gated community or where there is a HOA, is DON'T even think about it.