Just realized people who complain about HOA rules are usually the ones who never read them

I moved into a planned community outside Phoenix about 8 months ago. The covenants are like 30 pages long and boring to read, but I sat down and went through them one Saturday morning. The guy two doors down keeps yelling about how the HOA board is out of control because they fined him for parking his boat on the street. I looked it up and page 14 clearly says no boats or RVs on the street for more than 12 hours. He moved in here 3 years ago and never checked. Another neighbor got hit for painting her front door neon green without getting approval first. The rules are right there in the packet they give you at closing. Why do people sign something without reading what they're agreeing to? Has anyone else dealt with neighbors who act surprised by rules that were spelled out from day one?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jana29d ago

Right? @angelar57 That's exactly it. They give you the highlights and hope you don't dig deeper. I bought a townhouse last year and the realtor handed me a 3 page "summary" that was basically, "don't be a jerk, keep your grass mowed." Found out later the full 64 page book has rules about what color your blinds have to be from the street, which is wild. The guy across from me got a warning for his solar powered garden gnome because it wasn't "neutral earth tones." He had no idea he was supposed to submit a landscaping plan for review.

jesser791mo ago

Small thing - most HOAs don't actually hand you the full rules at closing, they just make you sign a paper saying you'll follow them and you gotta hunt down the actual covenants yourself online lol.

angelar571mo ago

Yeah that "just sign here" thing got me too. I bought a condo in a small complex and they gave me like a one page summary, not the full 30 page book. Found out later the real rules were buried on some old website nobody updates.